Memories in Beijing, by Maia

The last two days of our trip to China were spent in the capitol city, Beijing. We left Shanghai No.3 Girls School early Sunday morning after saying the last good byes to our teary eyed families. We took a seemingly short two and a half hour plane ride to finally arrive in Beijing. Immediately we were greeted by Jonathan, our tour guide who told us to hurry into the bus because we were going to have lunch before traveling to the Great Wall. 

Lunch was at a restaurant connected to the Friendship Store, which is a large, national store selling traditional Chinese items of all kinds. At the restaurant we ate in the “V.I.P.” room, which basically was the “tour group” room, as we were surrounded only by blond haired, blue eyed tourists. After doing a little shopping, we were ushered into a bus to begin our hour long drive to the Great Wall. Beijing seemed to be a flat city, but there were mountains very close by. It reminded me of Denver. Fairly soon during our ride through the mountains we were able to catch glimpses of the wall. Finally we arrived at the parking lot for tour busses. The day was bright and sunny, but bitter cold with a gusty wind from the west. A few people bought hats and gloves at a nearby stand, then we began our long march.

The wall is truly magnificent. It extends as far as the eye can seen and twists and turns along the mountains. What I didn’t realize until I arrived is that it is all basically steps that are extremely steep. Fortunately there is a railing, which was especially helpful for those of us who are afraid of heights. Along the way there are a few stalls where people sell souvenirs. This would be a dreadful job because the vender had to spend all day in the freezing cold after carrying his merchandise up the wall in the morning and back down again in the evening. One can only imagine the conditions for those who actually built the wall so many years ago. 

The following day we visited Tianamin Square, the Forbidden City, and the Summer Palace. The weather was basically the same as the day before, extremely cold and windy, but very sunny with a bright blue sky. The Square contains the building where Chairman Mao is buried with the famous picture of Mao hanging from a building in the front. After taking many pictures we made our way into the Forbidden City which is actually right next to Tianamin Square. The decorations in the Forbidden City are fabulous. It is huge with many large pagodas. There are actually three different buildings where the Emperor met with visitors depending, of course, upon their rank.

After eating a quick lunch we walked around a market place where food, clothes, and souvenirs were all being sold. Similar to almost everywhere in China, the market was packed with people, however there were not many tourists so it was a great place to get a bargain.

The next stop was the Summer Palace. We arrived as the sun was setting so walked around quickly before it got dark. As we were walking along the lake, which the palace is built on, we were literally attacked by people wanting to sell us anything from chopsticks to North Face jackets. Each purchase required bargaining and a lot of frustration, but there were some great buys. After about and hour we made it to the bus, hungry and exhausted. The tour ended with a nice meal at the hotel. 

This trip to Beijing is one I will remember forever. It was a great way to end our experience in China and allowed us many more opportunities for bonding as a group. This shared experience, with its moments of serenity, as well as comedy, was one last look at a country we had all come to appreciate.

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