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One Week in Beijing: Part 2

Challis Hackley
Nov 27, 2017
3 min read

Updated: Sep 1, 2021

What I Did

Thursday

We finally got to the Forbidden City and it was such an adventure that you're going to have to read all about it next week because it's going to have it's own post. So keep an eye out for that.

But the Forbbidden City isn't all that we did on Thursday. After we left, we headed towards the Hutongs with narrow alleys and single story traditional courtyard houses. They're the old city, modernized to hold shops and food stores and there food is something to try. For lunch, I tried spiraled potatoes, lamb kabobs, and (my favorite) churro ice-cream. It was so tasty and the shops are amazing and cute. Then we took our food and went and sat by a little lake and just had a great time.

We spent some time shopping there and by time dinner rolled around we decided to try something new. So we set out to try some Pecking Duck. I'll tell you what, the Chinese know how to cook a duck. It was a little like the Korean BBQ earlier in the week where we made wraps with meat and veggies. But the duck was cooked to perfection, it melted in your mouth and the meal came with various veggies and delicious sauces. It was so good and I've heard that there are more restaurants like that in the city where I live so I'm excited to try it again.

And then, well, I some more ice-cream. We headed over to a McDonald's ice-cream shop (everywhere you turn there are little McDonald stands that aren't attached to an actual McDonald's and just sell ice-cream. It's normal to see an actual McDonald's and then, within the same block, see a McDonald's ice-cream stand. They are my favorite.) But This McDonald's stand had a different flavor that I had heard about but hadn't actually tasted. Taro or purple sweet-potatoes, and it was so good! Loved it. A great way to end the day.

Friday

We started the day at the Temple of Heaven and it was beautiful, not like anything that I had seen in China so far. It was distinct in architecture and feel from any other building I had seen before or since. It was awesome but Tiantan Park was more fun. The people there were more than happy to let you try their games. There was a group doing Tai Chi and plenty of people doing gymnastics on the bars but I had the most fun with battledore. It's played with ping pong paddles and a birdie and it was super fun.

After the Temple of Heaven and Tiantan Park, we went back to the Pearl Market mostly for some good food but also because I had a few requests from my family and wanted to pick up a few more things for them. We met some nice French people, we gave them our larger table because they had more people and they gave us some Moon Cakes in thanks.

At this point, none of us had actually been to Tiananmen Square we had all passed it plenty of times and seen a couple of its features from a distance but none of us had actually walked there, so we made the trip and I was actually really glad that we went then because all the times before it had been jam-packed, because it was open hours for the museum and Mao Zedong's Tomb, both of which were closed when we went. I would have loved to go into the museum but it is so massive, the largest museum in the world and there was just no way to do it justice in the time that we had.

So we walked around the square and I read aloud from my traveler's guide as we passed some of the sites. Just as the sun was setting and we were getting ready to leave, the whole courtyard lit up and we lingered for a little longer to take pictures with all the pretty lights.

Last but not least, we made it to the Night Market on Wanfujing Street where you try to all sorts of random traditional Chinese snacks: scorpions, snakes squid, starfish, maggots, etc. It was fun enough but it was all pretty expensive.

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