Beijing Part 2 (Summer Palace & the Great Wall!)

On Sunday, we decided to go to the Summer Palace in the northwestern part of Beijing. We hopped on the metro (super convenient and crazy cheap) and headed there. As usual, it was extremely packed - over 58,000 people were expected to visit there that day. At the entrance, you could already see parts of the temple up on the hill - it was a stunning palace! We couldn't wait to hike up to the top! It was nestled in the hill and there was a walk up to the top...it was a really neat hike because you were walking through rocks and really beautiful palace buildings!  

First view of the Summer Palace

There was a waterway than ran in front and around the palace

A palace at the top of the hill - lots of green and yellow tiles! 

At various spots along the walk around the palace, there were people who sat with a stack of cucumbers and would peel them for you for 1 Yuan (about 15 cents). My dad and I both love cucumbers, so we got some.

The view from the top - such a beautiful place! 

This is another view from the top and it was a little hazy but you can see the water out on the distance...

Ryan & I at the Palace

The majority of the Palace is water so once you get to the top, you walk down to the huge lake below.  We grabbed some lunch and then decided to explore the water. There were a ton of boats on the lake - lots of paddle boats but I decided I wanted to go on the dragon shaped boats...this is China afterall! We got tickets and then got in line - we were first in line and made sure to keep it that way so we could get the best seats! Once our boat got there, we ran on the boat to get the seats with the best view. :)

We stopped at a little food stand by the water to grab some delicious noodles!  Yum! 

Dragon Boat! 

My mom & dad on our dragon boat ride on the lake 

The view from the lake - such a neat place! 

Seventeen Arch Bridge

We decided it was time to head to our next destination for the day, so we got in line for the dragon boat back to where we had started. While in line,  the family in front of us turned around and were so excited to see Americans! The parents immediately started pushing their sons in our direction and they started speaking English to us to practice. This happened to us on several occasions but this one was particularly funny.  The proud look on their parents' face was priceless...we were happy to leave a positive impression of Americans on them. :) 

One of the other funny aspects about the trip was the fact that many Chinese people wore t-shirts that had English phrases on them - they were often phrased in a way that I would never say, but I guess they make sense....while in line, we saw this gem of a t-shirt phrase: "Think Less Stupid More." - Great advice, haha.

We had been riding the subway quite a bit while in China but we never once were able to get a seat but on the way back from the Summer Palace, my mom and dad scored a seat!! 

We took a detour on the way home to see the Olympic Stadium from the 2008 Olympics and that was really neat. I spent my whole life wanting to be in the Olympics and it was really cool to see the place where the games took place. The stadium was really crazy to see in person and Ryan walked around to see some of the US medal winners that were engraved on some of the stones in the area. 

Swimming Results - Michael Phelps won gold in 2008 here in Beijing; it's carved in stone as proof

On the walk back, we had another encounter where we noticed that people were obviously trying to take pictures of their son with us in the background. It was important to us that we are good ambassadors for the US and so we walked over to take a picture with the boy. They were so excited about it! As we did that, Ryan took a picture of the encounter. :) 

That evening, we went to the Legend of Kung Fu show - it was action packed and a great end to a great Sunday in China! 

The Legend of the Kung Fu theatre 

Cast from the show

Ryan & I learning Kung Fu

Monday was Great Wall of China day...Forbidden City & the Great Wall of China were the two places in Beijing that my dad and I had talked about being MOST excited about. I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of POURING rain and I started to get a little worried that it was going to rain during our time on the Great Wall. I fell back asleep and woke up to a cloudy, but non-rainy morning and was relieved that we wouldn't be walking through rain drops our whole day. Travel luck had been granted to us for sure!  Our tour guide came to pick us up and we drove to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall - we had heard that this tended to be less crowded and was a beautiful section of the wall and it certainly was! We were one of the first 10 cars in the parking lot, so we had definitely made a good decision to come early. We got on the cable car and started our trip up to the Great Wall. 

You might not be able to read this but it says that the Dalai Lama rode in this exact cable car! 

This is the view from the cable car - it was very cloudy from the rain as you can tell in this photo...

Family Group shot on the Great Wall - SO COOL! 

During the day, the clouds came in and out - in this picture the clouds were out in full force, but you can see the Great Wall from one of the windows on the Guard Post

Funny Great Wall pics - my mom and dad are standing straight up and down if you can believe it! 

This was a rough walk up this super steep part of the wall but it was fun to do it together! 

Ryan had already headed up the wall - he was the only person at the top of those steps for some time until a group got there before my dad and I did...he was able to get a shot of my dad and I walking up the stairs...the fact that we're so small in the picture should tell you just how high up it is - especially since this was taken when we were at the half way point. I am so proud of all of us because we made it to the very top! :)

My dad's orange shirt makes us easy to spot :) 

We all made it to the top! 

At this look out, the trail continues but there is a sign that says, "NO Visitors Allowed" - our tour guide had told us that you could continue but it's at your own risk. So...Ryan and I decided that we should continue walking for a little bit. My mom and dad stayed at the look out to bask in the glory of making it to the top and relax a bit while we trekked on. It was incredible to keep going because we were the ONLY people on the wall. It was amazing to be on such a marvel of the world together and have no one else around! We also walked on the original steps of the wall which was really cool!

We also took a picture where we are the ones standing straight up...the wall is so steep on this section!  

This is the end of the trail that we walked...

There's the photographer scoping out the Great Wall! 

And here's his Great Shot! :)

Hiking the Great Wall was my favorite part of my time in China...it's just such an incredible experience and the size of it is amazing! I was so happy that we could make those memories as a family! 

Afterwards, our guide took us to a local restaurant nearby and the food was great! We had pork and chestnuts (the chestnuts were grown freshly in the mountains that we had just been hiking around) and then rainbow trout which was caught fresh & grilled up and then we also had some local greens. It was certainly a local meal and it was well deserved after our long hike up all of the stairs on the Great Wall! 

Our friend had told us about a place where they make special pots near the Great Wall, so our tour guide took us there. The tour was really interesting because they put so much time and effort into each of these and they are hand crafted. They put on several layers (seven layers, to be exact) with copper, paint, and gold...they walked us through the whole process - it was really interesting! We ended up taking a pot home ourselves that has a dragon and a phoenix on it which they told us represents a happy marriage. :)

Step 1: Copper Pot

The girls glue on the design with thick copper wiring

After painting them, they put them in the kiln  

The ones on the crate are fresh out of the kiln and the ones on the left have already cooled into their final colors - so beautiful!

Afterwards, we ran into one of the markets in Beijing - it was huge! Seven stories of stalls and stalls of markets. We got a couple of souvenirs and then headed back to our hotel. We spent the rest of the night playing cards in the courtyard which was the perfect end to such a great day! We really enjoyed all of the time we had spent with my parents and were glad we could have some good old fashioned family competition by playing hearts. :)

Sadly, the next morning we had to say good bye to my parents as they headed off to their next Chinese adventure in Jiuzhaigou (they said it was absolutely incredible!) All in all, it was so great to see my parents and even better getting to make fun and exciting memories in China! We headed back home to Korea (it still feels weird to call that home...sometimes I just can't believe that we're living in Asia but it is really a great experience!).