BEIJING 06/06/10 - 10/06/10

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June 13th 2010

Published: June 13th 2010

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MikeandEm

birds nest

Well we survived Beijing but I can't say we liked it much. It was hot, smoggy and polluted (we never saw the sun) crowded, people spitting everywhere, and trying to sell you stuff. It was clean with no tag though! For the whole 5 days we had our own personal tour guide, driver and car. We stayed in a 4 star hotel, were picked up and dropped off at the airport, had 3 meals a day, all enteries into attractions paid for and it cost NZ $1300 for both of us! We booked through china wonderful tour.

06/06/10
Took the subway to the massive Olympic Village. Visited the massive Birds Nest and Water Cube then did some shopping

07/06/10
What a busy day! Visited the massive Tian an men Square, then the Forbidden City (it is called this because when it was used as the royal palace it was off limits to common people) It was built in the 14th century and consisted of large beautifully decorated buildings and was well fortified with walls and moats. Then we drove to the Summer Palace, which was where the royals lived in the hotter months. Within the Summer Palace was a

inside birds nest

large garden, many buildings and a HUGE lake which we crossed on a dragon boat. Then we went to the Temple of Heaven which had similar buildings and park like grounds to the palaces. Went to a silk factory and saw silk worms and silk duvets being made, ended up buying a pure silk duvet and duvet cover! yummy! Then we went to an Acrobatic show, then dinner, then home.

08/06/10
Quieter day. We went to the Lama Temple (chinese version of budda), then got wheeled around a protected old Hutong Area in Beijing which consisted of narrow dusty alleyways and small grey houses. We had lunch at a ladies house and got to look around. Afterwards we went to the Silk Markets and brought some crap. They were in doors so nice and cool! Divide everything by 6 and if they arent angry when you leave you probably paid too much!

09/06/10
Today we climbed the Great Wall of China from Jinshanling to Simatai. Was about 10km with 33 towers. Very steep up and down. Very exhausting!! Every tower had Mongolians selling water and t'shirts. Had to pay more money to get off the wall and we

water cube

had know yuan, luckily we had made friends with a dutch couple who lent us some money! Some areas of the wall were very intact, others completeley crumbled and you had to go around or walk on the edge, need to be very fit and agile.

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