Day 38 - Ulaanbaatar

Ulaanbaatar,

We arrived at Ulaanbaatar station just before 9am, we were all feeling reasonably well rested & I feel slightly better than the previous day, hopefully I can keep my cold at bay with paracetamol. The weather outside was a crisp 3 degrees, with only a slight breeze, the sun was out and for the first time in weeks we could see a blue sky, it was glorious! We walked along the platform & a Mongolian man in a  red cap passed me a brochure for the very same guesthouse we were already booked to stay  at! He was so quick I didn't realise he had given me a brochure and it took me a few seconds before I read it. Realising what it was, Tom chased him down & he led us off the platform and to the carpark where a lady was waiting with a big bold sign that clearly read Tom's name. It was a nice surprise and a relief to have a lift back to our accommodation.

We are staying in a guesthouse with a local family who also organise a lot of the tours around Mongolia, a reason we had booked this accomodation. An hour after arriving we had discussed our different tour options & had agreed on a 15 day tour that covered everything in Mongolia we wanted to see.
When researching countries, we intentionally plan to come to each country during the shoulder month's before and after the tourism season. Its not always ideal weather, but we have the time to be patient for ideal weather & we have been really lucky so far. Travelling to countries in the shoulder season means there is more availability for accommodation, transport, lower prices on everything, less crowds & more competition for tours. If we had come to Mongolia and booked the tour during the busy season it would have cost us $88 USD, because of the time of year it is only going to cost us $66 USD. An absolute bargain. We read many recommendations about booking tours directly In Mongolia from locals as opposed to booking a tour online from some company that is based in the States or in Europe. This particular company & their guest house has lots of really good reviews and is recommended by trip advisor. I feel like we are in good hands.  The tour includes an english speaking guide who also is the driver, car, fuel, 3 meals a day, 1.5L of water per person, accommodation and all of our entry tickets and included activities, just to name a few vital thing's. The only thing we need to buy is alcohol & gifts for the traditional nomadic families we will be sharing accommodation with.

Our tour leaves bright & early tomorrow! We have less than a day to explore Ulaanbaatar, we quickly shower and get ready for a small amount of exploring & to do a few small mission's such as find a laundromat & withdraw US currency, to pay for our tour.
Ulaanbaatar at first glance is quite nice, what you would expect from a booming city in the desert, there's a lot of statues, restaurants, shopping,  construction and new buildings. There is less hustle and bustle from people, we have to remind ourselves we are not in China anymore and that the cities are less densely populated.  It appears a lot cleaner than most cities in China & there is the obvious lack of pollution haze (though we were told it can be bad due to the burning of coal) there also seems to be dramatically less people smoking cigarettes, with some public places displaying notices for fines if you are caught smoking within the vicinity.  I haven't seen or heard a single person spit. Spitting is an unavoidable, frequent & acceptable habit that you hear and see from just about every person in China.

After an hours walking through Ulaanbaatar we stopped so the boys could have a local beer at an Irish pub, we have seen many Irish pubs in Ulaanbaatar. It was a very enjoyable way to spend the afternoon. We then went to the bank & waited quite a while for our turn. I used this opportunity to order a coffee, much more reasonable in Ulaanbaatar, only $3 AUD & I was very happy with the strength & taste! I get the feeling that Mongolians understand coffee better than the Chinese!
It was then time to pack our bags for our next adventure, 15 days on tour through the Gobi Desert & Central Mongolia with limited to no electricity, no wi-fi & only 4 showers over the 15 days. The only way to fully immerse yourself in a rapidly dying culture of nomadic wandering.

We literally couldn't be any more excited as we lied in bed, waiting for sleep to take hold of us.
Cya later civilisation!

