Around the World With Uncle Moose: Days 6-9: Beijing

Day 6: Ulaanbaatar to Beijing

After breakfast, we headed to the airport for our flight to Beijing on China Airlines.

Buyant-Uhaa Sports Arena

Main terminal at Chinggis Khan International Airport

Waiting area at the airport

Aerial view of the southern part of Ulaanbaatar, with airport in foreground

Coming into Beijing

Map of Beijing

When we arrived in Beijing, we were met by our guide Ben, and our driver, who took us to our hotel.

On the way in from the Beijing Airport

Some Beijing architecture

Our hotel in Beijing

Lobby of our hotel

Our room in Beijing (occupant included)

View out of our hotel window.

After we rested up for a while, our friend Rick (see introduction) came by the hotel. From there we walked to a restaurant in one of Beijing's hutongs (a street or alley with older houses and buildings).

Liqun Roast Duck Restaurant

Me, Carol and Rick

Rick and the owner of the restaurant

The restaurant is hard to find in a back alley, but the food was outstanding. The toilet facilities (which were literally down the block), not so much.

Rick instructing Carol on the proper use of chopsticks

Our dinner

After dinner, we walked back to the hotel, through a shopping district on Wangfujing Street.

Along the way, we passed the building where Rick had previously lived.

Rick's former residence

Day 7: Beijing

Today was devoted to visiting Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, a hutong, and other sites in Beijing.

Map of Tiananmen Square

On our 1987 visit, there were very few people in Tiananmen Square. That was not the case this time, although the pictures don't reflect it. We had to deal with throngs of Chinese tourists in both Tienanmen Square and in the Forbidden City.

Great Hall of the People, 1987

Great Hall of the People, 2016

In front of the Tienanmen Gate, 1987

Same as it ever was

Mao's Mausoleum

Monument to the People's Heroes, in front of the Great Hall of the People

We then worked our way through a mob of people to go through the Tiananmen Gate (at the north end of the square) and into the Forbidden City, which was built in the early 1400's.

Map of Forbidden City (stolen from Wikipedia)

Below are a few shots, including one from 1987. Generally speaking, we walked through the areas down the center of the map, which were mobbed. The areas to the left and right were much less crowded.

Meridian Gate, the southern entrance to the Forbidden City. Note the small crowd at the bottom

Gate of Supreme Harmony (I think)

At this point, I can't remember which building is which, so I'll just include some pictures......

1987

On the north side of the Forbidden City is Jingshan Park, which in on a hill built with landfill from the construction of the Forbidden City.

North end of Forbidden City (Palace Museum), with Jingshan Park in background

After leaving the Forbidden City, we had lunch at Xian'r Lao Man ("Our dump l ings are the Ful l est")

Dumplings and fried potatoes

After lunch we went to Nanluoguxiang, a hutong north of the Forbidden City. Nanluoguxiang dates from the early 17th century. We began with a tour on a bicycle rickshaw.

Below are some shots from our ride through the hutong.

After the rickshaw tour, we stopped in at a residence in the hutong. Most of the residences are several rooms built around a courtyard. They are much nicer on the inside than the outside.

Entrance to a residence

Central courtyard

We then walked a couple of blocks to the Bell Tower and Drum Tower. The towers are separated by a park, where lots of locals were hanging out.

Bell Tower

Drum Tower

We then walked down an older shopping street (Di'anmen Outer Street), and went back to the hotel.

For dinner, we walked to a restaurant a couple of doors down from the hotel. I don't know the name, since the signs were only in Chinese. Nevertheless, the food was very good, as were most of the meals we had in Beijing and Shanghai.

For beer fans, the pickings in China are pretty slim. Tsingtao seems to be the only Chinese beer sold nationally, and only one or two local brands (Yanjing in Beijing) were available in each city.

Yanjing Beer

After dinner, Carol and Brenda went back to the hotel, but I decided to walk to Tiananmen Square, about 1/3 mile from the hotel.

Commercial district on Wangfujing Street

More of same

National Children's Theater

Unfortunately, when I got near the square, I discovered that it was closed. I don't know how you can close a space that big, but somehow they did. So, I walked back to the hotel.

Day 9: The Great Wall

Today was our day to see the Great Wall of China, the closest point of which is about 50 miles north of Beijing. In 1987, we saw the wall at Badaling, which is the most popular, and crowded spot. On this trip we went to Mutianyu, which is farther out, but less crowded. On the way we stopped at a cloisonne factory and a jade factory.

Somewhere in Beijing--I don't remember what the building is

On the road in the northern part of Beijing

Our first stop along the way was at a cloisonne factory. Cloisonne is made by soldering designs onto copper, and filling the designs with enamel.

Pots with soldered designs

Adding the enamel

The finished product

We could have taken this one home for only $30,000

Next, we went to a jade factory, where they carve and polish jade.

A jade worker

Some of the finished product

We then went to Mutianu, to see the Great Wall. There is a tourist area near the wall, where we had lunch. At least one member of our party (not me) decided that she wanted Western food, so we wound up at, of all places, a Subway. I can report that the Subway at the Great Wall is pretty much like all of them in the United States.

Gourmet dining at the Great Wall

To get to the wall itself, we took what was essentially a ski lift.

Heading up to the wall

It was a bit more crowded in 1987

This is now

That was then

On the way back to Beijing, we passed through several small towns.

Before we got to Beijing, we made a stop at the Ming Tombs. We didn't get to see the tombs themselves, but we did visit the grounds. Some shots are below:

Eventually, we made it back to Beijing.

Shenyang Olympic Sports Stadium (not the "Birds Nest")

IBM Building

National Stadium (this is the Olympic "Birds Nest" stadium)

Olympic Stadium and Beijing traffic

Now, that's a small car

For dinner, we went to another restaurant down the block from the hotel. If you can tell me the name, please let me know.

After dinner, we walked through a hutong right behind our hotel.

Day 10: A Day with Rick

Today, we spent the entire day with Rick (Ben, our tour guide, got the day off).

Another view of our hotel and the block in front of it

Crepe vendor near our hotel

Another vendor near the hotel

We made a stop at a pharmacy near the hotel, which had sections for both modern and traditional mediines.

"Modern" drug collection

The "traditional" part of the pharmacy

Next, we headed to the Metro, to ride to the Temple of Heaven. Beijing has the second largest Metro system in the world (after Shanghai), and was pretty easy to negotiate, although you did have to go through a security scan to enter. All of the signs in the station and on the trains were in English.

In the Metro station

Stops were listed in English on the train

On the train

After a short ride, we arrived at the Temple of Heaven, which is a few blocks south of Tianamen Square. The temple complex was constructed from 1406 to 1420.

The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests

A closer view of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests

Inside the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests

View of the rear of the Imperial Vault

Imperial Vault of Heaven

After leaving the Temple of Heaven complex, we took the Metro to the Sanlitun district, in the north part of Beijing. Sanlitun is a major shopping and entertainment district.

Local transportation

Buildings near Sanlitun

We had lunch in a mall in Sanlitun. Parts of the menu were, to say the least, unusual (although they

We did not opt for the Walnut Insect or Bamboo Worm

After lunch, we walked around Sanlitun.

From Santilun we took the Metro to Qianhai Lake, in the northern part of the central city. The lake is ringed with bars and shops, and is a major nightlife area.