A weekend in Beijing

Mark and I just returned from an extended weekend trip to Beijing. It was not the best time of year to go to Beijing since tempratures reached -10 degrees Celcius, but we were both traveling there for work so it made sense to make a weekend out of it. Beijing is in Northern China about 3.5 hours flight from Hong Kong. I had to go to the city of Jinan on Friday for a factory visit which is kind of close to Beijing (about 50 minutes plane flight). And, Mark had to be in his law firm's Beijing office on Monday to train some new hires, so we met up on Saturday in Beijing and I left on Monday.

Overall, I really like Beijing and I could see myself living there if only it wasn't so incredibly cold. I could never, ever, ever live in that weather. It felt like what I image Fargo North Dakota feeling like (after seeing the movie of course).

Bugs for Lunch
Anyway, here's some trip highlights, starting with a highlight from my factory visit. I ate bugs for lunch. Not by choice, but the factory executives took me and my 2 Taiwanese coworkers to lunch and were so proud to have the waitstaff bring out this big plate of deep fried grasshoppers, cicadas and scorpions which are local favorites. It would have been rude not to eat it so I put on my Survivor/Fear Factor face and just did it. The grasshoppers didn't taste too bad. Kind of like crunchy deep fat fried chicken skin. The scorpions had a horrible aftertaste and the cicadas were just plain gross. They were chewy on the inside and way too much flavor, not good flavor. We just smiled and ate a few and then watched the locals clean the plate with glea.


Beijing Highlights
Now for Beijing highlights. We only got to sightsee 1/2 day Saturday and all day Sunday so we hit the most popular things first. First, we went to Tiananman Square and the Forbidden City. Tiananman Square was anticlimatic. Just a big cement square. (see picture above. the square is the cement patch on the other side of the road of cars)

The Forbidden City (palace where the emperers used to live with their thousands of concubines) was huge. We stayed until sundown when these guards marched out and took down the flag. Mark noticed all the guards were at least 6 ft tall, probably more, which made us wonder if they purposely selected the tallest ones for this show to be more impressive to us tourists. (the other guards around the palace were average of 5 ft 6 or so. which is quite common in China)

The Great Wall of China
On Sunday, we took a day tour to the Great Wall. The Badaling Section which is the highest part at 800 meters. The tour first took us to the Ming Tombs where the Ming Dynasty emporers were buried. Unless you know about China history and are interested in that sort of stuff, it mostly looked like more temples. After lunch and a visit to a jade factory and Chinese herbal place, we finally went to the Great Wall. It's a 7km hike up to the top point but since it was such a cold day, our group opted to take this little tram 1/2 way up and then hike 3km. Then we got to hike 1/2 way day and take the tram the other 1/2 way which was quite fun. Felt like riding a roller coaster. Another moment in my life where I thought "This is an experience I never imagined I'd have."

the Great Wall was very pretty and it's amazing to think how it was built for thousands of years and how much land it covers. Now, here's a little bit of history for you in case you're interested:

The Great Wall was built over thousands of years, and in the beginning, there was no master plan for building this wall. Each leader in a given town built a portion of the wall where they thought the Mongols threat of invasion was the greatest. This way the routes through mountain passes that the Mongols used most often to reach China were blocked with walls. Those walls were then connected with other sections of wall, thus creating the Great Wall of China.

In the western part of China, the wall was constructed out of pounded earth, in the eastern part of China, then the city of Peking and now called Beijing, workers used bricks and blocks of stone. Where it was made of pounded earth, peasants and prisoners were used and where it was made of brick and stone, stonemasons and brick makers were needed.

Along the wall, they built forts and watch towers. Soldiers patrolled the walls sending up smoke signals and cannon shot as communication signals if Mongols approached.

The wall was built to shape and fit the Chinese landscape it passed through. In the hilly areas, it twisted and turned like a dragon and in the desert, it ran straight. At its eastern end, the Great Wall of China ran into the sea.

Beijing's Cool Looking Olympics Buildings
As you know, Beijing is hosting the 2008 summer Olympics. As we returned from the Great Wall, our tour bus passed a few of the most popular Olympic buildings including the Bird's Nest and the Bubble Building. Pretty cool