BEIJING

We were kind of anxious before getting into China after hearing about all the scams and hagglers that visitors encounter here, but thankfully we have not had trouble with that up to this point, and have really been enjoying our time in China so far. It makes a huge difference that Wehuns speaks Chinese, it is so much easier getting around! The only problems we have been having has been adjusting to the incredible amount of pollution (we both felt pretty nauseated the first day from the fumes), and also adjusting to some different food. Wehuns has actually been having more trouble than me after we had a dish our first day that was brimming with whole Sichuan peppercorns. Those peppers give you the strangest numbing sensation in your mouth when you eat them, which we both found quite unpleasant. We can both usually handle a fair bit of spice, but numbness is just too much! Wehuns is finally feeling more back to normal after having quite a bit of stomach pain over the past few days, so that is great!

Actually, one more thing to get used to has been all the staring I have been getting! I guess it's hard not to stand out in this culture, but I am really not used to all the stares and people trying to take my picture!

We stayed in an inn that was in the “Hutong” area of Beijing, which is a really old area that consist of alleyways of one-storey courtyard homes. It looked a bit scary when we first got into the area, as it looks pretty run down, but it was pretty interesting to stay there and to see the everyday life of people who live there, which is very oriented around family and community it seems. The Inn was wonderful, with such friendly and helpful people.

We had the most amazing time visiting the Simatai section of the great wall of China, and that has been our favourite experience of the whole trip so far. That section of the wall is not as touristy and has some sections that are more rugged as they have not been maintained like the other parts. The scenery surrounding the wall is spectacular with beautiful green mountains in all directions. We did a 10 km hike along the wall, which got to be quite steep in sections, but it was so awesome!

The following day we visited the Forbidden City which was interesting to see, but was quite a contrast from the serenity of the day before at the wall as it was teeming with massive tour groups. It was still nice to see all the ancient palace architecture. We also visited Tianamen square and Mao’s mausoleum, which was interesting, even just to observe the other hoards of Chinese people who were paying their respects.
Our last day in Beijing we checked out a shopping area called Silk road, which was kind of chaotic. When you walk in you are bombarded by sales people at each stall trying to convince you to buy things (we figure that most of the stuff there were knock-offs, because there’s no way those things could be that cheap!). Wehuns had quite a bit of fun bargaining with the sales people, which was quite entertaining for me to watch! It ends up being quite draining after a while though, so we were tired by the time we were through.