Beijing is the capital of China and a well known city. It’s a pretty cool city but I still prefer Shanghai for it’s international influence compared to Beijing. My husband, Denny,  and I flew to Beijing to pick up our friend Joseph who was visiting us from the states. We had two full days to enjoy what Beijing has to offer before we brought our friend to the city that we are living in, Qingdao. You can definitely see the major sites of Beijing in two days, below I discuss in detail places to visit and stay.

Places to Visit:

Great Wall of China

It’s pretty self explanatory but here’s something you didn’t know, the middle age women in the picture below are not tourist enjoying a day hiking the Great Wall. It took a summer before to learn this lesson and another trek to witness this is their livelihood. My first time to the Great Wall we went to a section of the wall that isn’t as popular and is more secluded. I was with a few friends enjoying one of the 7 wonders of the world. This visit to the Great Wall again there were these same women who started hiking with us in the beginning of the hike. As newbies, we thought they were tourist like ourselves. The women tried talking with us and lending a helping hand in the hiking parts of the wall. However, in an hours time they started pulling things out of their bags trying to sell us junk little knic-knacks. When we told them we weren’t interested they gave sob stories of not being able to feed their children. Maybe their story is true, but I’m not buying their approach.

A few years later, these women again followed us like leeches to our skin. I quickly told them “Buo yao” (I don’t want). Like leeches you must be harsh to get them off of you, so when they wouldn’t listen the first time, I told them “Buo yao” more forcefully and that got them off my tail. Denny told one of them he didn’t have money and that woman scurried quickly away and swarmed around the next predator. Maybe I sound harsh, but I really don’t appreciate these women’s manipulating people to get money. I felt sorry for the other tourist on our bus, they had no idea how these women were going to annoy them on their adventure. Lesson, if you don’t want these women following you while you trek the Great Wall then tell them “buo yao” or “mayo yuan” (I don’t have money) and that should work.

Note: The skies are a brilliant blue because Beijing poured for a couple days prior to us hiking the Great Wall. We were very thankful for the awesome weather. 

How can you get there? We personally got connected with a touring company via our hostel. Usually when you do a tour through a hostel there is a discount. The tour company we went through included: picking us up from our hostel at 6am, driving us to the Great Wall, a breakfast McDonalds McMuffin, a Chinese buffet lunch and dropping us off in the city.

Cost? 280RMB ($45) 

Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square

(Note: You can visit the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square in one visit; they are right next to each other. )

The Forbidden City should be called the “Secret City” because it’s a little difficult to find amidst the many gardens. If you ask a local “Where is the Forbidden City?” Chances are they won’t know what you are talking about because that’s the English term. Here is the native term Zǐjinchéng. Make sure to print a map on how to get there because for some reason we had trouble finding it. Admission cost 60 RMB. Expect it to be crowded; we went on a rainy day and there were still lots of people. I sometimes felt like cattle when we were going from one courtyard to the next through the grand forbidden red doors. Exploring the Forbidden City is a nice long walk, expect to spend about 2 to 3 hours there.

Directions: Tiananmen, on the north side of Tiananmen Square, is accessible via Beijing Subway Line 1 toTiananmen West and Tiananmen East, and by Beijing Bus routes 1, 2, 10, 52, 59, 82, 90, 99, 120, 126, 203, 205, 210, 728. The North Gate, on Jingshan Front Street and across the street from the south entrance of Jingshan Park, is accessible via bus routes 101, 103, 109, 124, 202, 211, 609 and 685 at the Gugong stop. (Source)

Below is a EASY friendly map on how to navigate your way to the Secret Forbidden City.

(The picture below) This is what it looks like inside.

 

Pearl Market

The memory card below makes me very sad. I hate dishonesty. I have been wanting a memory card for the mass amount of pictures I have been taking for the 10,000 Smiles Project. We were at the Pearl Market, a place you can bargain on merchandise in Beijing and Denny saw this memory card. The memory card was priced at 120RMB and I got the lady down to 50RMB ($8, about the same price they are going for in the states on Amazon). I wanted the card now instead of waiting but that’s not what I got.