- Alli

Day 37 - Erlian - Ulaanbaatar

Erlian - Ulaanbaatar,

Today is the day we cross the border and finally enter Mongolia, Thank Goodness as our Chinese Visa expires tonight at 12am (we run on a very tight schedule).
We leave our hotel in Erlian at 8.45am, shoulder our packs & walk through the town to the city centre where the jeeps wait to take passengers and good's across the border. This is the only way to go across the border on weekend's, during the week you can buy a bus ticket or if you are on the Trans-siberian railway it will include your border crossing. The border between China and Mongolia can not be walked across.  We find a man who agrees to take us across the border for 75Yuan, in his old, dark blue, Toyota Land cruiser, a car that has made this journey many many times! We fit Tom, Jordan & myself, plus our luggage, another man who looks Mongolian & a whole boot load of box's and packages into the car & set off for the border. It only takes us 10 minutes to get to the Chinese border, our passports are checked by armed guards who are particularly interested in Toms passport and ask him where he is from.  We then drive through the gates & hop out of the car to walk into immigration, the car and its cargo drive through immigration and meet us on the other side. The Chinese immigration was very easy & quick only taking a couple of minutes to get our Visa's stamped & walk through to the other side. We get back into the car and drive another 5 minutes thorough 'no mans land' before arriving at the Mongolian immigration, again we make our way through immigration by foot. The Mongolian immigration took about 30 minutes and then we had to exchange our Chinese YUAN for Mongolian MNT. On our way out of the border crossing at the last gate, the guards once again took a particular interest in Tom's passport, but let us through with no problems.

The first town we came to in Mongolia is called Zamiin Uud, also spelt Zamyn Uud, which is only another 5 minute drive past the border crossing.
That's all the hard stuff done on this leg of the journey! We make our way to the train station and buy a ticket for the overnight train from Zamiin Uud to Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia. We then try to make ourselves busy, we have a 5 hour wait before we board our train. As I am still feeling terrible from a cold, this time is spent sleeping on a chair in the station while Tom watches Netflix & Jordan does some exploring of the little town.

Our train pulls up to the station at 5pm, an old train, very different to the ones we have caught in China, this one is coal powered and is spewing lots of horrible black smoke onto it's eager passengers waiting to board.  We hop on the train and easily find our bunks, we are in carriage 9 and are beds 1, 3 & 4. The carriage is a lot bigger, cleaner and more comfortable than the trains we took in china, I am thrilled to see that there is a women's & a men's toilet and that the women's toilet is a normal sitting toilet, immaculately clean! I was also very happy when we all received a cup of hot water and some sachets for coffee, green tea and milk tea. 

We settled in for the night. I was able to stay awake for a few hours, the sun is now starting to set closer to 8pm allowing sunset views of the vast, dry Gobi desert, still unaware that it was technically spring. The landscape seems so eternal & just keeps going on & on until your eyes can't seem to focus anymore. Once the sun had set, a beautiful crescent moon could be seen in the sky, casting silver on the landscape. It was very beautiful.

We woke up a few times overnight as the train stopped and started, letting people off and on. It was mostly a full night of sleep.

- Alli

Day 36 - Arriving At Erlian / Erenhot & The Dinosaur Museum

Arriving At Erlian / Erenhot & The Dinosaur Museum

We arrived at Erlian / Erenhot at 6.40am & got off the bus in the centre of town, in a totally different place to where we had read the bus would likely drop us off. Unable to speak their language or look at a bus route time table means we were only guided by what we had read on blogs from other travellers who had taken the gypsy bus service. Only a couple of people spoke Chinese on our bus. We heard various different Mongolian dialects, Russian, English & South Korean, these are the languages that are used the most in Mongolia.

When we arrived it was also raining. We started to walk along what we thought was the main road before giving up,  hailing a taxi & asking the driver to take us to a hotel. We weren't able to find any websites for booking accommodation in Erlian, which was also something we had read in blogs but we knew we weren't travelling in peak season so there should be plenty of availability. The first hotel had space and we were able to book a big room, with 2 beds, 1 bed for myself & Tom, another bed for Jordan and a pretty big bathroom. It was just for 24 hours, we didn't mind sharing & it reduced the cost. I was showered and in bed by 7.30am where I had another 3 hours sleep. When I woke up on the bus my throat, eyes and nose were congested &nfelt like they were on fire, unsurprisingly as the aircon probably recycles the air from the 31 passengers, a lot of whom were sneezing and coughing.  I was prepared for this and took some paracetamol and did a butadiene throat gargle. After my extra hours of sleep I felt much better.

