Beijing - Day 1 - The Great Wall of China and The Summer Palace

Beijing is my new favourite place EVER.  It is fabulous - though I suspect it was more fabulous than normal because the pollution was only at 25.  It goes up to 400 some days!  We had blazing sunshine and it was wonderfully warm.  We arrived on Monday night, but just had the hotel buffet (the hotel was very nice indeed).  They brought out these whole crabs for us, and we had no idea what to do with them.  We had to send them back to get cut open.   Delicious, but a lot of effort for about 2 teaspoons of meat.

We were up early on Tuesday for our big day trip to the Great Wall of China and the Emperor's Summer Palace, which he built for his favourite wife.  We were picked up at 7.30am by Suzie, our guide for the day.  Two cars had been sent for us, so we chose the one we liked the best, which was a mini van - lots of space.  The drive to the wall was about 2 hours, and lots of it was through these local towns, which were full of activity and colour and so interesting to look at.  When we got there, Suzie queued for our tickets and we had a wander around the stalls.  We had to get on a coach for 5 minutes to take us to the cable car area, which was quite a long walk up hill.  I then had to queue with Suzie for 35 minutes to get on the cable car.  Matt and Mary were able to get the lift up, but we couldn't all go.  Absolutely no cutting lines!!  It was a good job we had a guide, or we would never have known about the lift. 

The cable car only took 5 minutes, and went up very steeply towards the wall.  The region is wonderfully mountainous, and it was a lovely clear day.  There weren't too many people there either, compared to when we came down, and the queue was about 5 times as long!  Suzie said that this part of the wall was a bit further away from Beijing, so it wasn't the one that the locals go to.  That one is 3 times as busy apparently.  

Interesting side fact... we learnt that Beijing is a very Feng Shui city because of the mountains on two sides, which is why the Emperor chose it as his capital.

... and then we were at the top and standing on a wonder of the world.  Mary sat and people-watched while Matt and I went with Suzie for a mini hike.  In the photo below, we got as far as the really steep part before we turned back.  It was fabulous up there, and the further you walked, the fewer people you encountered.  Most people stayed really close to the entrance.  The air was so clean and pure, and the shining sun made everything look green and bright.  I absolutely loved it.

Matt got grabbed during our walk to appear on Chinese TV talking about the wall.  He was the only blonde man on this part of the wall, so the (female) presenter beelined for him! Haha!

The Chinese characters on the hill side say 'Loyalty to Chairman Mao'.

The wall was just wonderful, but that was only part of our days adventure.  We got a subway sandwich for the drive and had a little snooze on the hour and a half journey to the Summer Palace.  The palace was very busy because we arrived at 3.30pm, but it still felt very peaceful there. The air felt like a warm summers evening, and so it was fabulous strolling through the vast gardens and around the lake.

We walked a little way around the lake, and then took the dragon boat back to the exit to be picked up by the driver.  We were shattered by the time we got back from our 11 hour long day!  We just had the hotel buffet again for dinner, and an early night! 

All Of The Posh Food

Where to even begin with this week...

Granny arrived on Wednesday morning, and Matt was able to pick her up from the airport.  She had a couple of days at home recovering from her first class BA journey jet lag, while Matt and I finished our first half term at school.  I can't quite believe we are at half term already!

The first night she arrived, we went for Korean BBQ.  I think this will probably be our go to first night place whenever we have visitors.  Mary has said that she would like to eat there again before she goes home, so it was a success!

On Thursday night we went to the local Shanghai Beer Factory for ribs and beer.  Our friend and his parents joined us for drinks, as it was their last night.

On Friday night we went to the fabulous Canton 8, a 2 Michelin star Cantonese restaurant.  We went for the 'taster' menu, which was a small sample of 8 things on the menu.  They were delicious!  Although I was the only one who liked the jellyfish.  I did think that Matt was going to bring it back up at one point.  Admittedly, it did have a funny texture, a bit like chewing a tyre.

Before we had dinner, we went to a gorgeously decorated rooftop bar called Lost Heaven, where we had a couple of bellinis to warm us up for the dinner.

