Donghuamen Night Market - Wangfujing Snack Street

You thought my day was over? Hell no! When I got home from my day wandering around Beijing, I took some time to relax before heading for dinner with my two new roommates, Mona and Felix, brother and sister from Germany! How lovely isn´t it that they travel together? Me and my brother could never do that, or maybe it could be possible, but we would´t go on an adventure like this.

I took my roommates to Wangfujing Snack Street, where I was a few days ago. We tried all kind of things like beef dumplings, fried cheese, scorpions, tteobokki (korean rice cake), caramelised strawberries and lamb meat on sticks. We also found out that the Donghuamen Night Market was located just a few blocks from the Wangfujing Market, so we decided to have a look at some more food stands. They do have everything from snakes, snakeskin, scorpions, grasshoppers, tarantulas, and other delicacies. In the end we did the most typical and touristic thing. We got dressed in some Chinese traditional clothing and took some lame photos. It was a bit funny I must say, and we got plenty of Chinese admirers.

Yonghugong Lama Temple - Hutongs

When I left the hostel this morning I didn´t really have any specific plans. I did some research before I left, and ended up at the Yonghegong area. The Yonghegong Lama Temple is located here so I decided to head inside. I must say, it´s a beautiful temple, but since I´ve already visited the Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven, and the Forbidden City, this temple wasn´t anything special in my opinion. The Yonghegong (meaning palace of harmony and peace) Lama Temple is the biggest Tibetan Buddhist temple in Beijing and it was built in 1694. In each hall you will find many Buddha statues, scrolled paintings and precious cultural artifacts. What I found most amazing about this temple was the Statue of Maitreya, a 18-meter high Buddha carved out of one grand piece of white sandalwood. It´s forbidden to take any photos in most of the halls, which is quite sad, but I do understand why.

When I was done with the Lama Temple, I walked around the Yonghegong area, because according to my research, there is a popular hutong area nearby the temple. Hutong is a narrow street or alley associated with Chinese cities in the north and mostly in Beijing. Lines of traditional courtyard residences form the hutongs. The number of hutongs has dropped due to make way for new roads and buildings, and some areas are protected luckily. Today I visited Fangija Hutong, located nearby Yonghegong Lama Temple station, and Xiaoshibei Hutong (or Yanday Byway) located nearby the Shichahai Station. I could totally recommend the last hutong. There was many vintage shops, roofer cafes and restaurants, the vibe was just great. I didn´t find the Fangjia Hutong interesting or special. However, in the Yonghegong area you will find other hutongs aswell.

In between, I managed to visit the Olympic Sports Center. This is the first attraction I´ve visited so far which was free of charge! The area was huge, so I had a quick look at the “Bird Winter Olympics too. be hosted re, and the 2022 Winter Olympics will be hosted action Id other hutongs aswell. re is a popular ’s Nest”, and the “Water Cube.” The 2008 Summer Olympics was held here, and Beijing will host the 2022 Winter Olympics too.

The Summer Palace

After the long hike yesterday, my body was sore this morning so I decided to sleep a bit longer. I had nothing planned for today so I decided to visit the Summer Palace. Visiting the palace equals to a lot of walking again. I´ve probably lost weight being in Beijing to be honest.

The Summer Palace (or Yiheyuan) is an ensemble of lakes, gardens and palaces. It was included as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1998 and I totally understand why. The whole palace covers 3 square kilometers, which means one day for exploring the area is required. The Summer Palace is located on the 60-meter high Longevity Hill, so today was spent walking thousands of stairs again. I got off the subway at Beigongmen Station and walked towards the entrance. The throughout fee was 50yuan (6,8€) and I decided to go for this ticket since I wanted to be able to have access everywhere and not have to pay extra along the way. I also enjoyed a short ferry ride on the Kunming Lake for 40 yuan.

I walked through the whole palace taking pictures and just enjoyed the amazing sceneries. The Suzhou Street, The Tower of Buddhist Incense (also the Thousand-hand Guanyin Buddha), The Kunming Lake, and the Seventeening-Arch Marble Bridge was just a few favorites from the Summer Palace. The cherry blossom just gives every picture a beautiful touch to it and makes Beijing look even prettier. I enjoyed every bit of today, and I feel like all these big attractions that Beijing has to offer just blows my mind and are impossible to describe with words. I have tried my best to capture these amazing sites, but even that isn´t enough. Beijing is something you have to experience and feel. In this case, I will leave you will the photos. It was an amazing sunny day with beautiful views!

