summer palace, olympic park, night market!

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here’s some photos from beijing, day two. i’m not including the pictures from our experience at the great wall – they deserve their own post!

but first, here’s a couple more pictures of the courtyard at our hostel. seriously, i was obsessed. the best part about this neat space is that it is smack dab in the middle of these crazy awesome lively narrow hutongs (alleys), away from any semblance of touristyness but still close enough to the heart of the city to get around beijing really easily! {i’ll post a video later of our morning walk around the super cool neighborhood soon!}

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okay! on to the summer palace! this was maybe my favourite place we visited in china. it is just soooo colorful and gorgeous, and the spring blossoms everywhere only made it better! turns out i’m pretty obsessed with imperial chinese architecture. the boy liked it too :)

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^^ the entrance gate. so beautiful from the very start!
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^^ water calligraphy! super neat. ^^
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^^ seriously, blossoms everywhere! ^^
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^^ these corridors!! hand painted, every beam. just incredible. ^^
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^^ this photo was glenn’s idea. he posed us perched on those ledges and even told us to look lovingly at each other. i absolutely adore it. ^^
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^^ dragon boat we rode on on the left, amazing marble boat on the right! ^^
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^^ every beam a story. incredible. ^^
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^^ riding the dragon boat across the lake. ^^ glenn was the best photographer and was always ready/asking to snap a picture!
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after we went to the great wall, we stopped by the beijing olympic park. it was so cool to see the “bird’s nest” stadium and the “water cube” arena, and some other neat buildings and structures. so whimsical and creative!

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that night, we went to the beijing night market. my siblings had been there and told us we definitely needed to go see the wild food they had for sale. it was pretty rad – skewers stocked with fried insects, tarantulas, scorpions, pig intestines, lamb testicles, full snakes, octopi, and more. we weren’t too adventurous and just ate some yummy noodles and dumplings. but i looooved seeing and photographing all the other food! the market was so fascinating and so atmospheric under the dark beijing sky!

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^^ who knew you could eat starfish?! and notice how in almost every picture i have of a salesperson, they are looking at their smartphone! technology is evvvvverywhere. ^^
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^^ after the night market, we strolled through some fun electric streets of beijing and then through the quiet streets around the forbidden city, under the swaying willow trees. it was neat to see tiananmen square all lit up! ^^

suuuuuuuch an amazing day in beijing!

Comments

  1. Oh my goodness (pun definitely not intended) that food is beyond belief! Thanks so much for letting me see it via your blog. That's close enough for me!!! YUCK!
    BUT what a place! The colors, the designs, the creativity and I must admit, probably the wildest variety of wild and weird food, artistically displayed on earth.

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  2. Oh char, so fun to see you there in so many of the exact same spots where we were...even Olympic park. Isn't Glenn the best? I hope you told him hi from us! love that you were here!

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