I was sitting in the shade on the Great Wall reviewing the smiles I had taken that day on my camera when I saw a huge “?” saying it can’t replay the pictures back to me. Over 120 smiles and pictures from the Great Wall were gone because a dishonest person sold me a FAKE memory card. =( The camera showed only 10 pictures and even those pictures when tested didn’t upload.

If you’re a foreigner here’s a tip: everything at the Pearl Market is marked about 4x higher than what you can actually buy it for. Don’t buy DVD games and be leerily of the electronics. Some electronics are okay, our friend bought some hip headphones from the market that work. Be warned, the perfumes and colognes are counterfeit. I was going to buy some Ralph Lauren cologne for my father and my friend who worked in a department store recognized it smelled fake. The best items I suggest buying from the Pearl Market are: pearls, jewelry, scarves, shoes and Chinese souvenirs.

 

A Kung Fu Show

We knew about this performance from the bulletin board at our hostel. Hostels are the best resource centers. The cost for the show was 180 RMB thanks to the discount from staying at our hostel. The show was excellent and I would recommend witnessing one. 

 

Mexican Food in Beijing

If you are an expat living overseas and haven’t had a bite of Mexican food for quite sometime check out Luga’s Mexican Restaurant. The food is pretty good.

Address: Sanitun Bar Street, 10m Northeast of 3.3 Mall Chaoyang District / Beijing (10am-3am)

 

Places to Stay:

Flowering House Hostel

We really enjoyed our one night in this hostel. We would have stayed another evening but they were booked. The employees are super friendly and helpful. We arrived at the hostel around 2am in the pouring rain. The following day the employees let us borrow the guest house slippers and umbrellas for Beijing’s all-day rain pour. I would highly recommend checking this hostel out while you visit Beijing.

Cost: about $20 per a person a night (it depends on the room you select)

Tel: 8610-64004560

Chinese Box Hostel

This hostel is located in Beijing’s famous ancient Hutong area. The chinese architecture is beautiful but this hostel’s location is not not taxi friendly, they have to drop you off in the beginning of the neighborhood’s street. The hostel’s sleeping arrangements are clean standard bunk beds. The best part of this hostel are the friendly owners and their adorable baby boy. (The FREE breakfast includes noodles, yogurt or toast)

NO.52 Xi Si Bei 2 Tiao Hutong
Xicheng District
Beijing, China
Tel: +86-10-66186768

The picture below is a view of the courtyard that connects to all the bedrooms. Notice the luggage on the bench? We packed super light for this 2 day trip. 

The picture below is the office and lounge area.

This hostel offers additional amenities:

* Free vegetarian salad party(Mon)

* Family vegetarian dinner (Wed.)

* Free vegetarian dumpling party (Fri.)

 * Professional & Traditional Chinese Kongfu Tea Course (afternoon)

Cost: about $20 per a person a night

10,000 Smiles

“Can art change the world? Maybe … we should change the question: Can art change people’s lives?” (Street Artist JR) I am hoping the 10,000 Smiles Project will change people’s lives: give people an opportunity to be known in this vast world, bring other people joy in this broken world and to shed light for people to see the beauty in the creation of humankind. If you are new around these parts I am tackling a huge project this year in wanting to take 10,000 pictures of people smiling. I am over half-way done; you can check out the progress here. You can also participate by voting on a smile below that brought you joy! Which smile made you smile today?

 

On a personal note Denny and I are excited to be coming home in exactly one month. 11 months ago Denny and I left our home and journeyed East to China. Going down memory lane…. the days leading up to our departure for China, my thoughts while flying across the Pacific Ocean, my experience 4 and 15 days and our arrival to Qingdao, China. SO much has happened; I wouldn’t change the opportunity God has given me living overseas.

 

Have you ever lived overseas? and if so, where? What did you learn? 

If you haven’t lived abroad as an Expat, then where would you go if you gave yourself freedom and gave up your fear?

 

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