China boasts some of the most ancient history in the world dating back more than 3,500 years ago and has the 3rd highest number of World Heritage Sites with 43 total. Exploring the beautiful countryside along with learning the rich culture that has shaped the world was a great experience and we were so glad to take advantage of our time left in Asia with one last trip to China.
Tips Before You Travel: Bring a roll of toilet paper (you
can thank me later) China has about 98% squatting toilets that you can smell
before you see. At what point does a modern city not dispose of bodily waste in
a hole in the ground!?!?!?
The subway system has been upgraded and has all signs
written in pinyin (English form of Chinese characters) so it is easy to
understand and follow. Most trips anywhere you go are CNY 2 ($0.75) person
around the city, so quite economical. Signs around the city are not written
in English and people don’t speak English, so have a map and plan of where you
want to go.
Oddities in China: Parents dress their babies in pants that
have a hole in the seat instead of wearing diapers. If they have to go to the
restroom, they simple squat in the middle of the street and go…interesting way
of potty training I suppose???? Kaes and I both saw it happen several times and still couldn't believe it. I didn't want to take a picture as it felt violating, so use your imagination....
We flew out after work on Thursday, May 23rd and took the Malaysia Airlines flight at 6 pm from
Kuala Lumpur 6 hours to Beijing and arrived a little after midnight. After dealing with taxi drivers, we finally got to the hotel around 3 am. During our stay in Beijing, we stayed at the
Novotel Xin Qiao which was a great location to walk out to the Chongwenmen subway station (Lines 2 and 5) right outside the hotel. It is an easy walk to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City (if you start off in the right direction)
Since we got in so late, we slept in a bit and then decided to venture out towards the Forbidden City. It turns out my poor sense of direction (due only to baby brain) led us walking in the wrong
direction for 1.5 hours.
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| A beautiful garden we past walking in the wrong direction ;) |
I was also a bit over ambitious at my ability to hike through the streets of Beijing, and therefore, was pretty tired and ready to head back to the room for a nap to recharge. We were both very tired from jet lag so came back to
the room and took it easy. After a brief nap, we went out in search of dinner on the famous
Wangfujing street and night market. Not exactly what I had in mind for dinner...you can get any insect/small animal deep fried from worms, scorpions, seahorses, and starfish to baby ducks...
Saturday we finally made it to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, or what used to be called the Imperial Palace. It was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty, located in the middle of Beijing, China, and now houses the Palace Museum. For almost five hundred years, it served as the home of emperors and their households, as well as the ceremonial and political center of Chinese government. The Forbidden City is one of Beijing’s largest landmarks and in 1987 was declared a UNESCO Heritage site. It earned its
common name from the fact that ordinary citizens were not allowed to approach
the complex during the 500 years of its use. Entrance fee of CNY 60 per person ($10 USD)
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| Tiananman Square spring flowers |
Sunday was another busy day to first the Temple of Heaven. The complex was visited by the Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties for annual ceremonies of prayer to Heaven for good harvest. Next we headed to the north part of the city to the Bell & Drum Tower and to Olympic Park. The Bird’s Nest (National Stadium) & Water Cube were home to the 2008
Beijing Summer Olympics. Ground was broken on the Bird's Nest on December 24, 2003. At its height, 17,000 construction workers worked on the stadium and the project overall costs US$423 million to build.
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| Drum Tower performance |
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| National Stadium - "Bird's Nest" and home to the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics |
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| Water Cube built for the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics |
Monday we got up early to catch the 877 express bus (you can also take the 919 public bus, they are all lime green; either one costs CNY 12/pp or $2 USD) on an hour ride from Dongshenmen Tower to the The Great
Wall at Badaling It was a clean bus and fairly comfortable for such a bargain price. We started our climb at the entrance to Bear Park at Tower 10 CNY 45 ($7.50 USD with an optional Gondola ride back down for CNY 60/$10 USD) We opted for the Gondola ride down at Tower 8 as it was a feat for me to climb straight up steep stairs and inclines at exactly 5 months pregnant!!!
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| 20 Weeks pregnant climbing the Great Wall |
Our morning was quite strenuous and tiresome, but we didn't let that stop us! Our next destination to hit was the
Summer Palace on the way back in the afternoon from The Great Wall. The Summer Palace is mainly dominated by Longevity Hill and the
Kunming Lake. It covers an expanse of 2.9 square kilometres, three quarters of which is water. Longevity Hill is about 60 metres (200 feet) high and has many buildings positioned in sequence. The front hill is rich with splendid halls and pavilions, while the back hill, in sharp contrast, is quiet with natural beauty. The central Kunming Lake covering 2.2 square kilometres was entirely man made and the excavated soil was used to build Longevity Hill. In the Summer Palace, one finds a variety of palaces, gardens, and other classical-style architectural structures
. In December 1998,
UNESCO included the Summer Palace on its
World Heritage List
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| Longevity Hill |
Tuesday was an easy day as all of the running around and climbing got the best of us. We had a nice lunch and then went to the Yonghegong Lama & Confucious Temple in the afternoon.
Wednesday morning we took an 8 am flight 1.5 hours south to Xi’an. We stayed at the
Grand Noble Hotel which was very nice for ~$88 USD/night for a 5 star quality hotel. Since we got in late in the afternoon, we checked in and opted for an early dinner at Papa John’s with {REAL} pork and shopping at Wal-Mart to top of our first day. Not exactly like home, but interesting none the less.
Tip: If you are staying near to the center of the city
(close to the Bell Tower) take the bus one-way for CNY 26 /pp ($4.25) for a
clean and economical ride. Taxis will not use the meter and try to charge you CNY 200 (~$35 USD)
Thursday we opted to hire a private car and a guide for CNY 450 for the full day ($75 USD) to take us to the Banpo Museum, artifacts
from first signs of family life, and the main ancient attraction of Xi'an, The Terracotta Warriors -
$25 USD/pp entry fee. The
Terracotta Warriors were sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first and most ruthless Emperor of China. The army was buried with the emperor in 210–209 BC with the purpose to protect the emperor in his afterlife. There are over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses that took over 700,000 people to construct.
Xi'an is well known for its Chinese dumplings, so that night we went to the
Tang Dynasty Opera for a Dumpling Dinner & Cultural Show and Dance. The show had 10 different cultural performances with majestic dancers and beautiful costumes. Definitely a must see if you make it to Xi'an.
Unfortunately, I started feeling bad and very tired so we took the day easy by walking to the Bell & Drum Tower in the middle of the city not too far from our hotel. Dinner at Papa John's was so good the night before, we had to go again, then headed in for an early night.
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| Bell Tower in Xi'an at night |
Saturday we left around noon to get our flight back to Beijing. We had a long layover of about 7 hours, so decided to take the Airport Express train CNY 25 ($4 USD) into the city for dinner. It is said that if you come to Beijing and don't try the famous Peking Duck, then you haven't truly experienced China. After much research, we decided on a restaurant in the financial district well known for Peking Duck called
Da Dong Roast Duck. We ordered a whole duck with all the condiments along with a caesar salad and it was absolutely delicious! A chef came to the table and spent 10 minutes precisely carving the duck so that each bite was a perfect proportion of skin, fat and meat. The savoury crispy skin paired with white sugar melted in your mouth. It was truly a wonderful dining experience we were glad we didn't miss!
Beijing and Xi’an were both completely full of loud people,
polluted streets and air, and people that spoke very little to no English, but
despite some of the small setbacks, we had a great time learning some of the
world’s most ancient history. It was definitely a memorable trip and one we
were glad to experience as our last trip in Asia before moving back to North
America!
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