Last Full Weekend in Beijing!

It's hard to believe how time has flown by here in China this summer. Currently, I'm blogging from one of the coolest places I've ever been to: Malaysia (think mix of down-town New York, the history of Europe, and the nature and palm trees from Hawaii/some Caribbean Island). But more on that later.

Last weekend (July 15th through 17th), was my last full weekend in Beijing because this weekend I am in Malaysia, next weekend I will be in Thailand, and the weekend after that I come home. So, we decided we needed to see everything in Beijing that we had put off, which was basically four things.

First, we all decided that, since we were in Beijing, we needed to see a traditional Chinese Acrobats show. It was an evening show that last a little over an hour and was amazing! The performers definitely know how to impress and audience and keep them entertained. Here is a highlight of some of the acts:

There was a very cool act where the performer stacked a bunch of chairs on top of one another and then did handstands on the top of them. We thought it was impressive when the guy was using four chairs:

But, he kept going and eventually got up to eight chairs!

Other cool acts that they did were one where the performers juggled balls with their feet:

and one where a bunch of people balanced on a bicycle:

Another place we had wanted to visit in Beijing for a while was the 798 Art District (a modern art district). We weren't allowed to take pictures inside any of the studios, but the outside exhibits were still very cool to see. My favorite was a bunch of objects made out of bricks, including an iron, a can of tuna, and a car!

Another place that we had been wanting to see in Beijing since the beginning of the summer was the White Pagoda Temple, which is by the Forbidden City.

It was a giant park and, on top of a hill (of course!), was a giant temple to Buddha. On the way to see the temple, there was an area where people wrote their prayers on wooden squares and then hung them all over the place, which was very pretty.

Once we got to the top, we quickly snapped some pictures and left because it was beginning to rain, and being on top of the tallest hill in the city during a thunder-storm did not seem like the best idea! Fortunately, we did have enough time to see the view of the Forbidden City from the temple and look inside the temple, which was very simple. There were also a bunch of incense sticks laying out, but none of them were lit, which I didn't completely understand. Finally, the outside of the temple was covered in these little carvings of Buddha. Most of the statues, however, were worn down in some places because it seemed like everyone who was walking by had to touch every Buddha!

The last item on our list of things to see in Beijing was the Night Market, which we went to on Monday night (July 18th). The Night Market, which is located in the middle of the city, is a VERY popular and packed tourist destination, mainly because of the strange street food you can buy from the vendors, including (prepare yourself) starfish, scorpions (which were still moving on the stick....grossed me out!!!), seahorses, spiders, lizards, and more. If you want to be grossed out, pictures are below:

We decided that the only people who would be dumb enough to eat those things are probably the Frat-Boy type who need to prove their manly-hood, or something. I ended up going for the safer, normal food: some pork dumplings and grapes on a stick that were dipped in a caramel-like coating - delicious!

That's the last of the main things that we saw in Beijing during our last weekend. I'll update soon with information about my trip to Malaysia (probably a couple of posts!). All you need to know now is: I've officially picked out the house I will be living in when I move here! It's so amazing!