Last Day in China

 The first thing we did in the morning was find the British embassy because that’s where Louisa and Catriona’s great grandparents got married in the 20s when they were missionaries in Tianjin. We couldn’t take any pictures for their family, so they’ll just have to trust us that we went. From there we rented bikes to find the nearest subway stop for the line we needed.    We ended up accidentally finding the underpants building (aka the CCTV headquarters)!  

  On the way to the 798 Art District, we stopped for bubble tea – our last of the trip. I definitely got obsessed with Coco on this trip. My order is low sugar mango or passion fruit tea just in case you wanted to know.  

  Right outside the art district, I found this automatic library machine! So cool!

  We then made it to the 798 art district. By this time, Catriona realized she left her phone at Coco, so she went back. Louisa and I looked around some of the shops. There are some really cool shops there. I picked up a lot of cool things on my trip, including a lot of things on the last day. 

We also found this big room that was part of the factory (the art district is in this old factory complex). The ceilings say “Long Live Chairman Mao.”  

  After walking around some galleries and shops, we found this amazing ice cream place that had matcha ice cream. We stopped and enjoyed their air conditioning and wifi after a lot of sweaty cycling and walking around. 

  From the art district, we headed to Nan Luo Gu Xiang, which is a popular pedestrian only shopping street. I hadn’t really heard of it before, but I’m so glad we went in the end. I also ended up buying too many things there (and taking virtually no pictures).   

  On the way back to the hostel, we got bikes and cycled the length of the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. We also got to cycle on the main road along there. I took a video because it was so surreal, especially considering how big the bike lane was.    That night, we went back to the place where we had dinner on the first night. It seemed like the right thing to do. 

  We then had to run around and do a bunch of errands near Qianmen. We went to Miniso for the last time to get cheap battery packs and stuff. We also stocked up on cool Chinese candy and snacks for our travel day. 

  That night, we packed everything up and then had a drink in the bar on the ground floor of the hostel.    The next morning we had to wake up at some ungodly hour to go to the airport. I think we got the subway at around 5 or 5:30. I think the subway stop at Qianmen looks the most communist out of the subway stops I’ve been to in Beijing. It kind of reminds me of the ones in North Korea. 

  And just like that, our time in China was over. We were on our 8-hour flight to Paris. 

  We landed in Paris and it was a beautiful day. Louisa and Catriona went into Paris for the afternoon. Since I just went to Paris a few months before and I had just spent so much money, I stayed in the airport. Luckily CDG airport has unlimited wifi and plugs everywhere. I had a really nice time just resting and having some quiet/alone time. 

  It was a really pretty sunset and on our takeoff we could see the Eiffel Tower all lit up!

  It was nice to be heading back to a place where I had my own room and bed and all the conveniences I am used to (mostly functional wifi that doesn’t require a VPN). I obviously am used to traveling in China, since I lived there for a year. It was different knowing I was only there for a month this time. I didn’t feel like I needed to fully adapt this time. I knew that before long, I would be back to potable tap water and breathable air. I think things bothered me more than they did last year. I had a lot less patience for people taking pictures of me and saying weird things to me (usually something along the lines of ‘Foreigner!’ or ‘Wow! You’re so white!’). While I was living in China, the longer the year went on the more weird/uncomfortable/creepy experiences I had and the less patience I had for that kind of thing. This trip, I felt like I started with practically zero patience.   I really missed the food. You can see that particularly in my Xi’an post from this trip. I went out of my way to get all the foods I love. I really missed huge, cheap plates of food (sometimes with a surprise chicken foot).   

  I really liked the chance to further explore the art and shopping scenes in China. I’m really interested in the various subcultures going on in China as well as mainstream culture. I think the thing we missed out on was experiencing China’s hip hop scene in Chengdu, but it’s kind of illegal, so it’s not surprising we had a hard time accessing it. I did get to go to a music festival, which is cool!   Since Americans automatically get a 10-year tourist visa for China, I hope to keep going back to China for the next 9 and a half years, although I don’t have any plans (or money) to go back just now. I doubt this will be my last trip to China!