BEIJING - XIAN -SHANGHAI May 8 to 23, 2009
Yet again my family has set off for another adventure. This time we traveled to a very famous country in Asia - the
vast and historic land of China (the People’s Republic of China) which is home to more than 1.3 billion people and ruled by President Hu Jintao.
Our itinerary included Beijing, Xian and Shanghai. We expected to see various wonders including the Great Wall of China, the Terra Cotta Warriors and the Oriental Pearl Tower. The children and Dad would also get to watch Mom as she haggles her way through many bootleg markets.
With many amazing items on our agenda we were very excited to go on this rice fueled adventure.
PART 1 - BEIJING
May 8 & 9, 2009- On the way
We set off at around 2 pm and checked in very early at Pearson Airport (flight is at 5 pm). We took a long 13 hour di
rect flight with Air Canada from Toronto. Lucky for us the time zoomed as there was an array of movies on our personal T.V. including The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Yes Man, and many more.
We soon arrived in China’s great capital, Beijing which was recently home to the Summer Olympics last summer. By this time we were exhausted and as we got out of the plane we were greeted with more lines. Currently there was a scare in China about the H1N1 influenza (aka Swine Flu) so we had to go a temperature sensor. Luckily we passed through without much trouble and finally escaped the very modern looking airport. We immediately took a taxi through Beijing heavy traffic to the amazing Westin Financial Street . The hotel is very luxurious with polite and efficient service.
After resting for a while, we took a taxi (Y20) for dinner at Wangfujing, one of China’s most famous shopping streets. The place is for pedestrians only so it allows many store
s and markets to be set up. On the way, we passed by Tiananmen Square which was lit up. The city at night was lively with a lot of cars and people.
We were dropped off at the famous pedestrian shopping street Wangfujing which was very crowded. The familiar signs of Pizza Hut, KFC and Mcdonald’s were everywhere. We ventured to the smaller side streets, checking out the food stalls and the souvenir stalls. The food stalls have the scorpions, sea horses and other insects on a stick on display. We stopped by a little restaurant and sat at a table outside to do some people watching. The noodles we ordered were very greasy and not very good.
After walking around a bit more, jet lag started to hit us and we decided to head back to the Westin for a well earned sleep.
Day 1 - May 10, 2009
Today began a little more stressful because of our sleep habits. The time of China was exactly twelve hours ahead of the time at home. After a slow awaking we headed down to the typical mediocre breakfast buffet in the Westin.
We soon headed out to start our day. We walked for about 15 minutes to the nearby subway station – Fuxingman – and bought tickets (Y2) for a short ride to the Tiananmen East station. The Beijing subway is crowded, just like everywhere else in China, but is very clean and efficient. We would be using the metro a lot in the next few days to visit different sights in Beijing.
Exiting the subway we
immediately saw o
ne of the most famous sites of Beijing, the Tiananmen Square. We marveled at the sheer size of the square and took in the site of the Tiananmen Gate which separates the square from the Forbidden City. From the square you could see the glorious face of Mao Zedong, the famous leader of the Communist Part of China. The square was full of Chinese tour groups.
The giant flatness of the square is broken by the Monument to the People’s Heroes, an obelisk dedicated to China’s greatest heroes, and the mausoleum of Mao himself. There was a long line up for Mao’s mausoleum but Mom passed on that. The Square was also home to many historical events including the protests of 1989 where many citizens gathered to protest the government. Small Chinese flags were sold for Y3 and a lot of people were holding the flag. We hung around the square for a while to absorb the atmosphere and took the obligatory family photo with chairman Mao’s portrait.
After that we took an underground tunnel to cross the famous ChangAn Street to get to the next attraction, the Forbidden City. This was where I began my famous spit count. The Forbidden City was the Chinese i
mperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty. For almost five centuries, it housed the Emperor and was the centre of Ceremonial and Political events.
