Day 3 Beijing
Today is the big day! The Great Wall of China. There's a couple different areas of the wall you can visit outside of Beijing. We're going to the Mutianyu section of the wall which is farther away, but is much less crowded and is very dramatic with the wall climbing up and down the mountains. Everyone on the trip was very excited to see one of their "bucket list" items. It was a steep climb from the bus to the gondola which takes you up the mountain to he wall. Then another long steep climb of the gondola to reach the top. Incredible how they must have constructed it. Walk out a ways and suddenly we're face to face with the wall. You can see it snaking up and down the mountains a long way off. Christian and Steven took some pictures of us and let us explore a good long while. No rush. We walked around the wall, up into the towers. Some were easier to climb than others, but it was all amazing. This trip is full of remarkable sites, but certainly this is a highlight.
Afterwards we ate at the Schoolhouse - converted from an old schoolhouse. Lunch was fine. Nothing amazing. Pre ordered sandwiches, but well made. After lunch and driving back to the hotel, we stopped off to see the Olympic stadium - the Bird's Nest. The bus essentially stopped on the side of the road, we got out and took a pic of the stadium on the other side of the road partially blocked by another building. The reason I mention it, is if you want to get a better view, you'll need to arrange a visit their on your own. But it was a view that I think most ppl will be fine with. After we got back, we rested for a couple hrs before going out to dinner on our own.
Speaking of dinner, tonight we're heading to Capital M. Thanks Disfan10 for the suggestion. It's higher end. Owned by the same group that owns M on the Bund where we will be eating in Shanghai. Capital M comes up on some pretty cool awards list. One had it as one of the top 10 restaurants in Asia. It was an adventure getting there. I'll preface it by saying it was all worth it, but was an adventure getting there. I was somewhat prepared for troubles because the reviews on tripadvisor mentioned similar issues. I had a print off from the restaurant for directions and a map in Chinese to give to the driver. I tried to use Uber again, but nothing was available, so we opted for a taxi. The doorman at the peninsula asked where we were eating. He speaks English well and we've had brief conversations in the past. He seemed to know the restaurant and told the driver. I confirmed with the doorman that the taxi driver knew the restaurant and I was assured he did... You can see where this is going. Well thank goodness for international data plans and google maps. I could tell he was turning north when he should have turned south. Eventually he pulled over in a Hutong restaurant. Definitely not Capital M. Some guys sitting outside the restaurant came over and pointed to the restaurant showing the international sign for eating. I showed the taxi driver my iPhone with google maps pulled up and indicated where I wanted to go. Not here. It's just south of Tienamen Square, so it should be easy. In fact considering it's a major restaurant and has a prime location, I'm surprised it's not known by the taxi drivers. For a moment I thought the driver and the guys outside the taxi were trying to convince us to eat there. Maybe they were to some degree, but I think it was an honest mistake or miscommunication somewhere down the line. There was no way we were going to exit the cab. I didn't see any other cabs around. It would be a pain getting back. After a couple minutes of looking at my phone and the Capital M print off, the driver eventually figured it out and started heading back in the right direction. He drove past Tienamen which (history aside) looked amazing, and dropped us off a couple blocks from the restaurant. Apparently the last block is pedestrian only. That ended up not being 100% true, but i didn't want to push the issue. I was happy to be so close. I was prepared to pay some hefty cab fee, but it ended up being about $4. Good. With google maps we walked the rest of the way which took a couple minutes. There is a major pedestrian area right by the restaurant which is actually pretty cool. Wish we had gotten there earlier. It's a reconstructed old Beijing street with complete streetcars. It was a tiny bit like main st or more buena vista st... with the days gone by trolleys dinging up and down the street. Unfortunately we were already 20 min late for our reservations so we had to go straight to Capital M. It took a minute to find (again with the aid of google maps). Finally we arrived on the third floor and were seated no problem. They even saved us a table by the window which I requested. They also have a balcony but it had been raining earlier. Surely it has one of the best views in Beijing. It overlooks the Southern Gate just south of Tienamen. The gate is beautiful lit up at night. The restaurant was full so reservations are a must. And it is a bit fancy, but I don't think it's too upscale for kids. In fact not only were there a few others families with young children, but they actually had a children's menu. Gavin had chicken fingers, and I had a king prawn app and salted leg of lamb for my entree. We took a break after dinner and stepped out onto the balcony and took some pictures of the beautifully lit up gate before going back in for a lemon soufflé. (It wasn't really a soufflé... More of a light creamy almost mouse). Regardless, it was great. Gavin loved it too. Going back home was uneventful. There were taxis right outside the restaurant and we just gave them our hotel card and off we went. Now would I recommend others to do what we did? I think it depends on your comfort level of traveling. It's probably not for the novice. But had I insisted on giving the driver the map from capital m's website in the first place, I don't think we would have had a problem. I also still think anyone needs an international data plan for their phone if they do really anything away from the group for google maps. You have that and you're covered. Awesome awesome meal. I hope m on the Bund is as good. P Oh, we also saw a Chinese man proposing to his girlfriend at the table next to ours as we were being shown our table. I saw him get down on one knee and hold up the ring as we approached. So I held Gavin back a bit before getting to our table to not spoil the moment for him. He had a violinist playing and she said yes. Everyone clapped. It was really cool. We spoke to Steven later about it and he was surprised to hear they were Chinese as Chinese generally do not propose. Anyway, all things considered it was a great day. More pictures to come.
(Gavin told me this deserves a happy face on the beach). I'm sure your teens would love it. We're in Chengdu as I type this and so far there's really been a nice variety of activities.
