DAY 5: SECOND DAY IN BEIJING, CHINA

July 7, 2017

7/7/17

Hi World,

This was our second day in Beijing and though the itinerary was not packed the activities could have taken countless hours to examine each extravanganza in detail. First, we woke up as usual to eat our daily meal of noodles before heading to a rickshaw ride to the old town. While we had this unique experience we had the opportunity to visit a local living space which housed four generations of one family. It is common for large families like this to live together. Most of these living spaces include 4 to 6 rooms around a tiny courtyard area. The price of this household would be close to 15 million in US dollars, but the residents of this particular house were offspring to a general of the Qing Dynasty, therefore it was passed down rightfully. We passed several beautiful shops and streets where there was live music in the night and many older men fishing in the river. Next, we made the trek to the Great Wall and up to the cable car where it took us up to the actual edifice. It is 4,136 miles long from the East side to the West side. The Qing Dyansty conquered all of the other warring states and the first emperor Qin Shi Huang, tried to unify these lands by building the Great Wall of China which was constructed over the next 1,000 years. The wall’s purpose was to protect the city of Beijing from invaders on the opposite side by shooting and bombing at the opposing army from the wall. Finally, we went to another authentic restaurant XiaoLongPu in which we got rice, LOTS of noodles, sweet potato cakes, chicken, pork, and beef while we rotated the table to share the food as in traditional times. We then went back to the hotel to grab some quick starbucks in which our orders were obviously not understood lol, before heading back to Silk Market once again for a last round of shopping before flying to Shanghai!

Be Brave Today

XOXO

Lyricallivi