Beijing again and again!

In January, I took two trips to Beijing, each for a day to buy train tickets and see the city. Emily and I decided we wanted to take a long train ride to the south of China in February but in order to do this we had to go to Beijing to buy the train tickets. We went ten days in advance but once in Beijing were told we had to wait 5 more days to get the tickets. Since we were already in the capital, we decided to explore. We tried to find the 4D movie at the planetarium but missed seeing it so we went across the street to the zoo. I can now say I have seen pandas in China! The noctural section of the zoo was awesome too - you go inside and it is dark so all the noctural animals are awake, like weird sloths, and other mammals you normally wouldn't see awake. However, the areas for the elephants, tigers, and lions did not seem adequate. They did not have enough room and the cages were not taken care of all that well. It was definitely different from American zoos like the one in Atlanta. I did not see the whole zoo though and would like to go back when it is warm to see more of the animals venture outside.

Our next trip we successfully bought train tickets to Kunming city in Yunnan province. Again we were in Beijing, this time with Kim as well, so we saw the 15 minute 4D movie about prehistoric water life. The reason it was 4D is because air blasted our faces when anything crazy happened. It was a short film but we had a ton of fun being scared by the air blasts. After, we still had plenty of time so we went to Tiananmen Square. Walking up to be able to see Mao Zedong's massive picture made me feel several emotions that are hard to describe. It is a place of history with different meanings for different people. We walked in a little but did not go to the Forbidden City this time. These day trips to Beijing were a lot of fun and Emily and I were now ready to take a huge trip to the south of China...