It has taken (and is currently taking) a lot of planning and finances to carry out this trip, and I'd like to think that I have a lot to show for the journey itself when I eventually return home.
There's been a delicate balance of not trying to do too much to wear myself out, but also make the most of opportunities which have been put in front of me, and I think that so far I have weighed those two opposing factors against one another pretty well.
So far I've been very pleased with everything that I've managed to achieve. I've enjoyed every city that I've been to, and I have enjoyed what I value to be the most 'important' sights in each one.
The difficulties in the early parts of my journey for choosing the day's itinerary came because unless things were pretty close together it was often difficult to do more than a couple of things a day, but in the latter part of my trip, the issue has usually come from there simply being too much to do and I've therefore had to be pretty selective about what I feel like is the best thing to do with my time.
A lot of how much I get to do is obviously dictated by the amount of time I spend in any one country, but aside from the case of China, I have genuinely been in control how long I would be anywhere.
I wouldn't say that it is the most difficult part of my travels because there are a lot of struggles I face on a daily basis, but I admit that I often spend a long time (maybe too long) pondering on what to do and where to go each day.
I just like to make sure that I have enough to do, and considering the fact that some of the places I'm visiting I may only get to see once in my life, I want to make sure that my stay there is as well thought out as possible.
I haven't really shared my thoughts with too many other people, so I'm not the best judge as to whether this is true or not. In hindsight I'll probably realise that I massively over-thought, but that wouldn't be the first time in my life I've ever been accused of that...!!!
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Just like in Shanghai, only having a couple of days to explore had affected my mentality as I set out plans to see as many things as possible.
The difference between the two Chinese cities I think is how spread out they are, and potentially how many things there are to see. On my first full day in Shanghai I was able to travel to the Zoo, Formula One Track and Hongkou Stadium within a reasonable time-frame which allowed me to explore the city entirely on my second day there.
Beijing is a little more spread out, and also seems to have more attractions which I'd like to have gone to see where as in Shanghai I could tick off pretty much everything within the city and along the riverside in one go. My itinerary for the capital wasn't that simple to put together and therefore I had to be pretty selective about what I wanted to do.
I sought advice from the Internet, using TripAdvisor and Wikitravel to come up with some ideas, but I guess part of it is personal preference and that allowed me to figure out what I'd most like to see.
I can't pretend to know very much about British politics, let alone Chinese ones, but one thing I do know is that the country is built on several dynasties which ruled well back into the 17th and 18th century. These essentially set to tone for how Beijing is governed today. China's Ancient ancestors left behind an incredible legacy including some fabulous buildings and sights which make up a large portion of the notable buildings within the capital.
My first task was to head to one of the most regal and royal which is the Old Summer Palace of Yuanmingyuan.
The Palace is located in the north-west part of the city, and the old complex is actually very close to the new one. It was a toss up between which two to visit, and I'd seen some picture of the old one which made it look really interesting so I figured that I'd select to go there and then if there was time then I'd perhaps get a chance to glance at the new one as well (spoiler alert: there wasn't time!)
Most of the palace's buildings have crumbled to the ground by now, but there are signs all the way around the park to show where they used to be and to explain their function. There was even this mock-up of what the palace itself looked like:
I realise that palaces are obviously pretty royal places, but the size of the Yuanmingyuan was one thing which struck me straight away. Most of the buildings that used to exist were surrounded by bodies of water as there were lakes everywhere. This just added to it's beauty though, and with the sunlight reflecting across the water it made them look even better:
The entrance area of the palace was pretty crowded as people filed in, but there were essentially four parts to the palace; one for each of the four main points on the compass. You had to walk centrally and then it split off in different directions which is actually where it started to be a bit quieter and a bit more peaceful:
The first thing you came across was what used to be a temple building close to the entrance, but it has now been turned into a souvenir shop:
It's designed with the now familiar architecture which is used in most Asian temples and looked to be in very good condition although I imagine it's probably had a lot of restoration done to it:
From the central point of the temple I decided to walk to the west as it looked the least crowded there and I spent some time walking around a few of the smaller bodies of water.
There were a massive amount of bridges all over the place, and from reading a sign further along it mentioned that there were about 150 bridges in the whole complex, with many of them still standing in their original state.
Although most of the buildings have now crumbled or been destroyed, here and there you would see stones which represented what used to be there, and it gave you a sense of where the buildings used to be in relation to each other. Quite how you'd be able to fill all this space with buildings is beyond me because it really was a ridiculously big space:
I continued to walk around, first heading towards the northern section of the palace which is where the aforementioned outline of the main residence lay:
From here I headed towards the eastern side which is where another seemingly separate section of the palace lay.
You had to pay an extra entry fee to get inside, but it looked pretty intreguing and I'm glad I made the decision to go inside because it gave an extra insight to the palace itself.
Xiayang Lou was a special area of the palace which had Italian designed architecture in it. Unlike many parts of the rest of the temple where the buildings had been destroyed with no trace there were at least signs that buildings used to be here as there were several impressive looking ruins which you would walk around.
To be they looked a bit Athenian, and the first piece of architecture I came across had columns which looked like they belonged in something from Ancient Greece:
This used to be Yuanying Guan which had marble pillars and elaborate fountains running it's way through it before they were destroyed:
From here you could walk towards the large central area of the ruins which was Haiyan Tang building, which to me looked like the main part of the complex:
It was a very large plot of land with plenty of rocks that stood in place. At the far end of the ruins themselves was a smaller area to the left.....
