Doing something constructive during the National Day Holiday

*Lots of pictures!!!! And two videos!*

Starting from September 29th, I have a week off... a whole 7 days of no EF!  Unfortunately, that's a very popular travel week, which means everything's wicked busy and wicked expensive.  So I opted to stay in Beijing, hang out and do a little sightseeing.  Well, I went out almost every night, didn't do much during the day besides R&R, so by Thursday, I was up to doing something...

And that something was going to an Ethiopian restaurant (reviewed), DVD shopping (season 4 of Doctor Who and 6 movies) and IKEA for food (to go) and a lamp.

  Not that thrilling.  But Friday was another day.  I'd arranged to meet Andrew (another teacher, a newbie) at the Shuangjing metro station at 10am.  Now, having to pass by a McDonald's before 10am, yup, meant breakfast.  So I was on-time to meet Andrew, and then we had a pleasant, but LONG subway ride to Bagou.  Now, the Line 10 runs from Jinsong to Bagou.  Shuangjing is the second stop, just above Jinsong.  So we rode almost the entire line!  Well, 22 stops later, we got to Bagou.  And neither of us had a good map or a good idea of where to go, so we picked the most logical exit (we thought) and headed out.  We started walking, kept walking, discussed getting a taxi, Andrew pointed on his map to make sure we were going in the right direction (we were, wasn't that a miracle?) and we ended up finding a bus to the Summer Palace.  

After getting our tickets and some water, inside we went.  And I think half of the 2 million tourists going to Beijing were there too.  I knew it was going to be crowded, but there's nothing like experiencing it.  We started walking around, took some pictures and crossed a bridge to an island.  After more walking, we took a boat ride (didn't I swear I wouldn't go on a boat in Beijing... oh well, I was talking about Houhai anyway).  From there we went up to a craft store, where I bought postcards, then we went up to the Tower of Buddhist Incense.  Up there, the strap on my bag broke, and I knew I needed a new one.  I was cursing to myself since I figured bags would be expensive in the Summer Palace, and there was no where around to buy a new one.  So after the Tower, we found another store and I found a bag for only 38 Yuan!  Wasn't as beautiful as I'd seen (that one was 65 Yuan), but it looked sturdier.

  So I bought it and a couple small books.  After giving the old bag to a woman who wanted it for one reason or another, we were off to further explore.

We didn't see all of it, nor did we have any intention of trying.  It's just too big!  I'd need at least 3 days to see everything.  But we saw what we wanted, and that was enough.  From there, we tried to find a bus back to Bagou, but to no avail.  We ended up catching a taxi, and then taking the subway back to Tuanjiehu (the stop near Sanlitun) because I knew of a duck restaurant nearby.  After missing an obvious street sign, then walking the wrong way almost to the next subway stop, we finally found it- Da Dong Beijing Duck. 

Only to be told that the wait for a duck was about an hour.  With a lack of other options, and just out of tiredness, we decided to wait.  And we're glad we did!  The duck was excellent, and this place didn't try to sell you food that you didn't need, the duck and condiments were plenty.  And then we had a fruit plate and what I think was mandarin oranges and coconut milk thing... that I didn't care for.  From there, we went back to Shuangjing and went our separate ways home.