Pandas and Renmin Square

So things have been pretty cool I feel. Three days ago I went to go see the pandas in Chengdu. In the city, there’s a really famous Panda Research Center. From what I understand, this is supposed to be the premiere research center for pandas. They supposedly artificially inseminated a panda successfully within the past 2 months.

Anyways, we left at about 7 a.m. to get there. The place was definitely different from the rest of China I felt. Surprisingly here, they actually enforced the rule where no one could smoke. I know that this is odd, but this was really rare here for China since everyone smokes. So over here was some of our first foreigners on our trip. Since we got there early, there wasn’t really anyone; actually the visitor’s service center was closed at the time we got there.

Our first stop was some panda habitats where they put the pandas individually in this huge cage. Here’s some pictures of these pandas:

I even got a pictures of a huge panda turd!

It actually looks exactly like a horse’s fecal matter; doesn’t it?

After that, we checked out the RED pandas. I know, RED pandas. Their actual name literally translated into English is “red panda”. They are actually an early evolutionary branch of the giant pandas that the pandas that we associate with today. Instead of being in cages, they’re actually in this huge artificial nature habitat as you can see from the picture below.

Also, doesn’t the red panda look like raccoons. It’s interesting that they still have tails. Actually, pandas when they’re born at first have a tail within the first 2 weeks. They actually had a picture of this in the panda museum, but I forgot to take one. Sorry ‘bout that. Getting back to the point, while I was just about finished with the red panda area, I saw a random sign that said that we could hold the red panda and take a picture of it. After some inquiry, I found out that it cost ONLY 50 RMB! That’s just a little over $7! So what did I do? Obviously … I paid to hold the panda and take pictures with it.

So before you can hold the panda, they put me in some makeshift scrubs as you can see in the picture below.

Then I got to hold the RED panda! The panda was surprisingly light. I guess it was about 40 lbs.

Yeah, it was just eating some apples that the lady fed it, as you can see below.

The fur was really coarse, and the claws were amazingly sharp. The whole time, the RED panda basically just ignored me and ate the apple. How rude! Sorry, didn’t get any real pictures of me actually really posing with the panda in my lap, but I was just so into having a panda on my lap, as you can see from the big smile on my face there.

So I was actually quite surprised that they didn’t advertise the chance to hold the RED panda in your lap that much. It was basically just this one sign that’s in the back of the building where you hold the panda in some obscure spot. So yeah… like any of us could do this in the U.S. HAH! And on the bright side, since no one really knew about it, and since there weren’t that many people, I was able to hold the panda for what I would think at last a few good 5 minutes. So this pretty much made the whole trip to China worth it.

Later on, we checked in on the panda nursery. We weren’t supposed to get take pictures of these baby pandas, but I took one at first, since I didn’t see the sign, and then I later snuck one in. hehe I know, that was bad of me, but dude it was a baby panda!

This one is about 14 days old.

This one is about 2 months old.

So after that, got some pictures of the giant pandas in their habitat. Pretty cool. Was at first disappointed a little since they were all sleeping in the trees, as you can see below.

But later on, they called in a panda with some bamboo shoots that they’ve been picking around the park.

Then people got the chance to pet this huge panda that was just sitting on some chair and eating bamboo shoots. It would’ve cost 400 RMB. If there weren’t so many people, I might have done it, but sine there were, people basically just got two pats of the panda, and NEXT! So I definitely think the red panda was a lot more worth it. Well I got some pictures of other people taking pictures with these pandas.

I guess it’s possible that I could ask my girlfriend to photoshop these ugly people out and put handsome me in there instead. haha Just kidding.

So there wasn’t much else here; just a crappy “Swan Lake” with some birds. I was glad that we went to the panda place so early since just about when we were finished, it started raining. After hearing from Ryan that the pandas go crazy when it rains, we ran back to the giant pandas area to check them out. Sadly, they were just sleeping higher in the tree. So nothing much on that. Since it was raining so hard, we just hid in the entrance way where you could take pictures with the baby pandas. I know; you can take a picture with a baby panda too? Well yeah… It’s China. Anything goes. Haha I would’ve taken a picture with these too, but I think 1000 RMB was a little too pricey for me though. Well anyways, because we hid in this entrance way for so long, the people there let us in. Here we got to see the kid pandas. They were pretty cool, I just wish there was more lighting there so that I could get pictures. But I guess these pictures will do.