.....and then a maze to the right which had something known as the Huanghuazhen at the centre of it:
There were lots of people completing the maze, but I was satisfied to just stand and watch before heading around the far side of the complex in a loop to the exit:
There were lots of people completing the maze, but I was satisfied to just stand and watch before heading around the far side of the complex in a loop to the exit:
From here I carried on walking to the eastern side of the complex which was mostly taken up by a large lake, and at this point I was back at the central area where I started.
I'd probably spent a couple of hours walking around the whole thing, and I can imagine that you could quite easily spend the entire day sitting around and enjoying how peaceful it was.
I was pretty concious about how long it'd taken me to get to the palace itself and I wanted to spend some time in central Beijing before things started to close up so I didn't the opportunity to see the other summer palace, the entrance to which lies on the same road. Across from it is also Beijing University which is meant to have a splendid campus, but I didn't have time for that either as I made my way back towards parts closer to the centre of the city.
I guess this is part of the reason why having three days (essentially two full ones) in the city isn't ideal as it meant that I had to be a bit selective about what I wanted to see, and then also because of the travel distance, I could have stayed and visited either one of the two buildings I'd mentioned, but that would have been it for my day's tourist activities. I'm planning to see something equally interesting and iconic in Beijing tomorrow, so I won't be in the actual city itself, and I thought that there were probably other things that I could spend my time doing rather than walking around another complex which was likely to be similar looking.
Even in the confusing like grid system of central Beijing, most of the attractions are in the middle of the city, and are very accessible using the metro.
My next move after going from the Old Palace was to head towards another Ancient attraction which is the Temple of Heaven. It is one of the four main imperial palaces in the Chinese capital alongside The Temple of the Earth, The Temple of the Sun and the Temple of the Moon, all of which are located in different parts of the city.
I think out of the four the Temple of Heaven is the most well known and also the most popular with tourists.
The Temple of Heaven itself has grounds of its own, and surrounding the whole area itself are a number of different gardens, buildings and elements which are important in relation to the main temple.
When I got to the entry gate there was a repeating message in Chinese playing which obviously I had no idea how to decipher. Luckily I wasn't the only foreigner there so it didn't look too odd when I tentatively went up to the counter to find out what was going on. The lady behind the counter (who thankfully spoke some English) said it meant that the Temple of Heaven itself was closed, but I decided to go in anyway and walk around the grounds as they seemed nice enough and figured perhaps I'd get a view of the temple from a distance.
There were a number of notable buildings contained within, something I discovered after checking the map, but I started with the Temple of Heaven even though you couldn't actually see more than the top of the temple itself:
From here I continued until I managed to get to the front gate and eventually I found a long bridge structure which seemed to lead to an entirely different area:
From here you could see the Circular Mount Altar which has a circular perimeter of 534m and is used for religious purposes.
Even through the wall there wasn't a great deal to see as pretty much everything was closed, it was good to walk around on what was a very sunny afternoon:
After walking around the Temple of Heaven for an hour or so, I decided to continue on to the next thing I was looking to see in central Beijing which was Tienanmen Square. To me it is perhaps one of the most famous areas of the city, as through Tienanmen Square you will find your way through to the Forbidden City.
Tienanmen (also known as the Gate of Heavenly Peace) is widely regarded as the national symbol of China, and was first built during the Ming Dynasty in 1420. It is usually referred to as the front entrance to the Forbidden City, although the Meridian Gate is the supposed to be the 'proper' entrance.
One of the most famous buildings inside the Forbidden city is the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall which is the Mausoleum of Chairman Mao - China's beloved leader. I'd have liked to have visited the Forbidden City itself, but it closes relatively early each day.
As the sun was now beginning to set, I was only going to get to view the square itself, although for me that was an impressive enough sight.
I got off at the station before Tienanmen as I figured it would be very busy to get off there, but that didn't bother me as it was a nice walk past some of Beijing's Central Business District Buildings before eventually I came upon the perimeter of the square.
Tienanmen itself isn't a large area, but I could see why it is so high regarded as a national symbol, and also considered to be a major tourist attraction.
Even just to stand in front of the main square itself I had to go through metal detectors, and once it'd cleared that Tienanmen itself was quite busy.
When it opens up Tiananmen Square gives you good access to the Forbidden city, and it was a rather large looking building with a picture of Mao hanging front and centre:
Unfortunately I wasn't able to go any further than a barrier behind which lots of people were taking pictures, and after standing there for a while I also saw that you could also get access to the National Museum through a now closed passage that was nearby:
After another long and busy day it was time to head back to my room.
The FX Hotel I'm staying at is very nice, but I have to say that my one criticism is the lack of air conditioning or a fan which actually cools the room. It's quite frustrating as after a long day out in the sun, as even in places like Cambodia and Indonesia where it was 30-plus degrees each day, I was able to rely on coming back to my room and cooling down.
Despite the my issues with the temperature of my room, everything else it is excellent, and I'm more than happy with my selection. As I've written about before I think it's important to acknowledge accommodation which goes beyond my expectations as I know that I would do the same if I felt like I was staying somewhere which wasn't great.
It was a bit of a mission to find, but that was partly because of the way it is hidden behind many tall buildings in this particular suburb of Beijing. It also didn't help that when I printed out the instructions I didn't actually look up which exit of the metro to come out of, and in the end I tested out all four before eventually finding the correction one!
It's very modern looking, as have been many of the hotels I've stayed in since my arrival in Korea. Naturally there isn't much of a panoramic view out of the window (or in fact a view at all, but I'm very happy with its size, and also the extras which I have been rewarded with since arriving. It actually reminds me of a cross between the hotel I stayed up when I first arrived in Manila and also the Angel Hotel in Busan which is definitely in my top three:
Despite the heat I managed to cool down after a busy day of tourist activities. I was planning on getting an early night, and preparing for what I hoped would be an exciting day tomorrow.
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