As expected, the home of the Emperor is huge, which means a lot of Chinese tour groups. There were tour guides offering their service but Mom refused. As we were all shuffled through the gates we marveled at the sheer size and beauty of the place. The sight of the vast court and the Hall of Supreme Harmony took my breath away. There was so much unique architecture and design that we could just absorb the history around us. The rooms however were blocked off and we had a hard time peering inside for a glimpse of royal furniture but it did not look too impressive though.
However, since the place is huge, we got tired quickly after about two hours because it took a lot of walking to cover the ground. After so much walking, the buildings started to look the same to me.
After exiting the Forbidden City, we used the underpass to get to Jingshan Park aka Prospect Hill, which is an artificial hill offering a beautiful view of the Forbidden City. We began our climb and we were so out of shape. While Alex and I sped to the top, Mom and Dad were struggling behind. We reached the top and saw the magnificent view which is the Forbidden Kingdom.
After taking a lot of smoggy but still impressive pictures of the sweeping view of the Forbidden City and Beihei Lake, Mom felt creative. She went to a booth that offered royal costumes and we embarrassingly took pictures as a Qing Royal Family. I was royally glad when we were fin
ished and we peacefully toured the park. The park itself is very nice and peaceful. The flowers were blooming and there were locals taking pictures and enjoying themselves with their families.
We were soon hungry for dinner and took a taxi to the Dadong restaurant for their famous Peking Duck. The restaurant was not too busy. We enjoyed the hospitality and the food. After the satisfying dinner we took the subway at the nearby Tuanjiehu station back to the Fuchengmen station and walked leisurely back to reach our comfortable Westin beds and called it the night. Tomorrow would be a long day for our day trip to Datong.
Day 2 - May 11, 2009 - Datong
Today we left Beijing to go to the city of Datong, which is a coal mining town located about 400 km from Beijing and has a few famous historic attractions. The Air China flight was at 7:40 am, so we left early by taxi to the Beijing Capital International Airport . We still had time to spare so we ate at a nice noodle restaurant and rushed to the gate. We only made it by a hair to catch a short 40 minute flight.
Once we arrived in Dato
ng, Mom negotiated with a nice taxi driver for a whole day service for Y400. After about 1.5 hours ride through pretty scenic views of the country side and the mountains, we reached our first destination - the Hanging Temple. The temple was unique as it was built into the side of a cliff 75 m above the ground and looked like a bird’s nest hanging on a cliff, very unusual. We marveled at the sheer height of the temple and were more worried about the Chinese tour groups knocking us down. When we made our nervous climb to the top of the temple, we toured through and feared for our lives when walking through the narrow edges.
After the Hang
ing Temple, the taxi took us the famous Unesco World Heritage Yungang Grottoes. The drive to the caves however, was more than an hour long through dirty roads, with coal factories and coal trucks.
The Yungang Grottoes are ancient Buddha temple grottoes (about 1500 years old) with various caves that are cut straight from the mountain. The site is composed of 252 grottoes with more than 51,000 Buddha statues. We spent about over an hour walking along the caves to see the various ancient and beautiful designs including many gigantic Buddha statues. The place was not crowded so we peacefully toured while Dad rested to enjoy the cool breeze in the shade. Mom eventually hired a photographer who took very nice family pictures that Mom loved.
We tired out however, so we decided to head to the Xinnan Bus Station for our bus back to Beijing. We got to the station at 3 pm, Mom bought tickets for the last bus (4pm) back to Beijing. We were very hungry as we did not have time to eat a proper lunch except for some snacks at the Yungang caves but we did not want to risk missing the last bus back to Beijing by driving into Datong town for a proper meal. We grabbed some snacks from the station and Dad tried to make conversation with the friendly sale ladies with little success before we boarded the bus.
