Beijing (Peking) and back to Belgium!

Last weekend I went to Beijing! We had the time, so a group of 7 Belgians went for a weekend. We left very early on Friday morning on the high-speed train. It takes about 5 hours by high-speed train. It goes about 300 km/h and it's 1,300 km!

Forbidden City

Luckily the weather was great: it started at 32 degrees on Friday and ended at 37 degrees on Sunday! We were also lucky that the air quality was very good, so we could always see well and take nice photos!

Right after we arrived we went looking for our hostel, but we couldn't find it very quickly. So we decided to go to the Forbidden City first. Here are some nice photos:

The hostel hunt

After that we went looking for our hostel. Once we'd found it, it turned out they had no room left! Luckily they sent us to another hostel that did have room. Fortunately it wasn't too far away and it was the same price. Here are some photos of our search for a hostel:

Luckily we'd found everything. The hostel wasn't very nice, but for 10 euros a night it doesn't have to be. They did have a really nice bar! And the beer wasn't too expensive either.

The Great Wall

The next day we had the Great Wall planned. There was a poster in the hostel offering a trip. For not much money you were taken there by bus, got free (paid?) entry and a tasty traditional Chinese meal. It was amazing to see it all. Very impressive, especially when you know the wall is about 8,800 km(?!) long in total. Here are some nice photos:

Olympic Games

Because we'd left so early, we still had lots of time left. So we went to the Olympic stadiums. It was so impressive, everything was so big and spread out. The Chinese really don't do things by halves.

Tiananmen Square

After that we also went to Tiananmen Square (Gate of Heavenly Peace). This is the square in front of the Forbidden City. We hadn't properly been there before.

Hostel

Here are some more photos of our hostel:

Summer Palace

On the last day, Sunday, we went to the Summer Palace. I really recommend it. It's a huge area of 3 square km with a big lake in the middle, and all around the lake are old Chinese buildings. Together with the Great Wall, these are the two most beautiful places to visit!

That's it, then

And now I'm back in Belgium. In the last week we didn't do anything very special (apart from eating well, of course). It's been quite an experience, Shanghai and China. But it was definitely a good choice, and I have no regrets at all.

Thanks for reading my blog!