Beijing

I arrived in Beijing on the afternoon of May 27th. Other than sheer size, the first extremes you notice as you enter the city proper are the heat, smog, and traffic. Max met me at the Novotel Peace Hotel in the city center a few hours later, and we were ready for our first tastes of China. Max's chinese grad school friend, Felix, picked us up and took us to Dadong Roast Duck Restaraunt, famous for Peking duck among other delicious dishes including Kung Pao Chicken (the real stuff!), spareribs, eggplant, soup, etc.

Both exhausted, we passed out as soon as we returned to the hotel because we had to wake up early for a trip to the Great Wall. Our China Highlights tour picked us up promptly at 7am and transported us to Simatai West portion of the wall where we snaked along the mountain ridges through crumbling watchtowers to Jinshanling. Our fabulous hike ended with a delicious lunch, which included Kung Pao chicken...I sensed a theme and was perfectly ok with it. 

Exhausted that evening, we napped too long and woke up at 10pm with room service as our only real dinner option...a poor decision.

The next day was dedicated to sights in Beijing including visits to the Forbiden City and Tiananmen Square with about a million of our closest asian friends...

Since we had to eat duck one last time, we found Liqun Roast Duck, a hole in the wall restaurant offering amazing duck meals with sides including duck livers, spicy shredded duck wing, and a few vegies. This place is a must!

With bellies full of duck, we took it easy on dinner and when to the National Center for Performing Arts fir a backstage tour with Max's friend Felix...its such a cool building!

Next stop - Xi'an for dumplings and terracotta soldiers!