The Great Wall is Pretty Great

This weekend, my program took me and my 26 fellow classmates to Beijing to explore China’s capital. People will often times compare Shanghai to New York City and Washington, DC to Beijing. The comparison is mostly made because Shanghai and NYC are flashy, financial hubs and DC and Beijing are more calm capital cities. However, despite these basic similarities, there are drastic differences between Beijing and DC. For example, Beijing is about 40 times the size of DC, in regard to population, and over 10 times the size in terms of area. Beijing has its flashy moments but is still much quieter and newer than Shanghai. There is no glamorous skyline in Beijing. However, what Beijing lacks in modernization, it makes up for in history. We were lucky enough to be able to experience this over the course of three days.

            This past week was the Qingming (Grave Sweeping) festival, and so we did not have classes on Thursday or Friday. Because of this, we left for Beijing on Wednesday night. We took a bus from our apartment complex to the train station and then took a high-speed train from Shanghai to Beijing that left at 7 PM and arrived at 11:30 PM. We then went to the hotel, got checked in, and passed out.

On Thursday, we were introduced to Jasmine, our tour guide who would show us around for the next two days. She spoke good English and was full of knowledge, some pertinent and some not (she spent twenty-five minutes talking about wedding dresses). Along with Jasmine, our group drove for an hour and a half to the Great Wall. We got to see it in a very unique state. It had snowed all of the previous day, and so the wall was covered in two to three inches of snow. While this made for a very pretty backdrop, it also made the walking surface very slippery and, at times, dangerous. Despite having to walk with caution, it was very cool to see the wall in this state, and it made for less tourists, which was great. We were able to explore for about two hours, taking pictures and reflecting on the historical significance of the wall. After this, we returned to Shanghai and had the evening free. Twelve of us headed out to a Southern Chinese restaurant for dinner. We got very lucky and they had a private loft to accommodate us which ended up being the perfect setting. We shared dishes like truffle mushroom’s in egg, fried goat cheese and spicy pork. Post-dinner, we walked around and explored the part of the city that we were in. We then returned to the hotel.

            On Friday, we visited several of the historical sites in Beijing. We began by visiting Tiananmen Square. It was interesting because on the bus there, our tour guide brought up that the Chinese government tries to avoid the “drama” surrounding the site. It seemed like a weird way to brush over the atrocities that took place there, but according to Jasmine, people can be removed for referring to it while in the square. After walking through Tiananmen Square, we continued on to the Forbidden City.  It was the site of the old emperor’s residence and could be thought of as a historical version of the white house, if the white house was surrounded by several walls of protection and a moat. We spent around two hours exploring the palace and surrounding gardens, before heading for lunch. We had traditional lunch of Peking (Beijing’s alternative name) roasted duck. They serve it with the crispy skin on it, and you put it on a rice flour tortilla, top it with some onion, cucumber and sweet soybean paste, and wrap it up. It’s absolutely delicious and can be found all over China. Following lunch, we had free time to explore on our own and I ended up at a rooftop coffee shop, overlooking the surrounding area. Following this, we returned to the hotel, changed, and headed to a Korean-Mexican fusion restaurant for dinner. Good Mexican food has been very hard to find; however this place did a pretty good job and I ended up with an awesome Kimchi and Carnitas burrito. Following dinner, we rode OFO’s around the neighborhood and then returned to the hotel for the night.  

            On Saturday, we woke up around 8 and went to the Temple of Heaven to explore. The Temple of Heaven is actually made up of several temples and gardens, which provided for a nice, morning stroll. Saturday was much warmer than the previous days and being outside was actually enjoyable. We explored for around two hours before returning to our hotel to check out. We then grabbed lunch and headed to the train station to return to Shanghai. The train ride home was also four and a half hours long, and we returned around 7:30 PM.

            Overall, it was great to get to explore the other major city in China. While I definitely prefer Shanghai for its energy and modern architecture, Beijing had a lot to offer in terms of history and significance. I would love to return to see the Great Wall once it is clearer out, but I was very happy with my visit and am glad that I got to experience something that only happens every seven or eight years.