So later on, we left the panda place and went back to our hotel room to dry off and take a rest sine we’ve been getting maybe 5 hours of sleep for the past 2 nights. There, we decided to walk around the area a little; nothing much there. Then we went to what I found on the internet to be Renmin Square. Being the cheap Asians that we have become here in China, we refused to split 30 RMB ($4) to take a taxi there, and we just walked there aimlessly without knowing where we were going. At least we got to see some cool things like the Sichuan Technology Museum that was closed. Got to also see the Place where they held the FIFA 2007 Women’s World Cup in Chengdu by the Hilton.

Well when we got there, we got to see quite a bit of culture. If I haven’t seen so much of people like dancing in the plaza as seen below, this probably would’ve been really cool, but I’ve seen a lot of this in Beijing.

So the main attraction here in Renmin square was the tea houses here that were supposedly really famous. Some former Chengdu tour guide I met in Beijing highly recommended that I go try these teahouses. Being the backpackers we were, we found them only to be disappointed. It was basically just an outdoor place to drink tea where people either talked amongst their own table, played mah-jang, or played 13 (the card game) while betting.So after this, we just left, and went home. On the way home, we got to see a Chinese version of Red Asphalt on the streets. You remember, that video that you were forced to watch in Driver's Ed.

Since nothing really wrong has gone on this trip so far, something was bound to happen. Well what happened? Well right when we went into Carrefour (a French competitor to Wal-Mart in China), Lynn said “uh-oh”. When I first heard this, I was thinking, did he just crack his glass lenses while cleaning them on this shirt, or did I do something wrong. Actually, the most random thing happened, his frame broke and his pair of glasses, turned into 2 separate eyeglasses entitities. Luckily, we found an optometry place right next door to Carrefour earlier in the day when we were exploring. So I just walked the blind fellow to the place there.

It was here, that Lynn had a revolution where he converted to contacts! I got to say that it was not all that fun, since it took him about 1 hour at least for him to put on his bran new spanking contacts. It was actually quite funny. There were 2 of the workers there and I that tried to either force the contacts in his eye or help him. None of this worked, so a bunch of us gave up after awhile and let him figure it out. Actually, it was quite funny. You could totally see how that when the contact got close to his eye, his eye would just suddenly retract. So I thought that this was great. Haha.

So this was my cool day in Chengdu. The next day I flew to Huang Long / Jiu Zhai Gou, which is where I am currently writing this entry right now.

Beginning of China Trip

So what’s been happening lately? Well actually a lot. At the time I’m writing this, I’m about 2 days into my trip. On Thursday night, we had our farewell dinner. We had hot pot. Not too special, but the fact that everyone in my lab was together was quite great. I will miss Yu Jianjun (my mentor), Nan Kai (the PI), Dr. Liu (another PI), Kevin (someone I took as my mentor haha), and Sun Yuanhua. At the dinner though, it was quite funny. For some reason or another, Nan Kai (my PI) asked me about the iPhone. So we got into a whole discussion that I got to say I was fully happy to talk about, since I guess I am an Apple fanatic. I don’t quite think that has anything to do with me having invested about $7k in the company. Anyways, it was also quite funny that Nan Kai and Dr. Liu both commented that I’m just like a kid. I’ve heard this many times, but I got to say that I take this with pride, since I’ve always thought that I should always keep my kid-like spirit kindled within me. As they say in the famous old Toys ‘R ‘Us song, I don’t wanna grow up. I’m a Toys ‘R ‘Us kid… So anyways, Friday was my last day at work. I actually came into work to finish on my final presentation that I’ve been working on for a week then, write a paper, finish some way overdue PRIME things, and see if I could get the job script that I’ve been working on for about 4 weeks finally working so that it would be finished when I got back to the U.S. But obviously, I didn’t get the job script working, and I just went home later rushed to clean-up my apartment and leave rather abruptly.

