Beijing Part 2

05/04/2015     In the morning we were driven to the Summer Palace: the royal gardens, lakes, and dwelling place for emperors, but most especially the Dragon Queen, Empress Dowager Cixi.  She was the effective ruler of China for about 47 years, finding clever ways to do away with her detractors. Again the beautiful but selfish surroundings were astonishing.  How can one person feel entitled to so much and at such expense in terms of money and lives?  Oh well, it all belongs to the people now.  After looking through the windows of the buildings and walking along the ornately painted Long Corridor, we took a trip across Kunming Lake on a Dragon Boat. 

Summer Palace Complex

The Long Corridor

Dragon Boat on Kunming Lake

Next we were taken to the Olympic park to see the Bird’s Nest and Water Cube.  We never really got near them or went inside, just took pictures from the outside.  But I remember seeing all of that on TV during the 2008 Olympics here.  We were in Beijing for such a short period of time that our guide was trying to squeeze in a little of everything.

Olympic Park - Bird's Nest

Olympic Park - Torch Tower

Olympic Park - Water Cube

And then on to our favorite part, the Great Wall at Mutianyu, a section that is supposed to be less crowded, which it was.  This was about a 45 minute drive outside the city and into the mountains.  We appreciated being in the back seat of a comfortable private car rather than standing up on a bumpy bus.  It was a gorgeous day, clean and crisp air.  To our surprise, we bumped into another BYU China Teacher couple there, plus other young LDS with tour groups or summer teaching jobs.  You could tell them by their clean cut good looks and knee length shorts.  Our guide was so surprised that we “knew” people.  Once you get to the village below the wall, you have three choices to get to the wall:  walk up the mountain, take a gondola to one end or a chairlift to the other.  We chose the chairlift.  Good choice!

We loved seeing this, definitely a highlight of our time in China.  We appreciated the clear, blue skies that allowed us to see far off into the distance.  The section we walked on dated from 1368 and was built on foundations of an old wall built as early as 550 AD.  Parts of it were repaired, and other parts showed where nature had taken over.  Some sections were extremely steep.  In fact, just the week before a young Canadian tourist was enthusiastically running down a part of it and ran into an old lady.  The woman hit her head on a stone and died.  We walked one way until the signs said to go no further (even though some people did) and then turned around and walked the other way.  (To be honest, we did go a short distance on the non-repaired wall to see what it was like.  It is amazing to see how easily nature takes over man-made structures.)  The wall seemed to go on forever.  We were told we could see Mongolia from there.   (Funny – looked like China to us.)

On the Great Wall

The Wall looks like it goes on forever

Tobaggan Slide to get down

Of course you have to get back down to the village and we chose to take the toboggan slide.  It’s a metal half pipe you ride in to the bottom.  Fun!  We did a little shopping there and ate at a Burger King (not enough of those in Chengdu) before getting back in our car for the ride to our hotel.  

05/05/2015    The Silk Market and Pearl Market are not night markets and close early.  So for our last day, we asked Cool to pick us up a little later in the morning so we could visit the Pearl Market one more time.  We just don’t have shopping like that in Chengdu!  Then we were taken to see the Drum Tower where one large and 24 smaller (but still big) drums used to be beaten to mark the hours of the day.  There were really steep steps to get up to where they are in the tower.  After that we were taken on a rickshaw tour, being driven through some of the narrow alleys (Hu Tong) of old Beijing.  We actually have been to old alleys like this in Chengdu so this was not our favorite activity.  Besides it’s hard to see around the rickshaw driver.  We toured someone’s home and communal courtyard/kitchen, and walked down an 800 year old street (called Tobacco Pipe street), which is now a lot of boutique stores.  

The last part of our trip took us to the Yonghe (or Lama) Temple.  We have seen so many of these compounds and they are mostly all alike.  But this one was especially nice.  Built in the 1600’s it’s a mix of Han, Mongol, and Tibetan.  The highlight is a 55 foot tall Buddha that was carved from a single tree.  I think they built the pavilion around it.  And then we were taken to the airport and flew back to Chengdu.  We loved Beijing.  It is a modern, world class city.  Driving along the rose lined freeways we felt it could have been any city in the US.  And we didn’t stick out since there were so many foreigners there.  Of course being a tourist is a lot different that actually living in a place.

Inside the Drum Tower

Rickshaw ride in Hu Tong

Lama Temple (Buddha is made from single tree)