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For our third day in Beijing, I had decided that we will hire a car with a driver to bring us to the places we plan to go to for that day. These are places that are not easily accessible by subway so it was more convenient for us to hire a driver for 8 hours to make it easier for us to go to one place to another. I had made prior reservations with the hostel and instructed them the places we plan to go to for that date: The Summer Palace, Olympic Park and 798 Art District. The Olympic Park is accessible via subway but since we have some more hours left, we decided to squeeze it in as well.

Our driver picked us up around 8AM. The receptionist gave him the instructions as to where we plan to go to, and I had with me my little notepad of Chinese words that I have prepared the night before in order for us to communicate with the driver. We expected him not to speak any English so preparing ourselves with those Chinese words was very helpful. Stuff like ”What time do we meet here”, “we would like to have lunch”, etc. are the ones on top of my list.

Our first stop was The Summer Palace, approximately one and a half hours away from our hostel. We paid for the entrance tickets, bought ourselves the map for the Summer Palace, studied it and started exploring. The place was huger than huuuuuge. It’s twice the size of the Temple Of Heaven or even more. Also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Summer Palace, considered to be a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design, is a majestic display of natural landscape of hills and open water, combined with artificial features such as pavilions, halls, palaces, temples and bridges to form a harmonious ensemble of outstanding aesthetic value. To put it simply, it’s like entering a whole new kingdom in China.

Probably my most favorite spot in this particular trip, the Summer Palace is a world on its own. Unlike the Forbidden City and the Temple Of Heaven, where everything looks almost the same over and over again, the Summer Palace is filled with just about every breathtaking sight to see. From the Longevity Hill to the beautiful Kunming Lake, the Marble Boat, the pavilions nested on top of large rocks overlooking the lake, the artistic bridges and the unique temples, it exudes with this relaxing zen mode type of feeling that would want to make you stay the entire day here or simply live here and never leave.

After three whole hours of non-stop walking and picture taking, we found ourselves leaving for the exit to meet up with our driver. I guess he was surprised that we were on time. If there’s one thing that I know I am good at, it’s time management. We then decided to have lunch and he brought us to this restaurant, that seemed like an eatery to me. Which was really cool, just the way I wanted it, eating on the streets of Beijing, not knowing exactly where we are at that point but just enjoying their local delicacies without a big bite on our budget.

Our next stop was the Olympic Park. Seeing the Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube is definitely at the top of my must-see places here. The driver gave us an hour to roam around the place. We were only there to take pictures of the two stadiums, so that was enough time for us to explore. Also known as the Olympic Green, the Beijing Olympic Park is located in the Chaoyang District and was specifically constructed for the 2008 Summer Olympics. They even had to create a subway line for this particular location.

The Beijing National Stadium or “Bird’s Nest” is the centerpiece of this project. It hosted the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics and also the athletics and football finals of the Games. Costing around US$423 million, with it’s artistic and futuristic look, no wonder many tourists and visitors are seduced to view and take pictures of this magnificent work of art. The Beijing National Aquatics Center or “Water Cube”, on the other hand, located just beside the Bird’s Nest, hosted the swimming, diving and synchronized swimming events of the Olympics. Since the Olympic Park is one of those sights best seen at night, we also decided to return here the next day to take some more pictures. And yes, it’s a hundred times more beautiful at night.

Probably the coolest place in Beijing, actually in China, the 798 Art District was our next stop. As the name suggests, it is an entire district that houses a thriving artistic community, among 50-year old decommissioned military factory buildings of unique architectural style. Everything here is all about art. From the stores, the shops, the food, even the vandalism on the city walls are all about art. We had three hours to explore the place. Good thing I have a map with me handy of the place. We actually got lost after circling the entire area so we decided to backtrack using our camera pics. Yes, we did that. That’s a big advantage if you are such a cam-whore I guess hehe. We went back to meet with our driver around 4:30PM to bring us back to the hostel. We then spent the rest of the day doing some more shopping in Wangfujing.

On our second day in Beijing, we have scheduled ourselves to visit The Great Wall Of China, probably China’s most popular tourist destination and historical site. It’s one of those places that you’ve grown learning about through old history books in school and through travel shows on TV. They say you have never been to China if you haven’t been to The Wall, so not only is it a site to see, it’s a must for every traveller in China to come and visit the historical Great Wall.