The town of Erenhot, named form the Mongolian's is also called Erlianhaote by the Chinese, which is also shortened to Ereen, or Erlian.  Because we caught the bus from the Chinese side in Beijing it was called Erlian. This is very confusing and not the first time we have encountered this in China. Erlian is a town in the Gobi Desert, still technically in China, but also inner Mongolia. It lies just on the border between China & Mongolia.

When researching our border crossing options in Australia, we  decided to spend 1 day & 1 night in Erlian to break up the 3 day journey into Mongolia & also to check out the towns dinosaur fossils! It turns out that both Tom & I had a love of dinosaurs as kids and had avidly watched the 'walking with dinosaurs' documentary series.  The area around the town and a salt lake to the east called Iren Dabasu are well known by palaeontologists who have discovered a number of different dinosaur and mammal fossils.  Erlian houses a very impressive dinosaur museum and around the city various life size dinosaur statues can be seen, 20 minutes outside of town there is a dinosaur Geopark that contains fossils and life size dinosaur figures.
Because of the rain and my impending sickness we decided to just go to the indoor dinosaur museum which was a 30Yuan taxi ride.

We weren't disappointed. The entrance from the Museum was impressive with huge dinosaur figurines, marble steps and huge wooden doors that housed a large dome room. We walked in and the place was totally empty! It was so nice to walk through the museum without any crowds. Inside the dome room they have done a great job of replicating what it would be like to walk with dinosaurs. There is plants, HUGE life like dinosaurs that come alive as you walk past, including a tetradactyl that flies around, realistic dinosaur noises, fossils protected behind glass and information stands. It was very cool, our inner child was deliriously happy to be finally 'walking with dinosaurs'.
After we had spent enough time at the museum we started to walk back to our accommodation, thankfully after only a few minutes a taxi pulled up & we paid 10 Yuan to get back.  After we got back to our accommodation we went out to find some dinner & all agreed on a sober, early night in.

- Alli

Day 35 - Beijing to Erlian / Erenhot (Inner Mongolia)

Beijing to Erlian / Erenhot (Inner Mongolia)

We were up out of our beds at 7.30am, we already packed our bags the night before & organised our digital documents.  At Leo's Hostel we have met a fellow traveller called Jordan who is from the USA & is also going to Mongolia. We all get along so its not much of a decision that we all decide to make our way to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia together.

We take one last walk through the street our hostel is on and eat a crepe for breakfast. It feels strange to be leaving Beijing. We've been here for a week now & it's one of our favourite places in China. We hail a cab & get to the Muxiyuan long distance bus station were we are meant to buy our overnight sleeper tickets. When we arrive the bus station is shut! We had read lots of blogs about 'gypsy bus services' that take passengers and goods to the border. It's not long before a Chinese lady approaches us waving a card & yelling "Erlian Erlian " at us. We barter on the price & agree to 220Yuan. We're pretty happy with this, our bus ticket at the station would have been around 200 Yuan & we had read a few blogs from other travellers who had to take gypsy bus service & paid up to 260 Yuan for the ticket. The gypsy bus service is essentially the same thing as the official bus service, its just not registered through China Travel services & is slightly more expensive but the same service. 

We follow this lady for about 10 minutes,  away from the official station,  to a big parking lot where the the bus's are parked & pay the deposit for the ticket. 

We are then led to a small room for waiting that has chairs, beds & a kettle for making tea or noodles. We settle in for a day of time wasting as the bus doesn't leave till 5pm. We have read several other blogs of other people doing this and everyone has said to expect to wait and to leave later than expected. 

Tom & Jordan make a special trip to get beers while I read my book. At 5.10pm we put our big packs on to the bus & continue waiting to depart. All of a sudden at 6.40pm we were told to "go go go" and made our way to the bus. We had beds at the back of the bus, in bed numbers 29, 30 & 31. 

I was pleasantly surprised with the size, bedding & aircon.
Our bus slowly started to move at 6.44pm & after 7 hours & 45 minutes waiting around, we were on our way to Erlian!

At 8.23pm we drove past a section of the Great Wall that was lit up from below. It was a magical sight, the lighting showed the walls journey winding up the mountains either side of the road.

The bus had a stop at a service station just after 10pm. Shortly after this is when I fell asleep. During the night the bus stops twice more but I'm too comfortable to want to get out of my bed. The total trip time we read could be anything from 10 - 12 hours depending on how many stops the bus has to take. 

