Peeking at Beijing

It's silly, really. Our six months in Asia have included trips to Moscow, London, Barcelona, and the Philippines as well as to lesser know places in China like Hangzhou and Guilin….but somehow we have never made it to BEIJING! We finally ran out of excuses…




Chana decided to get a head start and *chose* to take the overnight train to Beijing on Thursday night. She is becoming a more robust traveler than I ever imagined! I had already seen the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square in 2001, so it worked out well for Chana to take in these formidable sights during her solo day.

Saturday was consumed by a terrific all-day adventure along the Great Wall. We trekked 10k from Jinshanling to Simatai atop the wall on a tortuous and hilly route. Remarkably, even at km 6 there were still vendors pushing the cold beer and T-shirts that they had sherpa-ed up there…I'm still not sure who decides to buy a T-shirt 6 km into a trek!

Over the course of the weekend we also saw the Temple of Heaven and Jing Shan Park. To my delight, in the central temple of Jiang Shan, we stumbled upon an 8 foot, monolithic sculpture of Chana's namesake, Vairochana. The worshippers of the giant Buddha seemed unphased by the mob of tourists or the incessant flashing of cameras...

Beijing’s many ornate, ancient buildings and wide, sprawling plazas stand in stark contrast to the skyscrapers of Shanghai. It is the stuff of Kungfu movies. Sunday evening, we both felt a bit reluctant to leave behind what seemed to be the "real China", and return so soon to our glass and cement metropolis.

For more photos from our trip to Beijing click here.