Trip to Beijing

Hello everyone! Guess I'm not the best at giving 'frequent' updates of our travels here in China as our previous trips take us all the way back to New Years.
We spent New Years in Beijing as we had four days off together, and had not been anywhere since October. Finally the long stretch of the year was over. New Years was very quiet as we arrived to our hotel at 12:05 Jan, 1. It was just a regular Wednesday in China, outside there was no noise, no parties and no fireworks, which allowed for a good sleep for both of us that night. The next morning we headed to The Forbidden City. A city in which for hundreds of years famous Chinese Empire's lived. During these years, no one else was allowed to enter the city. What stands out the most about this city is how huge it is and how much artistic detail was put into the cities walls and rooftops.
Next was Tianamen Square, where not long ago many Chinese residents were unhappy with the way the Government ruled, so in hopes to prove a point and make historic changes, these residents filled the park for days to protest and would not leave although ordered by authorities. Days later, maybe weeks, tanks came in and killed all the people. What a sad story.
It is nice to learn a little of the History while taking in the sights, they mean so much more when you have a background of what happened years ago.
The following day we spent at the famous 'Silk Market', a place to 'shop till you drop'. Did we ever! How exhausting it is barganing for every little purchase. We managed to come out of there with lots of great purchases.
Our favorite day was the day we spent on the Great Wall. We decided to hike the steep part of the wall 2 hours out of the city in hopes to capture a non rebuild, non civilized 12 Km. hike. That it was, how beautiful, and along the whole wall it felt like we were the only two people there. This part of the wall sure was a hike, very steep at times and much of the wall was crumbling. It was such an amazing feeling to be on the wall, mostly it was just so good to breath fresher air and be away from people, what a break.
Lastly, we managed to see the Olympic Stadium. It cost us a small fee to go inside which we were happy to pay. Feelings of aww entered us as we stood inside the huge stadium and looked around imagining those days when seats were full and events were taking place as we listened to the music of past Olympic events just months earlier. What a neat experience it was.
Over all, we loved Beijing although it was bitterly cold and the air quality was poor, we still hope to go back before the year is over when the weather is warmer.

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