So I was quite happy to leave Beijing. I got to say, Beijing was driving me crazy since I always felt like it was a really boring city. Also, the beginning of my trip would have symbolized the beginning of my venture to what I would like to call my “home land” Shanghai. I will finally be able to understand people there, since learning from this experience, shanghainese is extremely different from regular-old mandarin. So I got to say, the prospect of backpacking across China is both daunting and exciting. In the middle of this trip though, the whole experience has been all but positive.

So Friday night, I took an overnight train to Xi’an to see the Terracotta statues. I got a 4-person soft sleeper going there. The people in the top bunks in our cabin were taking there son to college in Xi’an. Well, when the attendant lady came by to get our tickets, she laughed outright when I was talking to Lynn in English. Apparently, a lot of people do this when I talk in English, and I’ve never understood why. Anyways, the train ride itself was quite pleasant. It was hard to go to sleep at first, but when I got in the rhythm of the train, I was knocked out cold.

When we got to Xi’an, what was the first thing that happened? Well, I got hustled. A bunch of people just started following me and started trying to hustle me to try to go with them somewhere or something like that. I got to say, it was quite annoying. Another thing was that immediately I just started seeing a bunch of people puking all over the place. So what did this mean to me? Don’t eat the food there. Haha Getting back the story, Lynn and I just started walking around Xi’an looking to where we could drop off our luggage. Took us about 30 min. to make a loop back to the train station to drop off our luggage. I got to say that was quite funny. Then it took us about 15 min. to find how to get to the Terracotta statues. Took a bus there for 45 minutes. And finally … we go to the Terracotta statues! Walked around into the pits where they were unearthed. There were 3 pits. I got to say that I was quite impressed, especially in real life. Apparently, when the Terracotta statues were made, about 200 B.C., the Chinese had chromium plating technology to prevent corrosion of their metals. They said that when they found the pits, the swords were in near perfect condition. Then the statues were pretty cool … obviously. Here’s some pictures of me and the statues having some special time together.


Here's some pictures of one of the three pits of statues . That's a lot of statues. Don't you think?
After we went into the pits to see the statues, we had a lunch buffet there. The food was okay, but nothing special. The most important part … the food was safe and no puking. From what I noticed, most of the people that went to this attraction all came in large tourist groups. I thought that was quite interesting.

After the statues, we went to the train station to pick-up our luggage. On the way back to the train station though, we visited Egypt in China. Got to see the sphinx and a Gaza pyramid. Don't believe me? Well look, I can prove it!

We then went to the airport. The airport was quite nice. A pretty small airport, but nice enough. An interesting thing though was that at the gate, they drove us all in a bus to the plane. There was not walkway to the place. The plane ride I got to say was comparable if not better than a standard domestic flight in the U.S. Also, this was my first time ever flying in an Airbus place – specifically the Airbus 310 – which is made by a French company.

So when we got to Chengdu, there was an immediate difference in the city. First, the people that usually hustle you were actually nice. If you just tell them that you don’t want there service, they’ll usually go away. Second, the people in Chengdu were a lot better looking. Before coming here, everyone in Beijing told me that the women here in Chengdu were beautiful. I got to say, that when I heard this I was skeptical. But now, I can see what they’re talking about. Apparently, the facial complexions and skin tone in Chengdu are a lot better. It was ridiculous! And the people here freaking had style! Style in clothes I mean. Finally, some people with style! Third, no one really honks here unless necessary, and there were a LOT LESS cars on the road. People for the most part obeyed a lot more of the traffic laws here. Well, when we got to our hotel, and the hotel room I feel is better than my apartment in Beijing, even though it’s only a 3 star hotel. The full-size table that they have here converts into a mah-jong (shanghainese → moo-jang) table, which I thought was quite cool.

The next day, we went to Le Shan. Took us a 42 RMB bus ride to Le Shan for about 2 hours + what we didn’t know was a 1 RMB insurance thing . Then took a 1 RMB bus ride in Le Shan to the Da Fu (“big luck”), or what we foreigners would like to call the Big Buddha. It took 70 RMB to get in there, but I got to say that it was expensive, and nothing all that great.

While walking in the area, we got to see a lot of scenery. Like after it was raining, there were a bunch of these caterpillars all over the ground.
Here's a pagoda that they had in the park.
Here’s some pictures of me and the Big Buddha.

