Hey everyone,
We’re back from our May Day trip to Beijing and now in the final month of our contract.
Last Tuesday night we were able to have another (final) dinner with Johnson and Samantha and we had a really amazing time. We met up at QLH and took taxis to a Chinese tapas restaurant that was delicious and then we went to an “indie” coffee shop that smelled like Asheville but was decorated with Cultural Revolution era artifacts. It turned out that we went to the coffee shop on its one-year anniversary so on top of our orders of coffee, we all got a free glass of wine – definitely my kind of place!
Wednesday, we headed out and began our grand adventure to Beijing. The girls were thrilled to have the opportunity to explore a part of China outside of Baoding and were as impressed with the high-speed rail as I continue to be. Once in Beijing, they got to experience the subway as we made our way to the hostel, hutongs (alleys), and, as always, tremendous amounts of walking.
The hostel was almost directly behind the Lama Temple, a really gorgeous part of Beijing, and as the girls went off to explore the temple itself, Duncan and I wandered through the hutongs and streets in that district.
Yoda in our hostel:
Also while in Beijing, we visited the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square:
We went to an acrobatics show:
And on the way there, drove past Tiananmen:
We did a ton of shopping (along with all these people):
And when we almost got caught in a terrific thunderstorm, we got hand-carved stone stamps made by this guy:
We even went to the Olympic Village:
We had a really wonderful time in Beijing, and loved getting to share everything we’ve seen and done with our new friends.
Sunday, we said a final farewell to Beijing and left Beijingxi Railway Station, and made our final return to Baoding where we will be for the next 27 days.
Yesterday, we had another good day of classes and Haley, Caitlin, and I all got our own Baoding Bilingual School uniforms:
And I found these gems on the sixth grade floor hallway:
Today, the school asked Duncan and I to oblige them by doing a photo-shoot for them to advertise us to future middle school students. Apparently, some teachers saw me dancing in the parking lot a couple of months ago, and now they want pictures of that too.
Thank you for reading and until next time,
Alyssa
Alyssa in China 
Jemma Jones
May 6, 2014 at 6:38 pm
Final month?! Wow that has gone so quick! Do you know where you are going next?
abelcher22
May 7, 2014 at 7:33 am
It has gone by so fast! We’re going to spend the next year at least living in Asheville, but are hoping to do some US-based road trips. After that, who knows! There are just so many great places in the world to see! 🙂
Pamela Sansom
May 9, 2014 at 8:27 pm
Hi Alyssa,
My name is Pam and have just moved to Baoding. I have been following your blog for a couple of months – sounds like you’re having the most fantastic time! We have been here just 1 week (we moved from Shanghai). I have noticed in your blogs that you eat at some lovely places and wondered if you could forward the addresses and the info on the type of food etc.
I will miss your blogs they are very informative and enjoyable to read.
Best regards
Pam x
abelcher22
May 10, 2014 at 10:12 pm
Hey!
Thanks for reading and keeping up with my adventure!
I don’t have exact addresses for most places but I can give you street names to get you in the right direction. We live on the eastern outskirts of Baoding, so most places we visit are on this side of town and I don’t know if that will be convenient for you, depending on where you live.
We get street food from an alley filled with a variety of vendors and tiny restaurants across the street from the Hebei Agricultural Engineering School (河北省农业工程学校) campus on WuSi East Road. Our “bread people”, “kabob people”, and many other restaurants of all different kinds are in the covered alley across the street from the Hebei University Nanyuan (河北大学南院) campus. QLH (coffee and ice cream), the noodle shop we frequent, and a melon hot pot place are all on Junxiaojie (Junxiao Street) along with many other great restaurants to check out. We basically live in the areas around Military School Square (保定军校广场) and there’s a Huiyou (a supermarket) underground in the middle. If you want pizza you can go to Philly Story off of Qiyi Middle Road (保定市七一中路). Over by Nongda (the Agricultural University of Hebei – 河北农业大学农村发展学院) there is another QLH, several other pizza places, and many many other restaurants. It’s fun area to check out. The InZone mall (down Yuhua Road from the Governor’s Mansion and the Ancient Lotus Pond) has a really good Korean restaurant, a movie theater that shows some movies in English, a Dairy Queen, plus a ton more. There is a really nice grocery store at the intersection of Dongfeng Middle Road and Beiguan Street (this is where we have consistently been able to find peanut butter). There are a couple of malls (one very expensive), a Starbucks, a Walmart, and some other stores in the shopping center at the intersection of Chaoyang North Street and Tian’e Middle Road.
If there are any places I’ve mentioned in my blog before that I didn’t mention here, let me know and I’ll try to head you in the right direction. Also, if you’ll be here for an extended period of time I would definitely recommend buying a motorbike and using it as your main method of transportation around the city.
If you have any questions about life in Baoding that I might be able to help with, let me know. If not, good luck and I hope you enjoy living in Baoding.
Thanks again for reading,
Alyssa 🙂