China: Beijing Part II

Wandering around the city of Beijing, well in the tourist areas at least at sometimes. They look similar to other areas. Mostly. Sometimes it's fun being just a tourist.

China: Beijing Part I

Lots of places we went and saw. I wondered through Beijing in a daze eventually. People, crowds, traffic, sites to see. I didn't have enough time to just wander through it and really capture it. Most of my pictures reflect my experience, just a small slice as I breezed around.

The Olympic Village from 2008 was interesting though.

China: The Great Wall

I have returned. It's been a long two weeks of whirlwind tours and visits, but I have survived. Well that last bit may be debatable at the moment. Recovering from Jet Lag isn't easy. Other then that I am in one piece. My pictures for the next little while, interspersed with my other stuff like meet-ups and photo walks, are going to be from my vacation. Lots of interesting stuff.

First off the top is my first real day in China. We landed in Beijing on a Monday, were picked up at the airport and off to dinner to meet family(sorry, no pictures of most family). After a night of rest it was off to The Great Wall of China. Believe me they weren't kidding. I saw bits and pieces as we flew in, but I couldn't get any good shots from the air. Bad angles mostly. I was told by my mother and Sister in Law that there are three things that have to be done in China to be considered a man. Top of the list was climbing the wall. What could I do? Turn down a challenge like that? Time to start walking....





















I climbed it and survived. Barely, but I survived. This got me started for the rest of my whirlwind tour of the far east.