Beijing, China - Day 2

We continued Day 2 with Catherine Lu Tours and it was again another big day for all of us. We are finally going to visit THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA for the first time!

Day 2

The Great Wall of China - Mutianyu
As everyone knows, the Great Wall of China is one of the seven wonders of the world. It stretches miles and miles protecting China from the invasion of their enemies. Some people claimed that we can even spot it from the moon. Not sure how true is this myth though.....

There are many sections of the wall that is open for the public. The famous ones that are usually visited  by tourists are Badaling and Juyongguan as they are nearest to the Beijing city.
We opted to visit Mutianyu instead as it is slightly further but are significantly less crowded based on reviews and feedback that we read online.

We started our journey very early in the morning as we stayed quite far. We were all dozing our way in the early morning By the time we managed to open our lazy eyes, we were greeted by a beautiful scenery.

Beautiful random lake with trees at the side

We thought we are almost reaching, only to found out that there is still a little uphill ride to go before reaching the entrance.

Mutianyu Entrance

We opted to take the cable-car up instead of the hiking! Took the lazy tourist option. Hahahaha...

The cable-car ride was a little scary as it is very open. Those with fear of height might opt to hike instead! And those traveling with young cheeky children should definitely hold tight to them at all times!

Cable-car ride to the Great Wall

After the cable-car ride, we hiked a few flight of steps and finally reached THE great wall.

First photo ON the Great Wall

We were in Tower No.5 and as advised from our guide, we will climb towards Tower No. 1 for a nice view. Notice that the guide used the word "climb" and not "walk"? Well, it's because the great wall are mostly steps!

Great Wall of China

I did not realize that before my trip here. I have always thought the great wall is a flat slope and maybe just a few steps, but no!! Most of them are steps!! Uphill or downhill are all steps!!!! It caught me thinking that the soldiers and armies back them must have very strong stamina and fit to patrol the wall.

The Wall of Great Wall

The climb might be a little tiring, but it was worth it. Look at the beautiful view of the Great Wall.

The view of the journey we've hiked

The highest tower at the top of this picture - the place we started

Some white flowers has even blossomed and they are so beautiful with the vintage wall behind as a background!

Beautiful flowers against the Great Wall

Peeping out the doorway

The un-restored area of The Great Wall

We also saw some abandoned broomsticks in one of the tower and decided to be cheeky by flying on them and be wizards for awhile.

Come on Firebolt, the Golden Snitch is there!

There is a famous quote about the wall - "He who never climbed The Great Wall cannot be deemed a man". It truly was an honour climbing and being at the Great Wall.

MAGNIFICENT

Finally, not so many steps

The cool weather on that day makes the climb not so tiring as well. It took us about 2 hours to climb from Tower 5 to Tower 1, and then back again to Tower 5. Of course, we stopped alot for photo-taking moments. 

Can you spot us?

Spot us!

Instead of taking the cable-car ride down to the hill, some of us decided to take toboggan ride down. The queue was quite long compared to the cable-car. I think we queued for almost 1.5 hours for the ride.

Toboggan ride + cable-car

It's a downhill ride on a simple sledge with small wheels. There is a stick at the front of the sledge when pressed down, the sledge will come to a break. It was quite a thrilling ride as the sledge go pretty fast and lots of time, we did not have enough time to break and hit the sledge in front of us! 

Toboggan ride was fun!

Here's a short video of me taking the ride from behind.

 

Overall, the Great Wall was not a disappointment to me at all! It was my favourite place in my Beijing trip!


The Summer Palace
When I first heard about the Summer Palace, I thought it would be just a palace with a nice garden in it. I was shocked to find that the summer palace is soooooo big.

Entrance of one of the building in Summer Palace

And what I love most about this place was it was built as a 60th birthday gift by the emperor to his mother. It took 15 years to complete! What a filial son!

The Kunming Lake is man-made in the shape of peach to represent longevity. The ground/sand that was dug from the lake was made into the Longevity Hill. The Tower of Buddhist Incense stood on the Longevity Hill, being the highest building in the Summer Palace.  

