Tuesday, August 1, 2017

Forbidden City, Great Wall, Monster Trucks, Etc.

It has been a crazy week. In the last few days, I have celebrated my wife's birthday, attended Monster Jam in Beijing, visited the Forbidden City, and walked on the Great Wall of China. I'm exhausted. And tomorrow, we're hopping on a plane to fly back to the States for the first time since we moved to China.

MONSTER TRUCKS! - A whole lot of this.
A few weeks ago, I got a Facebook message from my high school best friend's high school girlfriend's little sister. She informed me that her soon-to-be sister-in-law worked for the monster truck show Monster Jam and they were coming to Beijing. Would I be willing to show them around?

Now, I don't know this girl, so...I jumped at the chance.

You may not know this, but when you move 12 time zones away from everyone you know, you tend to not get many visitors. Whether you actually know the person or not has no bearing on the excitement level.

I quickly friended this woman on Facebook and started informing her of some of the things she may need to know for traveling to China. When she texted me to inform me they had landed, I made it to their hotel before they did.
As soon as they got checked in, I took them to the Nanluoguxiang Hutong to get them an authentic Chinese experience right off the bat. Over the next few days, as soon as they would finish working, I took them to the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, out for a Peking Duck meal, and the Beijing Harley-Davidson shop.

I walked up 58 flights of stairs for this shot.
I hope you appreciate it.

I finally caught my breath enough to lift the camera again.

The petals are Peking Duck.

The (not so) Forbidden (anymore) City

Just like every other Harley shop in the world.
Except the t-shirts say BEIJING.
Other than the meal, this was all stuff that I had never done. Despite living in Beijing for the last 10 months, I spend most of my time setting panda traps to keep them out of my garbage. So, I was excited to get to knock something else off my bucket list. Walking on the Great Wall was #127. Now it's time to run with the bulls in Pamplona.

After such an eventful week, they gave me tickets to attend the monster truck show and then I had to sleep for two days. After all the running around, I went for a massage and decided to try another new thing. I asked for the cup treatment where they heat up glass cups and attach them to your skin to suck the toxins out of your muscles.

6 hours later, I look like this.
It's been a good week.

8 comments:

  1. It was an insane week!
    I still want to see some science about all this "removing toxins" stuff. I understand detox diets remove them from your stomach, but does this stuff just make you sweat? I need to know!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't know. We should go in and shout a bunch of questions at them.

      Delete
  2. LOL! I don't believe all that 'removing toxins' stuff myself. And I hope all those marks on your back go away! Sounds like you had a great time showing some Americans around!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The marks lasted about a week and then they were gone.

      Delete
  3. That's a great way to disguise hickeys. Not sure if it's good for much more.

    Sounds like a great time, though. You make a great tour guide. If I'm ever in your neck of the woods, I know who I'm asking for a tour.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Those would be some huge hickeys.

      If you ever find yourself here, I would love to show you around.

      Delete
  4. I have wanted to do cupping for the longest time! Did it hurt? Did it feel good? Did it hurt so good? That's my favorite lol

    https://damngirlgetyourshittogether.com/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There was just a little bit of pain on a few of them, but for the most part it was just a pressure. However, when there are 28 think bowls resting on your back, you become very aware of the weight of the combined glass.

      I don't think I'll be doing it again. I'm not sure what the benefit was supposed to be.

      Delete

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