Sarah Ajise & Marissa Yee

Hi blog!

Today was a free day in Beijing. Many of us decided to head to the Temple of Heaven in the morning, which was a short 15-minute walk from our hotel. The Temple of Heaven is a three-tier circular temple. It was a lot larger than it seemed in pictures! We also walked around in the surrounding park, where a lot of locals were practicing Tai Chi and playing mahjong.

Corridor at the Temple of Heaven

Students in front of the Temple of Heaven

We met our Beijing Normal students at the Xidan Station later in the morning. Although the sky was gloomy when we entered the subway, it was pouring rain when we got out 20 minutes later. The Hot Pot research team visited many hot pot restaurants in various Xidan area malls. There was even an entire floor dedicated to hot pot restaurants in one of the malls. Our Beijing students were so helpful in finding new restaurants for us to visit and conduct research. For lunch, Hot Pot team, Pop & Sicle team, and Makeup Moguls ate at Haidilao, a trendy hot pot chain in China. Known for their service, the servers continued to bring us warm towels, pour us sweet tea, and switch our plates. The restaurant even had food service robots and toothbrushes in the restrooms. Definitely a favorite meal for many!

On the Beijing subway

The Brew Crew and Team Tampon met up at a different hot pot restaurant not far from the other teams. Since only one person could speak Chinese, ordering lunch was a bit challenging. With the help of Google Translate and Jerry’s beginner Chinese skills, we managed to eat some really delicious food. We didn’t eat a whole lot since there was a language barrier, and none of us wanted to struggle to communicate with the waitress. As a result, we found our way to KFC and had surprisingly good food; some would say it was even better than American KFC!

Beijing book store

After lunch, Hot Pot team, Pop & Sicle team, and Makeup Moguls continued to research in the Xidan area. In the afternoon we headed to Silk Street, which is known to sell fake goods. Emma was especially good at bargaining and purchased matching Peppa the Pig T-shirts for herself and her sister. Brew Crew and Team Tampon went back to the hotel to rest after their lunch. Later, they met up with the rest of the class for dinner in Sanlitun, an area of Beijing known for its walkability and nightlife. Some of us ate Xiaolongbao (soup dumplings) and the rest of the group ate at Blue Frog. It was definitely a fun last night in Beijing!

Soup Dumplings – called xiao long bao in Chinese

Catch us on tomorrow’s blog!