When you hear Beijing you probably think smog. Well, with our masks, we think they don't really do anything, and our bags packed we took the high speed train, 4 hours and 45 minutes to Beijing.
We got lucky. It wasn't freezing but was colder than Shanghai and the air was not unbearable.
Beijing, The People's Republic of China's capital, is setup based on 6 rings. In the center of the city is Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. The city has a rule, much like Washington, DC, that no buildings can be taller structures within this ring. As the circles expand the buildings get
taller. It felt like a highway super highway system as we traveled from where our hotel was located in ring 4 to sight-see in the city center ring 2. We learned that with the cities growing size the government is expanding city limits into the 7th circle. Most of the business done in Beijing is government related. I definitely felt the difference of urban shopping fashion, business, modernity, and pulse of excitement like you feel when you are in Shanghai.
 |
| The way up |
 |
| Mutianyu Tower |
 |
| The gift shop |
 |
| Prior to entering the Forbidden City |
 |
| Someone taking a picture of our kids at Tiananmen Square |
 |
| Yet someone else taking another picture of our kids |
 |
| Someone else taking a picture of our daughter |
As for the Great Wall, I recommend everyone to go visit. It was just cool to experience something of this size, much like the Old City in Jerusalem and Masada in the Negev, so much man power and such innovation.
On a mountain by the wall there is a saying built inside "If you haven't been to the Great Wall, you aren't a real man," Mao Zedong once said or also translated as "He who doesn't reach the Great Wall is no hero. You can buy a suvionir medal on your way down if you'd like. We took a ski lift up and a tobogon down. From start to finish it was awesome.
No comments :
Post a Comment