Beijing, forbidden city(palace) great wall, etc.

So we were on our way to our final destination, this ancient city was once called Peking by the western world, yes Beijing. With a population of close to 17 million in the municipality (compared to Edmonton's 1 million) you could say theres a lot of people living here. Still, its the second largest city in China as Shanghai is larger. Beijing is China's cultural, political and education capital. Home to many emperors over the centuries, and the only place in the world where you can see the Forbidden Palace, The Great Wall, and buy those great 

Made in China items before they are shipped overseas and given the 300% markup.
Our train was much more modern that our trian from Xian to Pingyao. It was high speed with no standing room only tickets. It felt really wierd knowing that we were heading to our last city of the trip. 

We sat back and watched as the amazing scenery went by.
We arrived at the large train station and found our way to the bus stop. We had to laugh as people pushed each other to get on. That is one thing about China, there is no such thing as personal space, and line ups are a pretty rare concept unless you are being hearded into one with ropes. The bus ride from the train station was about an hour to our stop, we jumped off, put our packs on our backs and walked up the narrow street toward our hostel. After settling in we spent the rest of the night walking around the area, eating some very tasty Chinese food, then hooking up Al (our laptop) at a cafe until bed.

What a better place to start our sightseeing of Beijing than Tienamen square. 

It was a huge square, 

full of people, including tourists, people flying and selling kites, people selling Mao's Red Book, and apparently about every 5th person was a police officer. 

We had read in our "illegal" guide book that for as many police that we saw at Tienamen square there was an equal number of plain clothed police. Hords of people stopped to pose in front of the giant picture of Mao. 

We were shocked to see a large section roped off with people cleaning gum off the ground in preparation for the olympics, and more shocked to find that it was volunteers doing the work. 

We paid to climb a tower for a better view. At the top there was a room with pictures of the many big events that went on in Tienamen square. I was feeling a little frustrated with all the propoganda, so I pointed out to Jes in a not so quiet voice that they missed a picture from 1989.

Jes was quick to remind me that there was likely plain clothed police nearby, and that they just might know enough English to want to haul me off. So I stopped my protest and we continued our tour. Once done with the square we headed to the forbidden city, which was just next door. It's called forbidden because only royals and their guests and servants were allowed within the walls of this palace in days gone by. We saw many beautiful buildings, some which had displays of what the rooms used to look like. These generally had crowds of Chinese people pushing to see inside. After a few we decided it was not worth the effort or time waiting to see them, so we just enjoyed the outsides of the buildings and the vast size. 

We did however go into an amazing clock museum. Yes we are geeks, but it was very good. After snacking on some noodles we got a taxi and asked him to find us a specific travel agent we had heard of. He had never heard of them, but with the help of a book that all taxi drivers are given for the olympics that translates Mandrin into English we were able to get the point accross. He was so nice and although we never found the place we wanted, as it had moved, we enjoyed his incredible patience with us and helpfulness. Once back at our hostel we settled in, chatted with our roommies, and enjoyed a walk and dinner. (more chinese food, you guessed it)

The next day was Sunday, and I was very excited to go to a church that Stacy had recommended to us. After getting lost, and walking all over in the heat we finally found it. 

We had to show our passports to be allowed in, as all churches must be registered and monitored by the government, and this one was registered as an ex-pat church meaning no Chinese nationals (locals) were allowed in. There were services in Russian, Cantoneese, Mandrin, 

Spanish, and of course English, with translation head-sets in many other languages available. We entered the room for the English service, and were surprised to see how big it was. There must have been 400-500 people. I can honestly say it was the most multicultural church I have ever been in. The music was great and we knew almost every song. We left with lifted spirits wishing we could come back, but knowing next Sunday we would be at our own church in Edmonton.

From Church we headed out to the famous Summer Palace. 

This is the place where the royals went when they needed a break from the forbiden city. The grounds were huge and complete with a large man made lake in the middle. We went into a few museums that housed extremely old and etremely expensive pottery, jewlery, dishware etc. The grounds truly were amazing, full of lush trees, streams, temples and towers. 