The bus drive was unbearable, being about 5 hours. Everyone on the bus was talking loudly, the movie was also loud and we got a little food. There was only one bathroom break and by the time we reached the Liuliqiao bus station in Beijing, we were exhausted. It was 9 pm but unfortunately, we still had to face the rip-off taxi drivers who managed to squeeze Y50 out of us to the drive back to the Westin. Mom was too tired to care and we collapsed on our heavenly Westin beds when we got back.
Day 3 - May 12, 2009
Today, Mom let us sleep in. After our slow painful start, we decided to return to Wangfujing for breakfast. We planned to go to a restaurant in a mall, but unfortunately, Mom’s info was too old and the place already shut down. So we decided to pick a random Chinese fast food joint named Kung Fu with the picture of Bruce Lee. The place was actually very tasty, with the meal including your choice of meat, a bowl of rice, a salad and a soup. We were thoroughly satisfied and planned to go back.
Our first destination for today was the Yonghe Temple otherwise known as the Lama Temple. The Lama Temple is a temple and monastery of the Geluk School of Tibetan Buddhism. The temple was full of culture and history and we found the temple to be quite beautiful. However the smell of incense was overpowering and we chose to leave.
As we left, we decided to take the subway to another famous attraction, the Temple of Heaven. The Temple of Heaven was most famous for the fact that emperors would go annually to the temple to pray for a good harvest. The place was gigantic with a lot to explore. We walked around aimlessly until we reached the most recognizable part, The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. It was high above the ground and we decided to rest and observed the Chinese tour groups.
After finishing touring the Temple of Heaven we walked to the nearby Hong Qiao Market, aka the Pearl Market. The place offered many different types of counterfeit clothing and electronics. There were all the big name brands such as Ralph Lauren Polo, Giorgio Armani, Gucci and many more. Dad bought multiple Polo shirts as we haggled for the low, low price of Y30 each. I bought myself an “Armani” wallet while Alex bought a Chinese silk dress. After shopping for what felt like hours, the market closed and we were hungry for dinner. We went to a random Chinese restaurant nearby that offered cheap but excellent food. We finished our meal and before we went home, we bought some instant noodles and desserts for tomorrow.
When we arrived home by subway we had an unpleasant surprise, the “Chinese dress” was “accidentally” switched with a Chinese style top. We were all frustrated, but too tired and decided to deal with it tomorrow.
Day 4 - May 13, 2009
Today we were going to see the most famous Chinese attraction, the Mutianyu Great Wall of China. The Great Wall of China was built at approximately 5th century BC to protect against the invaders from the north. The wall stretches 6700 kilometers in total, but despite urban legend, the structure could not be seen from the moon.
To begin our day early we were forced to eat instant noodles that were surprisingly good. Mom already contacted, via e mail ahead of time, a driver named Victor who offered the most reasonable rate for a private day trip to the Mutianyu Great Wall. Victor picked us up at the hotel with a comfortable car and he spoke good English, so Dad chatted away. The drive was about 1.5 hours so when we finally got off the car, I wished for silence.
We bought tickets
that included a ski lift ride, and a toboggan sled ride down. We took a ski lift ride to the top and while Mom was scared out
of her mind, Alex and I were thrilled. The wall was very high above sea level and it was a perfect sunny day so we got a great view. When we reached the top we were greeted by one of the Wonders of the World.
The Great Wall was amazing, you could feel the history exuding from its bricks and I could tell that I would remember the sights forever. We explored the wall and surprisingly, the place was not crowded. The Chinese tour groups for some reason did not follow us here. Unfortunately, the wall itself had really steep stairs, so while the steps were dangerous, we were more worried about falling in exhaustion. We spent about 2 hours wandering the wall taking in the magnificent mountainous view until our feet went sore. We decided it was time to head down so we took an extremely fun toboggan ride down to the bottom, where Mom went very slowly.
By now, we were tired and hungry and decided to move on towards lunch. During
the long drive we stopped by the world famous Olympic Stadium, the Beijing National Stadium aka the Bird’s Nest with its unique design. The stadium was just home to the 2008 Olympics just last summer, but unfortunately was not in use afterwards. We took pictures of the stadium but wished we could go in. We also walked to the Water Cube and soon drove off again.
