Glasses City

One of the amazing things about China is the ability to buy glasses for very cheap! I can get a pair of prescription glasses for 15 dollars! I also can get a pair of prescription sunglasses for about 20 dollars. And these sunglasses are the fashionable ones, not the crappy expensive sunglasses you get from the eye glasses stores.

I have been able to get seven pairs of glasses and two pairs of sunglasses!
Here is the collection of glasses!

As you can see I own a lot of glasses! It is really cool, they make the glasses in the store!

 Now I will say that you are not getting the fancy lenses but honestly I can't tell the difference! All the stuff they say in the stores about oh you need all these because your eyes won't be able to handle it, really isn't true!

Being able to get all kind of fashionable glasses for 15 dollars is awesome!

Tianjin Eye

This past Tuesday and Wednesday I went to Tianjin to visit my friends Lauren and Marika. We had a lovely time together. It was nice just to relax and have a good time with friends. While I was there we started talking about what Tianjin is famous for: The Tianjin Eye.

The Tianjin Eye is basically a giant Ferris Wheel that is built in the middle of the bridge. As far as we know it is the only Ferris Wheel built on a bridge. It is a slow moving ride that gives you a birds eye view of the city! The smog wasn't so bad that day so it was  perfect day to go!

 In the Ferris Wheel car. As you can see we are side by side to the road!

This car took us up and around! It was nice and air conditioned and we had some great views!

View from the top! Overall it was a really neat experience to have! And I got to see what Tianjin is famous for!

Biking in the City

I am not a huge bike rider. I haven't really ridden a bike since middle school. In Pittsburgh riding a bike is not really something people regularly do. In Beijing, tons of people ride a bike. There are bike shops everywhere!

Bikes do not follow the traffic laws in Beijing. They do whatever they feel like. They go against traffic, through red lights, in between cars and people. Its a bit crazy. I never dreamed I would even step on a bike here, because well its insane!

Two of my friends here own bikes. My one friend also has a scooter as well. So today she invited me to go out and ride her bike while she followed along on the scooter. I thought sure why not. I hopped on the bike and immediately fell off when I tried to brake. (It was pretty hilarious not going to lie). I did some practice runs around her apartment complex and thought ok I am good.

My friends decided that I should be in the middle since I am not the strong bike rider.. I had told them up front I haven't biked in years so I wouldn't go that fast. It was very nice of them to watch out for me and to make sure I wasn't going to do something stupid. It was very sweet of them.

The ride itself was a bit scary. We were driving on the rode with the cars. Beijing is very bike friendly and has bike lanes, but naturally cars and pedestrian use these lanes for their own purposes.. So we had to zig zag around them. Since I am not the greatest bike rider I freaked if I got to close to things (we happened about 50 times on the ride). People literally just walked in front of you and you had to brake or swerve around them. (causing me to almost fall off my bike!) Cars dart in and out around you. Honestly it is a big game of chicken. Who has the biggest guts to go first. You can't hesitate or you won't go far. We were riding alongside the 3rd ring road (which is a major highway).

During this ride I realized I wasn't really scared of all the cars that were coming at me from various angles or even really the buses. It was the people, bikes and structures that were the most terrifying. Cars and buses do a fairly good job of watching out for bikes and maneuvering around them. Other bikes no, they do what is good for them. And people well people are stupid. They literally just walk around with their heads glued into their phones and walking at snails pace. They stand in the way so when you want to go somewhere with the bike you have such a narrow entrance.

In the end I made it to our destination and then back to my friends apartment. Would I do it again, yes.

"Natural" History Museum

Today I was going to head out to the YuanmingYuan ruins. However the weather was so nasty today! It was 100 percent humidity and the pollution level was up! So I decided oh I should check out the natural history museum in Beijing.

This museum was a joke. Each exhibit we went to was so fake, there seemed to be no natural. And the signs were all in Chinese so we couldn't tell if the history was accurate or not. (we were guessing not because the signs we did see where so funny and bad...)

