Hey everyone! Look at me - two posts in two days! Just trying to catch up on everything :)
Anyway, back to my whirlwind travels in May... I got back from Ho Chi Minh just after midnight, and the next day at 4pm, I boarded a plane to Beijing. I had to go up to China for work, and luckily, I was able to take in some of the sights as well!
We arranged to have an English speaking tour guide come and pick us up from our hotel to take us to see Tienanmen Square, the Forbidden City, and the Great Wall of China. The Wall is one of the items on my Singapore Bucket List that I didn't think I would get a chance to cross off, so I was very excited to finally see it!!
The most immediate thing you notice when you pull up to Tienanmen is the sheer number of people. They are absolutely everywhere!
This whole complex was actually enormous. I think it took us more than 90 minutes to simply walk from one side to the other! Tons to look at though, so it was well worth it.
After we had crossed through to the other side, we headed out of Beijing to go see the Wall!! We were planning to come up through the Mutianyu entrance, which is a bit further outside of Beijing but supposedly less crowded.
And then we arrived at the Mutianyu entrance! We planned to take the cable car up and spend some time walking around before coming back down via cable car.
I have to say that the Great Wall of China was absolutely spectacular. I'm positive that my pictures don't do it justice. It was really just an amazing site and incredible to see in person. Although the Wall has undergone some restoration efforts, it is still just really crazy to think that it was all built by hand! The sheer size of it is really just incredible. Definitely worth the expensive Visa!!!
And of course, we couldn't leave Beijing without having some Peking duck for dinner! I found a place using my typical trusted resources (Chowhound and Trip Advisor) and had the hotel print the name in Mandarin for us. Even still, our taxi driver got lost and couldn't find the place! I was actually pretty surprised at the lack of English spoken in Beijing, but I was really glad that Stephanie had told me to just call places directly and let the taxi drivers speak to the restaurant / hotel!
The next morning, we headed off to Tianjin. In my mind, Tianjin was meant to be a bit of a smaller city with an industrial feel. I hadn't done any proper research, but that was just what my gut told me. Imagine my surprise when I learned that nearly 13 million people live in Tianjin!!! Sometimes it really is hard to fathom just how massive China is.
My time in Tianjin was pretty packed with work things, but it was a lovely trip. In general, I really liked China a lot more than I thought I would!
Anyway, back to my whirlwind travels in May... I got back from Ho Chi Minh just after midnight, and the next day at 4pm, I boarded a plane to Beijing. I had to go up to China for work, and luckily, I was able to take in some of the sights as well!
We arranged to have an English speaking tour guide come and pick us up from our hotel to take us to see Tienanmen Square, the Forbidden City, and the Great Wall of China. The Wall is one of the items on my Singapore Bucket List that I didn't think I would get a chance to cross off, so I was very excited to finally see it!!
The most immediate thing you notice when you pull up to Tienanmen is the sheer number of people. They are absolutely everywhere!
Even some in matching outfits!
This whole complex was actually enormous. I think it took us more than 90 minutes to simply walk from one side to the other! Tons to look at though, so it was well worth it.
These people are all shoving into each other to take a picture of a chair.
This was carved out of one giant piece of stone. Pretty cool huh?
After we had crossed through to the other side, we headed out of Beijing to go see the Wall!! We were planning to come up through the Mutianyu entrance, which is a bit further outside of Beijing but supposedly less crowded.
We stopped for lunch that was obviously suited for tourists.
And then we arrived at the Mutianyu entrance! We planned to take the cable car up and spend some time walking around before coming back down via cable car.
The Prime Minister sat in our cable car!
And then suddenly, the Wall was in sight!
We climbed up at our entrance - tower 14.
INCREDIBLE
At one of the points along the Wall (tower 19 maybe?), there were tons of celebratory drinks. This cracked me up for some reason!
We decided that we were going to climb up to the top!
Super steep
Tower 21! #prepareperu!
And at the bottom - there was a Subway and a Baskin Robbins haha.
I have to say that the Great Wall of China was absolutely spectacular. I'm positive that my pictures don't do it justice. It was really just an amazing site and incredible to see in person. Although the Wall has undergone some restoration efforts, it is still just really crazy to think that it was all built by hand! The sheer size of it is really just incredible. Definitely worth the expensive Visa!!!
And of course, we couldn't leave Beijing without having some Peking duck for dinner! I found a place using my typical trusted resources (Chowhound and Trip Advisor) and had the hotel print the name in Mandarin for us. Even still, our taxi driver got lost and couldn't find the place! I was actually pretty surprised at the lack of English spoken in Beijing, but I was really glad that Stephanie had told me to just call places directly and let the taxi drivers speak to the restaurant / hotel!
Quack
Condiments for Peking duck!
The next morning, we headed off to Tianjin. In my mind, Tianjin was meant to be a bit of a smaller city with an industrial feel. I hadn't done any proper research, but that was just what my gut told me. Imagine my surprise when I learned that nearly 13 million people live in Tianjin!!! Sometimes it really is hard to fathom just how massive China is.
My time in Tianjin was pretty packed with work things, but it was a lovely trip. In general, I really liked China a lot more than I thought I would!
And then, I looked outside the airport and couldn't tell if it was raining or if it was just pollution.
Pollution. Oh, China!
No comments:
Post a Comment