Victor brought us to a Cantonese restaurant and we paid him for his services. We enjoyed decent meal with a very unique coconut milk dessert.
Afterwards our plan was to
get revenge on evil Pearl Market saleswomen for switching Alex’s silk dress, and hope to exchange for the right dress. However, she didn’t hide and she supposedly, made a mistake. We exchanged for a baby blue dress and exited the market satisfied. To finish our day we walked to the Legend of Kung Fu show at the nearby Red Theatre. The show was very entertaining, especially for Mom who found the monks in the show quite muscular.
The day was rather busy, so we were relieved when we found a metered taxi outside of the theatre to go home to our beloved Westin beds.
Day 5 - May 14, 2009
Today we were going to go to the famous Summer Palace. The Summer Palace is a palace which giant area is dominated by Longevity Hill and Kumming Lake, which is 2.2 km2 and was entirely man made. To start our day we had yummy chinese food at a restaurant near the Parkson mall.After that we took the subway to the Bagou station which was the nearest station to the Summer Palace. The ride was long but, comfortable and saved us a lot of money taxi-wise. When we got of the subway we immediately took a taxi (Y10) to the Summer Palace. We bought our tickets and entered the beautiful palace.
The area was huge, with many various exhibits and attractions that all wind around the breathtaking Kumming Lake which offered continuous boat rides.
While it was nea
r 
noon, we managed to view most of the major attractions including the Marble Boat, which is a large model boat, made of marble and the Long Corridor, which is a corridor with hundreds of images of Chinese history on the ceiling. After the Summer Palace we took a metered taxi back to the Silk Market, another bootleg market. We shopped around for a couple hours, buying souvenirs, hats, t-shirts and bags until Mom was exhausted from haggling.
It was already time for dinner so we headed out to eat noodles at a simple restaurant across from the Silk market but had delicious noodles which we enjoyed very much. After exiting the restaurant, however, many beggars swarmed Dad since he gave money to one person. He only escaped by literally running away.
Day 6 - May 15, 2009
Today, Mom was really stressed out. She was freaking out that she could not get tickets for sleeper trains to Xian and her schedule was out of whack. So she decided to buy plane tickets instead.
After Mom secured the plane tickets to Xian for tomorrow, we took a taxi b
ack to Parkson to eat at Kung Fu again as we liked it so much. Our meal was delicious as expected and we were all really happy as we headed to the Beijing Zoo by taxi. Mom informed us that the zoo was boring and that the only main attractions were the giant pandas. So we skipped everything and went directly to the panda exhibit. The pandas were really interesting, being very exotic and large. However, they looked dirty and not as white as their stuffed version at the gift shops, but still very cute nevertheless. We wanted to check out other animals but Mom insisted we left because she was set in her mind that everything else was not very interesting .
We got another taxi back to Beijing and drove to the Hutongs which are narrow streets or alleys that have traditional homes. Unfortunately, the number of Hu
tongs dropped dramatically as they were demolished to make way for new roads and buildings. We were dropped off at the Hutong’s Bell and Drum Towers. We walked around ignoring the pedicabs. The alleyways were very old with many unique houses and rarely any cars.
Mom wanted to find the Houhai Lake area for dinner but we were lost and were desperate to leave the maze like Hutong. We soon found a main road and spent at least 10 minutes trying to get another taxi. We were too hungry for dinner so we went the easy route and drove to Wangfujing again. We found a giant food court and had various different meals each. My food was delicious grilled beef and enjoyed it quite a bit. For desert, I bought a Blizzard from Dairy Queen.
After dinner we hung around Wangfujing for a while to enjoy the brightly lit street and take in the liveliness of modern Beijing. We then returned to the Westin to pack up and prepare for our flight tomorrow to Xi’an.
