This past weekend we went to Beijing. We took a high-speed train to get there. It only took 4.5 hours traveling about 200 mph. We woke up early the following day with a grocery list of activities ahead of us. We went to forbidden city and the summer palace. The forbidden city is where the emperors lived. It was huge, there is over 2000 rooms in the entire palace.
After this we went to the summer palace. This is where the emperors would go when they wanted a break; it is located on a handmade lake. The woman who ordered this place to be built deceptively claimed that the money was going towards the military. Instead she built this retreat and added a ship out of marble to represent the military.
We had to walk up many stairs to get to a better view. It is very interesting to learn about another country’s history.
The following day we went to the Great Wall of China!!! I never imagined in my lifetime I would have the chance to see this. No one ever advertises the amount of stairs there are when they talk about the Great Wall of China. It should be called the Great Staircase of China. We climbed over 90 flights of stairs in about 40 minutes. A tip to anyone going to the Great Wall of China: practice walking up stairs and get mentally ready. It was a feat to accomplish.
They say that if you have two hours to climb it make sure you do one hour up and one hour back down. I ignored the warning… bad idea. Getting up is physically demanding. Getting back down is a death defining. It takes the same amount of time going down as it does to go up. Each stair is so steep that you have to hold on to the railing and just hope that you don’t trip and fall.
Teamwork is a large part of what made the daunting task of climbing all those stairs way easier. Walking up the stairs, me and my friends pushed each other to keep going. The thought of the views ahead was motivation enough to push through. All in all, it was an incredible experience that I will cherish for the rest of my life. These are the things that remind me that I am in China. The world is huge and there is so much to explore. The next destination we’ll travel to is Chengdu. I am excited for the traveling opportunities to come.
Beijing is very different from Shanghai. Both of these cities have many tourist attractions and history. Beijing however, is the capital of China. Therefore, Beijing has more history in terms of rulers. They also have much more art. The palaces are magnificent and are all decked out with art. Much consideration and time must have been put into each piece. I don’t think I have spent enough time in Beijing to say conclusively which city is my favorite. I have a bias towards Shanghai because it is what I know best.