Beijing,China

I went to Beijing for business trip for 5 days. Stayed at Park Hyatt in Chaoyang District, Beijing. This hotel is closer to my work. The lobby is on 63rd floor. To check-in to have to go up the elevator and then take another elevator to go down to your room. The view from the 63rd floor was spectacular. They have a bar and lounge on 64th floor with great views. It has great spa as well. If you stay here you should try their message. It is a little expensive, but worth it. Landed in Beijing on Saturday March 13th. I have only Sunday for sightseeing, So booked full day tour at the hotel to see Forbidden City, Tiananmen square and Great wall of China. If you have time, you can split the tour into 2 half day tours. They also have tours to summer palace . The tour costs 550 RMB ( 87 USD)

On Sunday morning it started to snow. As I did not have a choice of another day, I decided to go on the tour in the snow. The tour guide picked me up at the hotel lobby at 8.00 AM. There were 9 others on the tour bus. The tour guide’s name in Leo and he can speak English fluently. If you cannot speak Chinese or don’t have a friend who can speak Chinese with you, then take a tour . Other wise it is very hard to communicate in English in China .

First stop was Forbidden city . The tour guide said that if we start from the front (Tiananmen gate ) and come to back gate of forbidden city, we will come across lot of people and we may not be able to see well. So we started our tour of forbidden city from the back wall of the city - Gate of Divine Might (Shenwumen) . The Forbidden City, called Gu Gong in Chinese, was the imperial palace during the Ming and Qing dynasties. This is in the middle of the city and if you see Beijing map today, you will see that that city is build around this palace and rectangles around rectangles. They four or five rings ( like ring roads in Delhi, India). The guide showed us a line that runs through the middle of the forbidden city and the same line runs throughout Beijing. Even the bird’s nest( for Olympics) was constructed on the same line. Forbidden city is rectangular in shape, it is the world's largest palace complex and covers 74 hectares. Surrounded by a six meter deep moat and a ten meter high wall are 9,999 rooms. The emperor had around 3000 wifes The gate of divine faces Jingshan Park. The distance between these two gates is 960 meters, while the distance between the gates in the east and west walls is 750 meters. There are unique and delicately structured towers on each of the four corners of the curtain wall. These afford views over both the palace and the city outside. The gates are huge and very strong. As we entered the back side of the city, We walked through the inner court where the royal family lived. Then we came towards the outer court where the Emperor met with his loyals and ruled the nation. Until 1924 when the last emperor of China was driven from the Inner Court, fourteen emperors of the Ming dynasty and ten emperors of the Qing dynasty had reigned here.
At the north end of the Tiananmen Square is Tiananmen Tower. Initially built in 1417 during the Ming Dynasty (1368 A.D.- 1644 A.D.), the Square is the front door of the Forbidden City.

We got on the tour bus and went to silk factory. Here they show you how silk is made from silk worms and how silk quilts are made. I was so impressed, I got 2 silk quilts. They are very light , but will keep you very warm in winter and cool in summer. No washing required. They also have a market, where they sell all sorts of things in silk. As the quilts, pillow covers, bed sheets etc.. are government certified, who can fee assured it is good silk. Then we got back on the bus and it took 45 mins to get to Jade query near Ming’s Tomb.
You can see people working on jade to make very intricate detailed structures. I never knew Jade came in other colors than green – Red, White, black. At the entrance they tell you how to identify real Jade from glass, I did not pay much attention, I was so mesmerized by the detailed structures and I was admiring them . We had lunch at the quarry and then headed to the great wall in heavy snow.
Even though it was snowing, I was very excited to see the great wall. Tried to climb up the great wall in the snow and went few blocks up . It became very slippery , so came down very slowly . It took 35 mins to come down. It is very grand and breath taking to see huge mountains around you and imagine how they build such huge wall from east to west. I am not sure if the legend is true that people who died when building the wall are buried in the wall. Anyways, now I can strike one must see place from my list . After that we went back to the hotel and I was so exhausted from the walking in snow, took a quick shower and met one of my colleague and we went to dinner to the shopping mall under china world trade center.

Next day after work, went to silk market for shopping with my friend . It is very hard to figure out what to pick, so many choices to pick from . Looked for some hand bags and my friend helped bargain in Chinese. Then we went to this local market place which is open until 2.00 AM in the morning and had really great fish dish very traditionally cooked.

That is my short trip to China. I would like to go back again to see Shanghai and other places and great wall again in summer time or spring time. The best time to visit China is June-July.