The first day in Beijing was a bit of a blur because our bodies really had no idea what the heck was going on. Our program directors took us into this crazy side alleyway close to the hotel to find breakfast. They pretty much just pointed down the alleyway and said "go find breakfast". So we ended up with these bread things below that had sesame seeds and the middle was filled with this sweet sugary semi solid thing that was super yummy. We actually tried to buy them again another day and ended up with ones with bean paste in the middle. That was super disappointing. We also bought some bananas and we were pretty sure we were charged WAY too much for them, but when we thought about it US Dollar wise we still maybe only paid like a $1.50 for 3 Bananas so we weren't too upset.
Sweet Chacos right? I'm so tan too!
After stumbling through the alleyway they loaded us all onto a city bus (there is a person employed by the city to make sure people get on the bus quickly. They are posted at random bus stops throughout the city). The attendant lady there was yelling at us through a megaphone (in Chinese, of course) but none of us could understand her, so we had no idea what was going on! After a tumultuous journey, we ended up going to Tiananmen Square.

Panoramic ftw!
We kinda really wanted to take a picture standing there holding our hands out like another quite famous picture in Tiananmen Square, but we thought at 1 day into our adventure, it would not be the best time to get kicked out of the country.  Now enjoy a ton of pictures from all around the Square. Fun Fact! It's the 3rd largest public square in the world (depending upon who you consult). (Still we only took like 10 minutes to make a perimeter sweep.)




I like playing "Spot Mao" here

Chad looks super awkward because like 10 Chinese people are also taking his picture
So this next picture is great because those 4 white people are with us and that guy with the black bag is walking around the square trying to sell white people 'Mao-mobilia' (that's what us in the know call Mao themed memorabilia). He was just following them all around the square trying to get them to buy $3 watches, so Chad and I were standing to the side laughing SOOO hard. Side note: I kinda regret not buying one of his watches - the watch hands were Mao's hands... not enough to take the train back to Beijing, but enough to try to find that guy if we are back there.


I do not know the significance of the below statue... workers rising up maybe? but it's awesome. I actually made it bigger so you can see the faces of some of them. They are INTENSE!


While we were looking at this awesome statue this old Chinese man came up and wanted his picture with us. It was the first time someone asked, so I remember it well. He was adorable. You know how most people who live in China want to adopt a little Chinese baby? I want to adopt a set of tiny Chinese grandparents.

Woman at the front!!
Being the ridiculous American tourists we are, we had to take a picture of us recreating it.


So this is hard to see, but like RIGHT after the above picture was taken, soldiers made us all clear out of the square. So if you look through the trees below and past the cars you'll see the world's 4th (see note above) largest public square completely empty. 


After being forced out of the square (and losing 2 people from our group hahaha suckers. Seriously though they got separated and just ended up wandering back to the hotel) we headed to the Forbidden City.

Easy Mao spotting. Only one point. 
We were trying to get pictures of the massive crowds behind us, but this picture really does not do it justice at all.



So you walk under Mao and then through like 5 Courtyards, and THEN you're in the Forbidden City. 




So as we are walking around we see a sign for a 'Ceramic Exhibit' so we thought "Sure, why not?" and then we saw this sign. It looked cool and it was toting a 'cool' double vase... 


This is the double vase from the sign. I couldn't really put anything in the picture for the size reference, but the thing would handily fit in the palm of my hand. 


This one is awesome because it's a monkey riding a man riding a camel. 


I don't know if you can read this (or the one below it) but these things date back to 711 BCE. CRAZY!










This ice cream treat was AMAZING. It was about a million degrees outside so it was refreshing and it was super yummy. It was pineapple, green apple and ummm red berry? We aren't sure what the other flavor is, but it's these little red berries and everything we have with them in it is super yummy!


It's a Turtle dragon!!










This green hill is called Jiangshan Park. we climbed all the way up to that top Pagoda.

Such a cute shot of me climbing.
The view up there was AMAZING. You could see all around Beijing and look! NO SMOG! Such a pretty blue sky!





Forbidden City in all it's prohibited glory - it is really huge. Like you are underestimating it right now. It took us hours to walk straight through it. It is easily at least twice as big as you are now imagining. Even bigger than that. For reals. Like huge. You don't even understand. It's gigantic. Just believe me. See next picture for further details on humongosity.



The 'Allied Forces of 1900' pillaged this historic pagoda. Whoever they were... 1RMB for whoever can explain who they were in the comments. 


Like it's enormous.


You just don't seem to be grasping the size here, that's why there are lots of pictures. We are just trying to communicate the immensity to you.

They have Pepsi here! And it's good. And it tasted like sweet sweet nectar. Best 5RMB we ever spent.
After that tour we went to wander around looking for lunch and then take a nap. We had a group dinner I got no pictures of and then we went to a Chinese acrobat show. I took A LOT of pictures.



This chair guy was awesome. He just kept adding chairs long after I thought he hit maximum chair adding.








This guy is holding her up by his biceps. Granted she is small but I struggle to use my biceps to life a small child off the ground so I was highly impressed. (They are performing the 'Swan Shoulder Dance')



yep. and now she's on his head (not shoulder, oddly enough)


Aaaand she's standing on his face.

Hoop jumping guys. Insert witty caption here.








He was straight up hopping down those beams. On his hands. No feat of strength/agility you can do will ever impress me.



This is called umbrella pedaling. I plan to learn how to do this while I'm here because it is awesome. Under what circumstances do you even discover you are amazing at this? Because I'm pretty sure I could be. I'll keep you posted.



Not to be outdone by women with umbrellas, these guys threw around hats.

And did cheer pyramids.
On to the bicycles!

Sorry BHP. It's blurry, but they are too legit to quit.






I don't know if you can appreciate this enough... that is one girl pedaling around like 12 other girls who are piled up in a crazy pyramid.

So this last thing. The motorcycle in the cage was awesome and HILARIOUS. Then they added another. And another. I kept saying to Chad "Okay take a picture, there is no way there are any other motorcycles going in", and then they would put more in. This seriously happened like 5 times. Just think right now. How many do you think would go in there at one time? 3,4,5? Also sorry the pics aren't amazing, we were on the far right and they are motorcycles. In a cage. Traveling at the speed of light. And sound. Just go with it.










CAN YOU COUNT THEM ALL!!! 9 N-I-N-E. 9 guys inside a small sphere on motorcycles. 

All of these men and machines were just simultaneously zipping around in that metal cage. ALL OF THEM.

yeah. victory fist that right up!

And then we took the subway home and crashed (in our beds, not on the subway). Oh! we took it there too... and my gosh it is soooo much better than the NYC one. Which I mean, the Beijing subway's oldest line is like 15 years old while NYC's is 109, but still it's sooo nice. NYC needs to upgrade before we consider moving back. Get on that NYC friends.