Next - Xian
Yet again my family has set off for another adventure. This time we traveled to a very famous country in Asia - the
vast and historic land of China (the People’s Republic of China) which is home to more than 1.3 billion people and ruled by President Hu Jintao.Our itinerary included Beijing, Xian and Shanghai. We expected to see various wonders including the Great Wall of China, the Terra Cotta Warriors and the Oriental Pearl Tower. The children and Dad would also get to watch Mom as she haggles her way through many bootleg markets.
With many amazing items on our agenda we were very excited to go on this rice fueled adventure.
PART 1 - BEIJING
May 8 & 9, 2009- On the way
We set off at around 2 pm and checked in very early at Pearson Airport (flight is at 5 pm). We took a long 13 hour di
rect flight with Air Canada from Toronto. Lucky for us the time zoomed as there was an array of movies on our personal T.V. including The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Yes Man, and many more.We soon arrived in China’s great capital, Beijing which was recently home to the Summer Olympics last summer. By this time we were exhausted and as we got out of the plane we were greeted with more lines. Currently there was a scare in China about the H1N1 influenza (aka Swine Flu) so we had to go a temperature sensor. Luckily we passed through without much trouble and finally escaped the very modern looking airport. We immediately took a taxi through Beijing heavy traffic to the amazing Westin Financial Street . The hotel is very luxurious with polite and efficient service.
After resting for a while, we took a taxi (Y20) for dinner at Wangfujing, one of China’s most famous shopping streets. The place is for pedestrians only so it allows many store
s and markets to be set up. On the way, we passed by Tiananmen Square which was lit up. The city at night was lively with a lot of cars and people.We were dropped off at the famous pedestrian shopping street Wangfujing which was very crowded. The familiar signs of Pizza Hut, KFC and Mcdonald’s were everywhere. We ventured to the smaller side streets, checking out the food stalls and the souvenir stalls. The food stalls have the scorpions, sea horses and other insects on a stick on display. We stopped by a little restaurant and sat at a table outside to do some people watching. The noodles we ordered were very greasy and not very good.
After walking around a bit more, jet lag started to hit us and we decided to head back to the Westin for a well earned sleep.
Day 1 - May 10, 2009
Today began a little more stressful because of our sleep habits. The time of China was exactly twelve hours ahead of the time at home. After a slow awaking we headed down to the typical mediocre breakfast buffet in the Westin.
We soon headed out to start our day. We walked for about 15 minutes to the nearby subway station – Fuxingman – and bought tickets (Y2) for a short ride to the Tiananmen East station. The Beijing subway is crowded, just like everywhere else in China, but is very clean and efficient. We would be using the metro a lot in the next few days to visit different sights in Beijing.
Exiting the subway we
immediately saw o
ne of the most famous sites of Beijing, the Tiananmen Square. We marveled at the sheer size of the square and took in the site of the Tiananmen Gate which separates the square from the Forbidden City. From the square you could see the glorious face of Mao Zedong, the famous leader of the Communist Part of China. The square was full of Chinese tour groups.The giant flatness of the square is broken by the Monument to the People’s Heroes, an obelisk dedicated to China’s greatest heroes, and the mausoleum of Mao himself. There was a long line up for Mao’s mausoleum but Mom passed on that. The Square was also home to many historical events including the protests of 1989 where many citizens gathered to protest the government. Small Chinese flags were sold for Y3 and a lot of people were holding the flag. We hung around the square for a while to absorb the atmosphere and took the obligatory family photo with chairman Mao’s portrait.
