Day 3 - Beijing
Today was a day of adjusting to the time change. We all woke up about 3am (3pm back home) and had a hard time getting back to sleep. So we read, scrolled on our phones and FaceTimed back home a bit. We made it to breakfast where Jonathan explored some of the Chinese options while Brittney and Sophia ate more Western style foods.
We hit the road about 8:30am for a traffic filled journey to the Great Wall, about an hour away from our hotel. The mountains outside Beijing are beautiful (they’re hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics) and the area we visited of the Wall was impressive!
With the wall we climbed, climbed, climbed, and then climbed some more. Talk about a stair workout to the max!!! The magnitude and terrain of the wall is so impressive to experience. It’s hard enough to climb it, let alone fathom its creation and use for military defense. We only spent about two hours on the wall but it would’ve been possible to spend an entire day in the section we were at, let alone the many other sections available for visiting.
We then went to the jade factory where we witnessed the carving and creation of jade jewelry and artwork. Amazing artwork (and expensive!!). They make anything from tiny pieces of jewelry to $800,000 10 foot tall and 4 foot wide vases. They explained the history of jade jewelry production and the varying types of stone used. It was neat to see how it was integrated into the Beijing Olympic medals too. The store has an amazing selection of any sort of jade item you could dream up. We then had a wonderful family style lunch (so full!) with yummy vegetables, rice, noodles and some sweet pineapple chicken.
For our next stop we ventured to the Olympic park where the 2008 Summer games were held. We saw the torch tower, Birds’ Nest stadium, and the Water Cube (natatorium). We see impressive gardening and architecture everywhere we go in Beijing, but particularly here.
To continue our cultural exposure and keep us busy for adjusting to the time change we enjoyed a tea house. It was neat to see our little lady show up in Sophia for the details of tea preparation and etiquette. She’s done so amazing with all the busyness, unfamiliar things, and difficulties that come with long travel. We enjoyed 6 different types of tea, particularly the sweet fruity tea before exploring the gift shop. We definitely saw a $9,000 teapot and a $4,000 tea-leaf brick 😳
The history of China with tea goes way back, but so does the Silk Road. We enjoyed the silk factory with an understanding of how the silk worms cocoon is harvested to make amazing bedding, fabric, rugs, artwork, clothing, and other items. So neat!
Peking Duck Dinner - we had eaten our fill already, but couldn’t leave Beijing without a proper Peking Duck Dinner 🙂 it was delicious but we were full already too lol. Duck is a bit greasy and mostly crispy skin but it is definitely a delicacy along with the many other great samples of Chinese cuisine. We tried asking for forks...but the restaurant doesn’t even have them lol...so we improvised with soup spoons! Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
So I intended to write this when we returned to our room (after a bakery stop lol, apparently not too full to resist that)...but I was so exhausted that I flat collapsed and passed out asleep while Brittney was FaceTiming home 😂 after a few hours of rest I had the mental energy to try again! Sorry if it’s rough in the editing department 🙂 thanks for adventuring with us.
Mia-Monday is right around the corner!! 🙌🏻🙏🏻
No comments:
Post a Comment