Ni hao Beijing

You probably hadn't notice my absence thanks to the impressive room redo guest posts (Thanks so much to Jennifer Rebecca, Rebekah, Jessica for generously sharing their talents with me.) but we were out of town. This time we traveled back to the far east for our first visit to mainland China.



Our trip had us stopping for a few days in three big Chinese cities - Beijing, Xian and Shanghai. I definitely had certain expectations of China - most of which were completely disproved during our trip. In case you are wondering, the internet censorship issue is very much real. No blog access, no facebook, no twitter. So I suppose I can safely assume no one in China is reading this.

But forget that, its on to the photos! Let's start with the first leg.


Outside the Forbidden City

We only had a few days in the city so had to hit the major sights. I was fascinated by the young guards stationed everywhere.

Inside Forbidden City

The crowds were kind of insane everywhere we went. We were often the only Western tourists even at these huge iconic spots. There was a lot of pushing and crowding which was not a highlight for me. But there were so many things to see it was worth braving the masses.


Temple of Heaven and Forbidden City Garden

As you can tell, we got really lucky with the weather in Beijing. It was beautiful blue skies everyday. It made for a much better stay since most of the sights are outdoors.



A day at the Great Wall

Overall, China was not what I expected at all. I assumed being closed off to Western culture for so long would give Beijing a distinctly different air than anyplace I had ever been. Not really. Of course it was different as every location is but not radically so. I expected to be overwelmed by culture shock. Not so. The food was delicious and something we appreciated even with our american palette. The people were warm and friendly. On the negative side, it was a bit too westernized - there are almost as many Starbucks and McDonalds here than at home; there was little trace of the 'old' china in this or any of our stops. There were plenty of ancient relics preserved but I was hoping to see something more of the modern history of China. It was not at all addressed. I suppose that is the price of progress but it's a little bit sad to see the whole world becoming so similar.



We had just three days so we only scratched the surface here. We spent most of our time seeing the biggies - Forbidden City? Check. Great Wall? Check. Temple of Heaven? Check. Panda bears at the Zoo? Check. How can you go to China and not visit these? But in our free moments we tried to soak in as much of the modern city as we could as well. I couldn't get over the people who broke out into spontaneous line dancing in the parks!

All too soon we had to pack it up and jump on a quick flight from Beijing to Xian. More about that in aother post.

{You can see my other trip reports by clicking here or view my portfolio of prints for sale here.}