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Published: October 16th 2008
Day 1 - Beijing Hutong
The hostel we stayed in is in a restored area of the Beijing hutongs which are walled villages made of grey brick. Thanks for the notes we've recieved. Sorry we haven't posted anything for a while. Our time in Beijing was cram-packed!
We took six days to see Beijing and I feel like we've just scratched the surface. There are so many sights and places of interest. It's also really enjoyable just cruising the streets and shops looking for food and shopping or wandering in the manicured parks watching people playing hacky sack and do Tai Chi.
Our sightseeing included sveral parks including Beihai Park and ... The Forbidden City and Tiannemen Square (of Course), the Summer Palace and to the Olympic park where we got close up views of the Olympic Stadium and WaterCube. We also took some time cruising some of the market streets looking for interesting places to eat. The satay meat sticks were tasty!! We got to see an acrobatic troupe which was interesting to say the least. The troupe included tight-rope walkers, contortianists and umbrella jugglers. The bicycle act wowed us by stacking 15 people on to one bike while riding around the stage.
Our final day in Beijing took us to the Great Wall. Our hostel has an organized tour that take us tourists
out of the city to Jinshanling where we hike along the wall to a section called Simatai. We were very lucky to have a beautiful sunny day (in fact we only had one day of crappy weather in Beijing). We were introduced to two new friends Maricio from New York City and Andreas from Berlin who completed our group. It was an awe inspiring trip, the views were breathtaking. The wall is truely a symbol of this country. It is amazing how it winds around on the tops of mountains. It is very steep in sections and it is still very intimidating. The trip was highlighted by a cable ride across a small lake and boat ride to where our driver waited for us.
Overall Beijing is a modern city with lots going on. The Subways are packed, the streets are busy, day and night, and construction is happening everywhere. I think I can speak for both of us in that we really enojoyed our time here. Thanks to Downtown Backpackers Hostel for all there help answering our unending questions!
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bob & carol grant
non-member comment
enjoying your blog and pics
hi you two... we are really enjoying your blog and pics of your trip... isn't it exciting to be able to see what you are seeing!... sounds like you are having a great time, keep safe.. we are thinking of you ... uncle bob and aunti carol