Beijing and the Great Wall

The first thing we noticed was the smog and haze. You can barely see down the street. It was hotter, and even though there isn't trash on the street, everything is covered in a graysih dust, including our faces by the end of the day.

Beijing is HUGE! It takes 4 hours to get from one side to another - 14 million people. We ventured out with the map and thought we made it to a temple, but in fact only went about 1 cm on the map. It is challenging to communicate and get around - hardly anyone speaks english including the hotel staff who wouldn't check us in.



We managed to find some dumplings the first night and saw the Temple of Heaven the next day, which was again HUGE, but gorgeous and recently restored. An amazing prayer temple with gold dragon detail and a beautiful park that provides some oxygen for Beijing locals.

We met up with the group that night for some peking duck - very greasy. One of the disppointments in China has been the food - most things are super oily and just not that appealing. Our group is fun - a bunch of aussies who like to have a good laugh and some beers, which is nice!

The next day we saw the great wall - the world's longest cemetery. I never knew that before - thousands of bodies of the workers are buried underneath it. But, honestly, when there, I didn't even think about the bodies. It was so beautiful in the mountains, and hard to imagine how they carried up these stones over these jagged mountains to build the wall for hundreds of miles. We hiked 496 steps to a great lookout point - chinese stairmaster! On the way back, we saw the olympic grounds and the bird's nest. There is so much left to be completed, it is amazing that it will be complete in two months. Now many of the buildings look 1/2 way complete, and have construction materials and temporary shelters everywhere.

The next day was one of our favorites in Beijing. We toured the forbidden city which was again massive and detailed with gold and dragons, etc. But, a great part was touring the Hutong, Beijing's old neighborhoods, that look a bit like slums from the outside, but inside have winding roads to some beautiful homes. We stepped in a home that exemplified the elements of feng shui perfectly and it would sell for over 1 million USD, even though it was in this poor area! We enjoyed a meal cooked by a retired Chinese couple - the best meal of the trip yet, with lots of interesting stir-fried vegetables like bamboo shoots, mushrooms, eggplant, garlic chives, and more. We road in a rickshaw to Opium street, the oldest street in Beijing. This area was a welcome change from the chaos of the rest of Beijing.

All in all, our first few days in China have been eye opening. It seems as if the entire country is under construction - massive highways, new railways and metros. It seems to us as if everything is the "best" because that's how they describe everything here - the largest palacial complex, the best and largest architectural complex in the world, etc. It's been a big culture shock - the people push you around, no one will stop for you at a cross walk, and a lot of people spit on the street - watch out. We are finally getting used to it after a few days.