After that we took an underground tunnel to cross the famous ChangAn Street to get to the next attraction, the Forbidden City. This was where I began my famous spit count. The Forbidden City was the Chinese i
mperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty. For almost five centuries, it housed the Emperor and was the centre of Ceremonial and Political events.As expected, the home of the Emperor is huge, which means a lot of Chinese tour groups. There were tour guides offering their service but Mom refused. As we were all shuffled through the gates we marveled at the sheer size and beauty of the place. The sight of the vast court and the Hall of Supreme Harmony took my breath away. There was so much unique architecture and design that we could just absorb the history around us. The rooms however were blocked off and we had a hard time peering inside for a glimpse of royal furniture but it did not look too impressive though.
However, since the place is huge, we got tired quickly after about two hours because it took a lot of walking to cover the ground. After so much walking, the buildings started to look the same to me.
After exiting the Forbidden City, we used the underpass to get to Jingshan Park aka Prospect Hill, which is an artificial hill offering a beautiful view of the Forbidden City. We began our climb and we were so out of shape. While Alex and I sped to the top, Mom and Dad were struggling behind. We reached the top and saw the magnificent view which is the Forbidden Kingdom.
After taking a lot of smoggy but still impressive pictures of the sweeping view of the Forbidden City and Beihei Lake, Mom felt creative. She went to a booth that offered royal costumes and we embarrassingly took pictures as a Qing Royal Family. I was royally glad when we were fin
ished and we peacefully toured the park. The park itself is very nice and peaceful. The flowers were blooming and there were locals taking pictures and enjoying themselves with their families.We were soon hungry for dinner and took a taxi to the Dadong restaurant for their famous Peking Duck. The restaurant was not too busy. We enjoyed the hospitality and the food. After the satisfying dinner we took the subway at the nearby Tuanjiehu station back to the Fuchengmen station and walked leisurely back to reach our comfortable Westin beds and called it the night. Tomorrow would be a long day for our day trip to Datong.
Day 2 - May 11, 2009 - Datong
Today we left Beijing to go to the city of Datong, which is a coal mining town located about 400 km from Beijing and has a few famous historic attractions. The Air China flight was at 7:40 am, so we left early by taxi to the Beijing Capital International Airport . We still had time to spare so we ate at a nice noodle restaurant and rushed to the gate. We only made it by a hair to catch a short 40 minute flight.
Once we arrived in Dato
ng, Mom negotiated with a nice taxi driver for a whole day service for Y400. After about 1.5 hours ride through pretty scenic views of the country side and the mountains, we reached our first destination - the Hanging Temple. The temple was unique as it was built into the side of a cliff 75 m above the ground and looked like a bird’s nest hanging on a cliff, very unusual. We marveled at the sheer height of the temple and were more worried about the Chinese tour groups knocking us down. When we made our nervous climb to the top of the temple, we toured through and feared for our lives when walking through the narrow edges.After the Hang
ing Temple, the taxi took us the famous Unesco World Heritage Yungang Grottoes. The drive to the caves however, was more than an hour long through dirty roads, with coal factories and coal trucks.The Yungang Grottoes are ancient Buddha temple grottoes (about 1500 years old) with various caves that are cut straight from the mountain. The site is composed of 252 grottoes with more than 51,000 Buddha statues. We spent about over an hour walking along the caves to see the various ancient and beautiful designs including many gigantic Buddha statues. The place was not crowded so we peacefully toured while Dad rested to enjoy the cool breeze in the shade. Mom eventually hired a photographer who took very nice family pictures that Mom loved.
We tired out however, so we decided to head to the Xinnan Bus Station for our bus back to Beijing. We got to the station at 3 pm, Mom bought tickets for the last bus (4pm) back to Beijing. We were very hungry as we did not have time to eat a proper lunch except for some snacks at the Yungang caves but we did not want to risk missing the last bus back to Beijing by driving into Datong town for a proper meal. We grabbed some snacks from the station and Dad tried to make conversation with the friendly sale ladies with little success before we boarded the bus.
