Day 14: Thu 13 Sep - Sydney to Canberra

After collecting my bags and transferring to the domestic terminal in Sydney, I had a longer than anticipated wait as my flight had been changed. I was very pleased to be back in Canberra after almost two weeks away from my darling Gregory, except for the cold.

Day 13: Wed 12 Sep - Beijing to Sydney

As my flight was late in the evening, I arranged a late check-out until 2pm, but even that was not late enough. Susan and Richard kindly offered their room as they were going to be out all day. So, after checking out of my room, I set up in their room until about 4pm when I caught the hotel shuttle to the airport.

After checking-in at the airport, and as I was travelling on my Official passport, I decided to try the diplomatic route through security and immigration as the other queue was l o n g. They looked at my passport and shuffled me through the detector machine and before I knew it, I was in the QC equivalent in Beijing having a late dinner and Chinese beer. 

On board, my TV screen would not work and had to be reset several times, and I only got to watch one movie and then fell asleep just before the end! I did eventually get to see the end of the movie before we landed. The cabin crew were most apologetic and gave me the duty-free brochure and asked me to choose $200 worth of stuff (other than alcohol and cigarettes) for the trouble. I told them I could not accept as I was travelling on a Defence ticket and gifts were not allowed

Day 12: Tue 11 Sep - Beijing

We had the day to ourselves, and I went with Guido and Magda to the silk factory and flea markets just to get out and about. We also walked through a mall and I spied a McDonalds so decided that was what I was having for dinner as I have to try it in every country, just to see if there is a difference. And, no, there was no difference.

Day 11: Mon 10 Sep - Beijing

The group was down to nine pax today. We did the Lama Temple, Yue Show Market (flea markets), lunch, Hutongs via rickshaw ride (Jane was my buddy), and Beihai Park.

The Yonghe Temple ("Palace of Peace and Harmony"), also known as the Yonghe Lamasery, or popularly as the Lama Temple, is a temple and monastery of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. The building and artwork of the temple is a combination of Han Chinese and Tibetan styles. The Yonghe Temple is arranged along a north–south central axis, which has a length of 480m. The main gate is at the southern end of this axis. Along the axis, there are five main halls which are separated by courtyards: the Gate Hall of Harmony and Peace (Yonghemendian), the Hall of Harmony and Peace (Yonghegong), the Hall of Everlasting Protection (Yongyoudian), the Hall of the Wheel of the Law (Falundian), and the Pavilion of Ten Thousand Happinesses (Wanfuge).

Entrance to Lama Temple

Temple grounds

Inside the Temple

Yongyoudian - Hall of Eternal Blessing

Buddhas

26m high, carved from a single white sandalwood tree

Hutong are a type of narrow street or alley commonly associated with northern Chinese cities, especially Beijing. In Beijing, hutongs are alleys formed by lines of siheyuan, traditional courtyard residences. Many neighbourhoods were formed by joining one siheyuan to another to form a hutong, and then joining one hutong to another. The word hutong is also used to refer to such neighbourhoods. Since the mid-20th century, many Beijing hutongs were demolished to make way for new roads and buildings. More recently, however, many hutongs have been designated as protected, in an attempt to preserve this aspect of Chinese cultural history.

Jane & Wendy

Bar in the Hutongs

Sycee Bridge

Hutong waterways

Beihai Park, also known as the Winter Palace, is a public park and former imperial garden located in the northwestern part of the Imperial City, Beijing. First built in the 11th century, it is among the largest of all Chinese gardens and contains numerous historically important structures, palaces, and temples. The park has an area of more than 69 hectares, with a lake that covers more than half of the entire park. At the center of the park is an island called Jade Flower Island, whose highest point is 32m. Beihai literally means "Northern Sea". The Beihai Park, as with many of Chinese imperial gardens, was built to imitate renowned scenic spots and architecture from various regions of China.

Beihai Park

The ceiling of one of the park shelters

Guido, Magda, Annie, Edgar, Susan, Richard and Steven (our guide)

Day 10: Sun 9 Sep - Beijing

We started the day with a visit to Beijing Zoo where we concentrated on viewing the Pandas which are one of my favourite animals. We did a lot of walking today with visits to the Summer Palace, Pearl Cultivating Field and Market, lunch, the Old Summer Palace, and finished off, at sunset, at Tiananmen Square. It was then a short walk back to the hotel.

The Beijing Zoo was founded in 1906 during the late Qing dynasty, and is the oldest zoo in China and oldest public park in northern China. The zoo is also a center of zoological research that studies and breeds rare animals from various continents. The zoo occupies an area of 89 hectares, including 5.6 hectares of lakes and ponds. The zoo and its aquarium have over 450 species of land animals and over 500 species of marine animals; in all, it is home to 14,500 animals.

The Summer Palace is a vast ensemble of lakes, gardens and palaces. It was an imperial garden in the Qing dynasty. Mainly dominated by Longevity Hill and Kunming Lake, it covers an expanse of 2.9 km², three-quarters of which is water. Longevity Hill is about 60m high and has many buildings positioned in sequence. The front hill is rich with splendid halls and pavilions, while the back hill, in sharp contrast, is quiet with natural beauty. The central Kunming Lake, covering 2.2 km², was entirely man-made and the excavated soil was used to build Longevity Hill. In December 1998, UNESCO included the Summer Palace on its World Heritage List.

Banquet Boat

Ferry

Summer Palace

 The Old Summer Palace, known in Chinese as 'Gardens of Perfect Brightness', and originally called the Imperial Gardens, was a complex of palaces and gardens in present-day Haidian District, Beijing. Constructed throughout the 18th and early 19th centuries, the Old Summer Palace was the main imperial residence and where they handled state affairs; the Forbidden City was used for formal ceremonies. Widely perceived as the pinnacle work of Chinese imperial garden and palace design, the Old Summer Palace was known for its extensive collection of gardens, its building architecture and numerous art and historical treasures. 

Tiananmen Square or Tian'anmen Square is a city square in the centre of Beijing, named after the Tiananmen ('Gate of Heavenly Peace') located to its north, separating it from the Forbidden City. The square contains the Monument to the People's Heroes, the Great Hall of the People, the National Museum of China, and the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong. Mao Zedong proclaimed the founding of the People's Republic of China in the square on October 1, 1949; the anniversary of this event is still observed there. Tiananmen Square is within the top ten largest city squares in the world (440,500 m²). It has great cultural significance as it was the site of several important events in Chinese history. Outside China, the square is best known for the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests that ended with a military crackdown, which is also known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre or June Fourth Massacre.

Tian'anmen

The Great Hall of the People

Monument to the People's Heroes

National Museum of China

Smoggy sunset over Tian'anmen Square