Touring Beijing

Touring Beijing



Last night I really wanted to update the blog so I was writing a quickly as possible. We were really tired and all I wanted to do was post my blog then go to bed. Once I wrote last nights blog post and Brian got the pictures ready we went online to post it. That is when we realized China censors Google’s Blogger website. All access to it or any blogs on it are blocked. It simply says the site is unavailable when you try to view it. I was not prepared for that!



So before we went to bed we asked Melissa to help us with this problem. We woke up early to meet our tour guide John. We ran to McDonald’s for breakfast since we did not have a lot of time this morning and wanted something quick, simple, and predictable. John was waiting for us at 8:00am. We went to The Great Wall at Mutianyu (pronounced Moo-tay-you). Brian asked John how to speak some Mandarin. He has learned hello (nay-how) and thank you (she-she). He now says it to all the locals. John also explained how “ma” can mean 4 different things depending on how it is pronounced (including “mom” and “horse”). We got to the wall at 9:15am. In the city of Beijing, it is extremely hazy. Visibility is well under a mile in the city. So we were unsure how well we were going to be able to see The Great Wall. Once we arrived, we were pleasantly surprised. It was a clear cool day. Highs were probably in the 40’s. There was some snow and ice on parts of the wall that were shaded, but it was not snowing today. Visibility was reasonable. Once you get out of the city, the smog disappears. Getting out of the city made us realize how bad the smog really is. It is everywhere downtown and is particularly bad now as we heard because there is little wind. It makes our eyes feel very dry. When you first encounter it, you notice a smell that is similar to smoke but different. After exposure for a few minutes, you don’t notice the smell anymore but the haze and limited visibility is a constant reminder. John took us to the ticket counter and we paid admission for The Great Wall and the cable car for a ride to the wall.



Once we got to The Great Wall it was amazing. It was everything we thought and more. There were not any people around us at this time since we got there so early. So we got to take all of the pictures we were planning on taking. One picture that was important for us involved us wearing our Cavs gear. So we both wore our Cavs’s jerseys under our coats. When we wanted a Cavs picture, we just took off our coats. It was chilly but climbing up and down all the steps made us hot. At one point, we climbed 420 stairs at once in a part of the wall that went straight up hill. The view was great. We spent 2 ½ hours on the wall.



After The Great Wall, we went to the Summer Palace. The Summer Palace was a summer retreat for the emperors. We walked around there for about 2 hours. It was neat to see the temples. The temples colors were bright and beautiful.


(note: this is part of the palace)


(again part of palace)


(again part of palace)



Then we went to the Olympic village. We saw a dragon hotel, water cube and of course the Bird’s nest. It was exciting to see them. The Olympics were so much fun to watch on TV and now to be there was great. In the Olympic village, we went to a teahouse. We learned about different types of teas and how to drink tea. At the teahouse, you are supposed to slurp your tea. It was fun. The last stop was to a silk factory. We learned how silk is made.







John dropped us off back at our hotel around 5pm. We asked him to recommend a restaurant near our hotel. He recommended Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant. Beijing is famous for their roast duck so we had to try it. It was quite the experience. We ordered a roasted duck to split. We also ordered pancakes (more like mini tortillas) and soy sauce with scallions. We also learned an important lesson. Unlike at home, knowing how to use chopsticks is essential. Back at home, any time we have eaten at an Asian restaurant we did not see the point in learning how to use chopsticks. Now we realize that we really should have learned. For dinner tonight, chopsticks is all we had to use! That made it interesting in itself. Lets say, I’m really not good at using them. The duck was good. It is not my type of food but I can see how some people would love it.





After our dinner, we went to street market to try some other crazy foods. Guess what Brian convinced me to try: fried scorpion! Really! It was not as bad as I thought it would be. It was crunchy and salty. Then I got a fruit kabob glazed in sugar syrup (candied or caramelized fruit). It featured strawberries and kiwi. The kiwi was really good.



We are back in our hotel now packing to leave tomorrow. We are planning on leaving our hotel early to visit the Temple of Heaven and the Forbidden City on our own. Then come back to the hotel to check out by 1200. Then we head off to the airport for our flight to Singapore. We are staying at Crown Plaza Hotel in Beijing. I really like the hotel. We have a nice clean room and the location has been perfect for us.

- Posted by the American Translator
On a side note, it is a complete pain in the butt to download all of these pictures and place them properly in the blog. I better see some shot/sake glasses when they get home.