Ni hao Beijing: A dash of History 2

The Summer Palace

We went to Summer palace on our last day. It was really tiring walking around Beijing. Our roadmaps seriously helped us a lot. I was thinking that maybe it is the resort of the royal family in China, like the Mansion in Baguio City in the Philippines. The architecture is again amazing. There is a lake in the middle of the whole place which is really refreshing.

On our last day, we finally encountered a group of Filipino tourists. It really felt good to hear and understand a language in a foreign land.

the entrance to the Summer Palace

 

We saw this while waiting for our 2 other friends

refreshing view of the lake

 

graffiti on the floor

 

great blue skies

 

with the girls.

 

at the bridge

 

The Olympic Green

Another historical event that took place in Beijing is the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The government of China seemed to have promoted this event strongly. A sprawling amount of idle land was turned into modernized facility that will cater all the games for the event.

big chinese musical instruments

 

at our back is the bird's nest

 

the bird's nest at night

 

the olympic pagoda

 

the water cube

 

so that caps off my HISTORY entry. hope to find time to start the way of life part of this trip. all i could say is that, this city is really rich in history.

Ni Hao Beijing: A Dash of History

Beijing, also known as Peking, is the capital city of the People’s Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world. Almost everyone would know that a number of well-know infrastructure is situated in Beijing.

The Forbidden City

We never really know how we got to the Forbidden City. We were just walking and walking in and out public parks, taking photos of what we see around and suddenly we got there. We were just so surprised that there is a big empty space with a lot of tourists from different countries. Almost everyone is lining up to get tickets and to book their guides. We then realized that we were then at the Forbidden City.

The entrance fee was at CNY 60 and if you want to get an audio guide which you can choose in your preferred language, there will be an additional CNY 40. We decided not to take the audio guide and just sneak in to the group of tourists who hired an English speaking tour guide. But, we didn’t find any ENGLISH SPEAKING GUIDE.

Anyways, the Forbidden City is the best preserved imperial palace in China and the largest palatial structure in the world. The site itself is marvelous when I see it in photos, but being there in person felt different. It was like I was part of this country’s rich history. I may never really understand why Chinese people have certain sets of beliefs, but just by being there somehow made me understand how they arrived to what they are today.

one of the palaces in the Forbidden City

a lot of tourists from different countries enjoy the rich history of the place

The Hall of Supreme Harmony

The Meridian Gate

with my bff and ultimate travel buddy

there are more than 900 buildings inside the Forbidden City

The Tianan’men Square

We were about to go back to the hotel from Wangfujing to meet with Pam for dinner. We took the subway and got off at the wrong station. Since we don’t want to get lost further, we just traced back our way to the hotel. We saw Forbidden City, so the hotel should just be a few meters away.

I felt like I was walking miles and miles and yet no sign of the hotel. We again followed the large stream of people, trying to figure out where to go based on our handy dandy road map but no luck. Then we saw a large photo of Mao Zedong. We curiously entered the edifice and only realized that we’re at the Tianan’men Square when we reached the gate of Heavenly Peace as people were buying tickets for the Forbidden City.

The Tianan’men Square is a large city square in the center of Beijing. Named after the Tiananmen Gate (Gate of Heavenly Peace), located to its north, separating it from the Forbidden City. The Tiananmen Square is the 3^rd largest city square in the world.

Mao Zedong Mausoleum is at the Tianan'men Square

Chinese Dolls

Street outside the Square

The Great Wall of China

I was really excited for this 1^st official world wonder I was about to see. Even if we came home late the night before, we were so eager to wake up early to see the Great Wall of China. From our hotel, we took the subway going to the Beijing North Railway Station. It took us a while to find where this station was, as it was not part of our maps anymore. We had to ask around and relied on charades and intuition because we literally had to endure the language barrier. I never really felt uneducated my whole life. Having the ability to speak the “universal” language, made no difference at all.

Fortunately, after long walks, we finally set foot at the train station that will take us to the Great Wall. We bought our tickets for CNY 6.00 each. One thing I really appreciated about Beijing is that, their transportation is really really cheap, unless one will be taking a cab.