Kunming Lake with the Tower of Buddhist Incense on top of the Longevity Hill

Kunming Lake with the 17 Arch Bridge

The Pavillion

The place is filled with so many willow trees that they are so hauntingly beautiful. 

Willow Trees

 There are also rooms that featured the original furniture used by the olden emperor/empress inside one of the building. We can only see from the open window or door. No entering!

Ancient furnitures

This place also featured the longest corridor in the world, with painting of myths and legends from the Chinese. It is also situated right next to the Kunming Lake which gives us a beautiful view of the place (if there are not so many people visiting!).

The Long corridor is indeed very looooooooooooooong

Of course, not to forget the beautiful wooden roofs on the octagonal pavilions!

Love the roof

It was a very long walk to complete the Long Corridor. When we reached the end of it, we were all a little tired. So we opted to take a ride on the Dragon Boat for a little tour around the Summer Palace.

Dragon Boat

Us on the Dragon Boat

The view of The Tower of Buddhist Incense from Kunming Lake.

View across the lake

A closer look at the The Tower of Buddhist Incense

After the boat ride, we walked closer to the 17-Arch Bridge that connects to one of the island inside the Summer Palace. This bridge was carved with 544 lions in different postures.

17-Arch Bridge

beautiful marble

sunset

It was around sunset when we leave the place. It was lovely!
We were a little rushed in the Summer Palace as we arrived late afternoon and it is a big place to discover! If only we have a little more time, we would've been more relaxed and spend more time to enjoy the beauty of the place.

I love my Day 2 in Beijing!

Beijing, China - Day 1

My family and I recently visited Beijing - the capital of China in April. It has always been one of the place that I would visit in my lifetime, and the only place that I actually look forward to visiting in China.

We have a total of four full days in Beijing. We decided to engaged with a tour to cover the highlights of Beijing for two days, and then have two free-and-easy days in Beijing by exploring the city ourselves. For the tour, we took from Catherine Lu Tours after reading positive feedbacks in Tripadvisor.

Day 1

Tiananmen Square
Tiananmen Square is the fourth largest city square in the world. A lot of Beijing's important buildings are located in the Tiananmen Square It was really huge!! Our legs felt a little tired walking around the square... and it is only our first stop in Beijing!!!!

ZhengYangMen - the south end of Tiananmen Square

National Museum of China

Great Hall of the People

Mausoleum of Mao Ze Dong

The Mausoleum of Mao Ze Dong is the final resting place of the most respectable person in China. His body was embalmed and people from all around the world are able to enter to give their respect to him. When we were there, the queue to enter was at least two hours according to our guide!

Monument to the People's Heroes

Notice the picture above, where we were queuing in a line. This is the Dragon Line. The Dragon Line is a line running north-south through Beijing on which only the emperor was allowed to walk. Important buildings such as The Imperial Palace (aka The Forbidden City), Mausoleum of Mao Ze Dong, Bird's Nest and The Cube are built along the Dragon Line with the believe of good fengshui.

Tiananmen Square is also the entrance to the famous Forbidden City of Beijing.


The Forbidden City (aka The Imperial Palace)

Tiananmen Entrance of the Forbidden City

Notice the picture of Mao Ze Dong on the building? It is a hand-painted picture and it will be replaced each year.

After entering the Tiananmen Entrance

The next gate of the Forbidden City (can't remember the name) =.=''

The famous door nails

As the number 9 represents longevity and it is the emperor's number, the doors have 9 x 9 = 81 door nails. Rubbing the door nails also bring good luck, thus the above picture shows all of us getting our luck!

Look at the loooooooong stick that locks the door every night!

Another Gate

Beautiful roof structure

Map of the Forbidden City

The Hall of Supreme Harmony

What surprised me was most of the tourists there are all local tourists! Seldom see any foreigners even in such a tourist spot like The Forbidden City!

Coolest ground ever!