- Alli 

Day 34 - Tiananmen Square & The Forbidden City

Tiananmen Square & The Forbidden City, 

It's our last full day in Beijing! It's also the day we pick up our Mongolian Visa's pending their approval.
We set off just after 9am for a day of sight seeing. Our accommodation is in Qianmen, walking distance to Tiananmen Square & The Forbidden City which is very convenient! 

The first stop is Tiananmen Square. Tiananmen square is basically a square in the city centre of Beijing, it's name comes from a gate & means 'gate of heavenly peace' the gate is found north of the square & separates it from The Forbidden City. Tiananmen Square has great cultural significance to the people & has hosted many symbolic events in history. One of these events is Mao Zedong proclaiming the founding of the people's republic of China which happened in October 1949. The anniversary of this event is still celebrated every year. In Tiananmen Square you will find the mausoleum of Mao Zedong, the national museum of China, monument to the people's hero's & the great hall of the people. 

When we first glanced at Tiananmen Square, it was absolutely packed! Some of the worst crowding we had see in China. The security checks started from 2 streets away & it took us an hour to get into the square. There was a line to stand in front of each thing, with the biggest line for the museum probably being over 2 hours. After a particularly nasty jab to the ribs, I decided I had seen enough. We made our way, battling through the crowds to get to The Forbidden City. As we walked by a section of the outer wall we were approached by a Chinese lady called Linda who showed us through to a less crowded entrance to The Forbidden City which involved a pleasant walk through a park. In exchange we took a side trip into Linda's art exhibition to view some of her work & her fellow uni students work. Linda is studying calligraphy & did both of our names, the symbol for Eternal Happiness, Beijing & the year 2018.  We gave her a 30Yuan donation to thank her.
I love what she did, I can't wait to frame them when we get home. 

We walked into The Forbidden City & we were truly amazed by the grand, vast structure. It is huge! The Forbidden City is an imperial palace structure that was occupied by the emperor's and their household for 500 years, from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty.
The complex consists of 980 buildings and covers 180 acres including gardens.
The palace flaunts Chinese traditional Palatial architecture, some of the best we have seen in the whole of China. In 1987 The Forbidden City was listed as a world heritage site & is listed by UNESCO as it contains the best preserved & largest collection of wooden structures in China.
Today the city houses the palace Museum collection & receives 16 million visits annually.
We spent a few hours walking through the city, getting lost, trying to avoid the crowded sections before deciding to leave. It took us 45 minutes to walk to the exiting gate & cross the 2 moats. 

After all our exploring we were starving!! Nothing a plate of dumplings, noodles, sautéed vegetables & beer can't fix. Feeling very full, We waddled through Beijing for an hour to the Mongolian Embassy. 

I was ecstatic to receive our passports & our Mongolian Visa's !! We hadn't really talked about a back up plan if they were rejected.
Rejuvenated we set off back to our accommodation to pack & organise our documents.

- Alli 

Day 33 - The Great Wall Of China

The Great Wall Of China,

This was always going to be a pretty big experience for us! We did absolutly stacks of research before leaving for China and again when we got to China. Originally we read about a place that offers a 2 day hiking and camping experience that sounded absolutely amazing.  Mostly for the amazing sunrise and sunset views that you could get from just outside a tent, it would be a rough cold night but totally worth it. We mentioned our plans to a few Chinese people we met as we travelled through the country heading to Beijing and were perplexed by their reactions to our plans. The Chinese are really against people camping on the Great Wall and find it very insulting to themselves and their ancestors that died making and defending the wall. It is said that millions of Chinese people died and were encased inside the wall during its construction.

More research by us led to a lot of unanswered questions, we couldn't find a definitive answer on if it was illegal and we started reading about how the tours that offer this service are actually bribing officials.
In the end we decided not to camp on the wall until we were certain we weren't going to offend the Chinese or end up in jail or with a massive fine. After spending 32 days travelling through the country and visiting some of their most ancient, spiritual places, it would be a real shame in the last couple of days to insult and offend them by the way we visited their most revered relic. The other factor for our decision was our insurance, if we do anything illegal and are hurt we wont be covered, camping the great wall and hurting ourselves could jeopardise our whole trip which is something we have spent years planning and working on. One night camping experience was not worth a year of travelling experiences.

