The "Must Sees" (and "Must Eats")!

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Us on the Great Wall

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Try as we might to get off the beaten path, in Beijing there are certain sights that are "MUST-SEES".  We started with the Forbidden City.  OOOOOO  What an intriguing name!  Unfortunately, in an attempt to beautify the city before the Olympics, the main buildings were covered in scaffolding.  Nevertheless, what an incredible, spacious compound.  The emperor had separate halls for every daily activity; one for getting dressed, one for praying for a good harvest and one for his concubines.  It must have been exhausting running from one hall to the next.  We spent about 3 hours there and, we are ashamed to admit, even got ourselves a Grande Chai Latte from the Starbucks.  Ahhh globalization!

Next on our "must-see" list was The Great Wall.  They could have named it The "AMAZING" or "INCREDIBLE" wall but what's in a name anyway? The wall was fabulous.  We chose to do a 10 km hike starting from a less-toursity area, Jinshanling.  As soon as we arrived, our group was surrounded by ~10 people trying to sell us souvenirs.  They followed us for at least 45 minutes before realizing we didn't want a great wall sweatshirt.  The hike was tough at first, very steep and big steps.  It was a bit of a blow to our egos when, upon reaching the top of one hill breathless, we met a 70 year old woman trying to sell us beer.  Why wasn't SHE having trouble breathing?  The rest of the hike was dream-like with mist hanging over the wall.

The forbidden City

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Finally, we biked to The Temple of Heaven.  The temple itself was beautiful but more interesting was the atmosphere in the park surrounding it.  There were hundreds of people (mostly seniors) playing games, singing and dancing.  Matt, as usual, found himself amongst a group of school children eager to demonstrate their English skills.

And then there's the duck.  The most glorious of Beijing's foods, Peking Duck.  We had it TWICE!  The skin was crispy and melted in our mouths, the meat was juicy and the sauce was sweet.  What a perfect combinations of ingredients.  I am craving it again as I type....mmmmmmm!