Week 15: O

OLYMPIC City: No picture of the Birdsnest, I'm afraid, as the bus just zipped by on the way to the Great Wall, but I do have some other pics from Beijing.

I thought Beijing was a wonderful capital city. Yes, it's huge and, yes, the traffic was terrible, but the subway was easy to navigate and the sidewalks are wide and (relatively) spit-free. You'll note from my pictures that the first week of December is a great time to visit. There were no lines and very small crowds. Most of the entrance fees were cheaper, too.

The Forbidden City. Unlike in other places where the signs were in Chenglish ("This stele is erection from 1644") there was no Chenglish here. All the graphics in English said "Made possible by American Express." If that isn't weird enough, there is a huge KFC across from Tiananmen Square and a Subway sandwich place at the base of the Great Wall.

Tiananmen was just a big, ugly square. I waited for this cyclist to go by to make this picture of the Great Hall of the People more interesting. There are so many cyclists in Beijing that, in addition to little green and red men for walking, the street lights also have green and red lights for bicycles.

The Great Wall! Everyone advised me to go to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall because it was more remote, more beautiful and less commercial (although, I can only imagine what Badaling is like!!). And they were right! On this blustery December day I only came across four other people on my walk up the mountain. You know when you arrive at the Leaning Tower of Pisa and it is a little disappointing? It's not as big as you had imagined? Or it doesn't lean as much as you thought it would? Well, the Great Wall doesn't disappoint at all. It is even steeper than I thought it would be (there is a part which is basically like climbing a ladder), scarier (no sue-happy handrails installed here) and magnificent. These pictures don't do it justice.

The Summer Palace. Another big, gorgeous park. I can only imagine what it is like in the summer when there isn't ice on the lake and all the boats are out. With an entire garden planted with peonies, it must be sublime in the late spring.

This is the famous marble boat that the Empress Cixi commissioned instead of using the funds for the Imperial Navy (which led to the eventual collapse of the empire). Amazing how travel shows you that almost every society has featured the rich and powerful spending lavishly to the detriment to the peasants/citizens of Main Street (as they like to call us on CNBC). On the other hand, their extravagance creates really cool tourist spots years later.

Thanks, especially, to Hongsheng, Xiaoming and family who took me out for regional (Northwest) food on Thursday night, and then to the Temple of Heaven and the Pearl Market on Saturday. Thanks, too, for trying to teach me how to make dumplings, even though I utterly failed at it. A city is always better when seen through locals' eyes. It just reminds me that if I meet someone from a foreign land, that I should open up my home to them and give them a glimpse of the America that most tourists don't see. Xiexie!