Tour of China: Beijing

Top 10 in Beijing

(I may have cheated a bit on this one and posted more than 10 photos.)

#1  The Forbidden City was unforgettable.  It was kind of like the Versailles of China.  I really loved learning about the historical culture of the empires.

#2  The Forbidden city was a madhouse.  Like most places in China it was packed with Chinese people. Here we did find a few other westerners, but I think we were the only Americans not in a tour group.  My favorite part of the forbidden city was getting into the side corridors, which were expansive and much less crowded, yet still packed with exquisite architectural detail.

#3  Tiananmen  Square was kind of an unusual experience.  This was the first time I felt like we were in a communist country.  It was strange to go through metal detectors to enter a city square and see guards in uniform everywhere.

#4  The Great Wall of China!  Let me tell you, it is great.  We were not at all disappointed in one of the great wonders of the world.

#5  I love this picture because in order to get it, we had to use the self timer on the camera.  This is no illusion.  There was actually no one around to take it.  Some family members gave us the tip to visit the Mutianyu section of the wall rather than Badaling where most tourist go.  I think having the wall to ourselves made all the difference in our enjoyment of this sight.

#6  It seems so appropriate that Jeremy is eating a popsicle at the Summer Palace.  The Summer Palace was much more expansive than I could have imagined.  We could have easily spent an entire day or more there wandering the gardens and buildings.  It was really beautiful.

#7  I loved the Beijing Olympics, and thought it was really cool to see the Birds Nest.  The Water Cube was located directly across from the birds nest.  I could have seen it where I was standing in this picture. The olympic spirit was blazing all up and down this Olympic green.

#8  This is a Hutong, a traditional Beijing neighborhood.  An alley like this is where people live and there is a central courtyard for socializing.  Hutongs have been disappearing around the city in the name of modern growth and expansion.  People have been moving to the suburbs (the chinese version of suburb is a high rise apartment building).   Recently there has been a push to preserve this community oriented way of life.  I found it super fascinating to walk through these alleys and get a close hand look at another way of life.  

#9  Our fabulous family gave us another tip to eat at this restaurant, Din Tai Fung.  The original is in Taiwan, but their popularity has caused locations to open up all over the world.  There specialty is dumplings.  Wouldn't be surprised if they were the best in all of China.  This was my favorite meal.    

#10  We visited the grounds of the Temple of Heaven but did not enter the temple itself.  We found the grounds to be so enjoyable we didn't care to go inside.  Once again I was fascinated to see hundreds of people about doing dozens of different activities.  If I didn't know how many people lived in China I would swear there was no one indoors.  Another reason we did not enter the temple itself was so we could go across the street to the Pearl Market.  I wish I could have somehow taken a picture to capture the shopping experience at one of these markets.  Let me just say we were glad to escape unscathed.  It's true you find amazing deals, but they come at a cost.  

This concludes our tour of China.  We have enjoyed reliving our trip and sharing our pictures.  The travel portion of the Cummings blog now bids farewell for a season, and returns to our other adventures in raising a family.