trip to Beijing

We had a great time last week catching up with our friend Jen in Beijing. Ben was a bit under the weather (if you ask me, it was more than just a bit, but he was trying to pass it off like it wasn't so serious), so we didn't end up going to some of the outdoor attractions we originally planned to see. The good news is that Beijing is only a 30-minute train ride (and then a 30-minute or so taxi ride) away, so we plan to hit the Summer Palace and the Temple of Heaven in the spring, when the weather is a little more tolerable.

Here are a couple of impressions from this trip:

1.) The Jianguo Hotel (and its surrounding area) in Beijing is NICE. So nice, in fact, and so convenient, and so filled with Westerners, that at times I forgot I was in China. So, that was a little weird. This trip to Beijing made me feel a little bit displaced. I was certainly in a foreign place, but it didn't feel like the China I live in every day. For example, there was a Sizzler a few blocks away from our hotel. A Sizzler, people! But then I'd step into a subway, and there were people staring at us and giving us the stinkeye like always. Like I said, weird.


Ben in front of Silk Street, Starbucks cup in Hand


Hanging out with Jen in our room


View from our room's patio


Our luxurious accommodations

2.) January in Beijing is COLD! So cold, in fact, that I didn't mind so much when Ben wanted to stay in the hotel room and recuperate rather than walking around in the icy wind at the Summer Palace or venturing out to see some Buddhist temples. I see why winter is the slow tourist season, at least in Beijing. I also see why we might want to re-think our previous tentative plans to travel in any areas in the north later this month.









These are only a few of the very many shots we took at Tiananmen Square/Forbidden City, but I think these show how very cold and bundled up we were all day long.

Stay tuned for more on our adventures in Beijing . . . .