We have scheduled through our hostel the pickup for our Mutianyu Great Wall adventure. The wall has a number of sections, due to it’s vast spread all over the northern boarders of China, and people online have recommended to take the Mutianyu area to experience the cable car and the toboggan run, one of the highlights of this tour. Other sections like Badaling, Jinshaling, Shanhaiguan and Simatai are either too far out or jam-packed with tourists already, so Mutianyu was the perfect option for us.

We arrived at the Mutianyu area at around 10am, approximately 2 and a half hours from our pickup at our hostel. We were briefed by the guide, showed us the Mutianyu map, and the various watchtowers and sections where we can try the cable car and the personal wheeled toboggan. We bought our tickets for the cable car and toboggan run and went ahead in crossing the mountains to the start our Great Wall climb.

It was a pretty sunny day during that time, but was super windy and cold, that I ended up suffering from super chapped lips. We had about 3 and a half hours to explore the Wall, took pictures here and there and just marveled at the experience of finally making it here to one of the places that has always been on my bucket list. A sense of fulfillment went through me as I absorbed the scenes from almost every spot during that long Great Wall walk.

My brother heard a couple of American tourists talk about going through the restricted area, where they heard that the views were actually more breathtaking. He convinced me to go through that area and they were right. The place was restricted because we were actually walking along the cliff, right at the edge of the mountains, surrounded by some ruins of the Wall, but it was an amazing sight to see. The panoramic view of that particular area in the wall was just so breathtaking, I didn’t want to leave. After a few minutes of picture taking and some daredevil attempts to stand at the edge of the cliff, we went back down the trail to continue on walking around the Wall.

After about almost 4 hours of non-stop walking and picture taking, we finally arrived at the toboggan run area to try this really cool luge ride down the Wall. It was a fairly easy ride to navigate, but the only thing I didn’t like about that ride was that we had to keep on stopping since there was a family with a couple of kids in front of us, who was sliding down really, really slow and had the audacity to stop and take pictures of each other as well. I really wanted to try it again and slide down the Wall in full blast, Fast & The Furious mode. I was pretty much cursing those kids the entire time during that ride.

At around 2pm, we met with the rest of the group from our bus and had lunch on this restaurant a few walks from the market area. We arrived back at our hotel around 4:30PM where we decided to take about a couple of hours’ rest. At about 7PM, we decided to visit the National Centre for the Performing Arts, more popularly known as The Egg, which was just across Tiananmen Square. The Centre, an ellipsoid dome of titanium and glass surrounded by an artificial lake is definitely one of the must-see places in Beijing. I’ve heard recommendations online that The Egg is best seen at night, so we took that opportunity to visit it and took some shots there. With its futuristic design, that looked like an alien spacecraft, it’s definitely one of those places that you can’t help but be in awe of.

We went back to our hostel around 10PM to rest early and prepare ourselves for another day of roaming around Beijing the day after.

Of all the places I’ve been to, this particular trip to Beijing was the most planned of them all. We had exactly 5 whole days in Beijing, not counting the dates of arrival and departure, and I knew I had to make most out of it. We had made reservations at the Happy Dragon Courtyard Hostel, which was located at the Dongcheng district in Beijing. After reading through some feedbacks online, I went ahead and booked the place. It was conveniently located near a subway station, so it was perfect. Being located near a subway station means it would make it easier for us to roam around the city and get back. I was able to buy this handy pocket guidebook called Top 10 Beijing from Eyewitness Travel, which proved to be my survival kit during this trip. It already includes a list of must-see places and tourist spots, how to get there, what time it opens, and entrance ticket prices as well. It also comes with a free pull out map of Beijing and a map of the subway, which was very, very helpful.

Brainstorming our itinerary was pretty easy. I just studied the map and planned out the places we’re gonna go to and made an estimate as to how many hours we’re gonna spend on that particular place, at the same time reading though comments and suggestions from other blogs and forums online. I also went ahead and listed down a list of Chinese words and sentences, that I know would come in handy if we decide to roam around Beijing ourselves, since almost everyone there cannot speak English at all.

Our flight to Beijing was scheduled to leave around 8:30PM from Manila and arrive 1:30AM in Beijing. We had our hostel arrange the airport pickup and we arrived at the hostel around 2:30AM. The place was beautiful. I actually felt like I was in a classic Chinese movie. As with the other hostels I’ve stayed in before, it has this delightful homey feel to it, which really made the experience more authentic. This is one of the reasons why I prefer staying in hostels compared to hotels. They have this homey and feel-good vibe to it and you actually feel that you are well taken cared of, plus it’s perfect for the budget.

