All posts tagged: Beijing

The Great Wall + Observations After 10 Days in Beijing

We’ve since arrived in Bangkok and I’m pleased to have full access to my social media sites once again. One of the hostels we stayed at in Beijing had writing all over it which characterized its ambiance, and if you’re familiar with Tibet’s struggle you will notice the humor in someone writing ‘Free Social Media‘ in the stairwell. Mid last week I seemed to develop a persistent allergy to something in Beijing which rendered me dopey, sleepy and full of snot (which I cheerfully spat onto the street along with all of the other Beijing-ers, much to Greg’s disgust). That came about the morning Greg and I left on a twelve hour day tour to the Jinshanling part of the Great Wall. Pleasant. Six of these hours were spent on a cramped tour bus with ‘air conditioning’. Whatever that means. We arrived to blue skies (a relief from hazy Beijing) and stunning mountains. The wall snaked along the ridges of these mountains and was absolutely stunning. It really is one of the most impressive sites …

Exploring Beijing’s Mystic Forbidden City

Let’s catch up on the past few days. Monday saw us visiting Beijing’s most iconic sites: Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Our hostel is conveniently located roughly 20 minutes walking distance from the two, which are located next to one another. They also happen to mark the ‘geographic centre’ of the city. Following the beaten tourist path we headed past Mao’s mausoleum, through Tiananmen Square and to the Forbidden City. Greg had left me only for a moment before Chinese tourists began to ask for pictures, which I was all too happy to oblige. After all, it was a nice diversion from someone trying to sell you something. Apart from that instance, nothing remarkable happened during our wandering. Following the Forbidden City we decided to make a department store our heading. We ended up shopping on a ten lane highway, flanked by towering department stores. H&M, Adidas, Nike, Only, etc. Everything imaginable. Making our way back to the hostel we made a slight detour through a hutong and quickly realized we were lost. While …

Beijing: My Overwhelming First Impressions of China

Well, we have arrived in Beijing, China and it is crazy! First let me recount our journey here. We packed up and left on Friday morning, Vancouver time. I had to chuckle when I noticed Greg’s had packed not one, but two travel pillows. As we walked the 200-m to the bus stop from Greg’s parents’ house we congratulated ourselves with a celebratory high-five. I looked over at his backpack and immediately noticed one of the travel pillows had fallen off. We had already lost an item, not more than 20 seconds into our trip. Too funny. The bus arrived promptly thereafter this moment so the pillow remains where it fell. We flew Air China and much to my misfortune I discovered my in-flight entertainment screen was broken. Did I mention this was a twelve hour flight? Flying north from Vancouver we actually passed over Comox (my hometown) which made me pretty happy and then onward past Alaska, Siberia and the Koreas. Beijing greeted us with a grey haze (which I am beginning to believe is character of the …

Greg and I Are Hitting the Banana Pancake Trail!

     I suspect that you realize by now that between travels, this blog is largely dormant. After a year and a half hiatus this entry does indeed mark an impending trip. Yesterday tickets were booked for a five month journey through South East Asia, for the second time. Allow me to explain. In February 2010 G & I jumped on a $550 CAD one way ticket to Bangkok, by way of a 10 day stop in Beijing.  Dated for 11/10/11 we had every intent of leaving snowy northern British Columbia and never returning (read: move to Vancouver and travel, not go-to-Asia-and-never-come-back). However, by early summer G had a work opportunity that he could not resist capitalizing on, and as luck would have it the summer courses that represented my final BComm credits were cancelled due to low enrolment. So the tickets were refunded (FYI: Air China charge of $100.00) and I begrudgingly accepted the fact that another winter would be spent in the north. We decided that we would reschedule our departure date for Spring 2012.  Fall …