From Xi’An North train station we travelled 5.5 hours to get to Beijing where our good friend, Liam, was already waiting for us in the hotel. He flew all the way from the USA to explore the city with us. We were thrilled to have company other than each other for over a week. Due to that day being a travel day (bigger for one of us than others) we made no plans. All we did was walk around our neighborhood, eat some wontons filled with pork, shrimp, and crab, and introduce Liam to Mixue ice cream cones.

Lama temple was a series of Buddhist temples in a row, with each getting larger and the decor inside grander. We copied the people who looked like they knew what they were doing and burned incense, bowed, and prayed before entering each temple. The incense was thrown into cauldrons that then had a lot of smoke rising from them. The temples were beautiful from the outside and the statues inside were unlike ones we had seen before. We spent a few hours here and enjoyed it immensely.

Next on our agenda was going to a lunch spot recommended to us by our friend who lives in China. 刘宅食府 is the Chinese name and Liu’s Family and Restaurant is the English one. They had a varied menu, so we tried several items, but their specialty is the Peking duck. We tried the ‘Old Beijing Sluts’ which seemed like an omelette fried thinly, cut into pieces, and served with garlic sauce to start off. Then we had ‘Palace Quince’, a fish shaped gelatin dish with hawthorns inside (we think). This was incredibly sweet so Nick and Liam had to eat most of it. We all shared a pitcher of the sour plum soup to drink, which would spark Liam’s obsession with the drink.

The main course was their duck, which was sublime. It was our first time trying it and we loved it so much. Each person got their own plate of toppings which included things like onions, cucumbers, sugar, sauce, and more for us to create our own duck rolls with. The rolls reminded us of thin tortillas but softer. The duck was presented on 3 duck shaped ceramic dishes: one with dark meat and crispy skin, one with just the meat, and one with just crispy skin. We asked the waiter to take our photo and they hilariously did not include the duck in it.

To finish off our amazing first real day in the city we attended our first performance. As it turns out, June is a bad month for shows as many are on holiday or break during that time, so we were limited in options. Luckily for us, everything we did manage to go to was incredible. The first one was an acrobatics show at the Red Theatre. The show grew in difficulty and wow factor with each act. There were women doing crazy stunts, men jumping through hoops, unicycling on tight ropes, driving motorcycles in the death ball, and more. We talked about the show all the way home. Words and pictures do not do it justice but we were thoroughly amazed.

Tian’anmen Sqaure was somewhat difficult to get to. After exiting our metro stop, it ended up being a very long walk to get to where we could actually get in line to enter. We could always see the square, but it’s blocked off everywhere. Nick figured out we could enter the Tian-anmen Square for free once we had entered the Forbidden City, so we left the line we had finally found and walked to the entrance of the Forbidden City instead. It ended up being a 2 hour process to get inside from start to finish, but we are always happy to get steps in.

Once inside the Forbidden City we walked through the different sections over a few hours. We felt as though there was a lot of empty space, so although it is an iconic spot in Beijing it did not end up being one of our favorites. The buildings are neat and there are many exhibits to enjoy such as pottery. It was unbelievable how old some of the pieces were. There were some bridges and terraced steps. Many children and adults were dressed in various dynasty eras’ traditional clothing for photoshoots. We saw this everywhere in China. The 3 of us also enjoyed our tourist trap popsicles.

For lunch after our Forbidden City exploration we opted for some hot pot. It was my first time trying it and it was pretty good. There was a station with options for making our own sauces and for fresh fruit and vegetables we could take whenever we wanted. We got a split pot with savory mushroom broth on one side and spicy classic on the other. Our items were mutton, rice cakes, frog legs, and potatoes. The frog legs were so tender, definitely my favorite. Nick and Liam also drank an absurd amount of the sour plum soup. After lunch we got peanut butter and sesame ice cream, noodle replica ice cream, and candied fruits. We may have gotten ice cream both before and after lunch, but who’s keeping track?

With full bellies, we made it back to Tian’anmen Square to try and enter for real. This time it was a success and within a few minutes of entering we experienced one of our favorite travel memories. Two Chinese women with babies came rushing over to Liam and put a baby in his arms for photos. No words, just action. A woman tried to give her baby to me, but he seemed fussy so I just talked with him instead. Nick held him, though, and we got some incredible photos from that moment. We gave the babies some panda toys we had gotten from our Chengdu panda experience, which they seemed to enjoy. We were hoping we could find some kids who would want them more than us. Win-win chicken din’.

The square had some monuments, a museum, and a large flag. The museum books out weeks in advance as it turns out, so we were never able to go in. After wandering the square, we made our way to Jingshan Park. At the top of this park were amazing views of the roofs of the Forbidden City. We agreed that it was much cooler from above. We also enjoyed a beautiful sunset over the city.

