Celebrating Chinese New Year: A Pig year in review (Part 2 of 2)

The second half of 2007 was every bit as exciting as the first. I've really started to find my way in Beijing, and have made several friends, and been a regular participant in a trivia night that's hosted by a local bar/restaurant on Tuesday nights.

July's excitement came in the form of exploring new areas of the Great Wall. Aside from the typical section of the wall that are open to the public, there are areas of the wall that have not been altogether renovated, and as a result, are not on the usual tourist route. A group of friends decided to rent a van/bus, to go visit one of those sections.





August saw the arrival of the annual Qingdao Beer Festival...a gathering that I had long been waiting to visit, and only found an opportunity this year. With the arrival of the Olympics this year, I wonder whether the '08 beer fest is going to happen! In any event, we hung out at the Qindao Beer tent and the Erdinger tent, where German Oktoberfest music, food, and beer were being served.






In September, Jeff and I took a quick weekend trip to Xian, to visit the Terracotta Warriors, as well as taste some of the famous foods of the area. A local taxi driver made several recommendations which were absolutely wonderful. She made us aware of a local restaurant within walking distance of our hotel, serving a wonderful rice noodle dish.








In addition, she recommended an additional museum for our last day, another Terracotta Warrior tomb, but from a later time period than the most famous one. This tomb, called Han Yang Tomb, was discovered in 2001 and subsequently developed into a world-class museum. The entire tomb was enclosed in glass, in order to better preserve the contents. This was definitely an exhibit worth visiting! Here are some pictures from a website...ours didn't come out this well...





October holiday is a week-long holiday in China. Typically, all of China takes to the road to visit the more famous of tourist destinations around the country. As a result, those who can, travel abroad. Jeff and I took the opportunity to visit Osaka, Kyoto, and Tokyo.
























November brought along both of our birthdays, as well as Thanksgiving. We had a joint celebration for Turkey Day and my birthday. For Jeff's birthday, we took a quick trip to the Marco Polo Bridge, which is located in the outskirts of Beijing.

Christmas 2007 was spent in Beijing this year. My sister came out to visit, though she ended up having a pretty unfortunate vist. Due to a small snafu, she arrived late on Xmas Eve, having missed all dinners. On the 3rd day of her visit, she fell sick with the flu. She did try to get out of the house to do some sightseeing, but what with the freezing weather, and the miserable cold, she could only manage a few hours outside. By the time she started recovering, she started wandering out to the local markets. On the afternoon of New Year's Eve, she managed to get food poisoning...thus killing all thought of showing her Beijing's nightlife. Upon her return home, her plane was racing the storms back to SFO, and landed just in time before the airport closed the runways due to hurricane-force winds. They didn't, however, manage to get the luggage out before the winds picked up. She spent the first 3 hours back in the US waiting for the wind to let up enough to get the plane's cargo hatch open... =( And such is how 2008 got off to a start!!