A Quick Visit to Beijing

After two years in China, we had still not taken the kids to Beijing.  They hadn't done one of the key experiences of China - walking The Great Wall!  Actually, we saw many other expat families who ended up fitting in a quick visit to Beijing before they left China - so many other places in the region to visit that the easiest place gets left last I guess.  

While Mum was in town, she and I took the kids for a quick trip to Beijing.  David had to work, but he and I had been to Beijing years earlier.

I'm going to do one long post on our few days in Beijing, given how far behind I am on updating the blog.

After getting off the plane, we drove straight to a peking duck lunch.  It was mostly delicious.

We then had a visit to The Temple of Heaven.

Clara and Ethan using the exercise equipment outside of The Temple of Heaven.

Taken in a shopping area near our hotel.

We spotted this uniquely Chinese game in a toy store.

We had AMAZING air quality while we were there.  It can get pretty bad in Beijing, so we were very fortunate.

We had only one day scheduled when we could visit the wall.  When we woke up that morning it was raining, but we decided to just head out anyway, given we had no back-up option.  While we were driving it was pouring with rain.  When we arrived at the wall it was still raining, but then as we were making our way up in the cable car the rain stopped!  The hills were cloudy and misty, which creates it's own unique experience.  But the best part was that given it had been raining, there were hardly any other people on the wall.

The kids all said that this was their favourite part of the trip.  They were very grateful that they were able to experience The Great Wall of China.

After the Great Wall we visited the Summer Palace.

The next morning we visited Tiananmen Square and The Forbidden City.  We sure had sore legs after all the walking we did within a few days.

Tiananmen Square.  Clara holding a little fan.  It was a HOT day.

Look closely at Erica's face to see how she felt about walking around The Forbidden City in the heat.

The pot is rubbed for good luck.

How Ethan was now feeling about being in The Forbidden City on this scorching day.  We took breaks in air conditioned rooms and picked up drinks, with a rest in a restaurant, but it sure was tiring in the heat.  It's an interesting place for sure, but was hard-work that day.

Lunch at Little Yunnan.  An awesome restaurant with cuisine from Yunnan.

A video of the clouds moving over the mountains at The Great Wall of China.

We flew out of Beijing at the end of the third day - or at least we tried to.  We were flying out of a small airport that only houses one domestic airline (I think it used to be used by the military).  We boarded the plane and waited for take-off, but then the flight was de-boarded.  We were all sent back into the terminal with no real understanding of when we could get back on the plane.  In Australia you might be able to look at the departures board to get some estimate of when your flight might leave again, but it doesn't usually work that way in China.  The boards generally continue to show the original departure time, and don't give you an updated time.  The issue had something to do with the flight paths, and nobody could give any estimate of when/if we could fly.  So we all waited and waited and waited.  We ended up spending four hours in the pretty basic and boiling hot terminal.  

Ethan and I crouched next to power points trying to charge our phones, concerned that we may end up needing to get a car and hotel for an extra night in Beijing.  

Meanwhile Mum was trying to entertain the girls and had an interesting cultural experience.  There was a group of men sitting behind them who had all rolled up their shirts and had their bellies hanging out (not unusual for Chinese men when it is hot).  Clara often garners attention, mostly unwanted by her.  The men were very interested in Clara.  

They kept offering her cans of Red Bull and trying to entice her to come over to play with them.  In Australia, a man walking around with his belly hanging out offering cans of red bull to children to try to entice them to come play with him would be considered pretty questionable behaviour.  In China it doesn't come across the same way.  Mum hadn't had the benefit of two years of Chinese experiences.  She was extremely unimpressed with their offerings of red bull and bare-belly play.   

While some of these initial behaviours don't create the same level of concern for us now (because we have come to learn that they are usually well-meaning and just curious), we do become very firm if the behaviour is continued after telling them that Clara doesn't want to participate.  Clara herself learned how to tell them to stop in Mandarin.  Even then some would persist.  There is no more 'different culture understanding' from us if you are trying to force a child against their will to play with, take a picture, kiss or hug you, or be kissed or hugged.  Definitely not ok in our books under any circumstance.   Many Chinese people also disapproved of this, and sometimes a Chinese person would interject in the situation and tell the person pestering Clara to leave her alone.  It's the minority who behave poorly like this, we just saw a lot of it because there is interest in the little blonde girl.

Unfortunately the men with the red bull also fell into the category of not taking no for an answer, and Mum had the fun of trying to deal with them.

Other than that delayed flight and the heat at that time of year, we had a great trip.  Beijing is an awesome city!  Definitely worth a visit.