Day 5- June 5: If There Was A Swimming Portion Of This Tour You Could Call It A Triathlon

Just the words made my mouth water…big American breakfast. That is what we were promised on the morning of Day 5 before our tour of Beijing. The tour was set up by Wild China and they promised us that it would be a long and exhausting day, they were not lying. We met our tour guides outside of the East Gate and embarked on our journey. The first step was that we had to take the thirty-minute trek to Wudaokou where we would be rewarded with the big American breakfast. Once we arrived the breakfast consisted of eggs, pancakes, bacon, ham, hash browns, a muffin, and orange juice…it lived up to my expectations. We were introduced to our tour guides, an American girl named Taylor and an overly enthusiastic Chinese man. They gave us a presentation on the basics of life in Beijing while we devoured our breakfast and then they led us to the subway. After a short, but packed, subway ride and another thirty-minute walk we arrived at our first destination, the Temple of Earth, one of the four prominent temples built under the reign of the Jiajing Emperor in Beijing in the 16^th century (you are welcome for the history lesson). The temple was pretty cool and we spent about an hour exploring and taking photographs of the whole thing. After the tour, we played the Chinese version of hacky sack (called jianzi) with a feathered and springed contraption. Then, we had a one-hour trek to reach our lunch destination. By the time we reached the restaurant we were all exhausted and starving (we had probably walked a total of four miles so far). The food was good and a traditional Chinese meal. One interesting dish was a fish that had been cooked whole, it was served whole with the skin peeled and the meat diced on top of the bone...it was delicious and Yuan said it was a specialty. When we walked outside we discovered a row of BMW bicycles that would take us on the second part of journey. Following a short bike ride we stopped at a very crowded street that was apparently famous among foreigners. Ying was with us and insisted that we go to a place that sells the most famous yogurt drink in all of China. She informed me that people come from kilometers around to have this drink and when we saw the line, that fact became apparently true. In the States a line that long would have taken hours to get through, but in super-efficient China, we got through the line in ten minutes. I tried their traditional yogurt, it was good, not great (another entrepreneurial idea is to import YoPo into China). After battling back through the crowded streets to our bikes, we loaded up and embarked on the hour-long bicycle ride to Houhai. Houhai is a beautiful area. It is located on a lake where bars, restaurants, and shops surround the entire body of water. Each bar and restaurant has oversized couches in front for relaxing and rooftop terraces for dining. We were able to get off of our bikes and hike around the lake. About halfway through the hike we noticed a street vendor who was selling scorpions on a stick to eat…a small group of us went for it. The scorpion was crunchy, salty, fried, and strange, but it was on my checklist of things to do while in China. Next up was a two-hour bike ride from Houhai, circling around Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Biking past these locations was a great experience and it really got me excited to take the tour later in the trip. Upon our arrival back at Houhai we returned our bicycles and settled in at a well-known restaurant named No Name. Dinner was another Chinese meal and it was delicious. It started with this great slaw and ended with a sweet dessert of black rice served in pineapple…it was amazing. After an exhausting day our group split up. Some people wanted to stay and hang out in Houhai, I was not one of them. I went with the group that boarded the subway to go home and pass out in bed.