We are baaaack!! Yet another 2 plane rides and 3 loooong days later. But we had fun. The boys got to see and climb the Great Wall for the first time, and Alex really enjoyed that, even if he was freezing his little toes off.
Day 3. We arrived in Beijing too late to do much. So we just walked around in the area of the hotel and kicked back for the night. The boys enjoyed the hotel room a lot, and Alex wanted it to be much bigger and with a kitchen. Jared just wanted to jump from one bed to another. And since we had 3 in the room side by side, it turned out to be quite a jungle gym.
Day 4. The Great Wall. It was soooo cold. Despite being mostly bundled up, we were still freezing. But the Great Wall was packed! With tourists, and vendors trying to sell you everything from hats to books, to plaques to coins, everything with the Great Wall squarely plastered on it. We got sucked into buying two little metal plaques with the boys names engraved (albeit crudely) on them saying Alex and Jared has climbed the Great Wall. Woohoo! We lasted all of two lookout towers' worth only, cuz my dad was exhausted and so was Jared. I had to pick him up and carry him the whole way down. My poor arms were sore for the next 2 days!
Then we went to an ancient tomb (or rather the museum where they kept stuff that was discovered in the tomb), and the gods' way, a LONG walkway lined with stoned sculptures of people and animals. Relaxing but not very interesting. that.
We went to Pizza Hut for dinner. They had escargots in Pizza Hut here!
Day 5. We went to the Forbidden City, Tianmen Square, and the Emporer's gardens. Forbidden City turned out to be quite a disappointment, since most of the main buildings were under repairs. Guess the government wanted to repair them in winter time where there aren't that many tourists. The funny thing is they had this huge cover for the entire building where all the constrution and repair works are being done undercover. Only they printed a picture of what the building looks like on the front of the huge cover. So from afar, it actually looked like that build's still there. Weird!
There's a 720+ meters long walkway in the Emporer's gardens. One side of the walkway is a huge lake. and the other side is the mountains where stood atop the mountain is a beautifully constructed temple. It's good to be the Emporer.
We met some relatives for dinner that night. We had the famous PeKing (Beijing) duck. They even gave us a certificate that tells u the number the duck you ate is in the history of duck eating in their restaurant. Woohoo! We ate ducks number 115,182,295 and 115,182,296. How exciting!
Day 6. We went to The Temple of Prayers to the Gods, and some old dude's house. Well, the old dude is actually some high up person in the Emporer's days of course. Yet another ellaborately done home with lots of beautiful buildings and walkways. But by now we're so done with old buildings that it's not hitting us much any more. And 'sides, we've seen the Emporer's house, what's another old dude's house worth?!
The Temple of Prayers though, was nice. Very open space and lots of gild work, like the rest of the relics in this old city.
The funny thing about Beijing is that all these ancient sights sit in the middle of the city and mingles with the modern day life and the highrisers that go up all around it. Everywhere in Beijing you can see a corner of some old architechture peeking out from amongst the shiny glass and steel. Quite an interesting city in all.
We came home after the sightseeing that day and it was good to be home. Only it's not really home. Wish we were really home...
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