Beijing – Day 16 – 20

Back in Beijing, is our final stop. Here we’ll continue our exploration of this city and it’s surroundings before flying back home.

Day 1 – The Great Wall of China

On our first morning back, we should finally take a small trip outside the city, and go see the Great Wall of China.

There are a few ways to reach the wall, the best place I read should be at Simatai, should be a 2 hour drive by taxi from Beijing.

This should give you incredible views; take lots of water with you, cause I see that it could be quite a hike.

I think you get on the wall by cable car and you might be able to take a slide back down (that should be fun).

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Day 2 – The Ming Tombs

Again we’ll take another trip outside the city to see the Ming Tombs. This place sounds very peaceful and impressive at the same time. From what I read, this place is all about keeping with the spirit of “Feng Shui”, since I’m obsessed with everything “Feng Shui”, I got to see this.

It should take an hour by taxi to get there.

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Day 3 – Hutong District

This north part of the city has many old authentic Chinese alleys and it’s near the beautiful lake.

We’ll start our day with the Drum & Bell Towers located on the north.  We’ll start by climbing the tower, checking out the drums on the way up and then taking in the views of the city and the surrounding neighborhood.

Getting down from the tower, start walking towards Qianhai Lake, reaching the lake shore (path), start strolling towards the south end of the lake until reaching the Han Cang Restaurant where you should get your lunch and try the Hakka cuisine, the earthy food of China’s Guest People.

After lunch head back south until you reach Bei Hai Park.

Bei Hei Park is obviously a park, surrounding a beautiful lake in the middle of Beijing, stroll through the park, when you had enough, get back to your Hotel.

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Day 4 – The Lama Temple

Next morning, we’re back in the north part of the city starting off with the Lama Temple, a very impressive Buddhist temple with a huge statue of the Future Buddha (Point A).

Next, head south on Yonghegong St, and take a right on Guozijiang St.

Stop at the Confucius Temple, check it out, and then head across the street to the Confucius Teahouse for a nice noon tea break.

Continue on towards Jiaodaokou St and turn left, then turn right onto Ju'er Hutong St. - this is one of Beijing’s oldest and busiest alleys.

From here turn left on South Luogu Alley walk until you reach no. 108 and stop at the Pass By Bar, here you can get your lunch.

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Day 5 – National Olympic Stadium

On our last day we can’t leave the city without checking out the Bird’s Nest Stadium known from the 2008 Olympic Games. This structure has won environmental awards for all sorts of architectural designs within it and it’s a very impressive structure to see up close.

In the evening try to see an acrobat show, Chinese acrobats are known for being quite magnificent and it would be a shame to leave china without seeing some type of show.

This concludes for now our trip to Beijing and the north of China, I counted 20 days but not including getting to places and setbacks so I would add to the count 5 more days if you wanna do all I suggested.

If you have less time just skip the stuff you aren’t interested in.

Good Luck and Bon Voyage! :)

Tianjin – Day 14 and 15

Tianjin is Hebei’s former capital and is known as the Shenghai of the North. It’s a very interesting modern city, which will take us 2 days to explore.

Day 1 – Boat tour along the Hei River

The Hei River runs through Tianjin, and I think that to start with a river cruise and seeing the city’s skyline is a great way of getting a feel of the city.

I’ve been checking around and from what I found, Hai River ferry tours start out from Tianjin Railway Station, the entire tour takes around 1 hour.

There are 3 wharfs where visitors can opt to purchase tickets and board the tour ferries, the Tianjin Railway wharf, Wenhua Street wharf and Dabei Temple wharf, everyday from 09:00 -21:00, and they start out on the hour every hour.

Visitors are able to see the different attractions lining the riverbank and can opt to go out on the docks to look and shop at the various specialty and souvenir shops. Visitors need not pay extra for return trips, they can catch return ferries just by showing the driver their ticket stubs.

After the boat ride, returning to Tianjin Railway Station (Point A), we’ll walk on Haihe East Rd and cross The Ligonglou Bridge. We’ll turn left on Jiefang Bei St and walk until we reach the Astor Hotel (Point B).

Jiefang Bei St has many of Tianjin’s colonial structures from the French and British era.

After reaching the Astor Hotel, take a right on to Tai’an Rd until you reach the big Nanjing Ave then, take another right, take a left on Yingkou Rd and an immediate right on Xining Rd towards the Xi Kai Cathedral (Point C).

The Xi Kai Cathedral is based on the Notre-Dame church in Marseille and it is open on Sundays.

Continue on Xining Rd and turn right on Guiyang Rd, left on Nanjing and right again into Shenyang Rd. Here you should start walking towards the Antique Market (Point D).

