China is a huge country with a complex history. It can be a challenge to get around with a language and cultural barrier working against you, but it is so worth it to visit this amazing country. If you’re considering a trip to China and doing it on your own, here are some hints and…
Our last day in China was nice and relaxed. We headed to Beihei Park to and slowly paced ourselves amidst the heat and other tourists. We had set out late in the day so resolved to get a late lunch but had a hard time finding many places until we came upon an area to…
Towards the end of our stay in China, we had more free time as we had made sure to hit all the major tourist sites we wanted to see earlier (in case anything came up). Due to that reason we had a nice day where we headed to Lama Temple. We timed it perfectly, because…
Midway through our stay in Beijing we switched to another hostel that was a bit pricier but a nice treat. The hostel, Fly by Night, was in a hard to find hutong but central in Beijing (walking distance to Tiananmen Square). It was relatively small with your choice of dorms or private rooms and best…
Easily the number one thing we were most excited for on our trip was seeing the Great Wall. We have been to other ancient Wonders of the World and we couldn’t wait to see the iconic Wall. At our hostel there were day packages to different sections of the wall, but they gave you limited…
Our day at the Forbidden City was incredible. We were up early to make the most of the day and were already melting from the extreme heat of Beijing by 10 AM. We knew that we would be dealing with many other tourists, similar to what we experienced at the Summer Palace…but it was insane…
We had thought that we would have been able to tackle Mao’s Mausoleum and the Forbidden City in the same day given the proximity of these sites, so had set out to do that. We were told the line to see Mao was ridiculously long and so we woke up early to get there just…
The Summer Palace is one of those must visit sites in Beijing. We gave ourselves a day to commit touring it knowing it was huge, and we were pooped before we could cover every inch. But it was stunning and would only have been better if it wasn’t as hot! After the Summer Palace we…
Because of our switch from overnight train to a quick plane-ride, we were in Beijing a night earlier then planned, so spent it at a very low end hotel near the airport (100% Perfect Hotel…a little less perfect in reality…). After a short sleep we woke up to the best day of the year –…
Because we had late night flights to Beijing, we had nearly a full day to explore Xi’an. Vivianne’s mom had met a young woman from Xi’an so we met up with her (Ruth) and her boyfriend (Xiao Qiang) who would show us around the Big Goose Pagoda and have lunch with us before heading to…