Fragrant Hills (cause I promised)

you have to admit thats really cool

The weekend before I left for my trip to Guizhou and Sichuan, I decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and spend most of the weekend outside.

Friday after school, a few friends and I decided to go to Tiananmen Square to see the flag lowered. The guards have a whole ceremony that they go through every day at sundown and sunup, and since the sunrise ceremony is really early, we decided to go to the sundown ceremony. We got to Tiananmen a little early, so we ended up waiting for a long time. The whole ceremony takes a really long time to get started, so we waited even longer. The guards spent a long time preparing to take the flag down so by the time they actually lowered the flag, we were ready to go. While we were waiting, I talked to a few Chinese people who were also waiting. They were really surprised I actually spoke Chinese, like many Chinese people. I ended up having a nice conversation with them about Beijing. It was good to know my Chinese level is good enough to carry on a conversation. Very reassuring.

The next day, I got up early and went with a friend to the Fragrant Hills, a park in the hills (surprise) about an hour's bus ride outside of Beijing. We had heard that the flowers were supposed to be the best on that weekend, so we went early to avoid most of the crowds. Well, it almost worked, but not so much. We arrived at 8:30 and the park was already crowded by American standards. Unfortunately, that means it was practically empty by Chinese standards. By the time we left at 12, the park was as packed as Cedar Point on a busy day during the summer. Way too many people.

We spent most of our time just wandering around taking pictures of flowers and people. The flowers were just blooming. The park was covered with colorful flowers and blooming trees, a great recipe for many many pictures. We brought a picnic for lunch and were eating beside a man made lake when we noticed a two Chinese people taking pictures near us. One of the guys was coming closer and closer to us, and we just waved him over and posed. That was fine until he came back with 10 of his friends. Without hesitation, they threw their arms around us and took pictures. We did really know what to do other than smile and wait until they left. When they finally left, we couldn't help but burst out laughing. Only in China.

So, thats it for my last weekend in Beijing before my trip. enjoy the pictures!