The Temple of Heaven was our first stop of day 4. We had tried to go there on another day earlier in the week, but it just so happened to be the day when they were closed. The second attempt was a success. The Temple of Heaven was awesome. We walked around the tree lined pathways to the different ceremonial areas. The main section was gorgeous, with beautiful details on the outside, colorful paint, and interesting facts on the signs around that were in English for us. We saw a professional photographer taking pictures of girls in one particular spot so I got in line and Nick took my picture, too (but not until after taking photos for the woman in front of me in line).

After leaving the Temple of Heaven we got some hand pulled noodles for lunch so Liam could try one of our favorite dishes in China. They were not as good as the ones we got in Xi’An, but they were pretty good. We found it hard to find good spots, sometimes, as we did not have access to the apps that would help us navigate restaurants (due to not having Chinese phone numbers). Our afternoon ended with a short walk around Longtanxihu park. There we enjoyed fantastic pistachio gelato and walking over the bridges on a small pond.

In the evening we went to a traditional Peking Opera show at Liyuan Theatre. The show was tailored for tourism and showed one scene each from three classic operas. The show started by watching an actor complete their full face of makeup. We learned that different colors represent different emotions or attributes of the character being played. The first was Female Kill Four, which had a woman singing with a boat captain on their way to catch up with her love. The second one was not listed on the sign outside the stage so we did not catch the name, but was about a traitor on the run. Last was Farewell My Concubine, a story where the concubine of an emperor kills herself in order to not be a distraction to him in battle. We enjoyed the show, and the snacks and tea. I learned that one scene shows are not for me as I got too invested in the stories.

Day 5 was a new wonder of the world, the Great Wall. This was one of the top things we were looking forward to in our entire world tour. Although Beijing is a popular place to visit the Wall from, it is actually pretty far away. After making it to the high speed rail station we took the train to Badaling, a popular spot for locals to visit the Wall. The boys took a mini nap as the ride was mainly through tunnels. We gave Liam the window seat hoping he’d get some cool views, but the shut eye was probably just as good. There are other sections accessible to tourists, but we only did one. It was a pretty early start, but it was a good call to get their early because it only kept getting busier.

The Wall was aptly named and was, in fact, pretty Great. There are two directions at the Badaling section, South and North. After taking the cable car up, we walked to south section first. It was beautiful, with the Wall going over rolling hills as far as we could see. After we walked about 20 minutes there were no more crowds, either, which was fantastic. There were a few people every once in a while, but most people do the north side. There were 7 watch towers on the south side. It was shorter and more gentle on the slopes than the north side. Liam also enjoyed seeing a cat hanging out in one of the wall nooks.

On our way to the north side we got our classic special overpriced popsicles. The north side was a different experience from the south, to say the least. It was busy, ridiculously steep, and long. The north side had 12 watch towers and we made it all the way to the end. It got progressively less busy near the end, but the section where it was the most busy was insane. There were sections where I thought my knees would give out on me. It was so steep they had railings in place. Some areas had stairs and others were smooth stones. The views from this side were also nice but I did start to question why it was the more popular side.

After a few hours completing the Badaling Great Wall section we made our way down into the town area. As it turned out, we didn’t need to take the cable car up to the wall, we could’ve just walked up from the town down the road from the train station. We got some ice creams, then headed back to the city. Dinner was tomato and egg noodles for Nick and I, and Liam got some meat and rice. After not being able to find tea flavored ice cream (besides jasmine and matcha) we finally found it at McDonalds. We were all exhausted from the Wall adventure, but satisfied.

Do not make the same mistake as we did and only allocate a few hours for the Summer Palace. I had read in a blog that 3 hours was enough time there, what a lie! The Summer Palace is a place we could have easily spent the entire day. There were so many buildings to explore with exhibits, pavilions overlooking the lake, paths around the lake, gardens, ponds, museums, and more. We did nearly all of the main attractions, but we were rushing for sure. It was only possible because we took the pleasure boat across the lake as a short cut. We all agreed we enjoyed it much more than the Forbidden City and was super worth the longer metro to get there.

It just so happened to be our 5 year marriage anniversary while Liam was visiting us. Naturally, he accompanied us to celebrate with a Chinese fine dining tasting menu at Xinrongji. The main woman serving us was so excited we were there and wanted to try Chinese food. The restaurant was full, but we were the only non-Chinese guests. While being served our snacks to start, Nick tried asking with hand gestures how we should eat the snacks. It was many components and he was unsure if it should be eaten together or separately. Much to his discomfort, the waitress misunderstood and thought he wanted her to serve us the food. He was able to apologize through our main server who spoke English later on, but Liam and I thought that was funny. The apology ended up endearing us to the staff and our service actually got warmer after the mixup.

