Christmas in Beijing

I went to Beijing, China over Christmas break. They have a lot of gaudy Christmas trees in public places, and every store has a loop of about 10 well known Christmas songs playing. Christmas songs like 'Last Christmas,' 'Frosty the Snowman,' and 'White Christmas.' I've never been very fond of those songs, but I really grew to loathe them in China. Probably because I hadn't anticipated being bombarded with trite American sentiment in China, and it was worse than the malls in Spokane.

The Hostel where I stayed put on a Christmas Eve party for all its guests. They did manage to work in one traditional-ish Chinese dance; however, the majority of the time was given over to karaoke renditions of the same songs I mentioned before. As the only Americans who dared to show up to the event, my friends and I were paraded to the front and continually asked to get up and do something - anything at all. Of course, nobody else in the audience was under pressure to leave their seats.

Thankfully, I spent most of my time in China at historical places or trying to get to historical places... So, the trip was far from a disappointment. I did have my fill of authentic Chinese food - which in contrast to Korean food is VERY greasy but not as fishy.

Well, I think that's all I have to say about that.