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One Week in Beijing: Part 1

Challis Hackley
Nov 20, 2017
4 min read

Updated: Sep 1, 2021

What I Did

Sunday

The taxi picked us up and took us to the train station without too many hiccups. Although at one point our driver said something about an airport and we explained that it was the train station using translation apps and he seemed to get it. After that though, I was checking my maps app the whole ride there to make sure that he was actually taking us to the train station.

Train station-> train-> train station->metro-> hotel. Travel done.

We grabbed some lunch at he train station, so by time we got through all the crazy crowds and lines and to our hotel, it was time to check in. Traveling takes a lot out of you so we all crashed and lounged around for a few hours.

We finally emerged from our rooms in search of food and found some at the mall right next door, Korean BBQ. But that wasn’t before we all stopped at Mini So and bought a few little things. We went back to the hotel and hopped in the pool for a while before heading off to bed.

Monday

We headed out on our first full day in Beijing and started at the Summer Palace. We originally had plans to more that day but we didn’t realize just how much there was to do there. The Summer Palace has complexes of traditional-Chinese style buildings and rooms that were used for Buddhism worship. It’s sits on a lake, where you can take boat rides and has several lovely parks and ponds that you can walk around. There is also a little tourist-market street that sits right next to the water, like, I was worried about falling in most of the time because it was so close. But the whole complex is massive.

I’m usually pretty good about reading maps and knowing cardinal directions but here in China I get all turned around (maybe it’s because I don’t have any mountains as a reference point). Anyway, I could not read the Palace maps at all. I was always confused about where we were at but we wandered around and eventually went everywhere that we wanted to go.

After the new Summer Palace, we walked a few blocks and checked out the old Summer Palace at Yuanmingyuan Park. There are some lingering foundations of an old palace there Emperor Qianlong of the Qing dynasty lived in. The grounds are beautiful and peaceful. Forget Venice, China did buildings on the water first. It was really relaxing there.

Went back to our hotel and ended the day with some egg-waffle-cone ice cream.

Tuesday

Next stop, the Pearl Market. Most of group went the the Great Wall on Tuesday, but where I was going to be camping on the Great Wall at the end of the week, I had other things on my mind, Like shopping! So I took the chance to go to the Hongqiao Pearl Market. I had been to the one in Shanghai so I had to hit up the one in Beijing and I can tell you what they really couldn't be more different. Shanghai was a part of the underground with like shops and stalls. Beijing was four levels or bartering heaven. The basement was a food-court. The first level had electronics. Second had clothes, jackets, bags, and shoes. Third had pearls, jade, and jewelry. Fourth had high-end jewelry, actual shops that I don't think you could actually barter at so I didn't spend a lot of time there. But I spent a long time everywhere else and went on a bit of a shopping spree, spending about $175 for knockoffs like 2 pair of beats, 2 North Face jackets, jade jewelry for me and my mom, and some high end make-up. I probably could have gotten some better deals because I still haven't perfected my bartering skills but it was fun and I spent the whole day there.

Wednesday

We traveled to the city center where the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square are. We tried to get into the Palace Museum but all the tickets for that day had sold out by 10:00 AM so we made plans to get up early and go another day. We wandered away from the Forbidden city and ended up at a couple different parks including Jing Shan Park and Bei Hai Park. Jing Shan has a long history with the forbidden city as it was originally created from mounding the dirt removed to construct the Palace mote. It's most notable feature the Wanchun Ting (Wanchun Pavillion) that sits at the top of that great mound and overlooks the entire Forbidden City. What a view!

Although Jing Shan has some great views, one of my favorite things in Beijing was definitely Bei Hai Park. It has it's own extensive history, just like everything in this ancient country we call China, including 1,000 years as an imperial garden and a visit from fifth Dalai Lama. The park gets its name form the lake it lists next to. The canal leading to the lake is lined with beautiful willows that sway in even the slightest breeze and bridged by beautiful marble arches. I spent my time at Bei Hai park taking an incredibly relaxing boat ride and it was one of the best things I had done since arriving in China. I already mentioned the beautiful willows and the breeze but the canal also had extraordinary lily-like plants everywhere. My friend and I had a boat to ourselves and we fell into a natural silent as our boat driver pushed off from the docks and we began drifting across the water. All the thoughts in my head seemed to flee before the peace that washed over me and I took the chance to just truly appreciate where I was and what I was doing. I was in China, a country with arguably the richest history in the world. I'd say that it was almost a spiritual experience taking the boat ride that day.

The last thing we did on Wednesday was visit Wanfujing Street and see some of the things there including St. Joseph's Church (an early 20th-century Roman Catholic church) and Beijing Foreign Language Bookstore amidst all of the fashionable shopping centers.

The last two days of my vacation were spent camping on the Great Wall and you can bet that you will hear all about it... just not right now. Sorry for the long post but I hope you enjoyed it.