Beijing, Part Two

The most popular tourist destination in Beijing is, by far, Tiananmen Square, the largest public space on Earth. We arrived early in the morning and there were already a lot of people milling about. Almost everyone we saw were Chinese tourists who come to see Chairman Mao's mausoleum and the Great Hall of the People. And as can be expected, there was heavy police and military presence.

This is the only public display of Mao

Monument to the People's Heroes, for the victims of the revolution

Posing with Tiananmen Gate in the background

You can see how disgusting the air is. The other days, we were really lucky with the weather; the winds must have carried the pollution away to make it relatively clear. But the day we went to Tiananmen and the Forbidden City, the smog was oppressive.

Past Tiananmen Gate is Wumen, the gateway to the Forbidden City

Once inside, there are five marble bridges, one for each Confucian virtue

Wumen and the five bridges from the other side

E runs where the imperial audiences were held

The first of three ceremonial halls, Hall of Supreme Harmony

The interior, where the most important state occasions were held

Being inside the Forbidden City was probably the most uncomfortable we were on the trip. The further we went, the more crowded it got. Evangeline and I didn't even attempt to get close enough to the halls to be able to see inside because of how much pushing and jostling there was. Evangeline was getting mobbed by people wanting to touch her and take pictures of her (many rural Chinese people have never seen a white person in real life). But the best moment by far was when a young man approached the three of us with his camera. We thought for sure he wanted to take a picture with Evangeline, but no, he wanted a picture with only Joseph! So Evangeline and I stood by and watched him gleefully take a picture with his arm around Joseph. It happened too fast for me to get the camera on my phone out, unfortunately. Definitely a first!

The moat around the City. And yes, that's smog, not mist.

The weather was much better when we were at the Temple of Heaven, supposedly the prime meeting point between earth and heaven. It is regarded to be the pinnacle of Ming design, and is surrounded by a lovely public park.

Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, made without a single nail

A close-up of the gorgeous interior of the Hall

Beijingers in the park enjoying a game

We ate very well on the trip, and on the whole, liked the food a lot better than here in Hong Kong. We find Cantonese cooking to be pretty bland; Hong Kongers seem to be more concerned with the freshness and texture of the food than the flavor. Beijing had a lot of diversity and more Sichuan and Taiwanese influence. And as an added bonus, even though we ate at nice places, the prices were a lot lower than in Hong Kong.

Our favorite meal was probably at this hot pot place. The broth on the left was spicy, the other  mushroom-based for E.

At the hot pot restaurant, if you ordered noodles, a guy would come out and hand-pull them right in front of you by doing some dance moves. We were too surprised to get a video of him at our table, but when he came to the booth next door, Joseph managed to get most of it. See above.

E was very excited about her "lemonlade"

These dragon beans with ginkgo were outstanding!

Our craziest dessert: Taiwanese shave ice with beans and fruit

The street food in Beijing was really good, too, and I'm sure we missed out on a lot by being vegetarian. In the morning there were these omelet-roll-things, and all day there was a ton of fresh fruit and sweet potatoes. 

Hot baked sweet potatoes when you're starving = yum! This dude saved our lives.

One thing that really stood out was that at Western chains, the sign wasn't in English, even though the logo was there. Very different from Hong Kong!

I guess that's "Starbucks" in Chinese!

Another big surprise was seeing major road signs with spelling or grammatical errors in the English version. You'd think that the Chinese government would have a fluent English speaker take a quick look before they put them on display...right. :)

And because no trip to China would be complete without a funny "translation," here's our favorite:

This was above the urinals in a men's bathroom

All in all, it was a wonderful trip. And we easily could have stayed much longer, there was so much to do and see. Thank you, Beijing!

Beijing, Part One

It was so exciting for us to get our official visas and enter "real" China for the first time. Perhaps it was the larger scale, but everything in Beijing exceeded our expectations.

Our chariot

The airport was enormous, but very nice. You can tell that the Chinese government is trying to put its best face forward with the clean and modern design. It was very kid-friendly, too, with play areas and these luggage carts with cars on the front:

It might not seem like much, but it was a lifesaver when our return flight was delayed. All I had to do was push Evangeline around in this, up and down the concourse, and she was as happy as a clam the entire time.

Of course, the biggest highlight of the trip was the Great Wall. There are currently four sections of the wall open to the general public (one is closed partly because of civil unrest due to land reclamation!); we chose to go to Mutianyu, which is about 90km northeast of Beijing. It's the second-closest section to the city, which makes it slightly less touristy than the closest but very kid-friendly. We hired a private car with a driver for the trip for only around $80. And we could have had one even cheaper if we hadn't chose a company with car seats. :)

We got going early so as to beat the crowds

Our driver, Zhou. He spoke no English, so we had to go through an intermediary on the phone.

A ski lift took us right up to the wall

The Wall above us

The Fam!

The surrounding mountains

Nothing but Wall as far as the eye can see

Morning shadows

Evangeline enters a guard tower, built in 1368 and renovated in 1983

Joseph and E with a beautiful blue sky

A donkey surveys the majesty. Predictably, he was Evangeline's favorite memory of the outing.

It just keeps going and going and going...

We took sleds down from the wall--fun!

We had a little trouble finding Zhou when we got back down, since the parking lot was suddenly full and there were people everywhere. But we got a lady to call and talk to him on our behalf to arrange a rendezvous. When he arrived, she chewed him out, presumably for not communicating better. But that is something we see a lot in Hong Kong. It seems like for Chinese people, yelling at a stranger is not a big deal! All in all, the Great Wall was an amazing sight and something I'll remember for the rest of my life.

The Summer Palace complex was another of our favorites. It's on the outskirts of Beijing, but was very easy to reach via subway. Although there have been royalty here since the eleventh century, the layout that exists today is eighteenth century in design.

A solitary lion stands guard

Whimsical details on the roof

The rooftops down to the lake

Fabulous E!

Gorgeous gallery

There's a reason why Joseph takes most of our pictures--sorry, folks!

We rented a boat for an hour and went cruising

Some fellow tourists enjoying a dragon boat

A famous barge made of marble, emblematic of the excesses that led to the fall of the empire

Even Bunny had a great time

The climate was so incredibly dry, especially compared to Hong Kong. We were constantly applying hand lotion, and still our fingers were cracked. You can tell from the pictures that Evangeline's hair quickly went from corkscrew curls to a fluffy mess. I actually had to do something with it for the first time in her life--normally, I just make sure it's out of her face. But that was fun, too!

I'll be back soon with another post featuring Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, and some of the delicious things we ate. Stay tuned!