 The first exhibit we saw was about five dinosaur bone statues.. They didn't look real at all... And naturally people were  climbing on them, stroking the bones..


The next was the dinosaur land exhibit. Literally it was a bunch of fake dinosaurs that moved a bit. The sign said dinosaur are roaming the basement...

This darling trex was on display for me to see! He was about to eat me...haha

 Next we wanted to find the aquarium. The aquarium contained ugly fish, sharks that I swore were robots, the history of fish. Such as the sign on the left.

There was so many fish in this tank! They weren't moving, they were just floating... It was kinda weird actually...

 There also was an African Exhibit. Apparently all of Africa is in harmony and they are a peace loving area. They also only showcased one tribe! The Massi tribe. They had these freaky African woman statues that looked lifelike.

Another exhibit that I couldn't bring myself to take pictures of was the animal exhibit. It was so freaky. It looked like they just killed a bunch of animals and then stuffed them. The eyes were so freaky, I couldn't take a picture!

They had the showcase of the history of plants. It was just a bunch of fake plants. Lastly we walked into this room which I am not quite sure what it was for. They had a giant statue of this bug attacking things though...

Thankfully this museum was only 10 kuai to get in. I won't go back again because it was so weird. It was a good laugh.

Taxi's

Before arriving in China I had been in a taxi a total of three times. All of these times I was with my family, and I certainly never had to hail a taxi before! In the movies it looks so easy. You go out to the curb put your hand up and a taxi appears! You jump in, the taxi guy puts the meter on and off you go. You can tell him quickly and efficiently where you want to go.

In Beijing getting a taxi is not that easy. Oh there are plenty of taxis. There yellow and maroon cars mock you as you wait for them. The light on the top that signs they are available is just a tease...

Whizz..there goes an avaliable taxi right by, ignoring your hand raised in signal to please pick me up (note its gotta be a floppy hand).... Here comes the creeper unmarked black taxi cab men.. taxi, taxi do you want a taxi.. or rickshaw rickshaw how about a rickshaw..  (a rickshaw is almost a little carriage attached to the back of the bike. The driver will take you short distances on it and charge you a crazy price) NO! I just want a taxi!

Phew here comes another taxi...whizz..and then stops two feet from you to pick up a local person! Grrr Taxi drivers in Beijing will always pick up a local person before they will pick up you. Many taxi drivers will ignore your call for the taxi and will continue  driving right on by! Some have even turned off their lights and then turned them right back as soon as they passed you.

Finally a taxi comes and picks you up. You get in and tell him in broken Chinese where you live. A lot of taxi drivers can't read so if you show them a paper with the address or location chances are they won't know. They will tell you to get out. They know the tourist areas but that's about it....

Finally in the taxi you make your way home. It happens to be raining outside this particular night and its about 70 degrees outside. The taxi driver has the heat on full blast in the car, and the window open.... That is not the biggest issue, driving in any sort of vehicle in Beijing is well damn scary.

The three lanes of traffic that are drawn on the road are optional, cars whiz in and out of lanes like no other. They merge without looking. The honk their horns non stop at you. The shoulder turns into another lane... they speed up right before you merge. Last night in the taxi alone I saw my life flash before my eyes about 4 times.

As you approach home, you think oh I know a faster way to get home, so you tell the driver to go straight. He goes straight, unfortunate for you he was trying to go sneaky way home. The sneaky way home is the way that will cost more money. Only you didn't realize that as you were sitting in the backseat a little tipsy and texting on your phone... SO he gets off and starts swearing and yelling at you in Chinese. Luckily you know where you are and point him to where you want to go. He continues to swear and yell at you in Chinese. You finally get to where you want to be but realize that oh wait you are on the highway.... The taxi driver slams the brakes on the car, swears at you some more and takes your money. You then get out of the cab and have to walk ten minutes to get home....

(true story this happened to me last night!)

So yes, getting a taxi in Beijing is no picnic if you are foreigner. But at the end of the day you will eventually get one...though he might not be the nicest person in the world..