Beijing – Oh, the Places We See . . .

Weekly Photo Challenge: Inside

Weekly Photo Challenge: Inside If you attend the Beijing Opera, you’ll be given an opportunity (prior to the opening act) to leave your table or seat in the audience and stand at the edge of the stage. There, you’ll get an inside look at how a character in the opera applies his make-up and, with […]

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What’s so great about the Great Wall?

It’s probably on the bucket list of everyone who has ever dreamed of visiting China. After all, it’s listed in the World Cultural Heritage Directory by UNESCO and named one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. So, of course, the Great Wall was on our bucket list, too. We wanted to see it, […]

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Focus

The WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge this week is Focus. Although this picture doesn’t utilize a camera’s ability to focus close-up or far away in a unique manner, it does reveal something mesmerizing about this little girl I saw in Tienanmen Square. Even with thousands of tourists swirling through the square taking pictures, yelling at friends, […]

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Riding a slow boat in China at Beijing’s Summer Palace

A welcome respite from the afternoon sun and long walks through Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City awaited us on our first full day in Beijing. We were headed to the Summer Palace, a peaceful, expansive park complete with lakes, bridges, temples, walkways, and artwork. On the bus, our guide asked us if we would […]

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Those Beijing hat guys!!

Who needs entertainment when you’ve got vendors and salespeople all around you? Beijing brought out dozens of hat guys selling collapsible paper hats. Some in rainbow colors. Some plain. But not all hat guys, you understand, are thrilled to be in pictures. The guy below, however, was. He could be on late-night TV — animated hijinks, inside/outside hat routine, […]

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Fly over the Forbidden City? Yes, you can!

As we strolled through Beijing’s Forbidden City, I caught a glimpse of two children dashing up a ramp near one of the museum rooms. Since I was headed for cooler climes anyway (museum rooms are air conditioned!), I wanted to get a closer look at what was going on. Most tourists were attired as we […]

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Touring the Forbidden City, home of the last Emperor of China

It was hard to believe that we were leaving Tiananmen Square to tour one of our can’t-wait-to-see locations, the Forbidden City. After all, we had seen this site in The Last Emperor years ago and remembered it fondly. Filmed with the permission of Chinese authorities on location and awarded an Oscar for Best Picture in 1989, the movie showed […]

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The Vastness of Tiananmen Square

Although we had arrived in Beijing one day prior to the first itinerary day of our Viking River Cruise and had a leisurely day exploring the Beijing Zoo and Lama Temple, our first “real” day found us literally running to catch up as we braved the 95-degree heat, unrelenting sun, and the enormity of Tiananmen […]

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China’s quietly reverent Lama Temple (Yonghegong)

On our first of many hot, steamy days touring China, we left the Beijing Zoo, navigated the labyrinthine subway system (completely dependent on the kindness of strangers), boarded Line 2 of the Circle Line, and walked the sidewalk lined with vendors to the Lama Temple. These little stalls offered paper flowers, books, and long sticks […]