Great times in Southeast Asia; however, it was time to go back to China. I was particularly excited about going back to China because, not only would I be traveling to major cities and tourist destinations, but I also would be able to finally see my family!
It was relatively painless flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. It was a red eye flight (about 7 hours) from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with a layover in Bangkok. When I arrived in Beijing at 6 AM, I was dressed to go to the beach. That was really stupid. I was wearing a basketball jersey, shorts, and flip-flops. It was 0 degrees Celsius outside… I looked like a complete idiot. The plane did not go directly to the terminal… of course. We had to get out of the plane, into the FREEZING weather and board a bus that would take us to the terminal. I frantically pulled a light jacket and beanie out of my bag before I had to get off the plane. Those didn't seem to help very much….
The first day in Beijing was pretty mellow. As soon as I arrived at the hotel, I spent some time with my parents and then fell asleep for about six hours. I was exhausted. That afternoon we walked around Beijing a little. Such a big city….
The very next day we woke up bright and early to begin our tourist activities.
The Summer Palace (During the winter…)
And now for some pictures around the Summer Palace…
It was pretty impressive. Everything was just incredibly old… You can also tell from the pictures that we were a little bundled up… It was freezing in Beijing… My mom was definitely not very happy about that. She also probably won't be very happy that I put the picture up of her in the walkway….
Site of the 2008 Beijing Olympics
The Beijing Olympic stadiums and surrounding buildings were supreme to see in person. They were SO BIG. The designs and aesthetics of the buildings were as incredible as their size.
We didn't actually go inside the premise and we only briefly stopped out front to look at it. It was pretty awesome, though. The pictures don't even do it justice.
The building neighboring the olympic site was pretty interesting…
Can you tell what it looks like??? Yeah… It's a dragon… Only in China
Tiananmen Square
The square was gigantic. That is really the only word to describe it. Check out the pictures.
Quite spectacular. All of the buildings lining the square were ginormous. Thankfully it wasn't terribly crowded. During Spring Festival most people will go to visit their families outside of the major cities, great time to travel in China…
The Forbidden City
Directly behind Tiananmen Square is the Forbidden City. It is the old Ming imperial palace that lasted through the Qing dynasty. The palace was completed in 1420 and still stands today. So it's kinda old… The palace includes 980 buildings. I don't even know how many of them we saw, but definitely a lot of them..
Directly behind the Forbidden City was a small hill with a large pavilion at the top of it. We hiked up the hill to see the view of the Forbidden city from there, very awesome…
The views from the pavilion were jaw dropping. Obviously the air quality doesn't look very good… but I think this is actually some of the best air quality Beijing has had in a while… Thankfully, the air quality actually improved while we were there!
The main reason that the air quality dramatically improved was because…
IT SNOWED!!!! The pictures from the places we went on this day make the weather look a little gloomy… However, the day after we had crystal clear blue skies. You'll see.
The Thirteen Ming Tombs
This was a very cool area. It was basically a long street with a ton of statues. Each statue came in pairs and there were four of each, two standing, two sitting.
The Great Wall of China
Most amazing thing I have ever seen, hands down. I wish we could have stayed there longer. Thankfully, while we were there, hardly any people were at the wall. Traveling during Spring Festival is definitely the best time to travel throughout China.
It was damn cold at The Great Wall and it was snowing on and off. I think that the snow made The Great Wall even more beautiful, though. The only downside was that we weren't able to see very far off into the distance.
It was damn cold at The Great Wall and it was snowing on and off. I think that the snow made The Great Wall even more beautiful, though. The only downside was that we weren't able to see very far off into the distance.
Walking along The Great Wall was definitely one of the coolest things I have ever done in China, and probably my Life. It really was "Great"….
The Temple of Heaven (Blue Skies!)
The Temple of Heaven was a beautiful area and the weather that day made it even better. Now I'm not sure about this… But based on the recent news stories out of Beijing, I think that this was probably the best weather Beijing has experienced in a long time… Check out the pictures…
Beijing was an extremely busy, but amazing, time. We hopped from tourist destination to tourist destination. My family and I were the ultimate tourists…
Next stop Xi'an!
