Beijing

So you know how "they" say everything is bigger in Texas? Well, I have one word for them- Beijing. From an ancient wall thousands of miles long, an urban square hundreds of acres in area, and a palace that makes Biltmore look like a small townhouse, Beijing has been taking the "bigger is better" mantra a little too seriously. 

When we first arrived in Beijing, it was a bit of a shock- amidst

 the polluted air which gave way to a persistent sun-shielding smog lay a city ridden with- yes, I know this is a double standard, but- monolingual natives making it hard to communicate, even for a fried coconut treat at McDonald's.  Our first stop was the Forbidden City- and might I add it is a very fitting name- as it may have been its own city. Still considered by the locals as the center of Beijing, we walked around this palace, which once housed the emperor, for roughly two and a half hours and maybe covered ten percent of it. I am seriously at a lost for words to say how big it was. After exiting through the south gates, we walked to the other side- past all the surviving 980 buildings that used to hide the emperor during times of strife- i'm sure 50, even 100 would have been enough but hey, whatever tickles your pickle. Anyways, this took us over 45 minutes of solid walking to get to the north gate. Most people know it by the iconic image of Mao Zedong's picture posted on the north gates of the palace. Most often it is seen from Tiananmen Square. Tiananmen square is....well, its a square- a very large one. And while the historic symbolism bears monumental turn in Chinese culture, there's not much to the huge slab of concrete. However, placed in the middle is the mausoleum of Mao himself as well as being surrounded bu the olympic countdown clock, the National Museum of China, the Great Hall of People, and, of course, the Forbidden City.

Day 2- Up at 4:40 to catch a taxi that would take us to the bus that took us to the Great Wall of China at Badaling. After listening to the chinese tour guide, sleeping a bit, and playing some mad games of charades with 

the chinese tourists in an effort to communicate, we arrived at Badaling after about an hour and a half. You know how you see the Great Wall in movies and on postcards and it seems to flow over the mountains in a rhythmic, picturesque way? Well, what they don't show you is the close up. While it is everything above, climbing it flat out sucks. The irregular steps make for a stadium workout fearful if Lisa ever had access to it. After a couple hours of what would make our legs sore for days, we trekked back down where our

bus was waiting. After driving past the Ming Tombs, touring a jade factory, and exploring a small market, we made it back

to the hotel in relatively unscathed fashion.

As for day three, we made the Summer Palace our premier

 stop. After seeing the olympic aquatic site, the olympic housing, and the stadium nicknamed "the bird's nest," we arrived at the entrance to the Summer Palace. What at first seemed like extensively adorned traditional Chinese buildings laid the path for a giant tiered palace set atop a steep mountain overlooking the calm Kunming laden with boats ranging from small gondolas like that in Italy to motorboats speeding off to different destinations. As if our legs didn't get enough of a workout from the Great Wall, we once again climbed, step after step, to reach the dominating resort and step inside to get a peek at the statue of a goddess bearing 8 arms- Durga. With our flight only a couple hours away, we grabbed the taxi we had waiting, drove to the hotel to grab our things, and drove to the airport.