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Beijing Tourism

Beijing Tourism: More Jetlagged Conversations from Airport to Yongdingmen Hotel
AsiaChinaEast Asia

Beijing Tourism: More Jetlagged Conversations from Airport to Yongdingmen Hotel

"Renny", our driver, was fluent in English, but despite that, I'm sure he couldn't understand everything we tried to say. We'd been awake for a very long time (over 24 hours) by the time he picked us up at the aiport to take us to the Yongdingmen Hotel.Related Posts:Beijing Tourism: Jetlagged Conversations from Airport to Yongdingmen Hotel (video)

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Beijing Tourism: Jetlagged Conversations from Airport to Yongdingmen Hotel
Asia

Beijing Tourism: Jetlagged Conversations from Airport to Yongdingmen Hotel

Right after we disembarked from the plane "Renny", our driver, picked us up and took us to the Yongdingmen Hotel. On the way, we tried to make conversation.Related Posts:Beijing Tourism: More Jetlagged Conversations from Airport to Yongdingmen Hotel (video) ...
Things to Do in Beijing: Kites and Tai Chi
AsiaChinaEast Asia

Things to Do in Beijing: Kites and Tai Chi

Beijing is the perfect kite-flying destination, but it's also a great place to do some Tai Chi. There are tons of groups all over the city that get together each morning to do different Tai Chi forms.Related Posts:Flying Kites in China: Photo GalleryThings to Do in Beijing: Kites and Tai Chi (video)Things to Do in Beijing: Flying Kites and Other Fun Stuff (video)Things to Do in Beijing: ...
Things to Do in Beijing: Monkey Dance on Wangfujing Street
AsiaChinaEast AsiaShopping

Things to Do in Beijing: Monkey Dance on Wangfujing Street

As an 11-year-old, Lydian was an expert at being goofy. On the way to Tiananmen Square, on the Wangfujing shopping street, we saw some stores with a few interesting toys inside. Lydi mimics one of them in this video.Related Posts:Places to Visit in Beijing: On the Way to Tiananmen Square (video) ...
Things to Do in Beijing: Wandering
AsiaChinaEast Asia

Things to Do in Beijing: Wandering

On our last day in Beijing, we wandered. We didn't have a set destination or any particular activity that we had to do. We just walked and observed. It was one of the best days that we had there. In this video, a girl plays a Chinese instrument that we'd seen a lot in Beijing while we were there. ...
Places to Visit in Beijing: Tanzhe Temple Part V
AsiaChinaEast AsiaTrips

Places to Visit in Beijing: Tanzhe Temple Part V

There was a lot to see at Tanzhe Temple. This video shows the inside of a temple with intricate decorations and deities.Related Posts:Beijing Tourism: Bus Ride to the Tanzhe Temple (video)Places to Visit in Beijing: Tanzhe Temple (video)Places to Visit in Beijing: Tanzhe Temple Part II (video)Places to Visit in Beijing: Tanzhe Temple Part III (video)Places to Visit in Beijing: Tanzhe ...
Things to Do in Beijing: The Beijing Subway Part V (Longest Escalator Ever)
AsiaChinaEast Asia

Things to Do in Beijing: The Beijing Subway Part V (Longest Escalator Ever)

The escalators that went into and out of the Beijing metro system were unbelievably long compared to the deepness of other metro systems we've seen around the world. This video shows an escalator ride out of the subway system in Beijing.Related Posts:Things to Do in Beijing: The Beijing Subway (video)Things to Do in Beijing: The Beijing Subway Part II (video)Things to Do in Beijing: The ...
Beijing Food: Market with Fresh Fruits and Vegetables
AsiaChinaEast AsiaFood

Beijing Food: Market with Fresh Fruits and Vegetables

There were a lot of fresh fruit and vegetable vendors who had their good set up on the streets in Beijing, but we never patronized any of them. We'd read that human waste was sometimes used to fertilize the fresh stuff and that we'd need to really clean our fruits and veggies if we were going to eat them raw. Since we didn't have those kinds of facilities in our hotel room, we decided to avoid them ...
Things to Do in Beijing: The Beijing Subway Part IV
AsiaChinaEast AsiaHotel

Things to Do in Beijing: The Beijing Subway Part IV

When we arrived in Beijing, we wanted to find our own way without taking a guide with us or having a driver from the hotel drive us all over the city. On our first day there, we thought about taking a taxi  or a tuk tuk, but ended up on the subway. As it turns out, the subway in Beijing is really easy to use as long as you're comfortable standing really close to other people. We used the Puhuangyu Station ...
Things to Do in Beijing: Walking from the Hotel to the Beijing Metro
AsiaChinaEast Asia

