Blogs from Beijing, China, Asia - page 4

Sunday, 21st April 2019 I took a long metro + bus excursion out of Beijing to the Wanping Ancient City this morning. Home to the famed Marco Polo Bridge, this was where World War II officially started in China after Japan waged their aggression across the bridge. Housed within the city walls is the Museum of the War of Chinese People's Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. This is a huge museum containing lots of information about the War. It really helped that there was a free guided tour when I was there which summarize the information to a more manageable magnitude. China did not officially surrendered during the eight-year war between 1937-1945. After the coastal cities fell to the Japanese in the early part of the campaign, the war eventually reached a stalemate given the strong willpower ... read more

Friday, 19th April 2019 After breakfast on Friday, I took bus service #8 outside my hotel to Qianmen stop where the Tiananmen Square is located. I'm always slightly nervous whenever I'm in crowded places, more so at Tiananmen when I'm surrounded by strangers and we had to go through the security check-points prior to entering the Square. The crowd was considered orderly this morning but the whole process still took a while. I could not imagine how things would be like during the peak holiday season. Anyway, Tiananmen Square like many of the Communist public squares around the world is huge in size. There is a flag pole that takes centre-stage. Across the road from the Square, is the red Tiananmen where the portrait of Mao Zedong stands proudly on the wall gazing at the people ... read more

DAY 10 - Although the Temple of Heaven was very interesting, the really big ticket items were still to come on Wednesday. Again we left the hotel early to beat the traffic, a short, illegal park for the coach so we could run (yes, we were told to run, as the driver could receive a ticket), to the top of an overpass to take some quick shots of the Birds Nest Stadium, where the Olympics were held some years back, 2008 I think. So picture this, 18 Aussies running down footpath in Beijing, pushing the locals aside, up the steps the overpass 3 at a time (well, maybe just one at a time, quickly), across to the other side, snap a few quick pics of the Birds Nest, then a leisurely stroll in double double time ... read more

A rainy day in Beijing was a good excuse to visit a museum. A quick online search came up with the National Art Museum of China, so I headed there. It is really easy to get to and even has its own subway station with an exit right in front of the museum. The museum is free to enter but you must show your passport at the ticket office. I was hoping that I would get a ticket like at the Capital Museum, but not so. Probably for the best as it is a bit of a waste of paper. Since it was raining, I had expected the museum to be really busy, but there weren't too many people. After security, I headed to the entrance, but first I stopped at some sculptures outside. The first ... read more

A few months ago, I had done a breakfast eats tour in Beijing. I had really enjoyed it, so vowed to do the evening food tour ran by the same company. It took a while to get round to it, but I eventually did. The group met by the subway station so it was easy to find. I think there were about 11 of us on the tour and we had two guides with us. The guides were lovely, super friendly and knowledgeable. It was great to hear their stories as well as the information about the food, restaurants, and China in general. We headed off into the hutongs to our first stop. Hutongs are the old traditional neighbourhoods in Beijing, but the word actually come from Mongolian, when Kublai Khan invaded China. The original word ... read more