Sightseeing Beijing part 2

Continuing from where I left off, I have just realized that we only covered the basic tourist attraction sites in Beijing. We weren’t able to go to Fragrant Hills, Old Summer Palace, Happy Valley, Beijing Zoo, etc. Well they were originally part of our plan but because we didn’t realize how big the sites were and how tiring to walk them (moreover we leave late from the house), we were able to accomplish only 1 site a day.

So here are the other places we’ve toured:

1. Olympic Park – of all the sites I’ve been to, this is one of my favorites. The place was so impressive and big. The architecture was incredible. There’s a feeling of pride when I walk on the park. Pride that I was able to go to this historic place where only a year ago this was teeming with great Olympians. The stadiums were adjacent to each other so we didn’t have to walk far to get a good picture of each building. We didn’t get too close to the building and we didn’t enter the buildings anymore. I heard there was entrance fee to enter the Bird’s Nest (50RMB?) and Water Cube. It’s enough for me to have seen it and taken a picture with it.

At the Olympic Green you’ll see the Bird’s Nest, Water Cube, and the National indoor stadiums. While walking on the park, you’ll hear an Olympic theme song being played from  the loudspeaker repeatedly. It enhances the Olympic surreality for me.  In the park, there are unique statues which you can take a picture with. Don’t plaster your body on them though because the guards prohibit it. Beijing has reserved a special subway line to the Olympic Park so it’s easy to go there. Their subway station is charming too with Olympic theme in it. Just outside the Olympic Green subway station stop, they have beautiful facades and a Japanese-inspired rest-houses where people can sit and relax.

2. Summer Palace (New) – there’s the Old Summer Palace and the New Summer Palace and I don’t know the difference. We went to the New Summer Palace. We just paid for the regular entrance fee is 30RMB. An all-inclusive entrance fee is 60RMB.  Summer Palace is like the vacation resort of the old Chinese royalty. It’s really big and inside it has a manmade lake. The important places we saw there are the Jade Belt Bridge, The Grand Pavillion, 17-arch bridge, the tower of Buddhist Fragrance (add 10RMB), Marble Boat, Duobao Glazed Pagoda and the Suzhou Market Street.

To get across from the 17-arch bridge to the tower of Buddhist Fragrance, we took the dragon boat (10RMB).  There are private paddle boats that you can rent for 40rmb/4people to take you anywhere in the Summer Palace. We climbed up the tower of Buddhist Fragrance where we were greeted by a great view of the entire Summer Palace. The temple on top houses the Thousand Arms Buddha. After the tower of Buddhist Fragrance, we passed by the unrestored area of Summer Palace. Did you know that the Summer Palace was destroyed by the Anglo-French forces on 1860?  There are numerous photo ops in this site and it was only when I was writing this blog that I discovered that we’ve taken picture of famous attractions inside the Summer Palace which before we were oblivious to their significance.

3. Silk Street – it’s the famous bargain shopping district of Beijing. Actually it’s not a street, it’s just a building (like 168mall) with many stalls inside. There are 5 floors with different types of goods being sold in each floor. I was disappointed with shopping here. Because I’m a veteran shopper of 168 mall, I’ve seen many of their items back in Manila and I have an idea of how much they cost. Unfortunately the sellers won’t give me a fair price. It turns out that theirs is more expensive than in Manila when they’re selling the same products. In the end, I wasn’t able to buy anything. I was really surprise how high their starting price is and then you can bargain it to the smallest amount possible, eg. 300RMB can be whittled down to 30RMB, go figure!