It's an excursion: Beijing

About two weeks ago I went for a four-day trip to Beijing. Indeed, I didn’t want everyone to tell me “What? You’ve been to China and you haven’t seen the Great Wall?”. So I booked a hotel, I grabbed my Lonely Planet China and my friend and five hours of train later, there I was. Before I went, everyone told me that if Shanghai was the best Chinese city to live in, Beijing was the best one for sightseeing. I really get what they were saying now. I’m going to make you a little review of the places I got to visit in four days.

DAY 1: Temple of Heaven

Actually, we arrived around noun, and by the time we got to the hotel it was already 3 in the afternoon. This is why we decided to visit the Temple of Heaven. I have to say, this was my favorite monument. Not only was it quite impressive architecturally speaking, but the atmosphere going on in the park was really unique. There were groups of singers everywhere, and Chinese people playing cards or just walking around in the alleys of the park. It was such a radical change from Shanghai. The Temple was created under the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and was visited until the Qing dynasty by the Chinese Emperors. They went there to accomplish a Taoist ritual for good harvesting.

More info on the Temple of Heaven

DAY 2: Summer Palace

Ah, the summer palace, what a breeze. It’s just outside of Beijing, and when you enter it you feel like you just traveled time (I know it’s not my first time to make this comment, but it is still so true I can’t help but making it), except for one tiny detail: the hundreds of tourists. At first, we were so overwhelmed by them we nearly lost it. But, as we went on with our visit, it got much better. Indeed the palace is so huge (2.9 km², with a lake of 2.2km²) that the tourists just spread around. So we got to visit the main monuments of the Palace: The Wisdom temple, the seven-arch Bridge, the long corridor, the marble boat and the hall of Benevolence and longevity. My two personal favorites were the long corridor and the marble boat. The long corridor was so amazingly ornamented with typical Chinese patterns, it was so meticulously done that I was really impressed. For the marble boat, I just love the story of how it was made. Emperor Cixi was attributed a budget to strengthen the floats of the Chinese Army, and with that money, she just decided to make one gorgeous boat: the marble boat. The woman clearly stands for her reputation of being a crazy Emperor.

More info on the Summer Palace

DAY 3: The Great Wall

The reason for my trip! There are several places from which you can start visiting the Wall. We decided to go to Badaling for strictly practical reasons. We walked on it for about three hours, and it was just as I expect. You know how sometimes you picture the places you want to visit before you die, well Great Wall: Checked.

DAY 4: Forbidden city and Lama Temple

Ok, I have to say, everyone told me it was mandatory to visit the forbedden city, so we did. But we weren't really thrilled by it. There were so many tourist that we just suffocated. Anyway it was still very impressive to see such an enourmous monument right in the middle of the city.

Apparently, the Lama temple is one of the most sacred Buddhist temples in China. It was a really nice way of ending our trip. The most impressive thing was the 26 m high Maitreya Buddha displayed in one of the rooms (unfortunatly I couldn't take a picture of it because it is forbidden to take pictures of Buddhas). I don’t even know how they actually got it inside the room.

More info on the Lama temple

To conclude, I just loved my trip to Beijing! I did a lot more things, like Tien an men or the Olympic stadium but I didn't want to turn my article into a mere list so I didn't quote them all. And I have to say it wouldn’t have been the same without my wing girl Anais, merci beaucoup poulette!