Normally I try to update my blog during our travels, but this year I couldn’t find the time as we had a very busy schedule. Now that we are back home, I will try to make up for it and show a few of the highlights of our 2,5 weeks trip through China and Tibet.
As could be expected, our trip started in Beijing, a city with a population of 19 million. Upon arrival Sunday early in the morning we were picked up at the airport by our guide and driver. Because the room wasn’t available yet (it was 8 in the morning) they took us to the Summer Palace instead.
As part of the Summer Palace we also climbed the Longevity Hill, which meant climbing a lot of stairs. A good way to forget the jetlag.
After the Summer Palace we went to our hotel, Courtyard 7, in the middle of the traditional Hutong area. This was a great place to stroll around in the evening and get a few nightphoto’s.
The next day we visited the absolute highlights of Beijing: Tiananmen Square and The Forbidden City.
We had lunch with a local family who taught us how to make dumplings, and a Hutong tour by riskja. They dropped us of at the Drum Tower to watch a spectacular drum show.
On Tuesday we went to one part (Mutianyu) of the Chinese Great Wall. Fortunately we had a cable car to get us on the way upon the mountain. The Great Wall is indeed impressive, going on as far as you can see. We tried to see as much as possible but in the end it were too many steps 😉
This day maybe should have ended with the excellent Peking Duck diner at the famous Dadong restaurant. But we decided to go for a walk after dinner on the Beijing evening market. Quite a different menu compared to the Peking Duck 😉
This concluded our stay in Beijing. The next morning we had a flight to the city of Xi’an. But that will be a different post 🙂