Sad to say, I wasn’t literally able to climb the Big Buddha like I would have liked. Also, the humidity was killing me! The whole time I was sweating like crazy, and I was never thirsty. I had to force myself to drink some water. And I got to see a bunch of these crazy caterpillars on the ground. They were just falling out of the trees after it rained.

Came back to Chengdu after that and ate the hot pot. The hot pot here was crazy! It was so hot! I eat a lot of hot food, and I got to say, that this was unbearable, but good nonetheless. After that, came back to the hotel room and here I am. Tomorrow, I go to see the pandas. Whoopie!

Beijing Smog Experiment Hilarious

I just had to post this immediately when I read this article from the New York Times titled "Cars Stay Away But Beijing Smog Remains" on August 20, 2007. It states that "the city doubled the number of traffic police on patrol to 6,000 to make sure drivers behaved" for the past weekend. I got to say that this was hilarious, because I have not seen a single change in traffic over the past weekend. And to make things even funnier, I haven't seen a change in the funky polluted haze that blocks out the sun in Beijing. haha I love propaganda.

Guy's Night Out

Lately, a lot of us have been getting bored here in Beijing. So yesterday, Alex and I decided to be sort of adventurous. First we went out and explored the underground mall near us that we never knew that existed. It was pretty dang big. I think it took us at least a good 2 hours to explore the place. We got lost in there a few times too. Here's some interesting pictures of some things in the mall.
Here's a picture of a store called Cache. What's so special about this store? Well, because I have a girlfriend and have had to go shopping with her for prom dresses, this is a store that she has gotten a few dresses from. I think one cost about $180 and another $300. So I thought I had to get a picture of this place since everything was on sale, and the stuff cost like 30 RMB (~ $6).
Here's a crazy picture of a lamp inside the mall. It looks like some kind of bird's nest.
This is a picture of some kind of sculpture outside of the underground mall. Surprisingly, I've walked probably 30 yards away from this thing, and have never noticed it, including the sign behind it that says "Zhongguancun Plaza Shopping Mall".

Yeah, after we ate on one of the ground floors, Alex and I freaking found a huge food court that a huge variety of stuff. For the longest time, I've been looking for dim sum and what's called in shanghainese san ji mu da. I found it here! hahahaha So Alex and I made an oath to eat here as much as possible, for example, for every possible dinner where we don't eat out something special, we HAVE to come here to eat.

Anyways, later on, we went to Carrefour, basically a Super Wal-mart center (I think from what I understand) with a larger grocery area. For some reason, we stumbled upon face masks, and Alex mentioned how Elaine from last year wanted some with the brand name Magic. Out of pure boredom, I suggested that we try some to see what the whole fuss about them were. So, Alex and I got 1 for each of us, and tried it. Don't worry, we are just exploring our boredom and feminine side. haha

August 16, 2007

So I guess quite a bit of stuff has happened recently. Project wise, I'm beginning to slack-off I admit. After working my butt off for the first few weeks (about 12 hour days), you start getting burnt out. I feel that my project is a little screwed right now, since I don't have the computing power I need right now, and I'm having trouble submitting my job to the UCSD clusters right now. Right now I'm making a sort of pointless database I feel, that does not have what I want in it. But that's my project, and I prefer not really getting into it right now.

I went to watch Transformers with a co-worker Sun Yuanhua. It was 25 RMB per ticket which is maybe about $3.50. I thought that the movie was really good, but it was still quite irritating how the Chinese government censors the movies I pay for. For some reason they bleeped out a part where they mention a country that was supposedly in the movie the only possible country to perform a hack on the government. Been trying to search what that country is, but haven't been able to find it yet. So if you find it, post it in the comments for me! Anyways, before we saw the movie, I got some quick McDonald's. I know, I know. It's McDonald's (unhealthy), but in my defense I only had 30 min. to find somewhere to eat, and eat. Well why I was there, I was talking to Sun Yuanhua, and I asked her what she believed it. It was the funniest reply every. "I believe in science, and communism.... If everyone has money and is happy, communism must be good." I thought that was great. I love China! haha

After that, I went clubbing at Vics and Baby Angel Club. Vics I thought was really overrated. The male to female ratio was quite disappointing I thought. This is how I characterize the club. Too many men, females in pairs, or just couples. It was fun overall hanging out buzzed/drunk with Ocean (a native in China), Ryan and Lynn. I think that's all that happened. So peace out then.

