We just spent four days in Beijing and it was amazing! Anokhi and I left Saturday morning and had a busy but wonderful time! Anokhi has a friend who teaches in Beijing so she gave us a lot of good tips and hooked us up with her driver friend who took us around to a lot of spots! It was great! I don't know how I will survive without a driver from here on out!
Beijing was freeeeezing. I know I thought Chongqing was cold but man alive! It's that kinda cold where no matter what you are wearing it just goes right through and chills your bones. Brrr. It was an excellent week for the pollution though! Literally, my China Pollution app had it at excellent the whole time we were there.I have friends who have visited and said they couldn't see across the street it was so bad so we were incredibly lucky! The sun was also shining and there were blue skies! It's kinda sad that I have to write this as a highlight but I honestly don't remember the last time I saw the sky or sun...weird to think about but that's what living in pollution is like. I forgot how nice the sun is and it was great to get some Vit D! Also, since it was off season for tourists, everything was empty! A little different than our Xi'an trip! Seriously, we were so lucky!
Since we still had most of Saturday we headed right to Tiananmen Square and The Forbidden City. Our hotel was right down the street so we were in a great location all week to see the sites.
Tiananmen Square was really interesting but a little eery to be at. There were cameras everywhere and so much security. You have thought it just happened yesterday with the amount of security there was! We had to get our bags checked and go through metal detectors before entering and then there were police officers constantly walking around. Made me feel on edge...
Those police men are behind bullet proof glass and this area was roped off. There were fire extinguishers all around but nothing was happening...
The Forbidden City!
Favorite pic for sure!
Inside the city! It really was huge with so much to see and very pretty
The more animals on buildings the more spiritually important they are, the Forbidden City is the most important building in all of China so it has the most animals on the roof!
The building had some great names! I really like the Hall of Mental Cultivation. Also, (Not Pictured) The Hall of Literary Glory.
The BEST DAY EVER.
We visited the Great Wall at Mutianyu. This section is about 2 hours from Beijing and less touristy than other areas. We were seriously so excited for this day! I feel like I have been dreaming about it for awhile and it was finally here!
We got to ride a ski lift up the wall! When we came over a hill and saw the whole Wall, I started crying. It was just so magical and beautiful and amazing. The only other time I cried in awe was at the Loy Kratong lantern festival in Chiang Mai. I think there are just some moments that are so incredibly awesome and they make me feel like I am doing the right thing in my life and this was one of them. I started blubbering to Anokhi on the ski lift about how so many people dream of going to see the Great Wall and are never able to and we get to see it, we are so lucky, etc. We were able to hike it for two hours before we got to toboggan down. I probably could have stayed all day!
Toboggan down!
The Great Wall.
So beautiful.
I MADE IT!
Dancing on the Great Wall!
Amazing.
The toboggan down!
wooohoooo!
On the way home our driver, Charlie, dropped us off at Hou Hai Park! The lake was all frozen over so they had ice skating, ice sleighing and ice bicycling on it! That's right, ice bicycling! Basically, the bicycle has a skate on the bottom and you just pedal all over the ice.
We decided to ice sleigh and it was so fun! It was one of those things where while we were doing we were thinking, gosh this is probably not the safest thing...but hey all of the Chinese people are doing it! And, they had people stationed around the melting and cracked parts and directed us around them. Totes safe.
We also had Peking Duck! We went to a place called Duck de Chine that was hidden in an art gallery and one of those places that if you knew about it, you knew how to get there. Luckily, Anokhi's friend had told us how to get there and we were able to find it with only minor difficulties. It was so cool, the restaraunt didn't even have the name on it, it just had a huge wooden door with a picture of a duck on it. It felt very speakeasy-esque. It was also very fancy! We knew that it was the only way to have Peking Duck but it was still really nice and fun to go somewhere so fancy!
The hoisin sauce mixed with peanut sauce, garlic, and sesame sauce!
Our chef cutting the duck in front of us! The duck is cooked for hours and the crispy skin is the most important part!
The spread! In the basket are pancakes that you wrap the meat in with some sauce and a little of the carrots and cucumbers. It was surprisingly good!
The Temple of Heaven! Many elderly come to the Temple of Heaven every day and sing, dance, play cards, mahjong, knit or just hang out. It was really cool to see this little community!
The Temple of Heaven! This is where emperors would come to sacrifice animals in order to bring in a good harvest every year. They believed it had a direct line to God and Heaven.
I was so excited! There was a tour group with the Thai flag! I walked by and said Sawadee Kha (Hello) and they said it back and we wai-ed to each other! It was so exciting!!
I am on the center of Beijing!
Anokhi and I were loving Beijing!
The Summer Palace! This is where emperors would go in the summer when it got too hot. It was incredibly beautiful, on a lake and very big. We were there right at sunset, perfect.
Our last morning in Beijing we went back to Tiananmen Square and went to the National Museum of China. You would have thought we were going to see the President with all of the security to get in! We had to show our passports, go through metal detectors and get patted down. It was worse than airports. That security lady and I are incredibly familiar after she searched me...
We wandered for a bit but were running out of time so we headed over to Chairman Mao's Mausoleum. We had to check our bags in lockers before we could go in but the wait to see him was fairly short because they usher you through pretty quickly.
Venders were selling flowers outside so people could pay their respects. Almost everyone bought flowers. When you entered the mausoleum, there was a huge statue of Chairman Mao sitting and everyone put their flowers at his feet before bowing and praying a couple times to him. Then we were rushed into view Chairman Mao. He is embalmed there so that the Chinese people and anyone else can honor him and say goodbye. We were about 5-6 feet away from him and it was so weird and creepy. Apparently he wanted to be cremated but he was so beloved that they embalmed him foreva eva. I really want to get a book or two on him and learn more because he is such a huge fixture here still. My co teacher Melody said that everyone loves him, especially the elder Chinese because he "brought China together."
Mao Mausoleum with souvenir shops right outside so you can buy your Mao memoribilia.
We are so sad to be flying back to Chongqing but so happy for all of the amazing adventures we were able to have! I am excited to explore China more!
Down there in that pollution is Chongqing! Happy New Year 2014!
"He who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a true man."
-Mao Zedong
