Day 1
The adventures continue, we were meeting some dear Beijing friends for lunch today and l had to use the restroom in the restaurant… it’s a traditional squat toilet so not the best choice for my bad knees. Then when I tried to use the water spray to flush, I forgot to check the nozzle direction and sprayed right in my face and clothes …definitely a China rookie at this point!

Having lunch with Philip and Ella was a blast! Ella is studying traditional Chinese medicine in Beijing and this is one of her favorite restaurants, Jing Mo, and the dishes were amazing! We had a great time catching up with the Yangs!

Nan Luo Gu Alley 南锣鼓巷
We walked the Nan Luo Gu Alley 南锣鼓巷, a popular Hutong area with a ton of small shops. It’s Saturday so it was packed despite the fact that it was a work day for many as work schedules have been rearranged leading up to the national day holiday on 10/1 (75th anniversary of prc founding in 1949).

Hutong 胡同 is a type of narrow street with primarily old Chinese houses built on both sides of the street, featuring a friendly neighborhood where people gather to socialize, eat, play games such as chess and even mahjong in public places in the alley. It has a profound history and culture especially for local people in Beijing. Many Hutong have been demolished to make space for modern high-rise construction but there are still about a couple of thousand remaining, especially in this central part of Beijing next to beihai park with a lot of government official residences. Today some Hutong have been turned into tourist attractions with shops and restaurants like this one.

Day 2
We are generally not big breakfast eaters, typically we eat our first meal late morning, but that’s not the practice with our hosts who served us another healthy breakfast, after which we made our way into central Beijing for church services at the Beijing Branch of the church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints. This was where we attended church services 25 years ago when we lived in Beijing, not this exact location since they now have a permanent presence on the fourth floor of JinTai mansion, but it’s the same group so it was great to be back.

The high rise in Beijing are very modern, very different from years ago.

Lunch with Geoffrey and Rachel at 新拾玖!Amazing food and great company. It’s fun to catch up with old friends❤️. Beijing duck is definitely one of the specialty foods for which Beijing is well-known and Beijing residents take great pride in this delicacy so it seems like every time they host visitors from out of town, they find their favorite Beijing duck restaurant. This was great food and we enjoyed a fantastic meal, just don’t tell anyone that Beijing duck is down the list when it comes to our favorite types of Chinese food! But tomorrow morning, we are off to Sichuan province and we do love Sichuan food so we are looking forward to that!

Here we have fish head stew, foiegraf, tofu, Peking duck wrap.

Here we have duck webs covered with jelly, cabbage with shrimps, celery with walnut, and my favorite chicken soup with mushrooms.

Day 3
We went to lunch at a prestigious Michelin restaurant in Beijing.

Amazing food and ambience. Portions were small, but there must’ve been at least 25 different dishes so the volume more than made up for it, we definitely couldn’t finish it at all so we packed up the leftovers and brought them home for dinner! The best part was reconnecting with old friends!



Day 4
Today Wang Ke drove us to YenXian 延縣, about 2 hours away from Beijing. It was overcast and much cooler with higher altitude here.
We had lunch at this local restaurant where their signature dish was pig heads carried out on a small palanquin 轎子like an emperor. I did not eat the meat but Kevan and our friends thought it was very good. I was busy fanning a pesky fly …
My favorite dish was the shrimp which was caught in the same morning so was very fresh …

and scrambled eggs cooked on hot stones.
Today we drove us to YenXian 延縣, about 2 hours away from Beijing. It was overcast and much cooler with higher altitude here.
There were 5 arched ridges 樑on the main entrance symbolizing 5 fairies from heaven coming to join mortality but having to return back to heaven after being caught, leaving blessings for us mortals on earth.

Inside the gate to the main courtyard of the hotel, the courtyard roof was open in the middle, with downward, facing rooftops to allow rainwater to pour into the courtyard during periods of rain.
The floor was formed in the shape of a rectangular pool with a glass walkway through the middle. It was quite the sight when water comes down. The water represents wealth, providing life and sustenance, and when it is pouring in from all four directions, it is symbolic of sustained wealth and longevity.
Dinner at the hotel was amazing!

Beautifully presented and delicious to the taste!

This dessert is made from mung beans in the shape of lotus sitting on a bed of jelly. Too beautiful to eat❤️

Day 5
This morning we toured the park the area around the park has various different sections for each of the major provinces and geography is across China.

For example, we were able to visit the section for one province which included traditional architecture and panda statues, and other features that are prominently associated with that province. similar sections were available for underway, adjacent to the hotel
At China Cultural Hall 中国館

We visited the Botanical Garden adjacent to the resort, it was interesting!

Fall is definitely here with colorful leaves all around Beautiful Falls foliage. We hiked up the YongNing Pavilion replica, was told that it looked exactly the same as the original pavilion in the same vicinity but not open to the public.

We enjoyed walking around the resort and admired the unique Chinese architecture along the way… fascinated!!!
The Great Wall
This morning we also visited the ShuiGuan 水關 section of the Chinese Great Wall. It is less than 10 miles from the Badaling 八达岭 Great Wall section, but it is so much prettier and nicer and less busy, I definitely recommend it.

