Team Food We Love have just returned from 8 days in Beijing. We had a fabulous time in a city that remains vastly different to any place we have been too before whilst moving and developing at a rapid pace. It was our first foray into mainland Asia, our first trip to China, and a trip we thought we were years off making.
We went with no expectations, we had heard and read lots about Beijing, but we wanted to remain open minded. It is a city of massive contrast, on one corner there is a multi-national organisation with a state of the art office tower, on the opposite corner there is a group of local retailers, a dumpling house and behind there the “hutongs”.
From our short time there and with our experience limited only to Beijing and surrounds, we have, at the moment, concluded that China is a very utilitarian society. Not much is based around the desire to look good, it just must simply function. Buildings, shops, homes, serve a purpose, they don’t need to look good, they just need to do what they need to do.
Mr 10 and Miss 8 loved every minute of the trip, their most vivid memory was of the restroom facilities, and that’s what their stories about the trip lead with! My most vivid memories are of the food, the contrast with our own society and the everyday assault on the senses.
(I still can’t believe I was actually here!)
For the purposes of the next few posts which will all be inspired by our trip, here is a list of the places that we visited while we were away:
Wangfujing Street and surrounds
Tian’anmen Square
The Forbidden City
The Drum & Bell Towers
The Zhonglouwan Hutong
The Temple of Heaven
A Kung Fu Show and an Acrobatic Performance
A local market
The Mutianyu section of the Great Wall
The Summer Palace
The Lama Temple
Behai Park
Jingshan Park
DaDong Peking Duck Restaurant
The Water Cube and Bird’s Nest Stadium
The Silk and Pearl Markets