The picture above might look normal, but it is one of my favourite picture taken in Beijing! It is because I was standing on 15 layers of bricks below me. FIFTEEN LAYERS!!! These bricks are layered in different angles to prevent intruders to dig a tunnel from below to enter The Forbidden City and assassinate the emperor! How cool is that?!

Soldiers guarding the buildings

The Wooden Dragon Dome

Love the dome above in the Pavilion of a Thousand Autumns (Qianqiu). Beautifully carved wooden dragon at the center of the dome. 

One of the old trees in the Imperial Garden

3,800 meters moat

To think that once the highest ranking people in China live inside this little city is quite saddening. It is huge for a home, but not really that big once you realised that there is no coming out after you enter! Really cant help but to pity the maids, eunuchs and concubines in the olden days...

Overall, as a tourist, I was quite disappointed with The Forbidden City. I was expecting to see more artifacts such as the rooms, the jeweleries, costumes, etc of the ancient dynasties of China, but all we get to see is only the outside of the buildings! We didnt even get to see the famous emperor's throne! Maybe I had too much expectations after watching so many TVB series... lol... It was also very difficult to take photos as the place is very packed with tourists!


Hutong
Hutongs are the traditional narrow streets or alleys in Beijing. They are formed by lines of traditional courtyard residences called SiHeYuan.

Hutong

Hutong

We also learned that the old traditional residences in Hutong does not have a toilet. They uses the shared public toilet for daily clean-up! Even in this Hutong that we visited, most of them still do not have a private toilet in their residence and is still using the public toilet! And in a China way, most of them does not have a door at each cubicle... =.=''

Rickshaw

 We took a rickshaw and toured Hutong.

Rickshaws in Hutong

 We also visited one of the family that has been living in Hutong for a few generations.

In the courtyard of an old Hutong residence

Inside the House of a Hutong Family

Overall, the Hutong tour was not really very impressive. Just a simple touch of what was the old ancient Beijing culture and life. Maybe because it wasn't very much different from the Chinese culture in Malaysia.

Temple of Heaven (Tiāntán)
The Temple of Heaven consist of three important structures. 
 
While walking into the gardens, we spotted some really beautiful cherry blossoms and cant help but to stop and take some photos.

Cherry blossoms

 Then we walked across the garden and had the first view of the most beautiful structure in The Temple of Heaven - The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests.

Sneak Peak

The The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests is where the emperors will pray for good harvests for the country. This building is also built completely with wood and no nails!  Talk about impressive architects!

The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests

Beautiful tiles

At first I was confused as I thought there is only one important structure in Temple of Heaven. I was wrong as I was even more impressed with the second structure - Imperial Vault of Heaven.

The Imperial Vault of Heaven is surrounded by a smooth circular wall that is called the Echo Wall. 

Imperial Vault of Heaven & Echo Wall

By standing at the left of the building and if you whisper to the wall, the person standing at the right of the building can hear the whisper! We gave it a try and it really works!!!  I was really impressed and I love it!

The third structure was also a surprise for me. It is called the Circular Mound Alter. It is an empty circular platform on three levels of marble stones.

Circular Mound Alter

There are 9 steps to each 3 levels of the platforms. The center of the altar is a round slate called the Heart of Heaven or the Supreme Yang. Because of the design of the alter, the sound from the person standing at the Supreme Yang will be magnified, thus was believe to help to communicate the Emperor's prayers to the heaven for good weather. Of course, all of us gave it a try and it really works! Our voice when standing on the Supreme Yang felt like we were talking into a microphone!  

Not to forget, the number of tiles surrounding the Supreme Yang is always the multiple of 9. Which means the first circle consists of 9 tiles, then 18, then 27...up until 81 tiles. Very impressive structure huh?

On our way out, we also spotted an old lady practicing her chinese calligraphy on the tiles using a big brush dipped in water.

Chinese calligraphy with brush dipped in water

Upon leaving the Temple of Heaven, we were greeted by a breautiful view of sunset among the trees at the gardens.

Lovely view

I remember thinking, Day 1 in Beijing has been fun! Will Day 2 top that?



***to be continued.......