I decided to create a little of my own excitement today.  One of the Beijing sites we haven’t visited yet is the “Marco Polo Bridge” or the Luguo Bridge.  It was built in the 1100’s, and rebuilt in the 1600’s by various emperors.  It was one of the main entrances to Beijing.  It’s also the place where the Japanese entered Beijing when they began their war on China in 1937.  For the Chinese, it’s remembered more for the Japanese incursion than for anything to do with Marco Polo and the Silk Road.  There is a museum on site about the Japanese Occupation and many statues portraying the Chinese struggle during that time and before.

The bridge is way on the opposite side of Beijing from where we live.  I took the train over, and it’s quite a ride.  It took me one and a half hours, from the time I walked out my door, until I arrived at the bridge.  I rode the Line 10 subway counterclock-wise for 21 stops, before changing over to the new Line 14 train.  Then it was another 4 stops.  After coming up to ground-level, I took a car for a 5-minute ride to the bridge.

It’s best known for the many lion heads on the posts (over 400) all the way across the bridge.  Each lion has a different pose or feature.  Some of the posts have more than one lion.   I enjoyed a short visit walking around, checking out the bridge and the “lions”.  After 30 minutes, I was ready to go, and began looking for ride.  Oops!  It took me forever (20 minutes) to find a taxi.  I started to have him take me back to the train, but then changed the destination to BHSFIC.  He dropped me off just in time to have lunch with everyone, and catch up on what’s happening at the school.

After lunch, I met Fisher, the Chinese staff member who serves as a liason for all the foreign teachers to the banks and government entities.  He took me over to the nearby Bank of Beijing, where I cleared out my bank account, and transferred it to our bank in the US.  I had to have my passport, a letter from the school describing my job and my monthly salary, a tax statement (I got this a few weeks back), all the necessary account #’s for our US bank, and my Chinese bank ATM card.  It took one and a half hours to complete the process. 

This will probably be my one and only time to try this.  There was a commission charge of $20 at the bank here in Beijing, and there was another $30 of charges on the US end of things.  I think it’s cheaper to pull the money out through the ATM when we’re back in Texas.