The Antique Market, open on the weekends, is supposed to be the perfect place to find all sorts of collectables.

From the market take a right on Shandong Rd to No. 77 where you’ll find The Goubuli Dumpling Restaurant.

Tianjin is known for their city’s dumplings, and I read that this is the place to get the best, so take your late lunch of the day here.

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Day 2 – Ancient Culture Street

Start your day by arranging train tickets back to Beijing for today or the next. The high speed train takes 30 min.

If you have time, take it easy today and check out the Ancient Culture Street.

In the north part of town, the Ancient Culture Street is a recreation of an old Chinese Street. At the end of it lies the Tianhou Temple for the Goddess of the sea, it’s suppose to have beautiful tiled walls.

If you still have some time before returning to Beijing, take the rest of the day and do some shopping, there should be quite a few malls in this commercial city.

Shijiazhuang – Day 11-13

Shijiazhuang is the capital of the Hebei region, but most of the places we would like to see here are outside the city.

Day 1 – Dafo Si in Zhengding

After settling in Shijiazhuang, take a taxi in the morning and go to Dafo Si, should be a 10 min drive to Zhengding.

This is the Great Buddha Temple, this should be a marvelous site of a big bronze statue of Guanyin. Also the city of Zhengding is supposed to be very charming. If there’s time, walk around and soak up the atmosphere before getting back to Shijiazhuang.

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Day 2 – Zhaozhou Bridge

30 min outside the city, next to the town of Zhaoxian.

This is supposed to be a brilliant piece of engineering.

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Day 3 – The Hanging Palace of Cangyan

This should be amazing, again, it is 30 min outside the city.

This place is in the Cangyan Mountains, suspended on a bridge over the void. Should be really great.

When getting back in town, you should check your options and buy a plane ticket to your next destination, Tianjin, your last stop on your way back to Beijing.

Ji’nan and Qufu – Day 6-10

We arrive at Ji’nan, south of the Yellow River and spend a day here before moving on.

Day 1 – Thousand Buddha Mountain

In the morning head to Thousand Buddha Mountain, which seems the most interesting attraction in the area.

You can choose climbing the steps or taking the cable car. Here you can walk around, take pics with the statues and view the city from above.

When getting back in town, we’ll arrange transportation to our next destination, Qufu. _________________________________________________________________________

Day 2 – Getting to Qufu

In order to continue our trip we need to buy a train ticket to Yanzhou, near Qufu. From there we’ll buy a bus ticket to Qufu.

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Day 3 – Qufu

Qufu is best known for being the birthplace of Confucius, the famous philosopher. We’ll spend here 2 days.

On our first day we’ll visit the Confucius Temple. Again this is a large complex, take the time to walk around and get to know Confucius’s Philosophy, which basically can be summed up by the phrase, "Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself".

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Day 4 – Zoucheng and The Mencius Temple

For a more authentic experience we’ll take a trip outside the city to Zouchend and visit The Mencius Temple.  Mencius is another important philosopher, known for talking a lot about human nature, and saying "He who exerts his mind to the utmost, knows his nature", I’m not really sure what that means, but it sounds smart to me.

Should be a 30 min drive by Taxi.

This temple seems to be very quiet and peaceful as it is less popular than the other.

Spend the day walking around the complex. When getting back to Qufu, grab a lunch and make arrangements to get back to Ji’nan the next day.

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Day 5 – Back in Ji’nan

After arriving in Ji’nan, try to find a plane ticket to our next destination, Shijiazhuang in the Hebei region.

In the meantime, if there’s time, you should know that Ji’nan is also famous for it’s natural springs, so you should go and see the Black Tiger Spring.

Luoyang and The Longmen Caves - Day 4 and 5

Our next destination would be the farthest away from Beijing, and slowly we’ll return our root closer and closer back to our original destination, Beijing.

Luoyang is a city in the Henan province and is 15 min away from our main attraction in the region, The Longmen Caves.

We’ll spend here 2 full days.

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Day 1 - Longmen Caves

After settling in our hotel, start your first morning with a trip to the Longmen Caves, you can take a taxi, about 15 min from the city or maybe you can find a guided trip that will take you there.

I heard that there might be also guided toors when you get there but I’m not sure, also there are entrance fees.

This place will take a few hours to see, so you shouldn’t make extra plans for this day.

This place is kind of a Chinese Petra (you’ll understand if you’ve ever been to Jordan), where everything is carved in stone.

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Where to Eat in Luoyang ?