August 15, 2007

So quite a bit has happened, but I forgot most of it already. haha. So I'll try to go through a run-down with what has happened lately.

Research wise, I basically got a lot done. I'm getting some data, that is something but still sort of useless since I don't having any of the docking data. Mainly just waiting around for my simulations to finish. Taking about 21 days for them to run. Trying to get one job for one of my simulations working on a UCSD cluster, but haven't been able to get my job script working. Well that's to be expected since I'm not a CS major and I'm having trouble contacting the people in UCSD about it. So yeah, that's about it for research (the short version at least).

Now something I really wanted to talk about was how recently the blogs were removed from the PRIME website. I've had a lot of time to reflect about this, and it's something I feel I would like to express, and I feel many other students feel also. Although I understand the reasons why they were taken down, I feel that this should have been foreseen - referring to the reason of safety and personal information in the blogs. Talking to past people about the program, apparently this sort of personal information in the blogs have surfaced before; not safety wise though from what I now, but there might be. Anyways, these blogs I feel were created solely for the PRIME program since I felt like I was indirectly asked to make one. So I made a website and a blog just for the program. Even though it was not in the requirements, I was under the impression that it was sort of expected from us in an off the record way. And now that the blogs have been taken down for reasons that I thought were obvious, I am quite disgruntled. I don't believe I was ever mad, but I do believe that before and still now I am irritated. So yes, I just wish such an obvious thing like PERSONAL information in PUBLIC blogs would've been considered earlier in the beginning of the program. So that is my schpeel about this topic.

So Ryan's gone from the program, a little sad about it. I thought it was quite sudden how he had to move out. Basically, the night before he moved out, he just told me he was moving out. It was quite sad how sudden it was. At least he's still in Beijing.

And now since the program is over, I guess it's time for some thinking about where I am. So I have learned a lot. I guess everyone does that. So I'll make it short. blah blah blah Bl- blah blah BLAH! haha Going into this program in the beginning, I would've like to go down under in Australia, just to go down under, or go to Japan since for the whole school year before I was in a Japanese lab, and at least I would've had some connections in Osaka. And in my first couple weeks in China I have to admit that I was quite envious. But now, I don't think I am since a lot of what I have learned has come from a different side. Instead of just being exposed to a new culture, I have been exposed to a, I don't know... ghetto lifestyle. My bathroom floor floods all the time. I am used to being splashed with some funky China puddle water stuff all the time. Stepping on spit. Seeing little kids take little cream or brown colored poops on the streets (man I wish I had pictures of these things. I just saw one today!). People laying on China streets. Almost getting hit by cars all the time and always getting honked at. Now looking back at what I've just written, this does make China look pretty bad. But I don't think that's necessarily the right way of thinking at it. I think this is just one way of seeing how much I've been blessed with, and something that I have always taken granted before in my life. So I think living in would at least I call a "ghetto" environment for my high American standards has taught me a lot. And this is why I'm now happy for being here in China

Back to what I've experienced. Saw the new Harry Potter movie in a real Chinese theater. It was okay; lots of technical glitches though with the movie. The theater was in this huge shopping building. I think it was about 5 floors. I finally found out where people our age spend their time other than internet cafes in China. They go to the freaking arcades! Never knew that. The shopping there was really expensive; about American price for stuff. Got some LEGAL dvd's there - 300 and City of Angels. Watched them, and I got to say I am a little irritated since they censor stuff of the dvd's. Mainly the nude/sex scenes, but I still got to say that I am annoyed since I never asked them to censor or cut my movies. I just feel like my movies have been violated in one way or another. So lesson learned, don't buy legal dvd's here in China. Who knew? haha I think it's interesting how rude people in China can be, even in the rich areas like this high class shopping mall. When we left the theater from the fifth floor to get out of the building, the elevators got packed. Well so when I got on the elevator, where I was one of the first people to get on, like usual the elevator became overweight and wouldn't budge. So people just stood there for awhile not wanting to get off. Out of courtesy, I just got off the elevator out of free will to help everyone out and waited for the next one, even though I was one of the first ones to get on the elevator. I mean I don't mind getting off; I just think it's I think odd how not even the rich people in China have much courtesy, like the last people onto an elevator to get off so that it would move.

