Day 1 in Beijing was a lot of fun! We had our wake up call at 7:30am for breakfast, where we ate half-cooked bacon, salted scrambled eggs, lots of orange juice, baked beans (a European thing), crossiants, and other types of food! We then got on our tour bus and began our first day in Beijing!

The first place that we visited in Beijing was the Summer Palace (颐和园). The Summer Palace landscape is dominated mainly by Longevity Hill and Kunming Lake. It covers an area of 2.9 square kilometers, three quarters of which is under water. Its 70,000 square meters of building space has palaces, gardens and other ancient-style architectural structures. It is also well-known for its large and priceless collection of cultural relics, and thus it was among the first group of historical and cultural heritage sites in China to be placed under special state protection. The Summer Palace, originally named Qingyi Yuan or the Garden of Clear Ripples, was first constructed in 1750. It was razed to the ground by the Anglo-French Allied Forces in 1860. The Government of the Qing Dynasty started to rebuild it in 1886 with funds that it had misappropriated from the Imperial Navy and other sources. Renamed two years later as Yihe Yuan or the Garden of Health and Harmony, it was supposed to serve as a summer resort for the Empress Dowager Cixi (The Dragon Lady). Known also as the Summer Palace, it was ravaged by the Allied Forces of the Eight Powers that invaded China in 1900 (end of Boxer Rebellion). It also contains the Long Corridor (长廊) that you can walk down. The Corridor contains over 8000 paintings and is over 700 meters long. It runs along the entire length of the lake and is supposed to bring harmony. The size of this place was awe-inspiring! There are numerous other buildings or artifacts that the place contains, but my favorite was the Marble Boat: a 36 meter long boat that is constructed purely of marble. It is unlucky to take a picture while standing on the boat, so obviously I didn't do so!

As the Summer Palace concluded, we went to a tea-tasting event and the traditional Tea Ceremony (茶文化)! There, we all sat down at a long table that was set up in the way of a traditional tea ceremony. Everyone had their pouring cup and their tasting cup, and the attendant made us five different kinds of tea and explained all of their health benefits. We went to one of the nicest tea houses in Beijing, where they held some of their tea for 20 years (this is rare to find in China). It was an awesome experience to learn about why tea is so important to the Chinese! Slurping is also encouraged--this indicates it tastes good! We were offered Jasmine Tea, Lychee with rose, Fruit Tea, Yulong with ginseng, and Pu'er Tea! All were great!

Next, we drove past the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube! They were the two stadiums that were used in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Now-a-days, these two stadiums were converted into gyms for the Chinese people to use. We didn't go inside, but driving by them from very close was quite awesome! The design for the Bird's Nest was by Ai Wei-Wei if anyone is familiar, and both buildings were absolutely stunning.

The final destination we had on Day 1 was the Temple of Heaven (天坛). The Temple of Heaven is located in Central Beijing, and was first constructed in 1420 after a new emperor had assumed the throne. However, lightning struck and destroyed part so he thought this was a bad omen because of the method he had used to assume power (fought with family). Therefore, he waited 5 years until 1425 to rebuild the structure. After its completion, the buildings were used to pray to the gods for a good harvest.

Earth was represented by a square and Heaven by a circle. These symbolize the connection of Heaven and Earth as circle and square. Two rings of walls surround the whole temple complex; the outer wall has a taller, semi-circular northern end, representing Heaven, and a shorter, rectangular southern end, representing the Earth. Both the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests and the Circular Mound Altar in the Temple of Heavan are round, each standing on a square yard, again representing Heaven and Earth.

The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests in the Temple of Heaven has four inner, twelve middle and twelve outer pillars, representing the four seasons, twelve months and twelve traditional Chinese hours respectively. Combined together, the twelve middle and twelve outer pillars represent the traditional solar term.

All the buildings within the Temple have special dark blue roof tiles, representing the Heavens. The circle in the very middle, supposedly the Heart of Heaven (天心石), was a stone slab in the very middle of the complex. There, the Emperor himself used to pray for a good harvest. When we visited there, I had to fight to get my picture on the stone! It was quite funny--everyone rushes onto the stone and it became a fun game of trying to get onto the stone next for a picture. Chinese people were especially enthralled with this stone.

We played some shuttlecock at the Temple of Heaven! It is a game that many Chinese play in the park areas, and they were definitely much better than we were. We bought a few shuttlecocks for relatively cheap and now have something to keep us occupied at Nankai!

To end the day we went into the streets at night in downtown Beijing. This was quite exciting. Although there was lots of trash on the streets, it was so awesome to see how many people lived their everyday lives in these streets, watching the taxis, bikes, and other assorted people move along. I've never seen so many people on one street--it was quite exciting, though, and we got the occasional "Hello", smile, and a wave from Chinese natives who were excited to see foreigners, or lao wai (老外). We found a shop that my friends had visited a day before, and I bought 2 Fantas--peach and green apple flavored--for a total of 8 Yuan. Not too bad considering that is only a little bit over a dollar. I returned to the hotel at 9pm, tired and ready to sleep for our second day in Beijing!