Beijing Bound

After experiencing Shanghai, my friend and I took an 8-hr train ride to Beijing, I know, most of you would consider it a waste of precious time, but we intentionally took that route. Would you believe I didn't stand up for 8 hours?! Yes I was that exhausted after walking around Shanghai, I didn't have to pee, stretch or whatever. I sat and slept 98% of the travel, the 2% I spent eating.  I swear an 8-hr travel never felt so refreshing!

Beijing Central Train Station

 We arrived in Beijing around 8pm, Qing asked around how to get to our Hotel, we ended up hoping on into a trike. It was definitely a good way to start our Beijing trip. Here is the video of our first hand Beijing experience, on board a tricycle to our Hotel.

After checking in to our Hotel Qing and I went for a walk around the area. Our hotel was located in the Old Beijing district, in one of the numerous hutongs in Beijing,  right behind the Qianmen Avenue.it is a 10-min walk to the Tiananmen Square. The buildings around the area were all from the Old Beijing. Restaurants, Boutique Hotels, Jewelry stores, Novelty Stores comprised the area.

A few steps from our Hotel. Jewelry Stores

Hutongs are alleys formed by lines of siheyuan, traditional courtyard residences. These are ancient city alleys or lanes typical in Beijing. Luckily in our case, the hutong around our hotel was redeveloped for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Most of the structures were aesthetically appealing reflecting a certain dynasty from which, when it was constructed.

One of the numerous HutongsMore shops and restaurants down the street

Towards the end of the strip are local pubs, 99% of the customers, caucasian foreigners. 

Walking further down the strip we saw more beautiful buildings. It made me feel I was in one of those kung-fu chinese films, but seriously the buildings were really beautiful I was waiting for someone to descend down from the roof like in those chinese films. Just look at these pictures:

This is actually a big restaurant

A Boutique Hotel

 After wandering around Qing and I decided to have our dinner. There were several huge restaurant, but we wanted to dine in a small restaurant. I was drawn to this particular restaurant since there was a sign in english right next to it : "FOR SALE OLD BEIJING PICTURES" I just had to check it out.. Turns out they also serve out of this world Old Beijing Food.. or may be I am just not accustomed to the taste .. but still even Qing agreed it was really good.

This is where I had my BEST CHINESE MEAL. I am now a fan of OLD BEIJING FOOD.