[Beijing Trip 2016] Day 5 - Yonghegong

WOW. Two months have passed since my Beijing trip and I am finally writing the blog post for my last day. I honestly cannot say what made me procrastinate this much, but what can I say? Life happened, I was busy, blah blah blah. So sadly, my fifth day is not as fresh in my mind as it would have been if I weren't this lazy, but oh well. At least I'm still taking a moment out of my hectic life to document my last day.

 

So if I remember correctly, I was not feeling up for food on my last day. I had eaten way too much over the past few days and was tired - as my stamina is quite pathetic, four days of tourist activities had me pretty much wiped out. While our original plan was to wake up nice and early and go to some nice place with a view and have some Beijing style breakfast, Fangyin and I (or was it just me?) ended up sleeping in and skipping most of what should have been our morning activities. Instead, around noon we visited some restaurant across the street for some zhou (粥/congee) as I wanted to eat something easy to digest.

皮蛋瘦肉粥

炒合菜 stir fried veggies and that wrap I fell in love with. Apparently this is a food you eat when it becomes spring!

小笼包 not as good as Din Tai Fung but still spot on!

鱼片粥 fish congee which was super good and refreshing, for a hot dish, if you know what I mean!

I was also feeling quite sickly as the cold I caught had become worse overnight, so Fangyin helped me buy some cold medicine, which I am sad to say did not quite work for me even though I took a few even after I arrived back in Korea.

Anyway, on our way to our final destination, we walked by ChengXianJie (成贤街) which holds the last imperial college in some older dynasties, called Guozijian (国子监). This apparently is not a big tourist attraction, which was perfect since I hate crowded places anyway. Plus, the street is quite charming and seems to hold a lot of history in itself, not just because of the old school. Fangyin says she used to walk this street a lot when she was in high school.

Our last stop of the whole trip was the huge Tibetan temple called Yonghegong (雍和宫) which seems to combine a lot of languages and cultures in the inscriptions and things. The scale was quite grand, and we talked through temple after temple, seeing statue after statue of Buddha. We also chatted briefly with a Tibetan monk (and by we, I mean Fangyin did most of the talking and I tried to understand bits and pieces of the conversation). 

All in all it was quite a relaxing last day. I didn't try to learn much, just soaked in the atmosphere. And that was pretty much it! Stopped back home again and then took a taxi to the airport, when Fangyin and I had said our tearful goodbyes. It's always sad saying goodbye to this dear, dear friend of mine, whom I love so much. But I was also eager to go back home since I was feeling a bit sick. My last meal was ketchup flavored Pringles and hot chocolate at the airport, which was so ghastly I threw it away after a sip. I also bought some meaningless snacks at the duty free shop for my coworkers, but frankly they weren't all that and had nothing to do with my trip in general, haha. But stupid souvenirs like that are mandatory for the office people.

Last view of Beijing, taken with my phone

I landed in Seoul pretty late, missed the last airport bus back home, and spent a good hour walking around until I reached the subway back home. Still annoying, now that I think about it.

But anyway, yeah. I've finally finished documenting my Beijing trip! It was definitely unforgettable and I look forward to visiting again next time. In the last two months I've also had second thoughts about going abroad for my bachelors (I can never make up my mind) but that doesn't mean I won't be going again!