Sunday September 26th: Heaven in Beijing

-MOST AMAZING DAY EVER!

-Woke up and went to the gym. Oh yeahhh. So proud of myself. Honestly I wouldn't have gone if Katie wasn't going.

-We got grabbed some lunch, showered, then just did some homework.

- At 4:15pm we left to go and meet one of my Dad's old business colleagues for dinner. Katie and I stopped by WuMei to buy him a gift. In China it is custom to bring some form of gift when meeting others for dinner. I wasn't sure what to get so I walked over to the fruit section and spoke some minimal chinese to the lady working there, "你好， 我去看看我爸爸公司的朋友， 我得给他什么？" (Hello, I'm going to see my Dad's company's friend, what should I give him?) She proceeded to grab a giant pink basket with sparkly tinsel around the handle, and filled it with every single fruit imaginable. Don't even know what some of them were. I kept thinking she was done, but then more and more fruit kept going in, kiwis, peaches, dragonfruits, melons, grapes, apples, etc. So the basket weighed 15-20lbs. Katie and I had to walk with it between us, each holding the basket. It looked quite funny. Oh, and additionally she gave us these two baskets of the grossest looking nut/dried fruits and fruit flavoured something. I just didn't ask questions. She seemed to understand exactly what I was asking for.

-We took to the subway over to the East 3rd ring, which is the business center of Beijing. It was definitely different from the BeiDa area. Tons of modern buildings, including the amazing CCTV tower.  Unfortunately I stupidly forgot my camera so didn't get any pictures. Katie and I waited in Starbucks while, let's say his name is Wu, Wu finished work. Since Wednesday was a holiday here Sunday was a working day. So holidays don't really exist at all, the days of the week are just shuffled around! Harsh.

CCTV Tower:

-Wu came downstairs to meet us. I hope he was impressed by our basket! We went upstairs to see his office, it wasn't too big but had a great view.

-Then we walked to the tallest building in Beijing, China World Trade Center Tower 3, and went to the top floor where they had the most amazing view. This bar was incredible. A 360 degree view of Beijing at night, incredible decor, a live band, waiters and waitresses that spoke English! We each had a glass of wine and talked to Wu. It was very interesting talking to him about the changes he's seen in Beijing within such a short time. He walked us around the bar pointing out the different parts of Beijing, the main roads, the rings, the center of Beijing etc. It was so nice to here about the city from someone who lives here. We were listening to the singer's version of Telephone- it was really good! Then Wu just says "Oh I know the singer, I'll go talk to her." Sure enough they're old friends and she comes over and sits with us for a bit. Just casually you know. She gives us her card and tells us to drop her an email so we can meet up with some of her friends in Beijing.

China World Trade Center Tower 3, tallest building in Beijing:

 Atmosphere Bar, top floor of the building:

-So we then decide on going to a Western restaurant for dinner. We're waiting for the elevator, three chinese women, an oldish looking man, and this huge man walk out. I though this large man was really odd, first of all he was huge and tall, he was wearing all black, and he walked all soldier like. Anyway we get in the lift and Wu just says "oh, that was Bill Gates." Of course Katie and I are like "WHAT!??? WE JUST PASSED BILL GATES! WE WENT TO THE SAME BAR AS BILL GATES!" Of course we don't actually scream this and tried to contain our excitement. Wu's comment "He's quite short." Turns out he's here as part of his mission for the world's richest people to donate 99% of their earnings. Casual business.

Oh right, Bill Gates:

-So after that exciting adventure Wu drives us to a close by restaurant named NineteenFortyNine, named after the year Mao came to power. It was so funky and cute. You walked through this art gallery to get to this area with four different restaurants; Japanese, Chinese (specializing in Roast Duck), Noodles, and Italian. It's named 'the hidden city,' since it's nestled among the business buildings of Beijing.

1949:

-Dinner was incredible of course. Bread with butter, pita bread and curry chicken, excellent wine, creme brulee for dessert. Wu was just such an interesting and intelligent person. He knew about everything and had great stories that he just pulled out left and right. It was honestly just such an amazing night. I couldn't believe how kind he was to take out his ex-co-workers daughter and friend! That would so rarely happen in the U.S. And not only did he take us out, he took us to this amazing places! I fell in love with Beijing so much more just from seeing a glimpse of this lifestyle.

-After dinner we insisted that Wu drop us off at the subway station. He lived so close by and was going to drive to the complete opposite side of the city to drop us off! We finally managed to persuade him. I really couldn't thank him enough for the night, I would literally buy him a million fruit baskets. The whole way back on the train Katie and I were grinning and laughing like crazy people. We couldn't believe our night. We both had been very nervous about it, I was expecting the worse- an awkward dinner with some strange Chinese dishes- instead I can't even imagine a more amazing night! We hadn't studied for our quizzes tomorrow, but for once I didn't care at all!