We had a busy day ahead so me and my sibs went to bed around 3AM and woke up around 5AM, yeah, 2 hours of sleep. Blame it on the excitement. We had breakfast on one of the bakeries just across the main road, which was just a few minutes’ walk from the hostel. We bought ourselves their Transportation Smart Card for the subway for 20RMB. The good thing about Beijing’s subway charges is that no matter how far the distance, you’re still paying the same price, which was 2RMB or P14.

Our first stop was Tiananmen Square. We just followed the subway lines and referred back to our maps to get to where we wanted to go. When we got off the right station, we saw a bunch of tourists flocking on one area so we just went ahead and followed them. They were actually walking towards Qianmen, a place which was also on my planned itinerary, so we just followed them and took some pictures. We then went ahead to cross Tiananmen Square, which is one of the popular tourist spots in the city, known to be the third largest square in the world. It has great cultural significance as it was the site of several important events in Chinese history, including the Tiananmen square protests, which ended in 1989 with the declaration of martial law and the death of hundreds of civilians in Beijing.

Our next stop was the Forbidden City, which was just north of Tiananmen Square. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and has served as the home of emperors, as well as the ceremonial and political center of the Chinese government. The place was huuuuuge. There were towers and temples everywhere, that I lost count of them. It came to a point that I wanted to get away from the place because it’s just one tower, gate and temple after another. They actually looked all the same to me. The small lakes within the Forbidden City were actually a fresh sight to see. After about an hour of roaming around and picture taking, we exited at the Gate of Divine Might, to the north, which faces Jingshan Park.

Jingshan Park is a public park situated on an artificial hill located north of the Forbidden City. Jingshan is especially a popular place for elderly people socializing and gathering. There were people dancing, singing karaoke and opera, people doing some karate and tai chi, etc. We went up the Wanchun Pavilion to get a view of the Forbidden City from the top, which was beautiful. After we took some pictures, we decided to go and have lunch since we were all hungry from way too much walking already. We had lunch in this Chinese restaurant in the nearby Beihai Park area. The menu had no English descriptions, so we ended up pointing at the pictures to the waitress. After lunch, we decided to get back to the hostel, where we then ended up being lost in the middle of Beijing. It took us about another hour of walking and map-checking before we found the nearest subway in the area, which was the Dongsi Station.

After an hour’s rest inside our room, my brother and I decided to roam around some more. My sister was tired from all the crazy walking and maybe because of the lack of sleep, that she decided to sleep the entire afternoon off while we went ahead to our next stop, which was the Temple Of Heaven. Another UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Temple Of Heaven is another huuuuuge complex filled with religious buildings and a bunch of Taoist temples. The thing with the Temple Of Heaven was that its buildings are located way too far from each other, unlike in the Forbidden City. I literally had blisters on my feet from too much walking in that particular place. I ended up wearing rubber shoes the rest of this 5-day trip. Just like in Jingshan Park, the place is filled with people hanging around, relaxing, exercising, doing just about anything, since there are mini-parks within the site. It took us 3 whole hours to circle around this place and was able to visit every spot within the complex and take pictures like crazy.

We went back to the hostel around 4:30PM. My sister’s finished with her powernap, so we decided to have dinner and roam around Wangfujing, one of Beijing’s most famous shopping streets. We had dinner at McDonald’s (there’s something about me wanting to try the McDonald’s from every country I’ve been to), and roamed around the bright and colorful Wangfujing area. It actually reminded me of Orchard Road in Singapore, with shops and stores at every corner, and a big shopping complex called the Malls Of Oriental Plaza. The Wangfujing Snack Street, located in hutongs just west of the main street, is densely packed with restaurants and street food stalls. The food stalls serves a wide variety of common and exotic street foods ranging from bugs, scorpions, seahorses, centipedes, starfishes, snails, to every weird possible delicacy you can think of. Those scorpions being displayed were actually alive and moving, which totally freaked me out. I didn’t dare eat any of them. We bought some souvenirs, the ever popular ref magnets and a bunch of I Love China t-shirts, the usual stuff that I look for when I go market shopping in every new place I’m in.

We decided to return back to the hostel around 10PM, since the subway closes at 10:30. And yeah, we actually went out the wrong exit when we arrived at the subway station and ended up being lost at 11pm in the middle of Dongcheng nowhere. After another round of too much walking, we finally arrived at the hostel for some much needed rest. We had the long-awaited Great Wall climb scheduled the next day, which was a Monday, to skip the big flock of tourists during the weekend.