Beijing, China



I had a short vacation from work so decided to go to Beijing with some friends. The flight there is only a couple hours so it's an ideal place to visit from Korea. China was an amazing city, full of culture and history. I traveled with 3 friends and we stayed at a full service apartment instead of a hotel. This was a great alternative and very nice for the price,especially since it was walking distance to most sights. We went to the Forbidden City, Tienanmen Square, rode bikes out to the Summer Palace, went shopping, and explored some of the Hutongs (traditional Chinese communities) saw the Temple of Heaven, and hiked up the Great Wall of China. We rode a zip line down from the Wall to a lake where we took a boat back to the parking lot.
Some interesting things about Beijing that I discovered were:
Most babies don't wear diapers....their mothers just hang them anywhere to let them go. The babies wear crotchless pants. The photo below of a child peeing, was taken at a coffee shop at the Temple of Heaven.



The Hutongs (neighborhoods) are quite poor and rundown. The city built big walls with beautiful landscaping all around these hutongs in order to conceal them. A visitor could travel around Beijing and never see any poverty. Sadly, many families have been displaced from their hutongs as the city rapidly renovates and entire neighborhoods are being wiped out. It seems a lot of the renovation is in preparation for the 2008 Olympics. I found the Hutongs to be some of the most beautiful and colorful parts of the city. Not to mention the beers were around 25 cents at their local bars. The people in the hutongs use a shared bathroom since their is no plumbing in their homes. It was quite an experience using a restroom with no partitions between toilets and having a Chinese lady squat next to me.
Check out the photos below of the hutongs and hutong bathroom.







The Forbidden City


The Summer Palace


Tienanmen Square




The Great Wall




Beihai Park




A link to my photos:

by heathersb9