北京 (Beijing)

Ah, life in the big city.  Beijing has always been an exciting place to be.  Most importantly, the apartment complexes are required by law to have heating, allowing me to dress normally and to shower in my grandparents' own house.  This is in contrast to the homes Zhenze, which don't have heating, forcing me to wear five layers even while I'm indoors and to shower at the bathhouses.

My time in Beijing was perfectly planned out for me, with activities with a different member of the family each day.  There was my shopping day with Mao Gu Gu, an aunt who I swear has the sharpest eye and is the best bargainer in the entire world.  She found me a new leather wallet for 20RMB ($3), two pairs of new dress shoes for 316RMB ($48), and countless other deals.  There was my cultural day with Ying Xi Shu Shu, an uncle who is a graphics and layout designer who shares my appreciation for the arts.  We toured several exhibits, explored some of the old streets of Beijing, and ate at the most famous Peking Roast Duck restaurant in the world, Quan Ju De.

I spent the most time with Chen Gu Gu, whose only goal in life, I think, is to make me fat.  She purchased over 5kg (11lbs.) worth of Asian snacks for me to eat over the course of six days.  Needless to say, I couldn't finish it off, so I brought all of the leftovers back with me to the States.  She took me out to a different famous Beijing eatery every day, making sure I tried as many of the city's countless delicacies as time (and stomach) allowed before I left.  My favorite meal was one at a restaurant where everyone gets personal hot pots and shuan yang rou (flying lamb slices).  Mmm, ramb is dericious!

As with the South, I didn't do much touristy stuff while I was in the North, either.  I've been to the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, and all of the other notable sites in Beijing numerous times.  But there were two new tourist destinations that I had to visit: the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube, sites of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.  I decided to walk over to the Olympic Village one night, a short 15 minute stroll from my Ye Ye's apartment.  Trust me, I'm still upset that the Beijing Olympics took place during the first two weeks of medical school.  I COULD HAVE BEEN SO CLOSE!

Having not grown up there, the sentiments I have toward Beijing are not as strong as those that I have toward Zhenze.  My family in Beijing is also more proper and less rambunctious than my family in Zhenze.  But I still love seeing them all, especially my Ye Ye.  He was hospitalized for pneumonitis the entire time I was there, so I made sure to visit him every day.  It's a special hospital, too: the first hospital that practiced Western medicine in Beijing, the hospital where my Ye Ye was Chair of the Orthopedics Department for many years, and the hospital where my two older cousins and I were born.

The interesting thing about my Ye Ye is that even though his memory is failing due to Alzheimer's, there are two things that he hasn't forgotten: his faith and his career.  In fact, he continues to talk about his trust in God every single day, and people in the hospital still come to him to ask him about treatment algorithms for various musculoskeletal injuries.  I'm not gonna lie, it's kind of daunting to follow in his medical footsteps, but at least I'm lucky enough to have the world's greatest role model in my own family tree.