Our First Visit To Beiijing

On Tuesday, March 31, Taylor, Britton, Steve and I took a flight to Beijing.  Taylor had business with one of his dealers.  He and Jen graciously arranged for a driver, car and guide to take us to see some of those northern sights.  We arrived just before noon.  Crystal was our guide the first day.  She had the driver take us about an hour out of the city to the Great Wall.

We had lunch in a little restaurant near the designated entrance and our guide helped us purchase tickets to ride the gondola up the mountain to the entrance.  We also purchased tickets to ride the toboggans back down.  There were plenty of stairs when we actually reached the wall so I was happy to ride most of the way up and down.  Steve thought I was being a bit foolish to ride the toboggan but I knew Britton would probably like it.  As it turned out, we all liked it.  They said to remove glasses.  That was funny.  It wasn't that fast and I needed my glasses so I could see to steer the vehicle.

As you can see, there were plenty of steps to climb once we got on the wall.

We went all the way down to the guard house and Britton went up the stairs on the other side.  We allowed him to explore with his youthful exuberance.  It is tough touring with senior citizens.

It as a cloudy day but we could still see quite a ways in the distance and we were grateful for that.  This section of the wall above is original and hasn't been restored.  It is also not accessible to tourists.

The Great Wall is truly amazing and hard to even visualize that it continues on for about 3000 miles.  Many men died building this wall and are buried underneath it.  Some people refer to it as the Great Tomb.

 When we arrived back in Beijing, we asked our driver to drive by some of the Olympic venues.  This building is still under construction and no one seems to know what its purpose is.  However, it is very unusual and captured our interest.

 Here is the Olympic Cube, the swimming venue for the 2008 Summer Olympics. The walls looked like cubes of water.

 Here is another usual building called the Birdnest.  It was used for all the track events. We think it was named for its shape like a nest.

 Beijing is a more open, spread out city than Shanghai and it doesn't have as many unusual, tall skyscrapers.  The streets are wider.

 Here Britton and I are in the lobby of our hotel.  It was pretty fancy.  Taylor said they had about doubled the prices from the last time he stayed there.  We only stayed one night so it was okay.

 Here we are at one of Taylor's favorite chain restaurants.  They had a lot of choices.  I think that Britton tried a lamb kabob or something like that.  It was one of his favorite dishes on the trip.

 The next morning the buffet at the hotel was FABULOUS.  We have never seen a nicer breakfast buffet.  Too bad I spent most of my time in the hall on the phone with a client frustrated by a poor appraisal.  I was glad I paid for the global service but sorry that problems continued to arise back home with my business.

 There is a huge Russian section of town in Beijing.  Here is some of the Russian writing on this building.

 I left my phone charger in Shanghai so our guide took a to a Samsung store in a very nice shopping area near Tiananmen Square.  It was a modern Chinesey looking upscale market created just for the Olympics.  They literally tore down huge areas of the city and rebuilt it for the Olympics.  They closed down factories to improve air quality too.

 Here is our guide for Wednesday, April 1st.  His name was Tony.  He was used to larger groups, so he really enjoyed being with us because he didn't have to herd a large group.  It was great to have him because he not only told us much about the history of the places we saw but he knew ways to get the tickets without us having to stand in the long lines.  And there were lots of long lines.

 Here's Mao's tomb where he supposedly lays on display.  There were huge lines wrapped around the building.  We passed up that opportunity to view the man so revered and yet so responsible for millions of Chinese deaths.

 Here is a monument to the Heroes of the People.  There are large state buildings on either side of the square that are used for official business occasionally.

 These students are specially selected for their achievements and as their reward they get to stand near the monument at attention for two hours.  Then some other students replace them.

 We saw the changing of the guard.  Notice that they are all the same height.  They looked really young.  I believe our guide said 16-18.  One time there was another unit dressed in black suits marching behind the uniformed group.  Our guide said they were the underground guard.  That really got us chuckling since no one for miles around was dressed like they were so what was so "underground" or secret about them.  Too funny to us.

