Our train back left later in the morning (on purpose, I wanted to get more sleep). We were up at 7am and went for breakfast. Originally I had thought maybe we would walk to the station (it’s not too far, a couple of blocks and over a bridge) but opted to have the hotel call a taxi. In the end it was the right choice since there was no way we could have seen to...
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The final stop of the day was to the Summer Palace, about a 30 minute drive away. It was very busy here and were left to roam for 1hr. We had the option to take the metro (subway) home and stay as long as we wanted, but I wasn’t comfortable trying to navigate that, so we walked around in the time we had. You could have spent the whole day there, especially...
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After lunch, we went to the Temple of Heaven, a religious group of buildings. Our hotel was just down the road. We spent about 45 minutes here, with 15 minutes roaming freely....
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After the Forbidden City, our tour took us to a local restaurant for lunch. It was good food, and typical of what we’ve been eating for the last few weeks.
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It was an early start and by the time we got to the Forbidden City, it was already very busy with people. See the previous post. The tour guide today (different than yesterday) was a little easier to understand but I was unable to really record because there was so many people, you wouldn’t have heard here. But she did a fantastic job explaining everything. It...
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Today we had to be outside even earlier, 6:30 pickup. I assume we must be the first ones picked up. We had breakfast downstairs again and drove around the different hotels picking up everyone. Our first stop for the day was the Forbidden City. More of that in the next post. What’s important to note here is that It’s National Week (ie think of our Jul 1)...
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We were the last stop for the hotel drop offs, with the hour+ drive back, it was 7PM by the time we arrived. We were pretty tired and not in the mood for local fair. Thankfully there was a KFC down the road and decided to give it a try for the first time in China. We got the ‘meal deal’ that I didn’t think the girls would finish but sure enough we...
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After we finished at the Great Wall, we headed back (we had at least an hours drive back). On the way, we stopped at a traditional tea house that brought us into a back room and showed us the different teas and how they make them.
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It was exciting as we drove in to see the wall from afar. And to give you an idea how far north of Beijing we had to travel: We were dropped off very close to the entrance around 12:30PM. The guide explained that we needed to be back down for 2:30 to have the lunch they provide at the local restaurant. There are 2 ways to reach the wall – walk or cable ride....
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The area all around the Ming Tomb and Great Wall is farmland and orchards. So many vendors selling their peaches and apples and pumpkins on the roadside. If that wasn’t pretty enough, they plant wildflowers for the bees EVERYWHERE. It really is a beautiful sight. The great wall was about an hour away through rolling hills and countryside with small villages....
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