Things to Do in Beijing: Walking from the Hotel to the Beijing Metro

One morning, I recorded the walk between the Yongdingmen Hotel and the Puhuangyu Metro station. The thing I remember most vividly were the men building windows along the way, but there were all kinds of things to see. It took about 30 minutes to walk the entire distance between the the hotel and the metro station, but it was one of the most educational things that we did while we were in Beijing. People ...
Things to Do in Beijing: The Beijing Subway Part III
AsiaChinaEast Asia

Things to Do in Beijing: The Beijing Subway Part III

The Beijing Subway was always an interesting experience for us. Once, a quadriplegic man crawled onto the subway on his belly with a little donation cup hanging out of his mouth. The restrooms were some of the darkest, grimmest spaces I'd ever seen. A few times, people were puking into the trash cans as we went down the stairs. And of course, during rush hour, we squeezed through the doors into packed cars, ...
Things to Do in Beijing: The Beijing Subway Part II
AsiaChinaEast Asia

Things to Do in Beijing: The Beijing Subway Part II

Navigating the Beijing Subway is pretty straightforward, but during the busiest times of the day, you have to force yourself through the doors with a mass of people. Everyone crowds on and off the subway at the same time, so we had a protocol with Lydian. If she got left behind she was to stay at the station where we got separated. Otherwise, it would've been really hard to find her. When the doors on the ...
Places to Visit in Beijing: Walmart
AsiaChinaEast AsiaShopping

Places to Visit in Beijing: Walmart

In this video. we ride the conveyor belt into the Beijing Walmart. Inside, we got hopeless lost and couldn't find our way out. John lost his cool at one point after passing what he thought was a barrel of monkey hands (they were rooster combs) for the third time. But how lost could we really be, we reasoned: we can be lost inside the Walmart, but still know that we're in Beijing. ...
Beijing Tourism: White People Picture Craze
AsiaChinaEast Asia

Beijing Tourism: White People Picture Craze

Lots of Beijing-ers asked to have their photo taken with us. It seemed strange at first, but then we kind of got onto it. After riding the subway for a few days, it became immediately apparent that there were very few other white people in Beijing. All of them stood about a foot taller than the Chinese locals on the subway. So this was probably why people wanted their photos taken with us. Because we were ...
Things to Do in Beijing: Morning Exercise in the Hutong
AsiaChinaEast Asia

Things to Do in Beijing: Morning Exercise in the Hutong

We walked about 30 minutes one-way to the Puhuangyu Metro Station each morning to go sight-seeing in Beijing. On our way, we'd hear music coming from a particular area each day. About halfway through our trip, we decided to pop in and see if we could see what was going on . People welcomed us in to watch as they danced, did Tai Chi forms, and played hacky sack. Live musicians played for the dancers in this ...
Things to Do in Beijing: The Beijing Subway
AsiaChinaEast Asia

Things to Do in Beijing: The Beijing Subway

It was impossible to safely get footage inside the subway during rush-hour in Beijing when we were packed into the cars like sardines. I didn't want to risk breaking the camera. Squeezing through those doors as the woman with the calm voice says that the doors are going to close is definitely not an experience for squeamish people. Inside the subway, the smell of "breath" would fill the cars when they were ...
Things to Do in Beijing: Crossing the Street
AsiaChinaEast Asia

Things to Do in Beijing: Crossing the Street

Crossing the street in Beijing, takes a little practice. It isn't as dangerous as crossing the street in Varanasi, India, but at the time of our visit, it struck us as strange and a little crazy. We stand for a while on a bridge and watch people cross the street in Beijing and how the traffic veers around the pedestrians after they venture out into the street. I'm sure it seems organized enough to the ...
Things to Do in Beijing: People-Watching Part III
AsiaChinaEast Asia

Things to Do in Beijing: People-Watching Part III

What are these people doing? Since we don't understand Mandarin, we couldn't tell, but they were taking a militant stance and chanting something together in a group. Maybe it was a patriotic thing. We stopped to watch from a bridge overlooking the people before heading back to the Yongdingmen, our hotel while we were in Beijing.Related Posts:Things to Do in Beijing: People-Watching (video)Things ...
Things to Do in Beijing: People-Watching Part II
AsiaChinaEast Asia

Things to Do in Beijing: People-Watching Part II

Though we all really liked the Great Wall, we also agreed that the Beijing-ers themselves were the most interesting part of our trip to China. In this video, some people are gathered on the street chanting in what appears to be a political kind of rally. Is it? Who knows? We watched from a bridge overlooking the street, trying to imaging and piece together what the group might be doing.Related ...
Things to Do in Beijing: People-Watching
AsiaChina

Things to Do in Beijing: People-Watching

In this video, a group of people have gathered on the street in Beijing to do some loud chanting. It looks like a political-sort-of-gathering, but who knows? We stopped and stood to watch the group from a bridge overlooking the street on our way back from the Heavenly Temple. One of the most interesting things about Beijing are the people. They're outside and they're very active, which is much different ...
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