Beijing 2010

Just got back from our vacation in Beijing. More pictures and videos to come. Overall we had a great time! Here's a quick breakdown of the best, and worst parts of our trip:

Awesome:
*The Great Wall
Mutianyu section is great because it's not as crowded as the more famous Badaling section AND you can toboggan down from the wall!
Drawbacks:it's not as easy to reach as Badaling, but well worth the trouble.
*Peking Duck
Da Dong Restaurant has a super-lean version that was just fantastic.
Drawbacks: Was on the pricier side compared to other restaurants- 99 Yuan for half a duck.
*The Forbidden City
Very cool. Spend the money, and go for the Palace Museum tickets, there's a lot to see beyond the gates.
Drawbacks: Very crowded during peak seasons and it's also huge! Be sure to allow plenty of time to look around (at least 2 hours).
*Night Market at Wanfujing
Ate scorpions and seahorses. For real. You can check out all kinds of crazy foods alongside awesome traditional dishes, like dumplings and noodles.


Not Cool:
*Chinese toilets
You're in for a surprise. Toilets are the squatting kind that are flush with the ground, but often dirty. At one point, the public toilet was literally a row of holes in the ground in a open room. That's it. Western toilets were few and far between.
*Pollution and/or yellow sand
A haze covers the city, part pollution part yellow sand that blows all over the city making it quite dusty. Your nose will need a good cleaning daily.
*Rude people
This is purely culture shock, as we now live in one of the politest societies in the world, and have grown quite accustomed to it. The people of China can seem outright rude at times, especially to the sensitive, but there is a line between those that really are douches and those that are just a product of their culture though it can be hard to distinguish.
* Visas
For Americans, it's really expensive. We paid about $200 per person! This price may have been higher as ours were arranged through a travel agent. Americans have a much higher price than the rest of the world, it's about double.