Did some more shopping in the Wu Dao Kou street earlier too. Sort of like Silk Street, but more for locals. Got a pair of fake Aeropostale shorts for $7, and got some good gel pens there for about 10 cents each. If anyone needs stuff there, you can tell me if you really want to. Hey, it'll just be a fun excuse for me to go shopping. haha

Found a random mall underground in the Tech district by my place. I know, a random mall that I never knew existed. But in my defense, it was underground. I usually don't look underground for a whole mall. haha Lots of expensive stuff there. Apparently there's Playboy shoes. Wanted to get some, but they don't have them in my size. Dang it. I plan to go there and do some shopping. Wow I love shopping. I finally found a decent Hello Kitty store there. So going to buy a lot of stuff there. Not for me of course, but for friends back in the U.S. Plan to go back there tomorrow and buy some stuff when I watch Transformers with a co-worker there.

So what else has happened? Went to English Corner again (a place where Chinese people go to practice their English on Friday nights). I basically went there because I wanted something to do and I was pretty much bored out of my mind in Beijing. Just wanted to listen to people and laugh how people crowded around people with light skin (denoting that they're Caucasian). Weren't that many foreigners there as last time. Out of curiosity there though, I wanted to see how long it would take to build a crowd if I made it known that I was American. So started speaking, and then lost count. But I was told I was able to make the crowd in about 1-2 minutes supposedly. Planning to go back there again this Friday to try it out again.

I finally got my trip after my work at CNIC ends arranged. I expect it to cost a little over $1000. This is in U.S. money, not RMB; so that's quite a lot. First going to Xi'an for one quick day to see the terracotta statues (the statues of a chinese army). Then going to Chengdu, for some good old food and tea houses. Apparently there are a lot of "beautiful girls" there as I'm told by locals here. Eh, don't really care, got a girlfriend back in the U.S. Then going to Huang Long and Jiu Zhai Gou. Two nature areas that are supposed to be really beautiful and famous. A lot of Chinese film scenes are filmed there, such as the lake scene in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon where they fight is in Hang Kong. Then, I am going to go to Yangtze River cruise. And FINALLY I get back to my roots in Shanghai. Planning to do A LOT OF SHOPPING THERE! HAHAHAHAHA And I'll finally be able to understand people there in good old Shanghainese. Zei wei Beijing and nong hao Shanghai! hahahahahaha So excited! I will finally be able to UNDERSTAND PEOPLE! And people will at least have some fashion sense there. So obviously, really excited for my trip and getting out of this forsaken, boring city called Beijing. I wish the program was in Shanghai, but that would never happen since probably no one would be able to understand sanghai eiwu there.

So soon until the program is over. So soon until I'm in Shanghai. So I can't wait.

August 7, 2007

So what has been happening lately? When I was about to write this entry, I first thought to myself that not much has happened. But now, as I start thinking about what's been happening in the past week quite a bit has happened.