It was inside the summer palace that we bought our kite that looks like a hawk. Really, you can't leave China without a kite. Although this was probably more expensive then buying it elsewhere in Beijing as it was inside the Palace grounds, and we couldn't barter the price, in the end we were really happy we left with such a great momento.

With a few days left before

 heading home we found ourselves in a mood to shop. After all, we would not be lugging around the weight for long, and things were still affordable, albeit not as much as S.E. Asia. 

We left the Summer Palace and went

 off in search of a tea set (china from China). We saw many, but none that we could agree upon. We then looked at buying a folding bike. 

These are everywhere in China, as are people who ride bikes. 

In true Jesse style he decided to go back to the hostel, and do some research online before making a decision on wether or not to buy one.

 

On the way home we discovered a little place just around the corner call "Michelle's Bakery". How could we resist, I had my own bakery in Beijing! We would return that was for sure.

The next day we went to see a Confusious Temple and Lam

a Temple, both part of Chinese culture and history. Quick side story: many bathrooms in China have one western style toilet in them and the rest are squatters. This western style toilet always has the handicapped sticker on the door. Although I often felt a little guilty I usually search for the handicap stall. Before going into the Lama Temple I stopped to use the washroom. I had just gotten in when a little old lady with a cane came in and started frantically trying to open the door to my stall. 

Oh no, I was busted. Not to worry though as I had a plan. I opend the door to the lady scowelling at me. Her face quickly changed though, to a polite bow.. as I limped out of the stall. Yep, I faked it!

I ca

me out of the bathroom limping and Jes asked what was wrong. I told him I was going to have to limp for a while and told him the story as we made it around the corner. He had a good laugh at me. 

That day we learned a lot about both religions, 

although we became quite frustrated in the Confusious museum as it contradicted itself many times, and some of thier examples of modern day Confusism were pretty bogas. We then headed out to the Pearl Market. 

We took one of the few tuk tuks we had see in Beijing. The market was 3 huge floors of Pearls, and 2 floors of other things. We bought some more magic tricks, and a memory card to USB adapter for super cheap. Then we headed to the Pearl stores. We were very happy with our purchase. We had been looking for something for our 

Grandmas and had finally found the perfect gift. The ladies hand stitched the pearls into necklaces right in front of our eyes. 

From there we had a bit of an adventure taking the bus back as we 

did not know which bus to take, and weren't going to spend the money

 on a taxi as we were quite far from our hostel. 

So we got on a bus going in the general direction we needed. We changed at one place and eventually got close enough that we could figure our way back on foot. Of course we stopped at "Michelle's Bakery" for a treat. 

This was the day we found the most amazing cream puffs ever. Jes stated then and there he will come back to Beijing just for them. After gorging on them we decided to go for a walk towards a little pond we could see from our bus stop. We were surprised to see it was actually quite big, and there were people on paddle boats, and an island in the middle of it. 

It was a  beautiful place with classy restaurants all around the outside. 

We took a paddle boat out on the lake, and Jes decided it was a good time to try his spicy nuts he had bought days ago. Bad idea. They were seriously hot, and there we were out in the middle of the lake on a paddle boat with nothing to cool his mouth but lake water (which he did not dare drink). After getting ripped off by paying $5 for a massage that lasted only 10 min (yes that is a big rip off for China although it might have been a deal at home) we walked around the beautiful and well lit area. We continued our search for a tea set, and finally after much bargining to the point of leaving the store the lady chased after us and agreed to our last offer. 

Jes was so proud, as his bartering skills were honed to perfection now. I was just impressed that we finally agreed on a tea set, it was so beautiful. As it was now late we headed back to our hostel and attemped to share the spicy nuts with the hostel staff. Unfortunately they all knew what they were and were too scared to eat them, yes, too hot even for the locals

.

