Mountain Climbing & Olympic Park

This weekend I signed up to participate on an overnight excursion to a place called "Phoenix Mountain", which is in the outskirts of Beijing. We got up around 6 so that we could attempt to beat the heat. I was anticipating a light climb to the top of a larger hill. Hahah, no. I made it halfway up, died, and went back down. It was fun while it lasted. Plus, while everyone else was sweating out their kidneys, I took a shower in a waterfall. I think I win this round. We got back to Beijing around 2, and I left for the Olympic Park with my tutor group at 4. I've been running on 5 hours of sleep for a long time now, and strenuous physical activity only makes things worse. 

As usual, I'll explain through photos. 

Before we went to our place to stay for the night (before climbing a mountain the next morning), we stopped at a beautiful temple. Some of the buildings, as you will see, are incredibly old. 

The lighter Koi fish was HUGE!! It was the size of a medium sized cat. Insane. 

Ribbons tied onto the temple buildings. 

These two buildings (above and this one) were both built around the 15th century, and are still in their original form. The murals inside (where it is forbidden to take photos) were made from colored (and uncolored) mud. It was insanely beautiful and surreal. 

Friend picture at the top of some stairs in the temple. 

A large building at the back of the temple. 

This was carved out of granite sometime around 905...

A cool doorway.

Me being awesome on a bridge in the temple after a lecture on feng shui. 

Our bed in the hostel/accommodations. It is a really popular type of bed in the country side. You basically squeeze as many people as possible on it and call it a night. 

The mountains. 

The Stairway to Heaven. We were supposed to climb up this. Hahaha. NO. 

The braver souls climbing the stairs. 

A temple on the top of the mountain.

Beijing from the mountain. 

To go down, I had to climb through this cave. 

My friend and a teacher climbing down the stairs. 

I made friends with a cat and gave the poor thing some food. It loved me. 

My University on a nice day. It actually looks really pretty. 

The library. 

Near the Olympic Park, we saw this magnificent building going up. After some investigation, we found out it will be a giant observation tower (think Space Needle).

The Bird's Nest!!

China: Awesome traditional pagoda, giant construction project in the back. 

A cool art project (?) in a mall area near the Olympic Park. 

The Bird's Nest!

Water Cube!

A friend/classmate and I at the Water Cube.

We bought a kite and flew it in the Olympic Park. So cool!

Me at the Bird's Nest! Normally, we would have been able to get a photo of the Bird's Nest in whole from a closer point, but there was a giant screen up blocking the view. I guess it wasn't really that bad though since it was showing the Olympics live from London. 

The street near my neighborhood. On nice evenings like this one, the restaurants expand into the street and parking lot so that everyone can enjoy the nice weather. 

My entire body looked like this after the mountain expedition. Chinese mosquitoes are not to be taken lightly. When I woke up, I thought it was a rash, it's actually just countless bites that all merged together to create something that looks like one. I hate mosquitoes....