Beijing What An Experience

A few years ago I was fortunate to visit Beijing as part of a Far East trip. With China being so popular with cruise.co at the moment I thought I would let you know about my experience.

We arrived early in the morning on a flight from Sanya a beach destination in the south Sea. We were met by our tour guide a local to Beijing who stayed with us throughout our time in Beijing. We were taken straight into the city and headed for the Forbidden City the largest palace in the world made up of 980 buildings. The Forbidden city was the imperial palace from the Ming dynasty to the end of the Qing dynasty. It is surrounded by a 50 meter wide moat. It was declared s world heritage site in 1987 by Unesco. The sloping roofs are decorated with a line of statues. The number of statues represent the importance of the buildings minor buildings had 3-5 whilst The Hall of Supreme Harmony has 10.

We headed out of the Forbidden city straight into Tiananmen Square with the ever present image of Chairman Mao on the gate into the Forbidden city. Tiananmen Square is huge surrounded by buildings such as museums and the tomb of Mao. It’s best know for the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Now it’s a busy tourist spot.

From there we headed to our hotel then off for dinner at the famous Peking Duck restaurant at the silk market. The food was good however not the western chines dishes we are used to in the U.K. I imagined the silk market to be streets with stalls however how wrong I was it was a multi story building holding hundreds of stalls selling every fake item you could imagine. From watches, designer handbags, Tiffany jewellery to Victoria Beckham jeans all at bargain prices.

The following day we headed out of the city we called at a silk factory where they spun silk to make duvets. We then started to get a glimpse of what we were heading to “The Great Wall” what a surreal experience. We visited at the most popular spot so it was very busy with tourists. The hand rails were so polished and stone floor was so shiny from all the tourists that had been there before us. It’s an experience I’ll never forget.

From there we headed back to the city and the Summer Palace. The summer residence of the emperors its a vast ensemble of lakes gardens and palaces. Another unesco world heritage site since 1998. The long corridor is a covered walkway 728 meters long beautifully decorated with the most artistic decorations including paintings of famous palaces from Chinese mythology and folktales. There is a stone boat resting in the lake. Again there is so much to see here, definitely worth a visit.

Are you thinking if a Far East cruise is Beijing on your bucket list make sure you make it! the sights to see in this city are amazing and it’s somewhere you will never forget I know I haven’t. I went without my husband and hopefully we will get to go back together some day..

We have some amazing Tailor Made  itinerary’s taking in Beijing and other areas of China why not take a look.

Thanks for reading

Lauren xx