Nice hotel in Beijing
Great concierge service at hotel
Bell Tower on Hutong Tour
Hutong alley
Hutong doorway - footboard height and posts on upper door represent status
Street in Hutong area
Tea tasting
shopping/food busy street
Cocoons used in making silk
Busy Beijing streets
"Birdcage"
Inside WaterCube
Olympic towers
WaterCube
Olympic towers
"Birdcage" at night
First day in Beijing, China. I was here about 8 years ago to run the Great Wall Marathon. I had a few touring days in Beijing at that time, but I wanted to come back and see some things I missed in a more relaxed state. I was able to communicate with Randy/Wendy via text message when I arrived at the hotel late last night. (iPhone to iPhone messages are able to go through internationally with no charge). We decided to meet at the hotel breakfast around 8am.
Upon arriving into the hotel last night, an immediate difference between China & the US (and any other country I'm aware of for that matter) became apparent. At the lobby reception desk stood a sign --- no facebook, google, gmail, youtube, twitter, BlogSpot, etc. These web sites are all blocked in China - government restriction. I'll have to make due the next few days and use other search engines.
It was good to catch up with Randy/Wendy over breakfast. They had a big walking day on Monday touring the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square - some really warm weather as well. Heat indexes were well over 100 deg F. We decided to have a pretty low key morning. We walked the famous Wangfujing Street - located only a 10-minute stroll from out hotel --- Park Plaza Beijing Wangfujing. We ran into a couple Chinese artists and chatted with them for awhile. They showed us some of their paintings in an adjacent building. We also did some recon on our pickup location for the Great Wall tour we'll be doing on Wednesday.
Next, we decided to book an afternoon Hutong tour. Hutongs (alleyways) are original Chinese residential areas. They are located in central Beijing for the most part. Small alleyways lead to separate housing areas - sometimes made of 10 families - all sort of sharing the space. Really interesting to hear about the original Chinese culture. The Hutong tour evolved into some other areas of Beijing. We had a tea tasting near the famous Bell & Drum Towers. We then did a walk through of a popular shopping/food street near the Hutongs. We got to see the crazy Beijing traffic up close as our driver practiced nascar-like skills through the wildwest atmosphere of the crowded city streets. The final stop was to a silk factory. Educational - we got to see and understand the silk creation process all the way from the silk worm, through the cocoon phase, and then on to the development of the final product (sheets, clothes, etc). The cocoons are actually the beginning fibers of the silk process. The silkworms are largely located in the southern provinces of China.
After the tour, we had our driver drop us off at the nearest metro station. We wanted to see the Olympic village from the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. This was great! We toured the WaterCube - where Michael Phelps won his Olympic record 8 gold medals. We then walked the grounds - seeing the medalist wall that listed all the winners from the Games. We were able to get unbelievable views of the "Birdcage" - the main Olympic stadium where the opening/closing ceremonies were held. What a unique and incredible design! We stayed until dark and got some pics when the lights came on.
A metro ride back to the hotel -- a really good day in Beijing!.
No comments:
Post a Comment