Beijing

After our brief stop in Chongqing for Vela to get her UK and EU visa applications submitted, we flew up to Beijing. Our flight was delayed so we didn't get to our hotel until about 2.30am.

After a small sleep in, we reunited with Vela's friends, Luffy and Fish. Luffy lives in Beijing and we camped on the Great Wall together 8 years ago. He is a bit of a history aficionado, so we were very lucky to have our own personal tour guide! Because we have already been to the Forbidden City (and we are returning to visit with Nathan's parents in a few weeks), Luffy took us to see the two Summer Palace's which were used previously by Chinese Emperors.

The first one palace (old palace) we visited was very heavily inspired by Greek and Roman architecture, with lots of stonework, fountains, and ponds. The Chinese flavour shone through in the carvings and with other details including the 12 animals of the Chinese Zodiac. It was once the largest garden in the world, and even in its current state was beautiful to walk around and experience. This palace was ransacked in the 1860s when China was invaded by several western countries - and it remains a great tragedy for the Chinese to this day.

The second summer palace had more traditional Chinese architecture. The palace roof and many of the details are painted yellow, which was the colour that signified the Imperial Family. On the ends of the roof corners there are small figurines carved, the more of these carved on a building the highest that buildings importance, the Emperors dwelling would have ten! There was an interesting Buddhist temple at the top of the hill, with thousands of Buddha's carved into the walls (and also inside but we weren't allowed in to see it).

Afterwards we walked (ran) down the hill to the lakeside where we experienced a little bit of the wooden walkway, which was adorned with many detailed paintings of landscapes. We were a little short on time and this area was very crowded so we didn't get to spend as much time as we would have liked to really explore this area.

Luffy, Fish and Vela then dropped Nathan off in a coffee shop while they enjoyed the concert of a very famous (legendary) Chinese singer - Jacky Cheung. They were very lucky to get tickets as they sold out in seconds.

Afterwards, to cheer Nathan up, we visited a craft beer shop for a couple of local drops. The beers definitely looked pretty, but most tasted like lemonades. Of particular interest was the one on the very left which was a green tea flavour, and tested very much like green tea, more so than the Japanese one we tried previously.Read more