Friday was our last day in Yiwu, a sort of bittersweet moment for us all. We spent the morning learning and writing calligraphy, a very tough skill that I definitely do not have mastered. Produced a couple of authentic phrases, and finally got the signature down, so that’s a plus. Later in the day we went to the Small Commodities Market Expo, where thousands of people gathered to check the latest goods; we could tell the event was going to be big when our hotel starting sprucing up the place early in the week. We ended the day back at the YWICC where they held our ending ceremony. It was so much fun getting to spend that last bit of time with all of the people we had met over the course of the 3 weeks. We sang songs (us in Chinese, them in English) and exchanged gifts, and we even got diplomas that really made the trip official. Our time in Yiwu will not be forgotten, and who knows if some of us will have the chance to reunite again in the future.
We were then on our way to Beijing, and after a 3 hour plus delay due to recent flooding in the area, we landed at approximately 12:15am today, and after waiting for luggage and getting transportation, arrived to our rooms around 2:30am. Our original plans were to leave again for the day at 6:00am, but we switched things up and started the day at 8:00 instead. The first couple places we went were two parks, Bei Hai and Jingshang, and the weather was perfect for a stroll. There were tons of people out and about, and especially of the older generation, because they have free passes to the area on any given day, and they were all doing activities from dancing to meditating. In the second park we climbed to the top of a hill that overlooks the Forbidden City, a very cool cite that gives a different perspective of the area.
After a short break, we quickly walked around Tian An Men Square in order to make it into the Forbidden City in time. The crowds were massive, but the journey was completely worth it. We got to see some major hinges in history, and learned a lot about the value of the palace and explanations about its layout. It took about 2-3 hours to simply walk through this ‘city’, but after finding a couple members of our group that lost the herd, we were on our way yet again. Our final destination for the evening was to Wang Fa Jing, a food/snack street with all sorts of exotic eateries; some members of our group tried scorpion while others had the stinky beetle. After doing some shopping in the area, we were on our own as students to figure out the subway system, but luckily some of us have been in the cities back home enough to understand the complex network. Finally, a few of us guys walked around the Xicheng District in which we are staying, and ran across a beautiful area, which surrounded a small lake with many shops and restaurants. We sat down in a Jazz center and just chilled for a while, a perfect ending to the start of our adventures in Beijing!
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