Beijing 北京

Our next, and by far my favorite stop was Beijing. With Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, the Great Wall, the 2008 Olympic Games stadiums, and numerous markets and Hutong communities, Beijing shows you ancient history to present day. The architecture from all eras is amazing to see.

We visited the Summer Palace first, which took an entire day to walk through. The weather was quite cold to what we expected of China, but it was a nice change. It included a huge man-made lake, hand-dug as a birthday gift to the queen. That night, it was the site of the 2008 Olympics. Unfortunately, the Bird’s Nest stadium was no longer lit to save energy, but the Water Cube was in full swing. Both were very cool to see up close! The next day was dedicated to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. As impressive as they are, we were there in peak season, which meant we had to battle the crowds to catch a glimpse of anything or to get a good shot. We decided to ditch the crowds and go to the Temple of Heaven, where seniors practiced karaoke and calligraphy in the surrounding gardens.

The next day was my most anticipated destination, the Great Wall. We visited the Jinshanling section, and walked to Simatai, we were told by many people that the more tourist (trap) friendly section called Badaling, was really ‘Bad’, full tilt with souvenir shops/McDonald’s . It was a pretty challenging little hike, considering the condition parts of the Wall were in. Regardless, it was a beautiful day, and was certainly all we had expected and more. You can see all the marvelous photos from Beijing HERE. Next stop, ]Xian/Shanghai.