After we had come to this conclusion we started to research hiking experiences, looking for an authentic experience that wouldn't make the great wall feel like a theme park. We started to read reviews and blogs from people who had done day trips to hike a deserted but restored section of the Wall, a section that was 'secret' therefore not commercialised and overcrowded. Some of the hostels in central Beijing offered these tours, one such hostel was called Leo's Hostel and we read a lot of really good reviews.  We decided to book here because the location was really good too. Walking distance to the Metro, Tianmen Square and the Forbidden City. After arriving at our accomodation we asked a couple of different people who had been on the tour at Leos' and even saw a few pictures. It was vital for us that we had honest & current feedback before booking the tour. We were very happy with what we had heard and even spoke to one person who had done a more commercial Great wall experience for 100 YUAN with the crowding and then also did the 'secret' tour at Leo's without the crowds. We booked Leos' Secret Tour on the day with the best weather, the tour included private bus transfer to the wall and back to the hostel, admittance on the wall, a Chinese local who speaks English met us at the wall to tell us some history before going on to the wall and lunch in a restaurant.  We spent a total of 3 hours on the wall and hiked a section with 7 watch towers in various states of restoration. It was really cool to see the different sections of the wall, there was one section that we weren't allowed to go on for obvious reasons that was totally unrestored, a huge pile of brickwork crumbling into the earth & being repossessed by nature.

 As it turns out the section of wall we visited was only about 8km away from the very poplar crowded section of the wall at Badaling, which is 80km from Urban Beijing. This tour ended up costing us a fraction of the price at 280 YUAN each.  As you can see from the photos there was almost no one around! We were extremely lucky to have had this experience and been able to hear the wind, birds and peaceful silence, so different to other Great Wall experiences we had read about.  What an amazing world wonder, what an amazing piece of ancient history. What a sight to behold. It's magnificence is truly overwhelming. Even the wilderness surrounding the wall is vast and rugged. I spent quite a lot of my time on the wall trying to imagine how the men building the wall felt as they navigated the extremely rocky, overgrown, wild & hilly terrain carrying giant slabs of rock on their backs. Did they think it was noble & did they feel honoured to die like this protecting their country? How did the Mongols feel when they finally reached a mountain summit to stare down a valley and up to the next summit only to see the wall looming down from above? What was it like to fight on the wall? These are all things that people from the 21st century will never have to endure or think about.

Now for some facts!
It is commonly thought that the great wall was built by the first Emperor Qin Shihuang, of the Qing Dynasty in 221-207 BC. He is the same bloke who commissioned the terracotta warriors.
The wall was actually starting to be built well before this, 770-221 BC, by dukes trying to prevent invasion from other states within China. Emperor Qin unified the walls to prevent northern invasion from the barbarian nomads, known to us today as Mongolians (The Mongols eventually did conquer China) From this point it received numerous extensions & renovations.
The lower class people of China, were given 2 choices. Build the wall and die or go to war & fight the Mongols. Millions of people, through forced labour chose to die building the wall, Their bodies forever entombed in the structure. Many Chinese legends exist around this, most famously the one about Meng Jiangu who howled and cried so hard in distress she caused the wall to crumble. Meng's husband, Fen Qiliang, was taken by federal officials to build the wall. Meng never heard anything from her husband & fearing the worst set off to find him. On arriving at the wall she discovered he was already dead, she never found his body, the wall had already claimed it.

The Great Wall Of China had an official length of just over 21,196 km's, today's most visited section is the Ming relic & it is just over 8km's long, stretching through 9 provinces. There is approximately 526 kilometres around Beijing providing the best places to see it. Its height ranges from 8 - 14 metres.

One third of the wall has totally disappeared, during a cultural revolution a lot of bricks were taken from the wall & used to build houses in nearby villages.
Most of the standing structure we see now is from the Ming Dynasty. When the Ming Dynasty was eventually overthrown in 1644, that signified the end of all military work, no more has been done since. A few sections were obviously restored for tourism, restoration work only started in 1957.
To debunk a popular misconception, one that I really wanted to believe. The Great Wall can not be seem from space with the naked eye. Not a massive disappointment as it's a much better view from earth after climbing to a high section and feeling the wind in your hair!

