This weekend saw lots of time exploring Beijing’s sights with Sarah’s host family. They hired a van to tote the herd around for two days and we explored places Sarah and I would have found difficult to go without the help of a tour group or a van.
Our first stop on Saturday was the Great Wall at Badaling. This part is the more touristy part of the wall, and we hadn’t been to it the last time we were in China in early 2008 (we hiked Jinshanling and the treacherous Simatai).
There were so many Chinese people everywhere, not like we expected anything else. The kids were busy racing up sections of the wall because they had too much energy to spare, and we were enjoying the cool breeze, nice views, and, more importantly, fresh air. Fresh, pollution-free air!
Hiking up was exhilarating, and I daresay I will have the best buns and thighs in the land when I get home.
After that, we went to the Ming tombs and explored the gardens and tombs while dodging herds of tourists and tourist vans. The gardens were quite nice, and featured a lot of stone animals built by Emperors in the Ming dynasty.
Inside the tombs, people had thrown money on the throne of the emperor, or on the caskets in the tomb itself. It took researchers a year and a half to open the tomb without damaging the door. A lot had rotted away, but it was restored nicely.
After the tombs, we visited an illustrious three-star toilet!!
After that was the great Beijing Duck Feast at a restaurant in a nearby Westin. It was so good, and will be detailed in all its glory in the food post.
Today, we went with the girls to the Summer Palace in the morning. It was absolutely huge and the gardens were beautiful. We climbed a lot of stairs (buns and thighs!), took a lot of pictures, and felt pretty small. If it was a clearer day, the pictures would have been nicer, but it was pretty smoggy today. My sinuses and throat are rejecting Beijing and long, hot showers seem to alleviate my suffering only somewhat…
After a morning at the Summer Palace, we headed to the kids’ school picnic. It was a little bit of a relief to be amongst a crowd of fellow foreigners at the British school – nobody was staring at us or wanting to take pictures with us!
Though the kids had fun, today was not Sarina’s lucky day. Her ice cream died an unfortunate death at the start of the picnic, and then she kneed herself in the nose and bled everywhere. None of us could figure out what was happening at first – we all thought she had melted ice cream all over until we realized her nose was bloody!
After that, we headed to watch Daito’s soccer game. They were playing a team a few years older than them, but they played well. Daito is fast!
