Frogger: Real Life Edition

I title this blog Frogger because I think it accurately describes my daily life of trying to cross the street in China.

Beijing is set up via a system of Ring Roads, which I did not know until about 2 weeks ago.

What I like about many of the streets here is there are not a lot of lights and instead there are walkways either above or under the street. However, unless the street is really busy or a major one, people can generally cross where they please. Most of the time there is a smaller lane (similar to a bike lane) followed by larger lanes on each side and another smaller lane. It is crazy though the amount of cars that just drive especially in the bike lanes because they do not really obey lights. Small scooters and bikes even drive on the sidewalk!!! It’s nice because here in Beijing I’m not constantly walking around looking down at my phone because I have to pay attention. But it’s like Frogger in that you cross the bike lane, try to make it halfway across the cars lane, make it across the other cars lane, and then to the other bike lane all which is completely possible as long as you’re paying attention. I actually don’t even see many accidents here, because as crazy as traffic can get, people are actually paying attention to the roads and somehow know how to navigate the madness.

To add to my crazy foods list …. Last Sunday, we went for Dim Sum, and I ate Chicken Feet. I don’t think I’d ever eat it again, but it was at least worth trying.

There are tons of malls with western stores in China! My friend and I went to visit this very large one about 7 Subway stops away from my school and I was able to pick up some nice booties from Forever 21 for only RMB 20 (about 3.3 dollars!)

Last Saturday, some classmates and I visited the Temple of Heaven, which is such a majestical place filled with ancient Chinese architecture. It was in a huge park, so it was nice to also enjoy some green space away from the bustling of Beijing. The Temple of Heaven was conveniently located next to the Pearl Market so we were able to go and barter away for some souvenirs to bring back for friends. I always enjoy bartering because it is a great way for me to practice my Chinese to see how much of discount I can get on certain items.

We concluded that day by going to see an Andy Warhol exhibit in the 798 district of China. This district is very cool because it is the art district, though we missed much of the street excitement because we went at night, so I’m excited to go back and explore. The nice things about this exhibit though, was it was a bunch of contemporary art, my favorite being the balloon exhibit (silver clouds they were called) below.

 

There’s so much to do in Beijing and I already know I’m not going to do it all, but the random things we stumble upon like the art exhibit make this experience so much more meaningful.

Next week marks the Chinese National Holiday (I’m excited because that means a week of vacation!!!).

Until next time … Peace.