China 2015: for beginners - Beijing

Five days for Beijing....what initially seemed long enough to us, turned out to be too short in the end. We were unable to realize many things, the view of the Olympic Stadium or even the wonderful opera at night was denied to us - the distances were too great, the streets too crowded.

Initially, the five of us flew from Berlin to Istanbul Sabiha Gökcen and then took an exciting transfer to Atatürk. There we met number 6 at night....Ralf had the better flight from Berlin to Istanbul.

The flight was relatively unspectacular, upon arrival in Beijing we were impressed by the modern airport, efficient with its train and navigation system....something the Berliner can only dream of.

Our hotel was located in Qianmen and was indeed very pretty at first glance, but upon closer inspection, it had seen better years. The wallpapers were taped with Scotch tape, the bathrooms were covered in black mold. And our hosts could be loud, it was a joy.

Our hotel, Quianmen Courtyard Hotel

somehow it was cozy

On the first evening, we stayed in Qianmen and enjoyed the authentic restaurant street near the hotel....We ordered food based on optical illusion, the picture that tempted us the most. A few days later, it ended in boiled, dissected duck heads, which none of us could eat.

The next morning, we were challenged in terms of food for the first time - dumplings in the morning are ok, but eating them for a whole week became boring. As an alternative, we had rice soup, which tasted like water and rice, without seasoning...well...and in the end, we had our coffee at MC Doof and were amazed by the breakfast menu available

Dumplings in the morning, nice once in a while, but not daily

Breakfast, something different - soy milk and walnuts

In the following days, we visited the obligatory Tiananmen Square (we skipped the Mao Mausoleum)

Qianmen shopping street, one of the towers of the old city wall in front of us, behind it Tiananmen Square

Mao Mausleum

and the Forbidden City, which we didn't really like. If you know the Literature Temple in Hanoi, you can live with the fact that great facilities don't always have to be huge....but diverse and unique. The Forbidden City is only huge and eventually quite exhausting.

Forbidden City entrance

We wandered through the complex for a whole 3 hours and ended up getting bored - who would have thought.

We then visited the Beihai and Jingshan Parks, enjoyed the relative tranquility, and looked forward to dinner in Wangfujing....with all sorts of creepy crawlies. We drew the line at seahorses and starfish too. Scorpions and spiders were still quite funny....they were deep-fried anyway.

Jingshan Park

The sun sets at the Forbidden City

The Chinese eat everything that crawls and flies.

Forbidden City entrance at night

The next day, the Temple of Heaven was on the agenda, much nicer than the Forbidden City. In the attached park, people exercised, families had picnics, and there was a very relaxed atmosphere

Afterwards, we took the subway to the Summer Palace. It was our personal highlight in Beijing. Lightness and beautiful architecture made us want more. Unfortunately, we arrived quite late and therefore could not admire the entire palace.

Summer Palace entrance

In the evening, we met up with my former colleague Stefanie, who now lives in Beijing. We went to the Jingzun Restaurant and enjoyed really excellent Peking duck

The next day was dedicated to the Great Wall. After extensive research, we decided on Jingshanling and immediately rejected Badaling, too many Chinese, too little wall.

Our decision was absolutely right, although the taxi driver drove backwards on the highway and our guardian angel flew above us - but when we arrived after three hours, we were actually ALONE!
We enjoyed the atmosphere, the weather...we walked on the wall towards Simatai and simply had fun and were happy with our decision



In the evening, we enjoyed a traditional hot pot, including beef stomach, not really our thing

We dedicated our last day to the Hutongs and the Buddhist Lama Temple. The temple belongs to the order of the Panchen Lama, who was appointed in Beijing and has little to do with the real Panchen Lama - who has been missing since 1995.


There's not much left of the old Hutongs - either converted into hotels, demolished, or turned into hostels, Starbucks, and Gloria Jeans


In the evening, we boarded the train to Xi'an - see also: https://vakantio.de/post/edit/allcontinentsinonelife/576d149468df4d914479e913