Our memory of Beijing

We arrived at the ferry terminal in Tanggu, near Tianjin where we got a bus to Beijing.  Less than thirty minutes into our journey there was a loud bang where one of the rear tyres had burst. Eventually, seven hours later we arrived at the Red Lantern hostel in Beijing.

We spent our first full day sightseeing at Tiananmen Square where we saw Zhengyangmen gate and Tiananmen gate which were both beautifully painted.  Unfortunately Chairman Mao’s mausoleum was closed for restoration.

In the afternoon we visited the underground city which was constructed in the sixties as a huge bomb shelter which can accommodate three hundred thousand people and even had a cinema.We also visited the Forbidden City and in the evening we went to a duck restaurant which was very nice.

On Sunday we climbed up the Drum Tower where we had good views of the Hutong area which we then explored on foot.

The following day we took a bus to The Great Wall in Mutianyu.  It was a wonderful sight and we enjoyed walking along the stretches of wall taking in the scenery.

On Tuesday morning we were walking to Beihai park when we bumped into Matt and Becky, a nice English couple we had met at the Downtown hostel in Irkutsk, Siberia.  After visiting the park we met up with them and went to a really nice duck restaurant where we demolished two large ducks between us.  We then went for drinks at a small cafe in one of the Hutong areas and some friendly locals bought us some beer.  We had a really good night catching up on each others travel experiences.

Our last day was spent visiting the Lama temple and it’s huge buddha statue.