The great thing of travelling comes with the “revisits”. Once you have already visited the basics, and you can just take it easy, choose a couple of goals for the available time and just enjoy in a relaxed way.
I was in Beijing as part of my trip to China in 2008 (see the corresponding posts), and last week I had a day after a business trip to wander around with my friend Jin.
I chose the Temple of Heaven as the main sight for the morning, which I did not visit in my previous visit. Quite impressive spot, and very interesting atmosphere in the park around it, as it was Saturday, and people were dancing traditional Chinese dances, singing patriotic songs, preparing choreographies. doing some sport, or practicing Tai Chi.
We devoted the afternoon to walk around one of the characteristic hutongs (old neighbourhoods), which is now a busy area during weekends, where locals go to get some entertainment by getting some shopping done, or enjoying any of the bars on it. In one of the corners of the hutong, there is a lake which due to the “nice” temperature of Beijing’s winter was frozen and tons of people were skating on it. We mixed with them, and also did some seat-skating (a sort of a sledge-tandem).
Chinese food in China is much better and with a broader offer than in other parts of the World. The local dish, Beijing Duck, is an absolutely delicious meal that will from now on be always on my wishlist when going to Beijing. I also enjoyed the Tanghulu, the typical Beijing sweet, made of Chinese hawthorn with hardened sugar around.
Apart from this proper food, I could also enjoy some other rare tastes, like insects. Scorpions, silkworm eggs, and cicadas are pretty tasty. It does not really taste different from other snacks… they just “look” different.
And just before departing to the airport, I had some time for do a quick check on Tianan’men square.
You can see all pictures from Beijing in this slideshow.