Beijing Highlights

So, my fine friends, I have returned from a fantabulous spring break (fantastic + fabulous =FANTABULOUS! it's a thing I promise). As a group we spent the first three days in Beijing with the rest of our break free for independent travel. Everyone eventually ended up in the same city of Xian, which will be my next post. Anyways, a tour guide and shuttle were booked for the weekend and picked us up at the airport. Our Chinese tour guide, Crystal, took extremely good care of us and hooked us up with some phenomenal experiences.  So, ladies and gentlemen please fasten your seat belts and enjoy my memories and Beijing adventures.

The first major stop we made was the Forbidden City. Located in the heart of Beijing, this place covers 7,800,000 sq ft. and consists of 980 buildings or so, and is surrounded by a large wall, with a moat surrounding that. In simpler terms, it's GIGANTIC! We went from the South gate to the North gate in 2-3 hours. The thing with the Chinese tour guides is that they have a set time schedule and go from one place to the next in a matter of minutes. Crystal would tell us some fun historical facts about certain areas, give us a few minutes to take pictures, then off again to the next section. I highly enjoyed the pace of the tour and content of the information. It wasn't an overwhelming amount of info and Crystal would add fun Chinese legends or superstitions once in awhile. All in all, the city was absolutely mind blowing, and beautiful with its traditional Chinese architecture. Once through the North gate we climbed the man made hill (built from the dirt excavated during the construction of the moat) where you could find the best view of Beijing and the Forbidden City in all its glory.

To finish off the evening Crystal purchased our tickets for the Beijing acrobat show, one of the many performances that are famous here. It was incredible and if you ever find yourself needing something to do in Beijing I highly recommend it. There were ladies twirling umbrellas with their feet, and maybe twelve of them riding on one bicycle. Guys were juggling hats and doing somersaults through ten foot high or higher rings and balancing girls above their heads using their arms or at one point head/neck. For the grand finale they had eight or nine motorcyclists riding around in a steal ball. These performers are crazy talented and have been doing this their whole life. One of our Chinese professors told us that the parents start them in classes when they are two or three, and they perform for the rest of their life. It was bananas and I am still flipping out about it.

Day two we spent at the Great Wall and the Summer Palace, with the majority spent at the wall. It took about an hour to get to Badaling, where we climbed part of the wall. In Crystal's opinion it has the best view and is one of the easier places to climb. With that being said, there were times where you felt like you were climbing steps going straight up into the air almost equivalent to climbing a ladder. It was still a hefty climb, but so much fun and the view was spectacular!

Summer Palace

The Summer palace was pretty neat, but it took a little longer to get there than expected, and we basically power climbed/walked through the place (30 minutes tops). The Summer palace was built by the same emperor that constructed the Forbidden City and was the prime summer get-away. It can be excruciatingly hot during the summers in China, and this palace is situated on a massive hill by a lake, which provided a cooler environment during the hot summer months. And, fun fact, the opening picture of this post is the canal that welcomes visitors to the palace. In its hay day the shops situated along the canal were for the emperor's family and his concubines whenever the palace was in use. China's emperors had a reputation of having multiple concubines, when I say multiple I mean thousands, and whoever was favored most by the emperor became the empress.  So, if you wanted to take out an emperor all you had to do was get some beautiful lady to breach the inner circle. There were so many interesting and fun facts gained on these journeys.

Temple of Heaven

For our final day with Crystal we started out at Tian'an Men Square, but did not stick around very long, only about 20 minutes. I do not think it is a favorite hang out spot of the locals or many Chinese for that matter. Next came the Temple of Heaven, which is, like the name suggests, a temple :) This is one of the largest temple complexes in China. In ancient times it was believed that the emperors were the sons of heaven and could speak with the gods represented by their spirit tablets. In this way the emperor would  pray on behalf of his people and ask for a good harvest. During  the Ming and Qing dynasties this temple was apparently off-limits to the common folk. It was all very interesting and I took some exciting jumping pictures of the others in the group. Good times were had by all :)

Summer Palace 

After a quick stop at a famous old shopping street with traditional style buildings, jam packed with antiques and trinkets, our small group became smaller when Tyler, Ryan and I were dropped off near our new hostel. Crystal kindly walked us to the correct street then bid us farewell. Later in the evening after playing three hours of cards and relaxing a bit, the three of us walked to the a street dedicated to food. On one side of the street was a line buffet style food booths, full of many interesting meats on a stick, Chinese dumplings, noodles, fruit on a stick, and other various things on a stick. Being our last night in Beijing we decided to live it up and try some different meat on a stick. We decided on three different meats (cat, dog, and snake), which all ended up being a little chewy and not at all what you would expect. I personally liked the snake and would choose that over the other two any day. So ended our last night in Beijing and the beginning of spring break.

Next will be our adventures in Xi'an, the most ancient city in China (if my memory serves me well). And now, dear friends, I wish you all a good-night and a fare morrow :) See you when I see you. Much love