 Mao's picture hangs above the entrance to the Forbidden City used for centuries when China was governed by emperors.  No commoners were allowed into the Forbidden City when it was occupied by the emperors.  Most family members never left that compound.  It was huge, but just having a wall, makes me want to go out and see on the other side of it.

 There were hundreds of pots scattered throughout the city.  They were filled with water in case there was ever a fire.  Some of them were still gold plated.

 Here is one of the emperor's thrones.  Our guide said that for his safety, the emperor slept in a different bed every night.  That way an assassin couldn't ever find him to kill him.  There were thousands of bedrooms for the emperor and his many wives and concubines.

 Here is one of the gold pots behind Britton and Steve.

 This stone carving was incredible to see.

 The lions are symbolic to the Chinese.

 Here are some facades that haven't been repainted in recent years.  They were much more dull.  Here is also a huge incense burner.  They are big on incense.

 Another throne room.

 In the very back of the HUGE Forbidden City were the emperor's gardens.  They were beautiful and were our favorite spot.  The blooming trees were truly lovely.

 After we left the Forbidden City, we went to a park across the street called Jingshan Park where a small palace had been built for a son of one of the emperor's.  If they weren't the son who was to assume the reign, then they had to leave the city and find somewhere else to live.  One had this small palace built atop a hill nearby.  It was a bit of a hike but was clear enough to have a panoramic view of the city from all sides.  Our guide said it was rare that you can actually see the city.  We were fortunate.

 This is the back gate of the Forbidden City.  The central gate lines up all the way from the entrance to all other major buildings clear through Tianneman Square.

 All of those rooftops as far as you can see are part of the Forbidden City. It is huge.

 This was a group in the corner of the palace that had costumes people could put on to have their photos taken.  It was interesting to see but not to participate in.

 The other side of the city viewed from the small palace.

 We didn't have time to hit the night market on our first day in Beijing so our guide took us to a tourist area where we could see the scorpions and beetles deep fried on a stick.  Notice the KFC restaurant.  The Chinese love KFC.

 These scorpions were wiggling and still alive prior to begin deep fried.

 Here are the beetles and scorpions after being fried.  I guess they are crunchy.  We didn't taste them.

 Steve, Britton and our guide, Tony, at the market where they sold the fried beetles.

 Many of the Hutong neighborhoods of Beijing were torn down and replaced before the Olympics.  Hutong's were built by the Mongolian immigrants as narrow streets build around places to get water.

 This Hutong was preserved and turned into trendy shops for the tourists.  We ate at a very good pizza restaurant there.  The authentic Chinese place our guide first suggested just didn't look appetizing.  Our guide loves hot, spicy food and put Tabasco sauce all over his pizza.

 This worker looked safe and secure.  No OSHA rules in China.

 These little motorized delivery carts were all over Beijing.  Some of them just had passenger seats like rickshaw type vehicles.

 Next we went to the Lama Palace, originally built for an emperor's son's family.  Later it was converted to a huge Buddhist monastery and palace.  There is a huge 78 foot Buddha, supposedly the largest in the world, inside one of the temples.  We saw it but respected their wishes against taking a photo.

 Many people came to burn incense and bow three times on the ground in front of a Buddha in prayer.  There were many such opportunities inside of this huge compound.

 This is a temple to honor Confucius which was just a couple of blocks away.  We didn't have time to tour this smaller facility.

 I think this picture was just taken to show how spread out Beijing is.  It really had a different feel that Shanghai.

 By 4 o'clock we were back at the airport for our flight back to Shanghai.  Taylor had left that morning.  He needed to get back but didn't realize that his office staff had a birthday surprise for him. We missed his birthday party.  Because of many delays, we didn't arrive home until 1 a.m. in the morning.  I felt sorry for Taylor's driver who was there to pick us up. We had to use the code to get in the apartment as everyone in the household was sound asleep.