Beijing - Why Yes, We Were There.

The Olympic' Opening Ceremony will take place this Friday. 8/8/2008 at 8:08PM. Why so many "8's"? Did you know...the Chinese are very superstitious of the number "8" as they feel it brings good luck. Anyway, it is only appropriate that we have a blog of our trip to Beijing during the opening week of the Olympics. The picture above was taken at the Temple of Heaven.

So if you are wondering about the air quality...you can see by the pictures that the smog was definitely noticeable. The picture above is the "Bird's Nest" Stadium which is the site of the track and field events as well as the opening and closing ceremonies. The building below is a very large - huge -hotel just outside of the Olympic venues. Perhaps for the athletes...but I'm not sure. It certainly was big enough.

Beijing is an ancient city but in recent years it has been transformed into a modern city. I'm sure this will be all over the television throughout the Olympics so there is no need for me to explain it to you.

For those of you that don't know, Beijing has been the capitol of China for hundreds of years..dating all the way back to the Ming Dynasty. We did learn that the capitol was moved here from Nanjing during this time. The Ming are responsible for building the Forbidden City and most of the other historical places in Beijing. Below is a panoramic picture of the large court yard of the Forbidden City.The tree Sabrina and I are standing near is located in the royal garden of the Forbidden City and this tree is supposed to bring good luck to married couples. We had to take the picture twice since my eyes were closed...so we are extra lucky! The Forbidden City carries its name because it was exactly that, a walled city that was within the center of Beijing; however only the emperor and his court of concubines and servants were allowed in.

Anyway back to our trip, as noted we visited the Forbidden City which was the major palace of the emperor. The picture above was taken at the Summer Palace. This is an absolutely huge estate. The lake you see Brandon standing by was dug by hand, one shovel full at a time. We also took a tour of the Hotung on a rick-shaw (sp?). The hotung are the "old Beijing" style housing. The ride felt like we were stepping back in time about 50 years or so. This was interesting and we also took in a Chinese traditional tea sitting.

We also visited the Ming Tombs and the Sacred Way. The picture below is of Heather and Sabrina at the Sacred Way.

And who can visit Beijing without seeing the Great Wall? The Great Wall is about an 1 hour north of Beijing. Actually it is a beautiful drive through the mountains just outside of Beijing. We chose a very steep place to see the Wall. I tried to race Brandon up to the first guard tower and I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest. It was very humbling. I need to get back in the gym and have started already. (I did beat Brandon though - just before I tripped on one of the first steep steps and scarred my lower leg for life.) This was personally my 4th trip to the wall and each time - it seems to get more commercial to me. We enjoyed a Starbucks coffee near the base of the wall where we purchased our tickets. Enough said...Until next time...

By the way I can access our blog via normal methods now (i.e. it is NOT blocked)...the Great Firewall is down for the time during the Olympics. Imagine that...