Back From Beijing: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Hi all. It's Brian here, guest blogging for Katie. We're back from Beijing with many stories to tell! First, I'll start with the good. We picked the perfect time to visit. China is preparing for National Day on October 1st and the preparations were visible on nearly every corner. Armed officers were everywhere, especially near Tienanmen Square. Our visit there was my favorite part of the trip. The square is enormous and very intimidating. More so than any other place we visited, I got the greatest sense there that I was in a Communist Nation. You should have seen the frantic rush to pass through metal detectors to enter the square. There's no such thing as an orderly, single-file line in Beijing. It was every man for himself as people pushed to get through security. If you like your personal space - don't visit.

Another highlight of course was our visit to the Great Wall. Another awe-inspiring sight. This was Katie's favorite. We had a fantastic tour guide. The only bad part - the weather was crummy. It cleared up toward the end of our visit so we were able to get some decent shots. When you consider the rugged terrain and the amount of man-made work that went into the Great Wall, you just can't believe it stretches over 5,000 miles. Think about that? That's well over the distance from San Francisco to New York. Amazing.

Other things we really enjoyed were the Summer Palace, The Temple of Heaven, and The Forbidden City. And despite a lot of stares and requests to take photos with us, the people were very friendly.

In Tienanmen Square

At the Forbidden City

At the Summer Palace

At the Summer Palace

Now for the bad. Our first night there we decided to try out the Wangfujing Avenue "Night Market". It's a block-long row of food vendors yelling at you to try there food. Sure, there were noodles, beef, and other Chinese foods you'd expect. Some of it though, was tough to stomach. Bugs on a stick. Gross. Sheep's Penis. No Thanks. Dog on a stick. Just wrong.

Despite that experience and one night of questionable chicken, we ate yummy food at some good restaurants, including Peking Duck (below).

If you think New York City traffic is bad, you haven't seen anything. Try driving on Beijing streets. Everyone beeps their horns. Nobody follows the rules of the road, if there are any. And everywhere you turn, there's somebody on a bike blocking traffic. I don't know how the taxi cab drivers do it.

I should also mention the smog is really bad. Our eyes were burning the first night and our noses were stuffy most of the time.

Finally, the ugly. Our trip to the Silk Market. 5 floors of pure madness. Multiple vendors trying to sell you fake designer clothes, watches, handbags, you name it. The vendors are extremely aggressive. I made the big mistake of wearing my glasses through the eye glass section. One lady stepped in front of me, told me I needed a new prescription, and tried to rip the glasses of my head. We even saw a fight break out on one of the floors.

Overall, we really enjoyed our visit to Beijing. It was a total culture shock but that was good for us. Now, it's off to Bangkok. Stay tuned...