travel

They also had very decorative tiles, I don’t know if I’m the one missing something here, or if they are.

The “Time Out 72 hours in Beijing” booklet told me to go to the largest tea market in the northern China, Maliando. I took the subway to the area and started walking in what I thought was the right direction. I thought I was very lost because I didn’t see anything that seemed interesting when I bumped into what looked like a tea market. 3 stories of small shops, just like the guide said. It was very small though and a lot of the small boutiques were closed so I was pretty disappointed. But whatever, I didn’t really want tea anyway so I walked out. Turned out I was at the wrong place and the “real” market was across the street.

This place was huge! It was still early in the morning so I was just about by myself.

A lady approached me and asked if I like green tea.

I headed back up to Wangfujing, the part of the city which felt like it could be any major city in the world. Very modern, and not very exciting.

I don’t know what it is, but I haven’t been very hungry these past days, maybe it’s because of the heat, or that I’m walking around and forget that I’m hungry. I’m mostly just exhausted from walking and walking, and even more walking. I walked into a shopping center to see if they maybe had a cafe where I could sit down for a coffee and some WiFi when I saw the sign for Din Tai Fung, score! I love Din Tai Fung! They have a bunch of locations all over the world, got Michelin stars for their restaurants in Taiwan and when you try to go to either one of their two locations in Los Angeles, you have to wait for two hours before you can get a table. This made me so happy!

This little street off the main street of Wangfujing was actually a little exciting, I heard you should be able and buy scorpions and stuff here, but the whole thing was closed today. I don’t know if it was because of the rain, or the Military Parade that’s happening on Thursday, or a combination of both.

The city is really starting to gear up for the parade. Every time you tried to cross a street close to a major sight, you had to go through security checks.

I’m glad I planned out my Beijing visit the way I did and took care of the sightseeing the first day, they’re shutting down the city!

Enough of Beijing, time to head down to Shanghai!

A flat tire! I found the whole situation hilarious, but the Greeks, not so much, they were pissed by now.
A few hours delayed, we eventually made it to Mutianyu. Since we were late we were advised to take the cable cart up to the wall instead of the 2h walking trail. It was by now safe to say the Greeks would not give the poor tour guide any tips at the end of the day.

People likes to build walls, Europe had a wall, Israel has a wall, Trump wants to build a wall, but the early Ming Dynasty build the greatest wall of the all, the Great Wall! This section of the wall was built in the early 1400’s.
I personally believe in building bridges rather than building walls, but that’s just me.

Parts of the wall that’s not renovated or maintained is getting pretty overgrown.

I wonder if the guards were bored on the wall or if they woke up every day thinking, yay, I’m gonna look at that view again today!

I was riding the gondola up with a guy who said he’d take my photo on the wall if I wanted to. I didn’t want a photo of myself, and then later I realized maybe that was a polite way of him asking me to take his photo. We will never know. After a while I thought to myself that maybe I should take a photo of me and send to my mother, she would appreciate that. I tried to set the timer on my phone and this is what came out of it; Selfie like a pro!

When we got back from the wall I was tired but not hungry, but it was still early so I took to the street to wander around for a bit, maybe find a convenient store to buy water and cookies for dinner.
I came across these building, I’m not quite sure what it is, but it looks like a culture center/restaurant.

It seems from these displays that they used to have a jolly good time around here.

Everything is off course being watched my Mao.

These dumplings looked delicious but I just assumed they had a bunch of meat in them and I was to tired to try to explain I only wanted veggies so I passed.

I walked into Lao She Teahouse because they had a big sign and it seemed important. Some nice ladies asked if I wanted tea and recommended I took a stroll around the tea house to look at the fancy stuff they had before sitting down in a tea room.

Once I had enough of looking at fancy tea pots I walked into the tea room and was greeted by a not so nice lady. She looked at me and asked if I wanted tea and said it was “very expensive”, US$60/h for the room plus the tea.
Fine! If you don’t want my money I’ll go back to the cheap streets and have an ice cream from McDonald’s for dinner.

I stayed in the Qianmen area and didn’t have much of a plan for Beijing, but there were a couple sights I wanted to see so I started walking.

I started walking on the commercialized streets but soon found these kinds of alleys to be more interesting.

I had an uneven feeling that I would walk around these small street for a while and it’d take me hours to find my way back, but it wasn’t long until I came across another commercialized street. Time for coffee!

I found Zhengyangmen, also known as Qianmen.
Fast facts: The proper gate of the inner city of Beijing, built in 1419, located at the southern end of Tian’anmen Square, 43.65 meters high and covers an area of 3047 square meters.

Since Qianmen was right by Tian’anmen Square, it was pretty easy to find that little square…

The forecast said rain and thunderstorms for 4 days, I didn’t see any thunderstorms, but there were some sprinkles and this is the times I appreciate being a foot taller than the average Chinese person, I can see over all the umbrellas!

China is celebrating 70 years since the end of the second world war on September 3rd with a big “F* You rest of the world” military parade. They had closed parts of the square and some sights to prepare.

This is the actual Tian’anmen, or “Gate of Heavenly Peace”. If you try to vandalize the portrait of Mao Zedong, you’ll get arrested. Don’t do it. Five people has already, more or less successfully, tried. The portrait weighs 1.5 tonnes and is replaced once a year with a new one so it’s always looking fresh and clean!

The Forbidden City was living up to its name and was shut down due to end of the war celebrations. The whole Forbidden City! It can’t be much more forbidden than that! I was considering sneaking in anyway, but then I realized I was carrying my American passport, so maybe not.

I kept walking thinking maybe, maybe could I find a small window where I could peek in, but there wasn’t much of that.

Made it all the way to the other side of the Forbidden City and saw a big “thing” on top of a hill. Since I had nothing better to do I decided to walk up to it.
Turned out I was in the Jingshan Park.
Fast facts: Almost 1000 years old garden located in the center of Beijing, covers an area of 230 000 square meters, the little hill I saw peaks at 94.2 meters above sea level, in the year of 1644 shits were hitting the fan and Chongzhen the Emperor took the easy way out and hung himself in the park, the park open to public in the year of 1928.

There was a huge Buddha statue inside here, but you were not allowed to take photos. Respect.

Hey, check this out, you could see into the Forbidden City from the hill! I think that’s all I really wanted to do anyway, I didn’t wanna fight with a ton of locals and tourists, I just wanted to see it!

Time Out Magazine told me to take the subway to Guijue, because that’s were everything is happening at night.

I feel like I totally scored!

I sat down at a table and the waitress was very impatient as I flipped through the pictures in the menu. She gave away a big sigh, grabbed the menu from my hands and quickly flipped through to a page with some beef and pointed. I shook my head, I didn’t want no beef, I haven’t had beef in nearly 20 years! She rolled her eyes and flipped through to the next section: chicken. No, I don’t want, let me! We played tug-a-war for a bit until I finally won and got to order my precious crayfish!
When they arrived she wanted to explain how to eat them, but girlfriend, I was born with a crayfish in my hand.
The table next to me all turned to watch me eat as well, I’m glad this westerner could give them something to talk about.

There was a 5k and a 10k in the morning. Most of us were lazy and just cheered our fellow campers on.

Chilling in the shade, waiting for the ferry to take us back home.