Beijing, Capital of the Middle Kingdom. A Walk Through History

I’ve been blessed with amazing history teachers and professors over the years. From middle school through my graduation of college it seems that I have always had a history teacher looking out for me. I owe a lot to these great men and women, they inspired me to see how the world got to where it is and to see why we do things the way we do them. Most importantly they are the ones who inspired me to travel and I try to thank them as often as possible, who would I be had they not been there to inspire me?

I went to Beijing thinking a lot of the words of wisdom imparted to me by so many great and caring people over the years. It is through that lens that I saw Beijing. Through the memories of lessons I wished I would have paid more attention too.

Perhaps I should mention why I took this trip to Beijing, as all of my followers in America were enjoying an ordinary week, China was on holiday.  October first was National Day commemorating the formation of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), it’s most similar to Independence Day in America. As National Day coincided with Mid-Autumn festival this year there was a ten day holiday! To celebrate these occasions two fellow English teachers and I chose to go to Beijing.

The Great Wall

Photo credit goes to my friend and fellow English teacher.

Once the barrier between China and Mongolia, some believe that you can see it from space. I can’t tell you the first time I heard about the Great Wall, and to tell you the truth I never had much interest in seeing it. When choosing which travel course I wanted to go on my junior year of college my father asked me why France when I could go to China and see the Great Wall? I can’t remember the exact answer I gave him, I just remember having a take it or leave it attitude when it comes to the Great Wall.

This changed a bit by the time I was living in my small Chinese city, instead I found myself strangely pulled to the Great Wall. I needed to see it. So our first full day in Beijing was spent trekking to this wonder of the world.

I’m not sure what I expected, but in all honestly I was a bit under-whelmed. The part we saw follows a line of mountains with parts that are extremely steep.

We spent a few hours exploring the wall and making friends with a woman who sells bottled water carried all the way from Mongolia! Someone needs a geography lesson. I found it interesting that the people who live on the other side of the wall still consider themselves Mongolian.

This is the village in "Mongolia" where the woman selling bottled water lives.

She gets to the wall everyday via donkey.

I must say the best part about visiting this part of the Great Wall was the alpine slide at the end!

Tiananmen Square

A historical place, one of the most surveillanced places in the world, where I bought a Chinese flag; words cannot accurately describe this important place. Instead I give you pictures.

 The flag I bought in front of the main gate at Tienanmen square.

 Chinese Lion!

 Almost through, coming during National Holiday might not have been the best choice. There were so many people.

A view of the Museum from Tienanmen Square.

 Massive TV screen at Tienanmen Square, it displayed messages like this one as well as short clips about China.

 Last view of the main gate before heading off.

 An important Chinese man.

Beautiful flowers.

Western Food

Living in China is a constant adventure from buying groceries to taking the bus and everything in between, including meals. I find most the food very good and luckily in China almost all the menus have pictures! So its easy to have some idea as to what you are ordering. However I often do miss being able to identify what I’m eating.

We forgot to take pictures of all the western food so I drew you all a picture of a burger :-)

In Beijing there are tons of Western restaurants offering all sorts of delicacies easily identifiable by American eyes. We ate mostly western food while in Beijing, we wanted a taste of home. However on our last day we went to a Western grocery store! Now I can try making some American food in my apartment.

Look at my Western goodies!