On the train, we met 2 college chinese girls who can speak English. They decided to join us in our tour as it was their first time too to see the Great Wall too. These girls came from Guangzhou. They wanted to practice their spoken English with us, and we wanted to be with someone who can do the translation for us too.

Anyway, we were really thankful to have these girls by our side. If not for them, we could’ve gotten really lost in the middle of China.

Beijing North Rail Station

Ticketing booth...all in Chinese characters except for some numbers

cityview inside the train

while waiting for boarding time

The Great Wall of China!

me and my girls at the great wall

outfit fail...it was a bit summer-ish at the Great wall

too tired of the long hike, i had to to take a break and sit down

That Great wall experience was really amazing! The thought of like being in 2 places at one, China and Mongolia, is still giving me goosebumps.

I know that the posts about Beijing are kinda long, but it is far from over. till i find some free time again to update this page.

Ni Hao Beijing: The Adventure Begins

At first, I really don’t know how I will start this entry about Beijing without doing the usual day 1, day 2 blah blah storyline. I mean, I wanted to congest everything in just one post but maybe that won’t be possible? Let’s see. There are just way too many to tell.  I’m sure its gonna be a long post. So bear with me.

This trip was unexpected to push through. Just mid-May of 2011, I was dreaming of seeing a real world wonder, as the Banaue Rice Terraces really struck me. Fortunately, my college BFF, Pam, was given a fellowship grant by her employer to Beijing and Hong Kong. She will have to stay in Beijing for 2 weeks, and that meant FREE Hotel accommodation for us! yay!

We finally booked our flights and applied for Chinese Visas. This was my first time to ever apply for any visa. I just couldn’t handle the hassle of appearing at the Chinese Embassy to personally attend to my visa application, so I just paid a travel agency to do it for me. Good thing, the agency was very reliable and fast in processing it.

The night before my departure, I was really restless as I might travel alone. Pam left a week before me and those who will travel with me don’t have their visas yet. I was really hysterical and paranoid while chatting with Pam asking her what to do when I arrive at the airport. The scariest part of the whole thing is that, Beijing people hardly or worse don’t speak English at all.

On the flight date from Manila, I was still hopeful that my BFF and officemate will secure their visas and we could all happily travel together. Unfortunately, one of them didn’t make it due to incomplete documents. I took a half day leave from work and picked up my Chinese Yuans from the money changer at Tower 1. It is always wise to bring the local currency of the country you’re going to. But if there is no available stock in the money changer, better to bring USD instead.

Beijing International Airport Terminal 2

Our plane left Manila at 7:35pm of September 15 and we arrived at Beijing International Airport at 12:05am of September 16. We followed the stream of people as we head out of the as large as a city airport. We immediately looked for a cab that will take us to the Grand Mercure Hotel to start our Beijing adventure.

BJIA Taxi Bay

***

THE HOTEL

It was raining hard when we reached Beijing. I was afraid that we might not enjoy our stay if the weather will be like that for the next 3 days. The airport is a bit far from Xidan, it took us about 45 minutes to arrive in the hotel. It was also a struggle communicating with the driver as they can only read Chinese characters. At the very least we have printed a map going to the hotel with its name translated in Chinese. I’m not really sure what kind of Chinese language they use in Beijing. All I know is that, we only used hand gestures and maybe intuition most of the time.

The Grand Mercure Xidan Hotel is located in the heart of Beijing, adjacent to Tian’anmen Square and Forbidden City, 10 min on foot walk to Subway lines 1&2. It was my first time to stay in a hotel for a travel abroad. The hotel’s location was perfect! It was near important landmarks like malls, parks, business offices to name a few.  We were also lucky because Pam got a room upgrade. We all stayed in an executive room. J (Beijingtoursguide.com)

Kung Fu demo at the lobby

 

lounge at the lobby, where there is free wifi

 

our room is always messy when we leave. but its always clean when we get back. =p

So I guess, I’m gonna have to do this post in sections. I’m not really a fan of lengthy reads so I’m not gonna do it myself. =p