Tuesday morning saw us enjoying our last homestay meal- a delicious breakfast- noodles with small bits of eggs in a light tomato broth, sweet potatoes, and giant scallion pancakes- and then riding back into Beijing. After settling in at our beautiful hotel near Wafujing- the main shopping district in Beijing, -we decided to tackle the Summer Palace. Built in the late 1800’s/ early 1900’s by Empress Cixi (who was also pretty crazy- instead of funding the navy she built herself a shopping street), it replaced the Old Summer Palace- burnt down and looted by the English and French during the 2nd Opium War (the palace makes sure you remember that on almost every sign).
The Summer Palace consisted of some really crazy temples, lots of rooms where the Empress received gifts, beautiful natural wooden sculptures (almost like driftwood) and crazy statues of mythical beasts made up of parts of multiple animals. There was also the Grand Walkway where Cixi could enjoy daily walks under the cover of shade. We had an awesome high tea at a hotel just outside the garden, overlooking cooling hanging trees and a goldfish pond. Then we went back to the palace and hiked around the lake to the bridge of 17 arches (Jay double checked). Jay and Bee got to try their kite-flying skills, on a kite flown by the local seniors that was at least 500 m up in the air- even had a cool homemade wheel contraption (made with a garden hose winder) to help the kite flying process.
We tempted fate further (mostly due to the lack of cabs in Beijing) and rode the subway at rush hour back into town. After meandering through the shopping district, we found our way to an excellent Peking duck (duck wrap in fine tortillas with plum sauce and some veggies)- delicious! One of our oddest moments of the trip occurred here- as we tried to order a side of rice- and found a Chinese restaurant that ran out of rice!
Wednesday we were back at it – after a huge buffet breakfast (Bee loved the donuts, while Jay Mom and Dad tried treats such as congee, noodle soup and sesame balls) and a swim in the pool/ hot tub- we headed off for a bit of shopping. We had a small tea ceremony as Mom picked up some Jasmine tea and then stopped at the Lego store- very unique with an entire Chines facade and other monuments made out of Legos. Next up was the Temple of Heaven- built in the 1400’s in the Ming Dynasty- it was the site where the emperor would travel to annually to pray for good harvests. The whole area is a huge park – and we joined the senior citizens as they got in their calinsthenics in a crazy exercise machine playground..this one guy looked like an Olympic champion on the uneven bars- people in China are hard core! We continued into the park and saw the beautiful flower beds, cool squirrels and birds and then the incredible temple set against the bright blue sky with awesome decoration on every panel! We even saw the temples where the emperor prepared to go to the main temple….After a walk past some cool bridges and through some nice rose gardens, we succeeded in catching a cab to our Yunnan restaurant in the foreign legion district- Lost Heaven. What a gorgeous restaurant and what a feast! Delicious lettuce wraps with minced pork, bbq pork and a great chicken and lemongrass! We really grew to love Yunnan food over the course of the trip- really tasty but with less sauce than most Chinese cuisine. Finally, we took a night walk through Tienanmen Square- the main seat of the Chinese government. Saw Mao Zedong’s Tomb, the Chinese government building and National Museums- all lit up! Also saw all kinds of decorations that were left up from the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China (when Mao Zedong proclaimed the communist government right there in Tienanmen Square) – celebrated just two weeks earlier during their Golden Week. Actually all over China, we saw these crazy topiary statues in the center of each town- all for the 70th anniversary.
So the Great Wall wasn’t the only big walk we did. On Thursday, after another breakfast buffet, we set off amidst a few raindrops we headed off to the Forbidden City and got to see the ancient emperor’s rooms and thrones. The Forbidden City was constructed from 1406 to 1420 and was the imperial palace for all of the rulers of the Ming and Qing dynasties- from 1420 all the way until 1912! It has over 980 buildings and covers over 180 acres. When the emperor lived there it was off limits to all common folks- but now gets over 14 millions tourists per year (they might have all come the same day as us). We toured around for a long time and walked along the top of the border wall (much quieter than the big palaces) – stopping at the very cool corner towers- assembled all without a single nail! We refreshed our memories on the meanings of the cool animals statues on the roof- they guarded off lightning to prevent fires- and the more important the building is, the more statues it got-up to a max of 11! All of the huge doors at the palace had a 9 by 9 grid of gold decorations. Also saw the very cool 5 bridges that the emperor used to leave the Palace and a beautiful garden. After that was the museum of clocks. There they had amazingly decorated clocks from all around the world. After that a bit more Yunnan food at a cool local cafe near the Forbidden City – spice level was a bit higher but still very tasty.
Another odd moment was in store for us on what should have been a quick taxi ride back to the hotel- a Beijing taxi driver who couldn’t stand traffic- actually kicked us out of the cab 4 1/2 blocks away from our hotel in frustration with the traffic.
After a quick stop back in the hotel for a little more hot tub time and some tea (even snuck a look at the cool outer space tea)- we headed back out to the Olympic Park- home of the Bird’s Nest and the Cube- along with many of the other venues from the 2008 Olympics! Area was strangely empty compared to every other tourist attraction in China- a few people in the square, but inside the hige 80,000 Olympic Stadium, it was almost eerily quiet…very few signs and you just wondered around. Saw the Olympic torch, the cool steel structure and the Olympics Track -but the highlight was walking on the roof for at least a half hour. Excellent views of the Olympic Tower- and then even got to see an awesome laser light show held nightly in the stadium. Architecture and lighting of both the cube and Olympic Stadium is awesome. We had a bit of an adventure trying to exit- as kept getting sent in other directions (even saw a very odd wax museum with Pierre de Coubertin)-but finally made it out and rode into the downtown business district for a solid burger (as Bee passed out- well deserved as this was Beijing 25K- that is 25,000 steps!)
Our last day in China started with another great buffet breakfast -then off to see a few more temples, the famous hutongs neighborhoods and some gorgeous lakes. We started at the Llama temple (Yonjhe temple- 300 years old- formerly a princess estate) which was a very an active temple with lots of incense, bells with Chinese scripts, prayer wheels and fouls worshiping. The big attraction- and we mean big- is a 26 meter tall Buddha- the largest to be carved from a single tree (a sandalwood from Nepal- as this temple focuses on Tibetan Buddhisim). Next up was the Confucius Temple- appropriately on the site of Beijing’s oldest college – the Imperial College- built in the 1300’s. The temple is the 2nd largest Confucius temple, after the one in Confucius’s hometown of Qufu. Emperors would come their to worship him and pray for wisdom (so much so that the neighboring hutong specialized in parking for the ceremonies). The temple has lots of stone stellas resting on the backs of turtles with records of great historical events and the names of folks who passed the grand exams. We then wandered through the hutongs- narrow streets and alleys which run through neighborhoods typically sharing a central courtyard. The predominantly grey stone buildings date back as far as 1279. We especially enjoyed a unique cafe where we tried some amazing dumplings. After some more neighborhood walking, a glimpse of what might have been a famous politician near the Bell and Drum towers and some goofy souvenir streets, we came to Haihou Lake. We decided to take a paddleboat out – powered by the boys we cruised around an island, under cool bridges and past beautiful willow type trees. After a few more cool streets (saw Dad’s old cat Snowball’s long lost Chinese cousin) and some ice cream we headed back. Dad and Jay unsuccessfully looked for a food snack street near the hotel and then we said our goodbyes to Beijing.
What a trip! Now lets get some sleep on the plane- may the force be with us!
