Nikki (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} intothe_woods) wrote,@ 2006-04-22 23:31:00 |
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Old Houhai pictures, and new stories
Just a picture album, self explanatory, I don’t want to write about it :P
Skating in Houhai
[More Pics]
^^Last winter
So, my friend's (Brigette) sister was in town last week. On Wednesday us and Pickup went shopping early in the morning (I spent a LOT of money, bought some beautiful things though, I'll post pictures of the jewelry I had made). After that we went to Houhai and grabbed some lunch and walked around (Pickup headed back to school for class). So, let me tell you a little about Houhai. They are these redone Hutongs, traditional, old-style Chinese city living. What you picture when you picture China. Old town, winding paths, etc. All redone for tourists, of course. In the middle is a huge lake that you can take boats in or skate on during the winter and restaurants and bars around the lake. Fantastic, gorgeous place. Perfect.
Brigette has been planning this since October! And we were all in on it. So, we were walking around and two of our friends were going to the airport to pick up her sister's boyfriend. Who flew in without ANYONE knowing (all of us in China knew, but no one in the states or Brigette's sister knew). We walked to the bridge that goes over the lake/stream(at that point) and her boyfriend just walks out of the crowd in front of her. She had no idea he was coming and he's also in the military so he isn't supposed to be here! He had to grow out his hair and get special permits for it. We back off the bridge to watch and he drops to one knee. We were freaking out and crying, lol.
It was amazing. I've never seen anyone get proposed to before! Some guy snapped some pictures of us while it was happening and is going to send them. But *sigh* It was amazing. Could you imagine?! He flew out all the way to China to surprise her and propose. In that setting, on a nice day, it was perfect. What a story to tell people! We were freaking out all day and being all sappy and everything, it was amazing. One of the best days EVER!
This weekend half of our group went to ShanHaiGuan, the part of the great wall on the ocean that I went to last semester (i.e. I didn’t want to go again). Scott and I decided to wake up early and head downtown as he has never been to The Forbidden City. So we did that. Left at 10 in the morning and walked for nearly 8 hours straight. Spent tons of time in the forbidden city and then when we got out we found a xiao chi place (small restaurant). It was pretty decent and the prices weren’t bad. Mine was 8RMB and Scott’s was 7RMB. To go along with that I had a bowl of rice which never costs more than 1RMB and Scott got a drink that is usually about 3RMB. The problem with that is, those two things aren’t on the menu. So they tried to SCREW us!! They wanted 6RMB for the rice (ridiculous) and 15RMB for the tea!! Can you believe that? 36RMB for lunch? We got pissed off. I asked them how much they would have charged us if we were Chinese and why they were trying to screw us because it wasn’t on the menu. We handed her about 20RMB and tried to leave. We got into a huge screaming fit that the other customers thought was hilarious. She knew she was being a horrible person, we just walked out. It was unbelievable. I’ve never had that happen to me before! We are in a touristy part of town, but I couldn’t imagine many tourists going in to that kind of place.
We walked around Tiananmen wishing we had kites on the windy day and found a small street on the south side of it to do some shopping. This street was fantastic, I had never been down there before. It’s not a street, just an alley way with shops on either side, but you go down it and you actually feel like you are in China, which doesn’t always happen here. It was pretty amazing and just assaulted your senses. Scott bought some things and I tried to conserve money for the trip next week. Fun times. Came back and crashed, it tires you out.
Just a picture album, self explanatory, I don’t want to write about it :P
Skating in Houhai
[More Pics]
^^Last winter
So, my friend's (Brigette) sister was in town last week. On Wednesday us and Pickup went shopping early in the morning (I spent a LOT of money, bought some beautiful things though, I'll post pictures of the jewelry I had made). After that we went to Houhai and grabbed some lunch and walked around (Pickup headed back to school for class). So, let me tell you a little about Houhai. They are these redone Hutongs, traditional, old-style Chinese city living. What you picture when you picture China. Old town, winding paths, etc. All redone for tourists, of course. In the middle is a huge lake that you can take boats in or skate on during the winter and restaurants and bars around the lake. Fantastic, gorgeous place. Perfect.
Brigette has been planning this since October! And we were all in on it. So, we were walking around and two of our friends were going to the airport to pick up her sister's boyfriend. Who flew in without ANYONE knowing (all of us in China knew, but no one in the states or Brigette's sister knew). We walked to the bridge that goes over the lake/stream(at that point) and her boyfriend just walks out of the crowd in front of her. She had no idea he was coming and he's also in the military so he isn't supposed to be here! He had to grow out his hair and get special permits for it. We back off the bridge to watch and he drops to one knee. We were freaking out and crying, lol.
It was amazing. I've never seen anyone get proposed to before! Some guy snapped some pictures of us while it was happening and is going to send them. But *sigh* It was amazing. Could you imagine?! He flew out all the way to China to surprise her and propose. In that setting, on a nice day, it was perfect. What a story to tell people! We were freaking out all day and being all sappy and everything, it was amazing. One of the best days EVER!
This weekend half of our group went to ShanHaiGuan, the part of the great wall on the ocean that I went to last semester (i.e. I didn’t want to go again). Scott and I decided to wake up early and head downtown as he has never been to The Forbidden City. So we did that. Left at 10 in the morning and walked for nearly 8 hours straight. Spent tons of time in the forbidden city and then when we got out we found a xiao chi place (small restaurant). It was pretty decent and the prices weren’t bad. Mine was 8RMB and Scott’s was 7RMB. To go along with that I had a bowl of rice which never costs more than 1RMB and Scott got a drink that is usually about 3RMB. The problem with that is, those two things aren’t on the menu. So they tried to SCREW us!! They wanted 6RMB for the rice (ridiculous) and 15RMB for the tea!! Can you believe that? 36RMB for lunch? We got pissed off. I asked them how much they would have charged us if we were Chinese and why they were trying to screw us because it wasn’t on the menu. We handed her about 20RMB and tried to leave. We got into a huge screaming fit that the other customers thought was hilarious. She knew she was being a horrible person, we just walked out. It was unbelievable. I’ve never had that happen to me before! We are in a touristy part of town, but I couldn’t imagine many tourists going in to that kind of place.
We walked around Tiananmen wishing we had kites on the windy day and found a small street on the south side of it to do some shopping. This street was fantastic, I had never been down there before. It’s not a street, just an alley way with shops on either side, but you go down it and you actually feel like you are in China, which doesn’t always happen here. It was pretty amazing and just assaulted your senses. Scott bought some things and I tried to conserve money for the trip next week. Fun times. Came back and crashed, it tires you out.
