China – Beijing
Wow. There is ~5000 years of Chinese history. American history students have it easy compared to many other countries (American history ~250 years). Also I should have studied Asian religion as well. Things to remember when you get to China – Google and Facebook products are blocked in China (at least in 2016). This is an issue for me since every app on my phone is a google based product. Sometimes there is a breach in the Great Internet Wall and I get a download of emails on my gmail account, but I can’t answer them. Guess who I found out of ~22M people? I had lunch w/ Buddy in Beijing! Buddy thank you for lunch and helping with the sim card!
The Forbidden City: The city has an outer court, inner court, gardens, and moat. There is only one way to view the city, tourist have to walk from the south to the north gate.
Temple of Heaven: The clouds in the sky are amazing. The temple is amazing as well. The temple is made without any nails.
Summer Palace: Beautiful! This is a man made lake.
Ming Tombs (Changling): The tombs is buried behind the mausoleum. There are ~13 tombs. The wiki site has a water color of the area. Amazing how many tombs are located here. (The tombs are unexcavated.)
Great Wall (in Badaling): There are several sections of the great wall. The one at Badaling has the most tourist. The cable car that takes you near the top of the wall, where you can walk a short loop – it is crowded. Walking on the Great Wall is amazing! I would love to come back and do a 3 day backpack trip on the great wall!
Hutong: These are traditional court yard residences. There are several around the city. We got to visit one and have lunch!
Jingshan Park: Once you get to the top, there is a great view of the forbidden city.
Olympic District: Beijing held the Summer Olympics in 2008. I think Rachel was here! The bird nest (This holds ~90K people). The square building is the water cube. The dragon looking building is a 7 star hotel (I guess there are only 4 of them in the world). It is funny, the one day I visit the Olympic district, the air pollution is really bad. All of the other days, the air was very clear.
Tiananmen Square: The square is large. One side had the bell and drum towers, Mao’s Mausoleum, National Museum of China, Great Hall of the people, the Monument to the Peoples Hero, and the Forbidden city. Here are some pictures of the area as well as inside the National Museum of China.
