Chinese Labor Day Weekend

We had an extended weekend due to the Chinese equivalent to Labor Day on Friday. Here's a quick rundown of the weekend's events so far:

Thursday evening at the Beijing Acrobatic Show. Pretty amazing stuff.

We weren't allowed to take pictures at the show, so we tried recreating parts of it at the apartment.

Bad picture on a bus.

We tried catching a cab to go meet up with some friends on Friday night, but didn't realize that the Jackie Chan show just let out. Apparently he was at the Bird's Nest (right by our apt.) that night singing and doing karate (who knew). There were thousands of people everywhere and catching a cab was impossible, so we ended up getting on a random bus just to get away from the crowd to somewhere we could actually catch a cab. Apparently Jackie Chan is like the Pope here.

During the day on Friday we went to the hutongs and the Drum and Bell towers. A hutong is just a name for these little neighborhoods that are comprised of a maze of narrow little alleyways that are easy to get lost in. There are some really cool shops and restaurants in there.

Nicole in front of the Bell Tower

Inside one of the cool restaurants in the hutongs.

Little place called Feel the New Space Tea Ceremony(?)

Sign from the subway station. This is what it feels like sometimes in Beijing. People yelling in your face with a blowhorn. We figured out how to get around on the buses and subways this weekend which was pretty cool and super cheap. The buses cost the equivalent of about 6 cents and the subways about 28 cents. Not that taxis are necessarily expensive. What would be a $30 cab ride in Fort Lauderdale, is about $4 here.

Picture of me and my body double on a subway poster. The people in my studio at work all think that I look like the guy from Prison Break (or "Break the Prison" as it often referred to here). The show happens to be huge here, so I'm going to start trying to pass as this guy on the streets.

What can possibly be better than golf after a manicure?

Saturday we went to Ritan Park. Here's a picture of some of the kite flying in the park. Look like a nice day? That's because they did a little weather control causing it to rain the day before to clear the smog and make a nicer holiday weekend.

A restaurant in the park called The Stone Boat where we had lunch.

Ended our Saturday with a little shopping in the Silk Street Market. It's all bartering/haggling in here. The women working the booths are ruthless and know all the tricks, but it's a lot of fun talking prices down from 500RMB to 30. It does get old though if you're not in the mood and don't want to have to deal with the agressiveness/arm pulling/etc.