Below is the website for the Hostel that we stayed at in Beijing and who we booked our 'secret' Great Wall tour through <http://www.leohostel.com>

- Alli

Day 32 - Temple of Heaven

The Temple of Heaven.

Today we managed to get ourselves out of bed at the bright and early time of 8:30am, which is kind of a record nowadays! Its hard I know you understand... As soon as we were up and had shuffled through the communal showers we were ready to embark on the day. Today we had decided to take it a little easy and visit a location close by as tomorrow will be our 'secret great wall tour' organised through the hostel. Since it was so close by we decided to walk. It was another sunny and pollution free day in Beijing, with a million pieces of willow tree fluff in the air. Once we arrived we gained admission for 15rmb each and entered the park surrounding the temple. As with most other attractions in China, the park grounds are massive! There are also secondary areas within the attraction that you have to pay for additional tickets. Considering we were setting a more relaxed pace today we made the best of the cheaper entry tickets and skipped the entire walk through, as it would easily have taken the whole day.

The Temple Of Heaven Complex, An imperial complex built during the years of 1406 to 1420 during the Emperor Yongles reign. The Emperor Yongle is also responsible for another imperial building in Beijing, The Forbidden city. The temple of Heaven is a Taoist Temple, despite the annual ceremonies & prayers are of heavenly worship and for a good harvest. Throughout it's history the complex has had extensions, restorations, 3 new temples built (Sun, Earth & Moon) & was occupied by Anglo French soldiers in the 2nd opium war. It was also occupied by the Eighth Nation Alliance, an occupation that led to serious destruction of the temples & temple grounds. After the downfall of the Qing, it was neglected & left in a desecrated state resulting in various temple hall's collapsing. Today the temple grounds cover 2.73 km's of beautiful parkland & have 3 sections of construction including the Temple Of Heaven.  

Once we entered the park we were greeted by the familiar site of many purple flowers enveloping the ground beneath the trees. As well as the familiar colours of pink and yellow blossoms, and deep leafy green foliage of the larger trees. We took many photos whilst wandering through the garden sections surrounding the temples and monuments, often getting into awkward positions  for the best angle! The gardens were fairly empty which was a welcome reprieve from the hustle and bustle of many of the scenic locations around Beijing. We were able to take many breaks along our way and drink some 'ice tea' and snacks we bought from the super market. Very tranquil and relaxing indeed. Its a strange realisation that you need to seek out these moments of quiet while on holiday. I guess you would think we would have all the time in the world to get some quiet moments in, but it just doesn't work out that way! Theres always something to do or somewhere you need to be. China can be pretty suffocating with all the people sometimes.

After wandering around for some time we decided to enter one of the paid sections (another 20rmb each). We were then able to see inside one of the temple structures, which included many rich coloured walls and architraves. Ancient relics lined the walls which we managed to grab a glimpse of before the queue jostled and shuffled us along! I can't explain how different the personal space is over here. Everyone is pushing and shoving, and it just seems common place. You can bump some one fair in the face and turn around and they have carried on like its just another day. Quite strange! I guess thats how it needs to be for everyone to manage to get where they are going!

We continued on in a clockwise fashion around the park. Encountering another stunning marvel of architecture. A large temple, which we later found out was a location for the emperor to fast and obtain from his various royal pleasures. He would enter this sanctuary 3 days prior to the formal 'Heaven Worshiping Ceremony'. This structure boasts a massive external moat, as well as a smaller internal moat (which we couldn't see as the building was closed to the public). Once again we find ourself amazed at the magnitude of the structures and earthworks that are conducted to create these monuments. I guess the old adage of 'many hands make light work' rings true again.

After doing a thorough round of the grounds we walked back to the hostel and stopped off at another one of the many spectacular restaurants here in Beijing. Its amazing to be able to indulge in such amazing foods and stuff our bellies full every day for as little as 30aud between us, including a 500ml beer each. We can't wait to return home and cook some of this food for you all!

