Forbidden City

In my last post, I went into way more detail than I expected about the history of Tian'anmen Square. It was on the list of top things to do while in Beijing.

The rest of the list included the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, the Summer Palace and hutongs. I didn't pay for any tours, just rode the metro to them, paid the entrance fee (at the places that had them) and wandered around aimlessly. If I was really interested in the tours it was quite easy to eavesdrop on the tour guides and follow them around. This was especially true for the larger tour groups.

Tian'anmen Square

Beijing is the capital city of China and thus makes it one of the most important. It also has a long deep history dating back thousands of years. This history encompasses 7 World Heritage sites, including the Great Wall. Further, it is the birthplace of The People's Republic of China.

I went to several of the top sites in Beijing. I opted not to get the tour guide for these sites. I figured that I could use the internet to learn what I wanted to learn and these were places I wanted to just explore on my own. It was also an adventure navigating the metro and arriving on my own.

I googled what to do and see in Beijing and I found a list that listed different things to see during a short trip. I used those to decide what I should do. This post initially was going to be about all the places I saw in Beijing, but the first part I wrote ended up taking me a long time and can stand on it's own as a post.

Tian'anmen Square

AQI

I was really lucky that it was so clear when I climbed the Great Wall. I left Beijing on the 27th of December on the train and I could not see a lot when I looked out the windows. This was because the air quality index (AQI) was high. In other words, there was a lot of pollution in the air.

This is an ongoing problem throughout all of China, not just Beijing. The problem also includes Shanghai.

The Great Wall of China

A trip to The Great Wall was a certainty at some point during my stay in China. I couldn't imagine staying here for 2 years and not making a visit to it. As it was, I felt like my 5 month stay was far too long without venturing to this historic icon.

I was prepared to go during Christmas break since the start of the school year really. When I divulged these plans to people they advised me to dress warm because at that time of year Beijing is so cold. The winds out in the open would make it that much worse. I didn't want weather to deter me, so I purchased a large thermal jacket from the pearl market in Shanghai. I spent just over $100 on the coat and was hoping I didn't get ripped off by too much as I was not sure what I should be paying and I had to barter to get the price that I did get (a future post will go into detail about this). I looked at the same jacket online and it cost over $800 so regardless of if I could have acquired it cheaper here, I did save plenty of money.

Revisiting My Top 8 Travel List

A few years ago I was in a rut, being under employed and sitting at my parents house a lot, trying to write a travel blog while not traveling. Not an easy task. While at home, I created a list of 8 things I wanted to do while traveling.

I mentioned that at the time, friends from home felt like I had traveled everywhere to which I disagreed. I still disagree, but I do acknowledge that I have done a lot. I have even tackled some of the things on my top 8 list, with plans to bring down a couple more. I still maintain that the more I travel the more I realize I have been no where.

Below is the list, updated with my current idea on when it will be completed, or comments on if it has been completed. The link to blog posts relating to my experience has also been provided in case you missed them, or would like to relive them.

Shanghai Roads

In my area of the city, Qibao, I live on Zhongchun road. This road is set up like many other busy roads throughout the city. It runs pretty much North/South and in the middle of the road there is a median that seperates the traffic going in different directions. This prevents cars from making a left hand turn into driveways and some side streets. Instead, they need to make a U turn at the next traffic light, and then the turn they wish to make will be a right hand one.

Crowds

One thing of note about Shanghai are the crowds. This isn't a surprise when you consider there are over 24 million people living in Shanghai. That makes it the largest city in the world population wise, although there is more room for the crowds of people compared to some of the other more populated cities.

That doesn't change the fact that it is crowded. Especially when all these millions of people are doing something popular, like traveling on the metro, going grocery shopping or site seeing at the Bund.