After getting back from the caves I found 2 recommended restaurants in the city, you can pick one today and the other, the next day, oddly they’re both on the same street:

Zhenbutong Fandian - No. 359 Zhongzhou Donglu

The most famous restaurant in Luoyang. Known for the traditional "Water Banquet". Has a total of 24 dishes with an overview of regional specialties (pancake with egg ravioli, Baozi) at unbeatable prices, stairs lead past pictures of the celebrities who have eaten there. Try the soup swallows' nests (Mudan Yancai), delicious, for 20 yuan.

Mudan Ting – No. 15 Zhongzhou Xilu

Located on the 2^nd floor of the three-star Louyang Peony Hotel. Have English menus and 20 courses of various soups.

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Day 2 – White Horse Temple (Baima Si)

This is China’s oldest Buddhist monastery, located 10 min east of town.

Take a taxi over there and walk around the complex.

When you’re back in town go eat at one of the restaurants recommended above, and check where you can buy a plane ticket to your next destination, Ji’nan, the capital of the Shandong region, our first stop on our way to Qufu.

Beijing - Day 1, 2 and 3

Depending on your time of arrival to Beijing, after you figured the way to your hotel/guest house and settled in, you should start your trip. If you arrived in the evening don’t start sightseeing, it’s better not to go asleep to early so you’ll adapt to your new environment and try exploring your surroundings, where can you eat, buy stuff, catch a cab/bus and change some money.  I always bother the reception agents in my hotel with these questions, they usually speak English, have to be nice to you and give you a free map.

Day 1 – The Forbidden City

Start point:   08:30 – arrive at Mao’s Mausoleum at Tian’an Men Square - see his casket raised from its refrigerated chamber.  It says everywhere to come early to beat the crowds. But it doesn’t say when (So try to ask at your hotel). This sounds kind of morbid but interesting.

B point:        Head north on Tian’an Men Square towards Chang’an Jie street, cross it and head to the building in front of you with Mao’s portrait on it – Tian’an Men. Climb and see views from the gallery.

C point:        Head again strait north towards the highlight of the day – The Forbidden City. From what I checked there’s entrance fees and guided tours. If that’s true I’d recommend checking out the guided tour only if it’s done by a live person and not some headphones.  Spend your day getting lost in this compound and taking lots of pics.

Lunch point:  You’ll probably eat a very late lunch or early dinner this day. From what I read there’s an excellent food court in the basement of the Oriental plaza mall. This sounds like a great way to end the first day, by eating and getting some shopping done at the same time.

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Day 2 – The Summer Palace

For our second day we’ll take a break from the center of the city and visit it’s green landscapes.

Beijing has more than a few parks, the one that seems really gorjess, is the Summer Palace. Best way to get there, I think, is by taxi, to the East Palace Gate (which is supposed to be the main entrance).

ETA by Taxi from center – 30 min (Point B).

This is a huge compound and will take you a few hours to explore, try to get here early, again 08:30 should be a smart choice.

Here’s from what I read, the best way to see and enjoy this park:

Start point: East palace gate -> walk along the Long corridor -> get to Longevity hill -> descend and continue towards the Marble boat -> cruise by boat to South lake island -> off the boat, cross the Seventeen arch bridge -> exit the park from same gate.

By the time you get back you probably worked up quite an appetite. I suggest exiting the park, catching a cab and going to Fragrant Hills Park (Xiang Shan). Why not see another amazing park that’s just 20 min away (Point C).

Before entering the east gate of the park, there should be a Sculpting in Time Café nearby, this is a famous café franchise in Beijing, it’s suppose to be really good. Get your lunch here and then enter the park, spend the rest of your day here until you had enough or it closes. Note that the park has admission fees witch not include fees to use the cable car.

Start point: Enter the east gate -> and go right to the Bright temple (Zhao Temple) -> near it you continue to the Glazed pagoda (Liuli) -> go north pass the bridge that runs through the Spectacles lakes -> get on the Cable car to the top of the hill -> walk down until arriving at the Fragrant hills hotel -> exit again through the east gate.

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Day 3 – Temple of Heaven

Yesterday we had quite a tiring day, as we basically tracked trough “Green Beijing”. So today we’ll try to take it easy.

We’ll start the morning (again early to avoid the crowds, say 08:30) walking around the Temple of Heaven. Best to enter the park through the East Gate (Point A).

This is supposed to be quite a big complex, but this time we’ll mainly focus on the main temple which is the Hall of Prayer. This place is from the Ming dynasty and known by being the place that the emperor would make sacrifices and pray at, also this is one of the most famous Chinese temples.

In the evening, around sunset go to Wanfujing street (Point B), to see and eat at the Night Market.

In-between, after leaving the temple and before going to the market take the day to explore the option of buying your first plane ticket out of Beijing (for the day after if possible). Try to find a flight to Louyang for your next destination.