-Tom

Day 31 - Yiheyuan (New Summer Palace) & Yuanming Yuan (Old Summer Palace)

Yiheyuan (New Summer Palace)

The summer palace is situated 15km's northwest from Beijing, also known as 'The Museum of Royal Gardens' it is the largest & best preserved royal park in China. The Summer palace radiates with grandness of Chinese traditional  horticulture, landscape & art. The construction started in 1750 & initially it was a royal garden, for royal families to rest and entertain guests. In the Qing dynasty it became the main residence for the royal family.

When we first arrived entering through the massive perimeter gates on the north entrance, we were greeted by the usual ticket booths, massive lines, people pushing & novelty shop owners yelling "hello hello hello". To be honest, we were both still feeling a bit rough from the other night & this was the last thing we wanted to do.

After buying our ticket & entering the official palace grounds, my first observation was the dirty lake, the dust & the Repair work that was being done to the stairs, a bridge & a section of building. After walking through the front garden area we came to a hill (Longevity hill) with stairs leading up to a building complex, a complex of towers, pagodas, temples & large halls with the traditional tiered roofing, gold tiles & green, blue & red detailing.  It was a bright display of traditional buildings that you would expect to see in a Chinese temple or palace. As we walked between the buildings admiring the detail, we had to walk over and through some rock passages that connected the buildings. We couldn't enter any of the buildings and all the windows & doors had been permanently sealed over. Past the buildings we walked back down the other side of the hill heading towards the lake.

We quickly realised the palace perimeter was a lot bigger than we first thought. I have attached a map that might help to comprehend how big the palace grounds are. We spent a few hours walking in the various courtyards, entering a few  temples sitting by the lake, admiring the art work and the beautiful Chinese Plants & trees, a lot of which are blooming & showing off new pink flowers of various shades.

Yuanming Yuan (Old Summer Palace) 

After we had spent enough time at Yiheyuan, though you could easily spend a full day here, we took a walk to Yuanming Yuan, also known as the 'old Summer palace' only located 8 km's north west from from Beijing & east of the present day Summer palace. Before we went to the old summer palace, I had not done any previous reading & I wasn't sure why there was 2 palaces & why one was old & the other was new, I didn't really think too much about it. The old Summer palace was a beautiful big scenic park, no big crowds, no loud noises, it was where we found our Zen in Beijing. It mostly consists of gardens, trees, lakes and smaller ponds connected by various traditional Chinese bridges.

We found a seat next to a lake with some swans, in the sun and shared a packet of chocolate chip biscuits while enjoying the wind in our hair and the smells coming from the flowers. Beijing has really turned on its charm for us, a perfect day of sun, a slight cooling breeze & minimal pollution haze. It was absolute bliss. We spent quite a few hours exploring the gardens loving the feeling of being in nature, pretending like we couldn't hear the distant car noises from the road.

While exploring we noticed a lot of ruins, huge slabs of marble and stone lay in heaps and there was huge sections fenced off and slightly overgrown. We also noticed the distinct lack of a palace & I started to wonder if there was a story of destruction hidden in the beautiful garden. On arriving at our hostel, I was quick to start reading into the history of the Yuanming Yuan, the terrifying truth of what I read was very wicked, shows an atrocious indifference to life from both sides which is deeply saddening. Reading these facts brought to life a true horror. In October of 1860, during the second opium war, 3500 British and French soldiers stormed the palace grounds, looted an estimated 1.5 million ancient relics, then captured hundreds of the emperors slaves, courtiers and maids locked them in the palace and then burned it to the ground. After 3 days, all that was left was ash & ruins, where once stood a splendid, magnificent palace & garden, which boasted the most invaluable & extensive art collection in the whole of China. This act created one of the most enduring, deepest and demoralising wounds of China's history. The act was a direct retaliation of the imprisonment and torture of negotiating delegates, sent on the Qing dynasty's surrender.  The command to savagely and completely destroy the palace was given by a British high commissioner to China, Lord Elgin, a man that was said preferred revenge instead of peace. James M'Ghee, chaplain to the British forces, writes, he shall "ever regret the stern but just necessity which laid them in ashes". He later writes "a sacrifice of all that was most ancient and most beautiful”. The beautiful gardens endure and house the vacant slabs of marble & stone, ruins of the palace and are a harsh reminder of very horrific past events.

- Alli