Day 5 in China

This morning we rushed to check out of hotel to catch our flight to Hong Kong.  We struggled with our luggage down to the Metro with the crush of Monday Morning commuters...it was super awkward.

Once we made it onto the Airport Express train it was a lot less crowded and a smooth ride for the rest of the way.  After checking in for our flight and perusing the souvenir shops we had a great brunch (at 2pm) of Fried rice, fried mixed vegetables and noodles.  Had we known that the flight was going to offer a meal (yay!) we might have eaten less but still managed to eat all of the scrumptious vegetarian meal they gave us.

During the flight Hong Kong Airlines offered free movies, TV and games.  I watched Men In Black 2 and some of Little Miss Sunshine (one of my favorite movies!) and the 3 1/2 hour flight was over!

After landing and getting our luggage we met a couple from Oregon who were living in Hong Kong with their 3 children (all under 5 years old).  They recommended Shek O Beach and Dragon's Peak hike and told us they were super jealous of our travel plans.  

Day 4 in Beijing

Today we took the subway to get to the Lama Temple, which has the largest Tibetan Buddhist monastery in the world!

Lama Temple Gate

Gorgeous grounds around the temple

Maitreya Buddha in the Hall of the Heavenly Kings

Roof of the Temple

Board of the Yonghe Temple

World's Largest Buddha in the Pavilion of Ten Thousand Happinesses

After temple-ing for a few hours we hopped back onto the subway to the Summer Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and Empress Dowager Cixi's summer resort.  We had a quick, surprisingly good lunch of fried rice and noodles at a restaurant nearby and got ready to check out the goods.

The unfortunate thing is that we were both wearing jeans and short sleeved shirts, and it was only about 10 degrees Celsius.  I almost caved and bought a "I Heart Bird's Nest" hoody, for $25, but decided to buy a lot of heated beverages instead.

We walked next to an amazing man-made lake, and were too cold for a paddle boat ride so did some climbing up to the Tower of Buddhist Incense!

Kunming Lake

Amongst the lily pads!

View of the 17 Arch Bridge

Pottery and Telephone museum

View of the Tower of Buddhist Incense on the top of Longevity Hill

We paid our second entrance fee of the afternoon and climbed about 50 steps to get up to the Tower of Buddhist Incense. From there we could see almost all of Beijing, even with the smog.

One Thousand Guanyin Buddha

View of a sweet pagoda from the Tower

Unfortunately, on my way out of the Summer Palace I bumped into the rudest tourist I have ever encountered.  The line for the squat toilets was fairly long and tempers were flaring at the end of the day.  As we were waiting, an oblivious Chinese woman started cutting the line and this brunette near the front announced that she was from California and that she was going to "Elbow this woman in the face if she doesn't stop trying to get to the front of the line"!  The Chinese woman got the message and left the line entirely and at this the brunette proudly nodded her head and then was actually congratulated by two other North American tourists.  I was so embarrassed to have witnessed such bad behavior and felt like apologizing to every other Chinese person in the line.  I don't think these Americans had been in China very long because as we have observed, the concept of "a line" just doesn't compute for some cultures and its just one of those things you deal with when traveling!

We had made reservations for a Peking Duck (read: fancy) dinner at a well-reviewed restaurant in the Grand Hyatt Hotel called Made in China so we got gussied up and high tailed it over there.  We started off with a glass of red wine from their extensive collection, which included wine from St. Emilion, a wine region in France we stayed in about 3 years ago.  Our appetizers were braised bok choi with mushrooms and it was delicious!  We had pre-ordered our half duck as recommended and also ordered fried rice as a side dish but we really didn't need it. 

First sip picture...ahhh

Appetizers

Brown fried rice

Peking Duck is one of Beijing's most famous dishes and is one of China's national foods.  The chef tries to get the skin of the duck just right (thin and crispy) before it is sliced off and served to munch on.  The meat thats sliced off is eaten with Chinese pancakes, hoisin sauce, sweet bean sauce, sugar, onions and celery. 

The chef preparing the duck a few feet away

He sliced us off what seemed like a lot of skin, which had been sweetened and was crispy. Ty and I both did not like the skin; it had a very strange texture and melted in your mouth which was actually a little revolting.  We both really enjoyed the duck meat in the pancakes; I went with no sauce and just some celery to crisp it up.  Despite eating mostly vegetarian on this trip so far, I definitely felt bad eating this meat as we have seen so many ducks/chickens...etc strung up and cooked at street stalls and restaurants.  But overall it was a good experience and the meal finished with duck broth in a wood cup.

After over-eating we decided to check out the Wanfujing Night Market area, which is a pedestrian only shopping area near the hotel.  Despite it being 9:30pm we saw people square dancing/line dancing (all serious faces, no smiles), teenagers break-dancing, and of course lots of shopping!

Finally got a shot of a scooter with mitten handles!

  

Day 3 in China

The early-morning view of Beijing from our hotel room

This may surprise some of you who know our late morning tendencies but we actually woke up at 6:30 am to make it to the Great Wall before the other tourists!

We went to catch a cab from our hotel doorman, but then watched in shock as he let at least 1 Asian take the cab he had flagged for us...we did eventually get a cab and arrived at the Beijing tourist hub at 8:00 am. Unfortunately there was no one in sight but locals doing tai chi and letting their dogs poop on the sidewalk.

Disappointed but still hopeful we would find some help, we walked 15 or so blocks back to Tiananmen Square to try and find the other tourist hub before 8:30am.  Unfortunately, once we got there we didn't find much besides street vendors and uniformed guards who don't speak English. 

After much wandering about looking lost, we found someone offering tours of the Wall.  We struck up a deal after much haggling and walking away, and then we were on our way in a private car! 

An interesting building on our way out of town...

It took about 1 hour to get out of Beijing and to the small villages outside of the Great Wall.  And yes, there was actually a Subway on the way!

Tons of vendors on the way leading up to the footpath of the Great Wall

We opted to climb up the Mutianyu Wall (there were also cable cars) and 45 mins later, after several rest breaks, we were standing on the Wall!  It is truly a wonder of the world and hard to even describe :)

Feeling it...

Still climbing...

After walking along the wall for about an hour the blister on my left foot was starting to ache so I freed Ty to climb as far as he could in 45 minutes, when we had agreed to be back at the car to meet our driver.  I watched him zoom up the steps of the Wall and he actually made it to the point of the Wall with the letters (check out the photo above), while I chilled and took pics with my phone.  I was also the subject of pictures from several Asian men, man was that awkward!

The view from where Ty climbed

A vendor on the Wall gave Ty a Chinese and Canadian flag and a hat to pose with...

We then rode toboggans, yes toboggans, on a metal track all the way back down, then walked back to our driver, who had been waiting for an extra 45 mins (due to the popularity of the toboggans and the SUPER-line).  

We bribed our driver to take us back to our hotel instead of Tiananmen Square and then Ty went on a solo run to get liquor for our movie date...we scrambled over to the Oriental Plaza Mall and had a quick meal of Shrimp Wonton noodles and Veggie noodles (sorry no pics!) before we managed to get tickets to Total Recall.  I almost didn't make it through the movie, even though it was pretty entertaining...

Tomorrow we will tackle the Lama Temple, the Summer Palace and maybe even Belhai Park!

Cheers!