Trek Pt. II - Beijing 北京

While our Trek has been over for over a month now, I have to go ahead and fill you all in about what we did for the last week of it, because it was quite busy.

After being in Xi'An 西安 for almost two weeks, we took an overnight train to Beijing 北京.  There we finished off the rest of our History "lectures", which included Dr. Jay leading us through tourist sites such as The Temple of Heaven 天坛, The Summer Palace 颐和园, The Forbidden City 紫禁城, and the Great Wall 长城.

Temple of Heaven

The Summer Palace

The Forbidden City

The Wonderful View from the Great Wall

Their Hospitality was Questionable

A trip to Beijing would not be complete without a trip to the Zoo, the Chinese National Museum, and the 2008 Olympic Stadium.

熊猫 - "Bear Cat" (Panda)

One of dozens of small, Jade Carvings at the National Museum

The "Bird's Nest"

I felt this was an opportune time for some product placement.

Later, we even made it to the flag raising at Tian'anmen Square 天安门场. We had to wake up at 5 o'clock in the morning to catch the subway there in time, but it was worth it.  It was even snowing that morning, which made the whole city incredibly beautiful.

Some Light Traffic

Some Delectable Street Food

Some Getting Lost Down Back Allies

I did enjoy my time in Beijing, but I have to say that no city was quite as impressive as Shanghai was...