Beihai Excursion

It's a nice day with no class, so Lara and I decide to go to Beihai, a famous park in Beijing. Since we can't get there directly by train, we once again must hire a cab. We go over to the campus gate, where Sketch and her crew are sitting on the curb, eating ice cream. The seem quite unhappy that we are there trying to hire a driver because we have interrupted their Popsicle Time. After Sketch yaps at us for a few minutes, she yells behind her to one of the half-dressed men, who looks at us, picks up a shirt, and sulks over to his van. As he buttons his shirt, he tells us it will cost us 25 元 each. Apparently there's a hefty price to pay for ruining Popsicle Time.

30 minutes later we are at Beihai, which is beautiful and costs less than our cab fare to enter. Restored Buddhist and traditional Chinese buildings line the walkways around a large lake full of boats. From all sides of the lake, we can see a huge Tibetan-style domed temple on the center island. We map out a plan to walk around one side of the lake, go to the island, and then hail a legitimate taxi home. As we walk, we hear singing from every shelter on the lakeside complex. There is some form of traditional music performance going on today, which is even better than we could have planned it!


After listening to the music for a while, we keep going down the path, and consider stopping for food at a small stand. Unfortunately, we have trouble choosing between the ice cream ice cream and the hamvergr, so we keep going.

When we get to the end on one side of the park, we realize that, even though Beihai is round, it is not possible to go around it in a circle. We are standing a few yards away from the island, but must walk all the way around the other side to actually reach it. Oh, China....


30 minutes later, we reach the island. The temple is big, and on top of a cliff, so we get a great view of the entire park. We climb down again, and find a taxi back to school, paying a whopping 15 元 each, seatbelts included.