The evening had so many incredible highlights. One of the pictures shows the entire menu. Some of the things not listed included melon, dried fish, pickled roots, duck gizzard, lychee berries, wax berries, and a surprise wax berry cocktail. We had asked if they served cocktails (they had a giant wine menu but not a cocktail one) and they said no, but then brought us some drinks they made, anyways. It was super nice of them! When we told them how much we enjoyed the drink they brought us several bowls of wax berries to eat and a giant bag of them to take home with us; they were so happy we liked them.

We had several stand out dishes. The sea urchin with caviar was divine, unsurprisingly. The sea cucumber was fun as we had never tried it before. It was kind of like a mushroom. Then finally the peking duck, which they upgraded for us. We had chosen the basic dinner menu option, but they gave us the duck from the highest tier option. First crispy pieces with caviar were served, they were out of this world. Then duck sliced for rolls, which were also yummy.

After a jam packed week in Beijing we were looking forward to a more relaxed day. It had been hot, sunny, and blue skies our entire week, but that day was rainy. It was a nice change to not be so sweaty walking around. The day started by going to Fuyuan park for a nice teahouse experience. We went to a lakeside teahouse which was established in 1763. Nick and Liam shared a pot of their dragon ball tea. I very much enjoyed a hot chocolate and Caeser salad. The salad was a random manifestation from earlier in the day when I said I would devour one if I found it (we had not seen one in months). The hot chocolate was a bit too bitter for me so I asked for some sugar. The waitress brought it over and told us that traditionally Chinese tea is drunk with no sugar and gave a judgmental look. Nick and Liam made it clear it wasn’t for them. The park was pretty, much like many of the parks we had walked in, and there was a small family of ducks.

Following the park we made our way to a blog recommended hutong (an alley). It was underwhelming, to say the least. We wondered if we were there on the wrong day of the week or time of day. Perhaps the rain drove people away, but there was really nothing of note to look at, just a street with nothing on it. The hutong did, however, lead us to the ‘snack street’ which should be renamed ‘ice cream street’. We had so many ice creams; I was in heaven. Nick did make me start sharing them instead of having my own, but we’ve worked through that trauma. Some flavors included garlic, sesame, cheese, and orange. Liam got lots of treats to bring home including a fruity tea that smelled unreal.

Before heading home, we decided to check to see if we could see a show at the National Center for the Performing Arts. The opera playing turned out to be Li Qingzhao, about a famous poet. To our amazement we were able to get tickets and left to enjoy some build it yourself noodle bowls for dinner before the show. There were subtitles, but only in Chinese, so we could not understand any of the dialogue or singing. It did not impact our experience negatively at all. The orchestra, lighting, staging, acting, singing, EVERYTHING were incredible. We could tell why Beijing was known for their opera. Two young women were surprised to see us there and were excited to tell us more about the show. They were so happy we were enjoying Chinese culture.

Liam had his flight in the afternoon so we opted for an activity close to our hotel. Taoranting park was gorgeous, no surprise there; the city takes its parks very seriously. There were bridges, gardens, kids playing in the creeks, pavilions, and rum flavored popsicles. We also enjoyed some jasmine tea flavored soft serve ice cream, wax berry lemonades, and a man playing the saxophone along the water. Many local people were there with their children and it was a great morning activity. We said goodbye to Liam, and had a very relaxing afternoon. It was so fun hanging out with Liam, we definitely missed having him around after he left. Thanks for joining us, Liam!

We took some time to catch up on some logistics after saying goodbye to Liam and tried to decide how we should spend our last day in Beijing. I had seen so many women doing photo shoots in traditional clothing that we decided we would try it out. By ‘we’ I mean I did it and Nick took the behind the scenes photos and videos. The whole process was unique. I tried on some outfits and picked a red flowy one. A woman then proceeded to do my hair and makeup. She spoke no English and I do not speak Chinese, so I just sat there and went with it. Nick noticed I started to look stressed out at one point. The makeup and the black hair piece were looking a bit ridiculous to me. I just needed to just trust the process. Once everything was together and the outfit was on I felt better.

The Working People’s Cultural Palace was where we went with the photographer to take some photos. I was there with maybe 30+ other women doing the same thing with their photographers. He physically put me into each position; he was an absolute pro, which was good because I am hopeless at posing. Nick found the experience very amusing. He loved seeing how close all the girls were together doing their mini photo sessions. The photos turned out great and I realized I had been stressed for nothing. Nick reminded me that even if they hadn’t, it was an activity that was fun just to experience. They retouched some photos and changed my skin tone and face shape. A Chinese friend of mine said she could still tell it was me so they didn’t do too much; her photos were completely unrecognizable. Some photos were left as is so I’ve shared some of both. It was a great way to end our time in the city.