Thanks for coming along

We just wanted to say thanks to everyone who came along with us (via the blog) on our journey. We had the adventure of our lifetime and hope every one of you can spend some time in this region of the world. It's cheap and beautiful and the people are welcoming.

The last picture of the blog (as with the first picture), is the back drop of our next adventure: our new life in the Bay Area.

All the best.

It's great to be home...

No chopsticks were needed for this meal.

Final Gin Score

Throughout the trip, right up to the last hour of the flight from Beijing to SFO, we played Gin to keep ourselves occupied. After keeping score of about 600 or so hands of Gin, final score:

Whitney: 6,397
Mike: 6,668

Hello St .Regis

...hello St. Regis.

We treated ourselves (using miles again) to stay at the St. Regis on our last night in Beijing. Our role as tourists is officially over. Time to go home.

Goodbye hostel

Goodbye cold hostel...

Lake video

As you can hear on the video, the wind was whipping across the lake making it even colder.

At the lake

Inside the palace is a giant lake, Lake Kunming. Due to the frigid temperatures, the lake was frozen over, making for a beautiful wintertime scene.

Inside the grounds

Hiking around the grounds of the Summer Palace.

Summer Palace

Our last tourist stop (in Beijing and on our entire trip) was the Summer Palace. The Summer Palace is a giant complex filled with temples, gardens, pavilions, lakes and corridors. It was once a playground for the imperial court. Royalty took refuge here from the summer heat that roasted the Forbidden City.

Great Wall video

Great Wall exit

Standing in one of the many exits off the wall gives you an indication of how tall it is.

The views

The Great Wall obviously has some great views of the surrounding mountains to see if anyone is coming to attack. These pictures are looking out of the guard towers. In the middle picture, you can see guard towers of other sections of the wall on far off mountains (they look like little squares on the ridge).

Hiking

We hiked around to some higher parts of the wall (well, as much as we could in the snow and cold).

On the Great Wall

Chilling out (literally) on the Great Wall.

Trip to the Great Wall

Of course no visit to Beijing is complete without walking on the Great Wall. The "original" wall begun over 2000 years ago during the Qin dynasty when China was unified under Qin Shi Huang (same guy who built the Terracotta Warriors). Since the wall stretches for miles and miles, we had to pick a specific section to visit. After some reading and recommendations from fellow travelers, we decided to go to Mutianyu, which is about 90km outside of central of Beijing.

We arrived early and beat the rest of the tourists. Since it was sooooo cold outside, we opted for a gondola ride up the mountain rather than doing the hour walk to where the great vantage points are. It felt just like we were going up the mountain to ski.

Cold outside

Here is another example of how just cold it is. Most stores with a door to the outside have plastic hanging in the doorway to keep the cold air from rushing in.

Dinner and a movie

That night we headed out for an untouristy activity, something we do all the time at home: dinner and a movie.

The dinner was shrimp dumplings. The movie was Avatar (in English with Chinese subtitles). Both were excellent.

Bike gloves

It's so cold outside that many people who ride bikes and motorcycles have these huge gloves attached to the handlebars. They look reeeeeally warm.

Fire hoses

In ancient times, large jugs of water were kept around all buildings in the Forbidden City to deploy immediately in case of a fire. Today, fire hoses are ready to go.

Around the Forbidden City

Various shots from inside the Forbidden City.

Forbidden City Video

Forbidden City

Across the street from Tiananmen Square is the entrance to the Forbidden City.

The Forbidden City, so named because it was off limits for 500 years, is the largest and best preserved cluster of ancient buildings in China. It was home to two dynasties of emperors, the Ming and the Qing.

Tiananmen Square

Hanging out in Tiananmen Square.

Back in Beijing

Back in Beijing we stayed at a little hostel located off a main street in a hutong (narrow alleyway).

Train station

Here's a little taste of what it's like to be in a Chinese train station (in Xi'an) around 7pm at night waiting for our train to board. Fun stuff.

Local bus

On our bus ride to the train station, the bus hit a car. Once the bus stopped, everyone got out to wait for a new bus (presumably assuming this bus was going to have to wait here for the accident to be investigated). The bus driver got out and checked out the other vehicle. After seeing that there was not much damage, he got back in the driver's seat and started the bus. Everyone then quickly piled back on the bus and we took off.

Heading out of Xi'an

After two days in Xi'an, we took another overnight train back to Beijing. To get to the train station, we took a local bus across town from our hostel. While waiting at the bus stop, we had a great view of the main tower of the city wall lit up at night.

Warrior site

We are standing in front of one of the buildings on the site. There are currently 3 pits open to the public, however, over 300 pits have been discovered and will be unearthed and displayed as time goes on.

Also pictured was our tour guide.

Chariot for the Emperor's spirit

Also discovered and preserved was a chariot made of bronze (about three feet tall) which was to carry the Emperor's spirit after death. It is in the shape of a turtle, which signifies long life in China.

Soldiers when found

Since the earth had collapsed on the soldiers, many were broken when originally discovered. They have been reconstructed by archaeologists. Also shown are pictures of the original colors the soldiers. They had colorful uniforms, beige skin color and black facial hair.