Beijing

A little over a week ago I spent a long weekend in Beijing for the Chinese New Year. The trip was fantastic and a large part of the reason for me coming to Korea (travel). I fell in love with the city and all that it had to offer. While there everyone that went with me agreed and it was stated that Beijing had a magic to it that is hard to put into words. Between the city's attractions, the people, and the strange obvious and yet subtle looming realization that you are in a country that is restricted by its government my trip Beijing turned out to be a magnificent one.

While there I took about 450 pictures so sharing pictures of the weekend might be a little bit difficult to do. I will show you the main things and let the pictures tell the story of our adventures in Beijing.

We stayed in a great hostel located in the Hutongs of Beijing which are the traditional neighborhoods of Beijing comprised of narrow streets and alleyways.



We brought and wore animal hats from Korea which were a big hit. We made lots of friends and posed for many pictures (sometimes they were secretly trying to snap a couple shots of us).



We started to explore our surroundings of the neighborhood and the surrounding attractions. Our hostel was close by to the Drum and Bell tower.



While walking around we stumbled upon a frozen lake surrounded by bars and restaurants and we ventured out onto the ice skating around while the sun began to set.



On the other side of the lake we saw crazy old men taking turns swimming laps in the exposed part of the lake.



The cold started to set in and we found comfort in a nice and cozy tea room by the lake. We warmed up there for a little while before going to meet up with my friend Maya who lives in Beijing. She took us out to a restaurant with her friends at a fun banquet style place fully equipped with Lazy Susans and delicious food.



As I mentioned before it was Chinese New Year so the whole time we were there we would see and hear fireworks at all hours of the day. They are everywhere and usually being set off in the path of where you are walking. There is no organized fireworks show but the sky is lit up by all kinds of explosions and sparks ranging from firecrackers and sparklers to military grade flash bangs and professional grade fireworks high up in the sky.





The next day we rented bikes and used them as our means of transportation taking us around the city from one attractions to the next. Beijing is a serious biking city, there weren't too many out when we were there as it was freezing outside but the bike lanes are at times wider than the car lanes.



Our first stop was Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City.





After working up an appetite we decided to go get some famous Peking duck at Quanjude which is famous for their roasted duck. It was absolutely amazingly delicious, the duck simply melted in your mouth.



Next stop on our bike tour was the Temple of Heaven.



After walking around the temple and the surrounding park we made some friends with the commies before deciding to ride home before it got too cold outside and call it a early night since we would be waking up early to go to the Great Wall the next morning.



For dinner that night we went to a Szechuan place and ordered quite the eclectic group of dishes: bullfrog, rabbit, lamb, pork, chicken, fish, dumplings, noodles, rice, and fried pumpkin battered in egg.



The next morning we woke up at 6am to go on the hike of the Great Wall that our hostel offered. It is more of a "secret wall tour" since they take you to a part of the wall that does not have many people on it and has not been restored unlike the area most people see. This made the hike more difficult but so much more beautiful since it was just you and the wall with nobody else around. It was a 9km hike from the town of Jinshanling to Simata passing through 30 watchtowers. We and stopped about halfway through to have a picnic lunch.



The pictures don't do the wall justice.





Some parts were almost vertical.





At the end of the hike we crossed a river and then zip lined down across the river to get back to the van to take us home.



After we returned to Beijing there was one more thing we needed to do before going home. We went to Wangfujing which is a shopping area that has lots of knickknacks but also crazy street food. All kinds of things on a stick, so I had to try some.

First was Scorpion



Then seahorse



starfish



and grasshoppers



I took too many pictures to share on here but if you want to see more from the trip click here. I will definitely be going back to China and more than likely will be visiting Beijing as I only began to scratch the surface.