The bus drive was unbearable, being about 5 hours. Everyone on the bus was talking loudly, the movie was also loud and we got a little food. There was only one bathroom break and by the time we reached the Liuliqiao bus station in Beijing, we were exhausted. It was 9 pm but unfortunately, we still had to face the rip-off taxi drivers who managed to squeeze Y50 out of us to the drive back to the Westin. Mom was too tired to care and we collapsed on our heavenly Westin beds when we got back.
Day 3 - May 12, 2009
Today, Mom let us sleep in. After our slow painful start, we decided to return to Wangfujing for breakfast. We planned to go to a restaurant in a mall, but unfortunately, Mom’s info was too old and the place already shut down. So we decided to pick a random Chinese fast food joint named Kung Fu with the picture of Bruce Lee. The place was actually very tasty, with the meal including your choice of meat, a bowl of rice, a salad and a soup. We were thoroughly satisfied and planned to go back.
Our first destination for today was the Yonghe Temple otherwise known as the Lama Temple. The Lama Temple is a temple and monastery of the Geluk School of Tibetan Buddhism. The temple was full of culture and history and we found the temple to be quite beautiful. However the smell of incense was overpowering and we chose to leave.
As we left, we decided to take the subway to another famous attraction, the Temple of Heaven. The Temple of Heaven was most famous for the fact that emperors would go annually to the temple to pray for a good harvest. The place was gigantic with a lot to explore. We walked around aimlessly until we reached the most recognizable part, The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. It was high above the ground and we decided to rest and observed the Chinese tour groups.
After finishing touring the Temple of Heaven we walked to the nearby Hong Qiao Market, aka the Pearl Market. The place offered many different types of counterfeit clothing and electronics. There were all the big name brands such as Ralph Lauren Polo, Giorgio Armani, Gucci and many more. Dad bought multiple Polo shirts as we haggled for the low, low price of Y30 each. I bought myself an “Armani” wallet while Alex bought a Chinese silk dress. After shopping for what felt like hours, the market closed and we were hungry for dinner. We went to a random Chinese restaurant nearby that offered cheap but excellent food. We finished our meal and before we went home, we bought some instant noodles and desserts for tomorrow.
When we arrived home by subway we had an unpleasant surprise, the “Chinese dress” was “accidentally” switched with a Chinese style top. We were all frustrated, but too tired and decided to deal with it tomorrow.
Day 4 - May 13, 2009
Today we were going to see the most famous Chinese attraction, the Mutianyu Great Wall of China. The Great Wall of China was built at approximately 5th century BC to protect against the invaders from the north. The wall stretches 6700 kilometers in total, but despite urban legend, the structure could not be seen from the moon.
To begin our day early we were forced to eat instant noodles that were surprisingly good. Mom already contacted, via e mail ahead of time, a driver named Victor who offered the most reasonable rate for a private day trip to the Mutianyu Great Wall. Victor picked us up at the hotel with a comfortable car and he spoke good English, so Dad chatted away. The drive was about 1.5 hours so when we finally got off the car, I wished for silence.
We bought tickets
that included a ski lift ride, and a toboggan sled ride down. We took a ski lift ride to the top and while Mom was scared out
of her mind, Alex and I were thrilled. The wall was very high above sea level and it was a perfect sunny day so we got a great view. When we reached the top we were greeted by one of the Wonders of the World.The Great Wall was amazing, you could feel the history exuding from its bricks and I could tell that I would remember the sights forever. We explored the wall and surprisingly, the place was not crowded. The Chinese tour groups for some reason did not follow us here. Unfortunately, the wall itself had really steep stairs, so while the steps were dangerous, we were more worried about falling in exhaustion. We spent about 2 hours wandering the wall taking in the magnificent mountainous view until our feet went sore. We decided it was time to head down so we took an extremely fun toboggan ride down to the bottom, where Mom went very slowly.