I guess we can start with any trips that I've made. For the most part, I've just been mozying it around the city in Beijing. I recently went to the US embassy in Beijing. Wow, it was amazing how safe I felt there. Even though I was in China, when I was at the embassy, I was in a completely different world. For instance, they had freaking toilets and marble sinks! I know that this might not sound much to anyone, especially freaking TOILETS, but for here in China, this was a big step. At the embassy, I was surprised to find a Starbucks. I was planning to get some Starbucks there, but they wouldn't let me in. I guess it's only for employees who work there. Inside the embassy at the waiting area for US citizens, I for the most part felt like I was in a doctor's office waiting room. It was basically this really small room where people just sat and filled forms then spoke to people behind glass. When I went there, I just wanted to check it out, but surprisingly I found something to do there where I figured out some details about some advice they had for me when I was living in China that somehow no one in PRIME new about. Let's see here. First, do NOT carry a passport with you in China unless you are travelling or going somewhere like the US embassy. Apparently a US passport is fetching about 8,000 RMB (~ $1,100). That I think is a large sum, especially in China. Second, we should've registered at the embassy that we were in the area so that they could notify us if something was happening in the area, or maybe if they needed to find us. I think it's interesting how people overlook these things. Something I never really thought about it while I was there though was how many newborns were there. I think I saw at least three families with newborns that were born in China. I honestly wonder how much trouble it is to register them. But, for one thing, it was funny how even the newborns were tagged as "Visitor". Every single person that was a US citizen visitor had one of those sticky name tags that you just place on your shirt with an ID number. And on these babies, that I hear are only about 1-3 weeks old, have one of those tags right on their back or on their butt. I would've gladly taken a picture, but sad to say, they wouldn't allow us to bring phones or cameras into the embassy. I actually heard that we weren't supposed to bring water from outside, but we still brought it. haha Anyways, onto security at the embassy. For one thing that I was wondering, I thought it was interesting how there was a marine that checked us in to the office. I would think that it would be an army personnel. And around the embassy, there weren't really any US soldiers; actually Chinese soldiers. I thought that was interesting since you would expect the US to be paranoid enough to only allow US soldiers patrol the embassy perimeter.

But it was pretty funny how the Chinese soldiers were at the US embassy and the district. First of all, the soldiers there were extremely different from the ones I saw at Tian'an men square. They were definitely more polished and formal (not surprising since it was the embassy area). We basically saw two different types of Chinese soldiers at the U.S. embassy. The first soldier that we spoke to had a big smile on his face when we were asking how to get through the area. The second group was actually just around the corner and they were in this small random post thing. There were three of them that just stared straight ahead at the streets and didn't flinch at all. When I first saw them, they looked like statues; to imagine them think about those British soldiers that supposedly don't move. Getting closer to them, I saw that they all had semi automatic guns that they were holding in their hands. Acting like myself when I saw them (odd) I was able to get some of them to have their eyes shift to look at me! WOOT WOOT! HAHAHA So that's the U.S. embassy part.

Onto other parts of the embassy district. So I was able to see different embassies there, obviously. I was able to see the Cuban embassy! HAHA Cuban soil. I was actually able to get a picture of their embassy.So this is a picture of the gate to their embassy. From this picture, you probably can't really see the embassy.

So here's a close-up picture of their sign, just to prove I was there. Anyways, while I was there, I really wanted to just walk into their embassy and say that I've been on Cuban soil. Then possibly Bush and his administration could subpoena me. Hey, since I got subpoenaed by the RIAA, I might as well get subpoenaed by our own government just to prove a point. But showing that I'm here, I didn't go.

Anyways, here's another picture of another embassy that I saw there.
Yeah, pretty cool embassy I thought. If anyone could tell me the name of the country for this embassy, that would be great.
Here's a close-up of the sign for this embassy.

I would've gotten more pictures of the embassies, but then the next one I tried getting a picture of, the Nicargua embassy, the Chinese soldier there apparently received a phone call when I was about to take a picture and told me to go away or something like that. So basically, I got scared of the Chinese commies like the American tourist I am and was too scared to take anymore pictures since I think that they called all the soldiers in the area about me. haha Well, back to the Nicaragua embassy, it was quite obvious that it was from a poor country since the embassy looked really crappy compared to the others.

While I was there, I was FINALLY able to eat some American food in the area. Walking along the road, I noticed some people nearby that I remembered were at the U.S. embassy with us, and I asked them where to eat. They were nice enough to walk us to some restaurant; I honestly forgot the name of the restaurant. So the mother I was talking to told me that she's been in China for a couple years while her husband had some sort of sabbatical in China for psychology. I thought that was quite interesting. Her boy I honestly thought had ADD. He was pretty funny though. He would try to tell me something, but then he would just totally stammer in mid-speech and forget what he was saying. Back to the food, I got some Cajun pasta that was good. I was really tempted to get some pie there, since they had at least 10 different types of American pie there (apple, cherry, cream, cheesecake...). It's surprising how much I've taken granted for in the U.S. Well in the end, I decided not to get any, and I changed my mind to get some brownie. Shoot, now that I think about it, I should've taken a picture of it before I ate it. Oh well, too late now; but all I got to say about it is that it was GOOD!

So that's it for my embassy trip.