Our last full day in Beijing was today. Tomorrow we will leave on a early afternoon plane. No extremely early mornings luckily!
After breakfast, LuRue and Montana finished what could be done with packing. That took until mid-day. Then we went by subway to the theatre where the acrobatic show was going to be tonight. On the way, Montana stopped to get an Ei Mio frozen yogurt. She got some pretty strange looks from a lot of Chinese, probably because she chose the three most unhealthy toppings that were possible. Everyone else, on the other hand, chose fruit, nuts, and fruit-flavored sauce.
We got off the subway and went to a map to find the theatre. Immediately, a man speaking really good English came up to help us. The place we were looking for was literally right next door, which was nice. But Montana had seen a strange looking building, so she wanted to walk further to see it closer. We walked closer and could see it was a square-shaped building with a hole in the middle. It seemed to be the CCTV broadcasting station.
We took a different subway back to the hotel, made a quick stop at our room, then headed off to a lake to ride a rickshaw and eat lunch. First, we tried to find a restaurant that LuRue would be happy with. Only looking at the type of food, LuRue headed straight to an extremely fancy place. There were some young men who gave us strange looks, but handed us the menu. Montana burst out laughing when they walked away and had to explain to LuRue that she walked straight into a fancy bar. We looked at a few more restaurants, but we couldn't find one that wasn't a bar. Finally we decided to stop at a BBQ bar - no weird looks from people. We ordered some French fries and BBQ chicken wings, which turned out to be two chicken wings. The lady helping us was shocked to hear LuRue was 82 and, for some reason, handed us a package of tissues as we walked out.
We then found a rickshaw driver to take us on a quick ride around the lake just so we could say we rode on a rickshaw. The driver went down some strange alleyways, which got us a little nervous, but he did eventually take us back to the lake safely. Before we headed back, Montana stopped at a chopstick shop and got herself a set of beautiful chopsticks to use in America.
We spent 30 minutes resting in our hotel room before heading out to the acrobatic show. We turned on the TV for the first time & found a diving competition being held at the Water Cube. It was pretty fun to watch the divers going off the boards and platforms and to know that we had watched them during practice trials while we were at the Cube. We could see the seats where we'd been sitting. It was pretty exciting to know that we had been there.
We had arranged for someone to give us tickets at the Chinese acrobat show. The person was to have been holding a piece of paper with our name on it. We were on time, but couldn't see anyone. We waited at the ticket stand for our ticket person, but she never came so we just decided to buy tickets and go in. We got VIP, too! The show was amazing with people balancing umbrellas on tiptoes, standing atop ten stacked chairs, dancing with diablos, riding motorcycles around inside a sphere, and riding a bike with 12 people on it, sometimes using no legs.
After the show, we finally found our ticket person. She had gotten kicked out of the ticket stand, so she had to wait next to the subway station. She seemed frustrated, but we got it straightened out and she got repaid.
After breakfast, LuRue and Montana finished what could be done with packing. That took until mid-day. Then we went by subway to the theatre where the acrobatic show was going to be tonight. On the way, Montana stopped to get an Ei Mio frozen yogurt. She got some pretty strange looks from a lot of Chinese, probably because she chose the three most unhealthy toppings that were possible. Everyone else, on the other hand, chose fruit, nuts, and fruit-flavored sauce.
We got off the subway and went to a map to find the theatre. Immediately, a man speaking really good English came up to help us. The place we were looking for was literally right next door, which was nice. But Montana had seen a strange looking building, so she wanted to walk further to see it closer. We walked closer and could see it was a square-shaped building with a hole in the middle. It seemed to be the CCTV broadcasting station.
The whole hole building
We took a different subway back to the hotel, made a quick stop at our room, then headed off to a lake to ride a rickshaw and eat lunch. First, we tried to find a restaurant that LuRue would be happy with. Only looking at the type of food, LuRue headed straight to an extremely fancy place. There were some young men who gave us strange looks, but handed us the menu. Montana burst out laughing when they walked away and had to explain to LuRue that she walked straight into a fancy bar. We looked at a few more restaurants, but we couldn't find one that wasn't a bar. Finally we decided to stop at a BBQ bar - no weird looks from people. We ordered some French fries and BBQ chicken wings, which turned out to be two chicken wings. The lady helping us was shocked to hear LuRue was 82 and, for some reason, handed us a package of tissues as we walked out.
We then found a rickshaw driver to take us on a quick ride around the lake just so we could say we rode on a rickshaw. The driver went down some strange alleyways, which got us a little nervous, but he did eventually take us back to the lake safely. Before we headed back, Montana stopped at a chopstick shop and got herself a set of beautiful chopsticks to use in America.
View from the rickshaw
We had arranged for someone to give us tickets at the Chinese acrobat show. The person was to have been holding a piece of paper with our name on it. We were on time, but couldn't see anyone. We waited at the ticket stand for our ticket person, but she never came so we just decided to buy tickets and go in. We got VIP, too! The show was amazing with people balancing umbrellas on tiptoes, standing atop ten stacked chairs, dancing with diablos, riding motorcycles around inside a sphere, and riding a bike with 12 people on it, sometimes using no legs.
After the show, we finally found our ticket person. She had gotten kicked out of the ticket stand, so she had to wait next to the subway station. She seemed frustrated, but we got it straightened out and she got repaid.
another great day of do-it-yourselves adventures
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