By now, we were tired and hungry and decided to move on towards lunch. During
the long drive we stopped by the world famous Olympic Stadium, the Beijing National Stadium aka the Bird’s Nest with its unique design. The stadium was just home to the 2008 Olympics just last summer, but unfortunately was not in use afterwards. We took pictures of the stadium but wished we could go in. We also walked to the Water Cube and soon drove off again.Victor brought us to a Cantonese restaurant and we paid him for his services. We enjoyed decent meal with a very unique coconut milk dessert.
Afterwards our plan was to
get revenge on evil Pearl Market saleswomen for switching Alex’s silk dress, and hope to exchange for the right dress. However, she didn’t hide and she supposedly, made a mistake. We exchanged for a baby blue dress and exited the market satisfied. To finish our day we walked to the Legend of Kung Fu show at the nearby Red Theatre. The show was very entertaining, especially for Mom who found the monks in the show quite muscular.The day was rather busy, so we were relieved when we found a metered taxi outside of the theatre to go home to our beloved Westin beds.
Day 5 - May 14, 2009
Today we were going to go to the famous Summer Palace. The Summer Palace is a palace which giant area is dominated by Longevity Hill and Kumming Lake, which is 2.2 km2 and was entirely man made. To start our day we had yummy chinese food at a restaurant near the Parkson mall.After that we took the subway to the Bagou station which was the nearest station to the Summer Palace. The ride was long but, comfortable and saved us a lot of money taxi-wise. When we got of the subway we immediately took a taxi (Y10) to the Summer Palace. We bought our tickets and entered the beautiful palace.
The area was huge, with many various exhibits and attractions that all wind around the breathtaking Kumming Lake which offered continuous boat rides.
While it was nea
r 
noon, we managed to view most of the major attractions including the Marble Boat, which is a large model boat, made of marble and the Long Corridor, which is a corridor with hundreds of images of Chinese history on the ceiling. After the Summer Palace we took a metered taxi back to the Silk Market, another bootleg market. We shopped around for a couple hours, buying souvenirs, hats, t-shirts and bags until Mom was exhausted from haggling.It was already time for dinner so we headed out to eat noodles at a simple restaurant across from the Silk market but had delicious noodles which we enjoyed very much. After exiting the restaurant, however, many beggars swarmed Dad since he gave money to one person. He only escaped by literally running away.
Day 6 - May 15, 2009
Today, Mom was really stressed out. She was freaking out that she could not get tickets for sleeper trains to Xian and her schedule was out of whack. So she decided to buy plane tickets instead.
After Mom secured the plane tickets to Xian for tomorrow, we took a taxi b
ack to Parkson to eat at Kung Fu again as we liked it so much. Our meal was delicious as expected and we were all really happy as we headed to the Beijing Zoo by taxi. Mom informed us that the zoo was boring and that the only main attractions were the giant pandas. So we skipped everything and went directly to the panda exhibit. The pandas were really interesting, being very exotic and large. However, they looked dirty and not as white as their stuffed version at the gift shops, but still very cute nevertheless. We wanted to check out other animals but Mom insisted we left because she was set in her mind that everything else was not very interesting .
We got another taxi back to Beijing and drove to the Hutongs which are narrow streets or alleys that have traditional homes. Unfortunately, the number of Hu
tongs dropped dramatically as they were demolished to make way for new roads and buildings. We were dropped off at the Hutong’s Bell and Drum Towers. We walked around ignoring the pedicabs. The alleyways were very old with many unique houses and rarely any cars.Mom wanted to find the Houhai Lake area for dinner but we were lost and were desperate to leave the maze like Hutong. We soon found a main road and spent at least 10 minutes trying to get another taxi. We were too hungry for dinner so we went the easy route and drove to Wangfujing again. We found a giant food court and had various different meals each. My food was delicious grilled beef and enjoyed it quite a bit. For desert, I bought a Blizzard from Dairy Queen.
After dinner we hung around Wangfujing for a while to enjoy the brightly lit street and take in the liveliness of modern Beijing. We then returned to the Westin to pack up and prepare for our flight tomorrow to Xi’an.
Next - Xian
