Beijing... Brrrr!

Well, I definitely was not prepared for the cold climate of Beijing!! I knew it would be cold, but freezing temperatures like that of a December morning in the UK I was not expecting. (I may be exaggerating a tiny bit, but nevertheless it was blooming cold!!) Despite the arctic conditions, Beijing was a lovely city to visit with it's traditional China meets 21st century feel. The main street of the city 'walking street' is full of shops from high street brands like Zara (I had to cross the road to resist temptation) to authentic Chinese shops selling everything from differing flavoured teas to custom made chopsticks! Beijing is also home to several good markets, one of which we visited. We visited the day market which is basically an indoor four storey high building full of stalls selling every kind of replica product you could imagine, and EVERYTHING is to be haggled for! The keeper will start at some ridiculously high price like 500 yuan (£50) and you'll end up getting it for 10 yuan (£1)! I didn't buy anything but people we've met did - we don't have any spare space in our luggage for fake Fendi!!

Our first day arriving in Beijing we took a 2 hour bus journey to climb a non-touristy segment of The Great Wall - definitely one of my favourite things we've so far done! The views were nothing short of spectacular, and it felt amazing to be walking along something so tightly woven in history. Without a doubt a once in a lifetime experience, and something i'll remember forever. The hike is really strenuous but so worth it! The next morning we even got up at 5:30am to reach The Wall for sunrise - without doubt one of the most amazing things I've seen, no photograph will ever do it justice!

Beijing is also home to The Forbidden City - another must visit place. The buildings were pretty cool and the history surrounding them interesting. For me though the most exciting part was the arrival of some Chillian official taking his own personal guided tour, complete with about 50 James Bond-esque guards! I kept trying to take photos but was given several death stares by a James Bond, I swear one even showed me their AK47!

By The Forbidden City is Tiananmen Square - an integral part of modern Chinese history. Hard to believe standing there with the crowds of happy tourists, less than 25 years previous it was the site of so much bloodshed.

The flag at Tiananmen Square.

Whilst in Beijing we also visited The 2008 Olympic Park, home to the birds nest stadium. It was really impressive, especially when it got dark and was lit up. I am glad I went, even though I was dragged along there by Ben!
Beijing was really nice, but it's a very smoggy city and lots of us developed sore throats and colds because of it (me included) so although I enjoyed it, I was happy to move on to our next stop - a beautiful lodge in the bamboo forest of Moganshan.

The view from our balcony in the bamboo lodge!

It was so lovely to spend the night relaxing in the lodge, before starting the journey to our next stop - Shanghai!!