So, what a better way to end our great adventure then visiting.. The Great Wall of China. We chose not to go with the tour from our hostel as it was quite expensive, and it left at 5am, didn't include lunch and did included five hours of walking, which was a little much for us. Our guide book mentioned one other place so we went there. We were happy to find it was significantly cheaper, although really not geared towards foreigners. We bought our tickets then boarded a bus full of.. Chinese people, yes were were the only whities on the trip. 

The tour guide got up and talked as we drove, unfortunately she only spoke Mandrin the whole time. We relaxed and looked out the window as the old man in front of us stared at us like we were complete freaks. We smiled and nodded at him, as we were used to this by now. 

The halfway point of the trip was a huge Jade factory that we stopped at for lunch. Our tour guide gave us tickets for our lunch and managed to tell us in English what time to be back at the bus. We ducked out of the all-Mandrin tour of how they made Jade jewlery and pottery. After looking around Jes bought me a beautiful jade necklace. We then joined the others on our tour upstairs where other bus tours sat eating. We met 2 ladies from England who were just finishing up. The lunch was huge. We were so happy with our tour choice as we had saved so much money and got a wonderful authentic lunch. We then headed off to the great wall. 

Our tour guide told us when to be back and encouraged us to pay for a tram ride. Being cheap backpakers though we started t

o walk. When we were asked by a cabbie if we wanted a ride we said no, but after she dropped the price significantly we took it. To our dismay we drove up a hill and around a corner for about 1 min and we were there. It would have taken

 us another 2 minutes to walk up. Never the less we at the entrance to the wall and started walking toward the tallest point along the section of wall at Badaling. The views were breathtaking with the wall winding as far as the eye could see. Then we heard it; the roar of horns from cars and tour buses bellowed up from the nearby parking lots. It was exactly 1 week to the minute of the massive earthquake that shook China. The government had ordered 3 days of mourning beginning at this time. 

For four minutes everyone on the wall, in fact, everyone in China, stood in silence to honour the victims. Every train, bus, car, and boat came to a stop and pressed their horn for the 4 minutes. The sound was like the wailing cries rising of the people. It was an amazing experience. We didn't have a long time for our excursion on the wall, so once the silence passed we countined hiking up the hill toward the highest point we could see. 

We had to almost run back down in order to catch our bus, but we made it to the highest point. There was even people selling memorabilia saying "I climbed the Great Wall", but we figured the pictures were proof enough. On the long road back we passed the olympic buildings and got a quick glimpse. It was evening by the time we were back at the hostel. 

We stopped at Michelle's Bakery one last time to buy more cream puffs and then shared them with our hostel staff. We found it difficult to find a place to eat as many places were closed in honor of the earthquake victims. We finally found a place that had their downstairs main section 

closed, but a sign in 

English and Mandrin that said open upstairs. 

We enjoyed our last dinner of the trip and relaxed sipping jasmine tea on the roof of this old building. 

It was a picture perfect last day in China.

Our last day was full of strange emotions, waking up knowing we were heading home. A mix of saddness that the trip was over and we would not be seeing new exciting places anymore, but also excitement that we would soon be back home with our friends and family. We packed up, then went for a walk around the area. We seriously contemplated buying an extremely cheap guitar and/or the folding bike. In the end we decide against both. We hopped in a taxi with our bags to the amazing new terminal at the Beijing airport which was shaped like a dragon! Soon we were boarding our 11hr flight to Vancouver. 

Once in Vancouver we were welcomed home by a 2hr line up for passport checks. I

t was the first country we had been in where residents don't have a separate and much shorter line. Luckily though after impatiently waiting in line for 45 min thinking we were going to miss our flight home to Edmonton we showed our ticket to staff member and she put us in a rush line and we got to our plane with time to spare. I can not even imagine if we had come that far only to be stuck in Vancouver. The short flight to Edmonton seemed to take hours. It was very sureal. Once out of the plane we held hands as we came down the stairs and were welcomed by our families and my mom screaming as she ran to embrace me. 

We were finally home.