The Great Wall of China

Last night after talking with Annie and Steve, I decided to purchase a ticket for a tour to the Great Wall of China. I usually don´t like to be a part of a group of tourists, but in this case it was totally worth it. The part of the wall that we were visiting was hard to reach with local transportation. The price for this tour was 380 yuan (52€) including the entry ticket, breakfast, lunch and transportation.

This morning at 6 our tour guide picked us up from the lobby. Together we walked to the minibus, which was supposed to take us to Jinshanling Great Wall. This section of the wall is located 130km from Beijing and it took us approximately 2,5 hours to reach Jinshanling, because on the way we picked up a few other tourists. In total we were a group of 16 persons from Scotland, Mexico, Switzerland, Holland, Spain, Ireland, and many more. Such an international bunch of people! On the bus we “enjoyed” sweet fruit bread with water.

We did have a tour guide with us, but we all were walking by ourselves and at times we saw the guide and talked to him for a few minutes. The route from Jinshanling to Simatai West isn´t one of the most popular routes, and it requires patience, strength and that you are a bit fit at least. When we finally arrived we started walking up the stairs to the Great Wall, and when we reached it, the view was exactly what I expected – unbelievable. We walked the Great Wall for approximately 5 km, which took us 3,5 hours. It sounds like we were a lazy bunch of people, but the Great Wall of China is definitely not a straight path. Some parts of the wall were very steep and even dangerous. These parts of the wall were partly constructed and some parts had fallen apart. However, the route we chose is definitely something that I recommend. Not many tourists and amazing views!

I´m so glad that I chose this day to visit the Great Wall of China, since the sun was shining, it was a bit windy but at times very warm. There was no smog so the view was spectacular. I honestly have to say, there are no words or pictures that can describe how beautiful this experience and attraction was. After finishing the day at the wall we all sat down at a local restaurant and enjoyed a big feast for lunch, and it was delicious!

To finish off this already perfect and amazing day, Annie, Steve and myself had a beer in our hostels courtyard while talking about the day. They also took me to a small restaurant nearby our hostel and the food was just so delicious and spicy, but we all enjoyed it!

The Forbidden City - Temple of Heaven

After a good night sleep I packed my things and went out to explore two of the most popular attractions of Beijing. I started by walking through the Tian´anmen Square, where I bumped into a few Chinese tourists who wanted their photo taken with me. When someone is brave enough to ask you for a photo, you just can´t say no. It´s a bit uncomfortable when you see that people are taking pictures of you and not asking for permission first, but I guess that´s just something to get used to. I spent roughly two hours walking through the Forbidden City, including the Imperial Garden. When I finally got through, I decided to head towards the Jingshan Park and up towards the Wanchun Pavillion, the perfect peak over the Forbidden City. 

The sightseeing did´t stop there. Straight after coming down from the peak, I continued walking down a street next to the Forbidden City, had some street food at Donghuamen Food/Night Market. The market full of street food stands serving everything from scorpions, ducklings, you name it. A friend of mine told me to try the scorpions, so I decided to give it a try and honestly, I was a bit disappointed. The scorpions tasted like crispy fat. 

After a quick lunch I took the subway down to Tian´anmen Station to see the Temple of Heaven. Before heading up to the temple, I saw a part of the Chinese culture that I wish I could experience more back home. People of all ages gather in parks to play cards, board games, or any kind of activity or game. Teenagers might do this in Finland, but when you get older you are stuck at home watching TV alone or with your significant other, how boring is that? Anyway... The temple was amazing! Temples get boring after a while, since they all look the same. I definitely had to take it all in and realise the history behind it, the beauty and how much work someone has put into it. 

What a long and exhausting day! When I finally arrived to the hostel Ani, Steve and myself went to a nearby restaurant to try rosted duck, which is a common dish here. It was delicious, and so lovely to have someone to share a dinner with.