Saturday was a bit of a disaster for Matt.  He lost his wallet on Friday night, and had to cancel all of his cards, so went to the bank on Saturday morning to get a new one before the banks are closed for most of the week due to the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival holiday.  There was a problem with their systems, so he was there for hours!  He even went across the city to pick up our train tickets for Beijing (in itself a task that took several hours), and came back to the bank to wait a bit longer for his card.  He eventually got it though, so all is well.

Meanwhile, Mary and I had enormous fun at the fake market.  I normally let Matt do the haggling at stalls because I feel a bit embarrassed and think that he will do it better, but it turns out that I am an excellent haggler, and Mary is too!  Someone would say 100 yuan, and Mary would go straight in with 10 yuan!  We got some great deals, and had a really fun time buying souvenirs for the family.  Mary doesn't like shopping, and was convinced she wouldn't enjoy it, but she really did.  I did some really serious haggling for a fabulous coat/jumper/shawl thingy.  It's my new favourite item of clothing.  It's so soft, I don't ever want to take it off.

We had a pastry for lunch, then headed over to the skyscraper district, where it was absolutely tipping it down with rain! Luckily, there was a chap waiting outside the station selling umbrellas.  I bet he made a mint that day!  We had a wander around the shops and restaurants in the World Financial Tower, not wanting to go to the observation deck without Matt, and because the cloud was very low, so we had a Starbucks ice tea and had a good catch up.  Matt joined us later, and we went over to the Jinmao Tower skyscraper, which is next door.  I was desperate to see its 36 story atrium, but it seemed impossible to find.  On our roaming around the hotel, we came across a bar on the 87th floor, which was just fabulous.  You could pay 150 yuan to go to the 88th floor observation deck, or pay 150 yuan to go to the bar, one floor lower, and get 150 yuan worth of drinks.  Guess which we went for!  So we had a few glasses of prosecco and waited for the city to emerge from the clouds.  When it did, it was spectacular.

For dinner on Saturday night we just got a pizza from New York Pizza and had an evening in.  Matt stayed up to watch West Ham win, and Mary and I had early nights.

Today, we went to the Westin brunch, the most famous brunch in a city that LOVES brunches.  It certainly lived up to expectations.  The room was decorated beautifully, and there was food everywhere.  You had to go up an escalator to get to the 'Italian buffet floor' because there wasn't enough room on the ground floor.  There was anything you could ever want - pastries, eggs, cake, sweets, chocolates, crab, lobster, seafood, meat, curry, fish, pizza, and a whole array of things i didn't know.

I had a round of eggs and salmon - poached, cured and smoked.  Then a curry plate, with delicious aloo gobi, chicken tikka, and every other curry you could think of.  Then I had an Italian plate with lemon sole and roasted potatos, with some cold prawns and olives.  All the while we were having free flow Veuve Clicquot champagne.  The waiters were a bit too attentive if anything.  You took one sip and they refilled your glass.  I also had a mojito, and a cider. Matt had a beer, and a bloody mary.  We had a rest, then went for a dessert plate.  I had some banana bread pudding, which was the best thing of the day, with hand made chocolate, marshmallows, chocolate pudding, brownie.  Yum.  I now look like a whale.  There were 20 other teachers at the brunch too, 10 in a group and the rest there in couples or with family, so Mary got to meet lots of our friends, which was nice.

The entertainment was fantastic.  We were left to eat for the first hour or so, then the orchestra came on to play some fabulous classical music, then there were opera singers, then dancers in Dutch costumes doing traditional dances, a latin dance couple doing salsa and samba, two electric violin players who were dancing at the same time as playing (seriously impressive), a guy doing a diablo, with a dragon attached to it, so it swirled around him, and two fantastic acrobats.

We were all in food comas by the end of the brunch, so we headed back home for a sleep.  This evening we have just read books and relaxed. We are about to do some packing for Beijing tomorrow.  I can't wait! 

(the Dutch flag is because the theme this week was Holland)