OPERATION CHINA, Day 3: Secrets of Beijing
There I am at the Mutianyu section of The Great Wall, October 30, 2007.
Photo: Kathryn Maier
by Wendy Perrin
Sorry I couldn't post yesterday as promised: I was having tech snafus. Now that I've got WiFi again, I can make good on my promise of the three secrets that every smart traveler to Beijing should know:
(1) The Beijing Children's Palace
This isn't in the guidebooks. It's a school where some of Beijing's most gifted children, ages 4 through 18, take extracurricular classes in art, music, and sports. You need an appointment to get inside and watch the kids in action. See my last post for photos of the Palace's buildings, which were built as part of the Forbidden City. Here's what was happening when I visited this past Sunday:
Kids were learning calligraphy . . .
. . . girls practiced gymnastics while boys learned martial arts . . .
. . .and these kids were learning how to play the two-stringed Chinese violin.
And where do you think this was? Learn secret #2 after the jump.
Secret #2: The Temple of Heaven park early on a Sunday morning.
Hundreds if not thousands of locals gather to do tai chi, dance, play cards, make music, and have a grand ole party . . . all before 9:30 a.m. Here's what it looked like on October 28:
At 8:30 a.m. these folks were having a rhumba lesson.
And at 9:00 a.m. these folks struck up their band.
Secret #3: How about if I let you guess this one? Where do you think I was for a hazy sunset last night?
Who can name the location of this particular section of The Great Wall? Just click on "Comments" below to make a guess!
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I don't know Wendy - Badaling just seems to easy for you, so how about Jiankou Great Wall?
I am so envious - Beijing is such an interesting city, and seems to be much improved in the last 10 years since I visited. The air quality was so bad (especially in Xi'an), it was raining on us, and the rain was grey with soot.
Lori B
Posted by: lorib | October 31, 2007 at 02:11 PM
Hope you're enjoying your trip. The air does indeed seem much, much better than when I visited a couple of years ago. Despite fine weather we never got close to seeing sun or blue sky due to the pollution and dust.
Posted by: TheGlobalTraveller | November 02, 2007 at 06:03 PM
Nice! We were at this exact spot at the Mutianyu section and we missed you by just a week. It is beautiful and fascinating. I do have almost the exact same view. I did go to Hangzhou, bought expensive Longjin tea, took a boat ride on West Lake, but missed the place you said and it is too bad I guess. I agree it would be a great city to live in.
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