July Beijing trip continued. Long Qing Gorge

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Part 2
After the photo shoot with bits of Great Wall sightseeing, we went back to the car and headed out to the second stop, Long Qing Gorge. Matt found this scenic spot in one of his tour books. I had not heard of it, but after researching it a bit, it looked like a great choice. Lots of outdoor activities. We had our lunch at a local restaurant recommended by our driver after I told him we wanted to eat lunch. I made a rookie mistake of not asking the prices of the dishes. Our menu was in English, but it didn't have prices. We ordered too much, the descriptions didn't always match the food served and the portions were huge. Tons leftover, cost more than it should have, but you can't win them all. Matt and I were pretty sure that instead of lotus root, we were served bamboo and tripe. I didn't eat the unidentified tripe-like substance. So tricky that tripe. Looks like a noodle, a vegetable and sometimes meat! Blech.

Then we were off to see the Gorge. After buying entrance tickets, we walked into a plaza with sculptures, rock and waterfalls. On this open plaza, there were many, many pigeons. Normally, such a sight would cause me to turn the other direction. However, we noticed people feeding the pigeons out of their hands. Apparently by choice. Of course Nathan was thrilled at the prospect of getting closer to nature. I was thinking "Do I have hand sanitizer on me, and do I have enough?" Finally I conceded and bought the bag of bird feed. Nathan was instantly feeding birds out of his hand. Such a huge grin on his face, my fears of bird flu and bird poop contamination were temporarily forgotten. Then Emily wanted in on the action and Matt was a trooper and helped her feed the birds too. I just documented and then screamed when the birds flew up and over my head after I tossed some feed off in the distance.

Next, we went to ride Soaring Dragon Elevator (which was in fact an escalator). We entered through a doorway that was in the form of a Dragon's open mouth. Long means dragon in Chinese. The escalator is 258-meters. The outside was more exciting than the actual ascent.

Once up to the top, we walked back down a bit and took a boat ride around the gorge. The ride included a lengthy overview by a guide using a megaphone. Sadly, it was lost on all of us and we just whispered amongst ourselves and took in the scenery. It reminded the kids and me of our recent boat trips in Thailand. From the boat we saw a bungee jumping area--no jumpers at the time. We also saw a bizarre and scary adventure activity that involved a person riding a bike on a wire high above the gorge, with a second person strapped to the biker dangling below the wire. Nathan begged me. I said no way.

We got off the boat at one point and did a bit of hiking. We eventually got back on a boat that took us to the main dock. We found ourselves on a boat with about 30 Chinese tourists in matching blue visors. Matt and Nathan entertained the back of the boat while Emily and I took the front. Good thing Emily likes attention. Because attention she gets when out and about in China.

Back on land, we tried to find our way back to the entrance. We ended up at crossroads. A fork in the road. We had a serious choice to make. We could either take stairs down to the main entrance or buy tickets to ride the "Summer Toboggan." Obviously we wanted to take the ride down. Everyone was game, so the girls went on one and the boys each took their own sled. These things were wheeled sleds with a hand brake in the middle. The slide was steep and fast and I had this nervous heart pang as I rode the break down with Emily that Nathan would not know how to break. Later, he informed me he knew, but he didn't use the break at all! I should note that just as we sat down on the slide, we could see these warning signs overhead saying we bore all the risk by taking the ride. Just what you want to read as you settle in for the unknown ride down a steep slide. It ended up being a lot of fun and we all loved it. It was a great ending to our day of outdoor fun.

We drove a couple hours back to the hotel and took a quick break. I ordered McDonald's delivery for the kids with Storm's help (concierge at hotel). As I’ve said before, I am not a fan of fast food for my kids but when we are traveling it’s hard to meet their not Chinese food at every meal requirement. After the kids ate, Matt, Emily and I went to a Chinese restaurant so Matt could experience duck in Beijing. This time, though, I specifically asked for a recommendation for local, cheap and good. No need to go back to the fancy, famous spot we went to last time. We had three great dishes: “chicken bursting with flavor” (and it was) with fresh water chestnuts, spinach seasoned with some very frightening red peppers we didn’t dare sample and a half duck, for about $17 USD.

There is one more installment in this series...the last day in BJ and the trip home by overnight train.

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Photos

tables are turned and I snap a shot
I asked the boy's parents before snapping this shot. My daughter the giant.

Comments

[Andrew]

GREAT
great photography... Thanks for sharing... ___________________ Andrew Entertainment at one stop

[Linda]

pictures
Love the pictures of the post-no-bungee-jumping Nathan and the mid-toboggan-riding Emily. Sounds like Shu Shu's suggestion was a success with the kids.

[Aunt Geeze]

July Beijing trip continued. Long Qing Gorge
Suzanne you are making me laugh! Ditto on the faux lotus root. Anything that looks like a noodle is usually quite tasty but tripe? no way! Now please tell me..when are you coming home? Lol Hugs, Geeze