We are the Hudsons: Beijing....The Forbidden City....The Great Wall

While my in-laws are visiting we also decided to take our first and maybe only trip to Beijing so not only could they see another part of China but so we could as well. We hadn't traveled here yet since I was pregnant when we moved here and then caring for a newborn wasn't so easy while running around a city with a lot to see and do! So we held off until Grace was down to one nap and day and pretty easy to take around to make this trip. Beijing is in the North of China and often known for having very bad pollution, especially in the winter so we were glad to be visiting in the spring time. Honestly, I thought the city was beautiful! There was so much greenery around and the feel of the city was very different than Shanghai where we have spent a lot of time. We hired a guide to pick us up and provide transportation and tours while we were in the city. I also took her advice and booked an Air BnB too, we got picked up from the airport and were on our way to the apartment. We had about 4 suitcases, a stroller, and a few backpacks for baby stuff and computers between the 4 adults and 2 kids, we were dropped off in front of the apartment building, walked past a few random "businesses" outside for making keys, fixing tuk tuks and such, then past a ton of bicycles, crammed into a small elevator with all our luggage, walked down the hall, down a set of stairs and arrived at the apartment. Once we entered, it was clean, the husband had to go through and put light bulbs in all the rooms, we started to look around. It was a two bedroom, one bath and living room and kitchen. It was definitely minimal. There was a washer but no dryer, we had all already worn 4 days worth of clothing that needed to be washed, the shower was maybe 12 inches from the toilet and was a shower head and a curtain next to the toilet, no bath no bottom, just drained into the bathroom floor, and there wasn't enough space for us to all sit and eat at the 2 person table. The beds were very typical hard mattresses and as I felt this I recalled our first night in our apartment when Brian and I got no sleep because the bed was so hard. So we made a group decision to move to a hotel. So we gathered up all our bags, all our stuff and went up the stairs, down the hallway, back into the crammed elevator, and walked with all our stuff through the apartment gates to find a taxi.....or two and head off to the hotel. What an ordeal, two taxi's wouldn't stop for us, I had Grace in the baby carrier strapped to me, Blake and my in-laws were hiding behind another car with the luggage and as soon as the drivers saw all of us they would say no! This was ridiculous, clearly we can't fit all these bags and 6 people in a taxi with a driver, did they not realize we would split up. So frustrating, this happens to us sometimes in Shanghai too! Argh!

After this was settled, we were in a nice clean hotel room and we could start our sight-seeing tour of Beijing. Our first stop was the Summer Palace. The ground are very nice, if you are able to walk up the 300 steps inside the Palace you can see a Giant Buddah (we did not do this). There is a dragon boat you can take across the water to get to the Palace and its grounds. It was a nice place to see and walk through with a breeze in the air and the sun shining.

Made of Marble!

One of the structures near the palace.

The Summer Palace!

On the dragon boat!

Climbing some rocks!

On our way back to the hotel we passes where the Beijing Olympics were held, "The Bird's Nest" as it has been known. Many of the buildings were in the shape of the Olympic torch where the apartments were for all the athletes. They have kept this in tact and you can go to visit the location.

The next day we were to the Forbidden City. Currently you can only see about 40% of the location, but it was quite impressive to walk through that amount and see the attention to detail, the old Chinese style to the buildings, and the many rooms that were for the family and concubines of the rulers.

One of the structures inside the Palace.

The Next Stop was the Aquarium we visited on a rainy day. It was pretty crowded but still very nice. They had some beluga whales that were making the loudest screeching noise, i don't know it they were talking or mating but it was ear piercing. We saw many fish, some dolphins, sea lion, sting rays, etc. It is always fun for us to visit and aquarium as the kids really seem to enjoy the sea life.

Everywhere you drive there were roses, the city flower.

look at that stingray!

chomp chomp!

Grandma bought a crazy cotton candy!

Seals show!

Welcome to China!

Finally on our visit we made it to The Great Wall of China! Cross that off the bucket list! We ended up going in two groups, Brian and I took Blake one day and then Mike and Marilyn went the second day. There is a lot of walking as you can imagine to see The Great Wall, and we were able to get a VIP parking pass the second day so that they didn't have to walk too far up to the cable car that can take you to the top. Unfortunately, Brian had a foundry conference in Beijing that day he couldn't miss so we went the day before. So Brian and I went with Blake, it was about 1.5 hour car ride away from our hotel, it felt a little like driving to Flagstaff from the city, lots of trees, small towns along the way. It was a beautiful sunny day with blue skies (not so common here in China) and we had a nice drive up.

Once there, you park and ride a bus a short distance to the bottom of the location in which you choose. There are two main tourist parts to The Great Wall, the one we went to is less restored so you see more of the original wall. It is know as Mutianyu. We walked up a bit with Blake strapped to my back, took a open Ski Lift of Gondola Car to the top, then walked around for a while, we were able to see some of the forts the built to have lookouts in, we could even go to the top of one of them which was a thrill for Blake! We walked around for about an hour, walking the whole wall is over 8 KM, there are parts that are very dangerous and not restored at all. It was amazing to see this wall in every direction you looked off into the distance. What a site to see. In order to get down, you can walk, take the gondola car down or take a toboggan, so we opted for the toboggan and while Brian will complain I rode the brakes down most of the way it was a beautiful way to see the scenery.