I arrived in Shanghai on July 17 at about 5:30 pm. After a few hours at the Shanghai Pudong International Airport, I was getting hungry. Can you believe that most of the restaurants in the airport did not take credit cards? Only the Hagan Daz Ice Cream shop took credit card payment. I didn't feel like spending $10 US for ice cream. I took the transfer flight after a 3 hour layover in Shanghai to Beijing. I arrived in Beijing after midnight local time. I got to the hotel around 1 am.
I spent the first day in the Forbidden City. (Gallery 1 - Gallery 3) We walk all the through to the other end of the Forbidden City. I was surprised at how large the palace was. I didn't even see the entire site but there was construction on a lot of the side buildings. The rest of the afternoon was spent shopping in the Wang Fu Jiang shopping area. Wang Fu Jiang is the well that supplied water to one of the royal families living in the nearby area. The well has since been closed off and a monument erected at that location. The rest of the street is closed off to traffic so that people can walk freely in between the shops on both sides.
The next day we went to see the Great Wall. (Gallery 4) We took the cable car up to the top of the Ba Da Ling scenic spot. I walked to the top of that section of the Great Wall. Fortunately the weather was cool enough that it wasn't too difficult. The rest of the walk was downhill back to the parking area.
After lunch, it was off to see the Air Museum. There were a lot of planes, but most were replicas or models and not authentic.
The day, we went to the place where the Emperor was go to pray to the Gods. The Chinese had discovered that the stones arranged in a certain location would reflect sound so that a sound from one side of a circular wall would reflect the sound to the other side of the circle. We had dinner at a famous restaurant that served nothing but Peking Duck. (Gallery 4) Foreign Dignitaries had Peking Duck at this restaurant. A picture of Henry Kissinger and another of Nelson Mandela were on display there. The server would cut the duck up at each table. There was a section of the duck that was called the premium cut. It almost gave mea heart attack as I inhaled that piece. Yummy.
I was beginning to lose count of the days. We went to the Summer Palace next. This was where Empress Dowager Cixi often visited to watch Chinese Opera. This is also where the Chinese Naval built the infamous Marble Boat. The story is that instead of using the money for the royal naval fleet, Empress Dowager Cixi built an expensive Marble Boat that never sailed and man-made lake for the training of the navy. That supposedly lead to the eventual downfall of that dynasty,
It was off to Shanghai the next day. (Gallery 5 - Gallery 6) We walked around the Shanghai shopping street, of course. The next day, it was more shopping at the Yu Yuan Garden. The next night, we caught the night view of the Shanghai beach front also known as "The Bund". I was playing with the camera settings as you can see from the night pictures. The night shots required a longer exposure time and my hands were not very steady.
The next day, I went up the Oriental Pearl TV Tower. The observation deck was about a 1/4 mile high. I took some pictures of along The Bund from atop the tower. Then it was on to more shopping at night.
The next day, I went up the Oriental Pearl Tower. The observation deck was about a 1/4 mile high. I took some pictures of along The Bund from atop the tower. Then it was on to more shopping at night.
On the next day, we made our way to Suzhou - the Venice of the East. The Emperor at the time wanted to visit Suzhou at night. He had the Grand Canal built because of this. Housing lines both sides of the canal.
I had a great time on this trip. This was a great escape for me from work. I recommend to those that want to go to take a tour the first time. The tours usually hit all the tourist spots. If you are feeling adventurous after that, you can go on your own. You will be able to spend more time on the location that most interests you.
Happy traveling -- Jason.