My Three Highs So Far

Even after just one week we’ve done so many amazing things. It’s hard to say what’s been the best experience, but there are a few that really stick out.

My first high has to be our walk around The Forbidden City. There are many ancient buildings and parks to be seen in Beijing and although they are all incredible, The Forbidden City was one of our first stops so it left the biggest impression.

We had read that you need more time to tour The Forbidden City than you think you’ll need, but I didn’t realize that meant all day. The complex goes on for miles and I think it would take several days to really see all of it. There are 9,999 rooms and we saw 10. Of course only a fraction of the rooms are open to the public, but even still we only saw a small number.

My second high was the garden at Prince Gong’s Mansion. We came upon this mansion while on a walking tour of Beijing. We almost chose not to go in, but we are both really glad we did. The buildings were amazing, and the garden had several small hills with overlooks, interesting trees, a pond, pagodas, and so on.

In the gift shop everyone was a little rowdy and pushing and shoving trying to get their picture taken next to a huge sign. Of course, we had no idea what the sign said because it was just one Chinese character, but we still stood around taking pictures because we didn’t want to miss out on whatever it was. Later we learned the sign said “Good Fortune,” which is somehow symbolic of Prince Gong.

The Chinese are pretty superstitious and so obviously a sign saying “Good Fortune”is worthy of a picture.

My third high is the moment after we reached the top of the Great Wall and turned around to walk back. The section of The Great Wall that we visited was incredibly crowded. There we were at one of the world’s most amazing structures and it was kinda ruined by all the smells, litter, yelling, and spitting (yes, there is a bit of spitting going on around here).

We almost didn’t go to the top, but after being pressured by a fellow tour-mate we made the jaunt. It’s a lot steeper than I imagined (we were told 60 degrees steep) so it took a little work, but it was worth it. The view at the top really was incredible. This moment was a high because there is probably nothing else like it–especially considering all those spitting tourists.