Saturday 1st
March
This week saw near record highs on the pollution index which
forced the closure of school on Wednesday. It was recommended that we stay
indoors with our air purifiers going. We don’t have an air purifier yet so by
the afternoon our chests felt quite tight. Some teachers even complained of
headaches and dizziness! The wind picked up on Wednesday night so by Thursday
morning the skies were clear and could breathe easier. We actually saw views
out of our apartment window that we hadn’t been able to see up until now!
The weather has warmed up significantly over the past week.
This morning when I woke up, it was -1 degrees but we had a high of 8 degrees
this afternoon, and tonight it will get down to -3. I think it got up to 12
degrees one day this week!
We undertook our first sightseeing trip today. We caught the
subway to Sanlitun which is a diplomatic area and has a large and very
expensive shopping mall with all the designer brands, and a street of bars and
nightclubs. It also has the Yashow Clothing Market which is 5 stories of
clothes, shoes, appliances, etc, but all very cheap if you are good at
bargaining. Thy bought some sneakers and a soccer ball and I bought a gorgeous
mug with pandas on it. We will certainly go back any time we need clothes
because it was easy to get to and had a huge variety of clothes for cheap
prices.
After that we took the subway to Tiananmen Square, finally
arriving after rigid security checks. It’s a beautiful square surrounded by
impressive architecture like the National Museum and the Great Hall of the
People where the National People’s Congress convenes.
No comments:
Post a Comment