So we just got back from China and had a great trip. This might be a long blog, so let's just dive in.
We started holidays last Thursday and woke up with Ali's computer refusing to turn on so we decided to make a trip to the Mac store in Myong Dong, Seoul. We found out her hard drive is destroyed along with half the keyboard so, instead of replacing it, Ali will probably just need to get a new computer when she gets home. Consequently, we're now sharing a computer so it might be harder to find us on Skype as often.
Friday was New Year's Eve so we just spent the day running errands and getting ready for China and then, in the evening, we got a hotel near Jonggak, Seoul - where all the New Years festivities happen. We had dinner and met our friends at a bar and then braved the freezing temperatures to see the big countdown and concert near Jonggak station (a comparable event to what goes on in Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto). Right after midnight, we headed back to the hotel since we needed to be up at 5 for our flight.
We woke up early and flew to China, meeting our guide Baijing at the airport. He took us right to the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City is about 1 square kilometer big and was built by emperors in Ancient China for their private living quarters. It was pretty amazing and it backs on to Tian'anmen Square. It was surreal being in such a famous place where so many important historical events happened. Mao's giant portrait looked over us as we explored the massive city square.
After that we were taken to a Chinese silk factory where we learned about the silk making process and were pressured to buy things, but said no, having no money. Then we got lunch at a Chinese restaurant (obviously). We forgot how amazing and flavourful food can be!
After lunch we went to the Temple of Heaven, a massive temple on a hill, surrounded by a beautiful park. It was insanely beautiful and great to walk around the grounds.
That evening we went shopping in some crazy story that our guide compared to Walmart but that had almost no similarities to it. It was like a warehouse/maze jammed with tons of people. After that, we went to see an acrobatics show. It was very similar to the one we saw in Jeju-island but with less skilled performers and the theatre was freezing so it wasn't the most enjoyable part.
Then we went to dinner at a Peking Duck buffet. Beijing is famous for the duck and Jesse had some but said it was only okay. I wasn't feeling great, mostly because I was so tired so I didn't eat much and we just went back to the hotel after that.
The next morning, we woke up early and headed to the Great Wall. We passed the Olympic buildings from the Beijing Olympics, passing the Birds' Nest and the Water Cube.
On the way, we went to a jade store. China is famous for it's jade and it's really important in Chinese history. They showed us all the different kinds of jade and how they produce it and we bought ourselves some jade chopsticks for a souvenir.
Finally, we got to the Great Wall. It was just as incredible as we imagined it would be. We went to the most popular tourist spot of the wall, called Badaling, but it wasn't very crowded because it was winter and a holiday. It was really cold up on the wall but, once we started climbing, we warmed up quickly. We climbed past about six beacon towers, taking tons of pictures. It was absolutely amazing.
Then we headed to the Ming Tombs. There are 13 emperors tombs near the Great Wall but only two are opened and they were both under construction so we contented ourselves by looking at a small museum with artifacts from the tombs. It was a little boring but still okay.
After that, we got lunch at another Chinese restaurant. Whoever says American Chinese food is nothing like real Chinese food is wrong. It's pretty much the same, although we never saw spring rolls or chicken balls.
After lunch, we went back to the city and to a tea house. They showed us a traditional tea ceremony but it wasn't in English. After about 10 minutes, we realized they were speaking Russian to us so we told them we were English and everyone was quite embarrassed. We got an English speaking tea lady and heard the whole talk again. It was actually great - we tasted about 7 kinds of tea, all of which were amazing. Both of us loved thing one tea called ginseng oolong and so we bought some as well as some cool mugs to take home.
After that, we were left to our own devices for the evening so we walked to a nearby mall and looked around and got Pizza Hut for dinner, not wanting the challenge of reading a Chinese menu.
The next day we woke up early again and headed to the Summer Palace. It is a massive man-made lake and tons of buildings and gardens that the emperor built for his summer getaway. It was stunningly beautiful in the winter so I can only imagine how incredible it is in summertime. We spent a few hours walking around and exploring the different amazing sights the palace had to offer.
Then we went to a Chinese Pearl store and saw how they collect the pearls, the different types of pearls and we even saw pearls that came from the very lake the Summer Palace was built on. Very cool.
After that we headed into old Beijing to see the Hutongs. A hutong is basically a narrow lane from ancient Beijing that families have lived in for generations. We got a rickshaw tour of the hutongs and got to meet a family who lived there. Their son was in America teaching kung fu and his dad showed us some cool kung fu moves.
After that, we got lunch again, at a Chinese place near our hotel. We had the rest of the afternoon off, as well as the next day to ourselves.
Having seen all the most popular tourist sights in Beijing already, we went to the one we next most wanted to see. It was the Capital Museum, housing tons of important Chinese art and artifacts. It also had a really cool photography exhibit of modern Beijing, which we both really liked.
We met our guide again the next afternoon and went to the airport to head home.
Now we're both back to school but we had a great time in Beijing. Absolutely amazing.
Talk to you soon!
Ali and Jesse
