Beijing, China

April 24-25,2018

Tuesday and Wednesday were days of stark contrast as we visited The Great Wall, Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City. All three were spectacular edifices that caused various emotional responses. 

Tuesday morning we were bused about 30 miles outside of Beijing to a region of mountains where we spent two hours walking a very small section of the Wall. This was a well preserved portion of the Wall which attracted many visitors. Walking the Wall was challenging because of the steepness of the Wall as it winds up and down the mountains. The weather was spectacular and the views were picture postcard worthy. Lynda walked just a small portion while Tim took on the challenge of joining others in our group in climbing up the steeper inclines. One of our compatriots had an app on his cell phone that measures gradation and told us that the grade of the Wall at times was 50 to 60 degrees. We all agreed that climbing up the walkway on the Wall was just as difficult as walking up the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet. This was an exhilarating experience for both of us as we added another one of the Seven Wonders of the World to our list of places visited.

Wednesday morning was another Chamber of Commerce morning weather-wise as we visited Tienanmen Square, probably best known to our readers as the site of the student protests in 1989.  This is where the iconic picture of the single student standing defiantly in front of a Chinese Army tank was taken. This square is several hundred acres large, overwhelming in its size. There was a line of thousands of people that snaked throughout the square waiting to walk past Chairman Mao’s tomb which didn’t even have his remains in it. We found this to be a bit disturbing. There was really nothing else to see in the square other then the large buildings that surrounded it.

The final stop on Wednesday was the Forbidden City, built between 1406-1420, and  home to the Emperors of China. It is now a museum of sorts although we went inside only one of the buildings which contained an ugly throne made with deer antlers, a couple of rifles, several bow and arrows, and some Chinese calligraphy. There must have been 40 or 50 particularly large buildings (we lost count) that stood on multiple large courtyards, just one building after another and one huge courtyard after another, all looking alike.  The sheer size of each of the buildings ended up dulling our senses. Had we been Chinese or had we studied Chinese history and understood the significance of each building, we probably would have appreciated the Forbidden City more.

The other attraction in Beijing that should be noted was the dinner we had at the top Peking Duck restaurant in Beijing, which has hosted several U.S. Presidents. Like practically all of the places we ate in China we sat at large round tables for 8-10 people with a lazy Susan in the middle where the different dishes of food were placed. There is strict protocol to the preparation of Peking Duck. Air is blown into the duck to separate the skin from the meat and then the duck is hung to dry for several days before being roasted. In the restaurant in which we ate a chef carved the duck on a cart next to our table. Eating the duck was almost like eating a taco. We took a very thin, almost translucent, pancake, spread a bit of hoisin sauce on the pancake, added pieces of the duck including the skin and then finished with various toppings such as slivers of onion, celery, beet, mushrooms, red cabbage, etc. The pancake is rolled over the top of all of this and eaten like a soft shell taco. Delicious. This meal was particularly enjoyable because, for the first time since leaving our boat, there was unlimited complimentary wine, and our tour guide was not rushing us to our next stop. We have enjoyed wonderful conversations covering a wide array of topics with all of the people on our bus at all of our meals.

This brings us to the end of another wonderful trip. We are both looking forward to going home but it won’t be long before we start planning our next adventure - stay tuned!