This section of the wall protected the northwest passage to Beijing, where Mongol invasion was most likely to be centered. It is one of the strongest and most well-preserved sections of the great wall and runs through mountain passes, which makes the great wall and the surrounding scenery incredibly beautiful. The section was built during the Ming dynasty over 400 years ago.
As the wall winds through different mountain contours, the name of this section “water pass“ becomes apparent as you see the fortifpications built over flowing streams and rivers below.
This section of the Great Wall stretches over four watchtowers to the east and then ends abruptly just south of the Great Wall commune, and then stretches nine watchtowers West from the pass to another Valley. Across the valley is where the great wall continues with the Badaling section.
The steps on this section of the wall are very steeps because of how quickly the mountains ascend, so the hike is a little bit challenging, but worth the effort when you are able to survey the vistas from the top of the wall.

Day 6
Today we explored WangFuJing 王府井, Kevan bought a pair of running shoes at Nike and I bought a couple of tops from Lululemon.
Strolling the WangFuJin 王府井 pedestrian street. This street is amazing, it is closed off to vehicle traffic so it is just people walking all over the place. There are huge number of stores and shops and shopping malls along the sides, as well as lots of good snack shops along the way. It’s a wonderful place to stroll around and we enjoyed the shops and tidbits to snack on.

And my favorite store is the Lego Shop, absolutely love the stunning Chinese lego creations!

Dim Sum at Li Yuan for lunch …

Day 7
Today, we planned to visit the Imperial Palace (The Forbidden City) 故宫 and TienanMen Square 天安门. However, tickets to the Forbidden City were sold out as we forgot to buy the entrance tickets 7 days ahead. We were going to try our luck to see if we could get in using our foreign passports privileges.

As we got closer to that part of town, the crowds were too huge we decided to do a quick tour of the area instead.

Apparently, stricter regulations have been implemented to provide greater security at the Forbidden City, TienanMen Square, and all the government buildings nearby. Checkpoints were set up everywhere to control passage for visitors. The lines to get to anywhere were packed. Here are some of the places we toured, not as satisfying if we were to explore each site but sightseeing in a car was good enough!

The palace is huge! It’s actually the world‘s largest imperial palace, and includes some of the largest and best preserved ancient wooden structures. Apparently it took more than 14 years to build by over 1 million workers.

Like many imperial and religious structures in China, all of the buildings were constructed without nails as nails were considered inharmonious.

Be sure to book your tickets in advance, they limit visitors to 80,000 and this place can get busy, especially with non-Beijing domestic tourists doing a lot of traveling these days.

Winter at The Forbidden City gives a sense of serenity and elegance. Love it. Photo credit to our dear friend Esther Yue who owns an annual pass to The Forbidden City whom visits the palace every season each year!

We passed by some old Beijing 老北京residence at a Hutong, very humbling yet they retained the old style of people living in Beijing. Many of these old houses had been demolished and replaced with skyscrapers, hopefully some of these Hutong can be preserved!

We had lunch at Jade Garden in WangFuJin 王府井! Delicious! We have had so much delicious food since we arrived, our hosts are wonderful cooks, and their meals are extremely healthy and delicious. And the dining out experiences have been amazing, this restaurant at Jade Garden was perhaps the best dim sum restaurant we have been at yet this trip. It was fantastic! We are eating way too much, but the food has been delicious.

Ended the day with foot massage and BaKuan 拔罐, a Chinese medicinal practice where vacuumed heated suction cups are attached on the back of the body to draw out negative energy from the body for healing. The redder the color on the skin, the more toxins in that part of the body.
Here are the BaKuan 拔罐 results for Kevan and I, looks like I’m in pretty bad shape…
My Results

Kevan’s Results

Next time you are in Beijing, be sure to get a Beijing foot massage, they are the best and it’s not just the foot massage, it’s the accompanying attire that makes it all worthwhile!
Day 8
First thing first, we attended church this morning. It’s the Beijing Branch branch conference and the talks were inspiring!

After sacrament meeting, we visited the Temple of Heaven.
Temple of Heaven 天壇

We had a great visit to the temple of heaven today. This is a relatively large complex (about the same size as central Park in New York ) of religious buildings that have been used by emperors from various dynasties, principally the Ming and the Ching dynasties from the 1400s on, to worship the God of heaven and pray for rain and bountiful harvests.

The main building in the complex is the hall of prayer for good harvest, which is where the Emperor held sacrificial ceremonies to worship heaven and pray for blessings. Interestingly, about 100 years after the Hall of Prayer was constructed, the emperor built a separate structure called the Circle Mound Altar so that earth could be worshiped at a square altar and heaven could be worshiped at a circular altar. This is based on the new belief that heaven was round and the earth was square, and that they should thus be worshiped separately.

A variety of ceremonies were conducted by the emperors at these buildings, including prayers at the Hall of Prayer for a good harvest, prayers for rain at the circular mound altar, and prayers of gratitude for the harvest.

Some of these prayers included ceremonial wardrobes and fasting through abstinence from eating meat and drinking alcohol, as well as animal sacrifices (principally cattle).
The structure is relatively big and there are lots of buildings, so if you decide to go, I would suggest getting there early (6 am) before the crowds arrive and schedule at least 2 to 3 hours. And if you are over 60, you are in luck as senior citizens get in Free!