A Weekend in Beijing, China

Trying 'cupping' Traditional Chinese Medicine 

Our friends often ask us what we do on our weekends. So this month's blog centres around a 'usual' weekend- not one travelling the greater China but just a normal Beijing weekend.

Our weekends are generally busy but also relaxing. We try not to take them for granted but also use them to relax after a long week teaching.

We have combined some photos from the last few weekends, which for us, fall on Tuesdays and Wednesdays (quieter days in the life of a private English school teacher).

Sometimes we think our weekends are a little boring but then we remember 'hay, we're in China- we certainly weren't doing this a few years ago!'.

Drinks at Atmosphere Bar- Beijing's highest restaurant

Monday evenings are often a wind down from a busy week. Usually, it is a late night with Kara finishing work at 8.30pm and John arriving home shortly after.

So we relax with a visit to the Chinese doctor or catch up with some friends for drinks and/or dinner! We love to head out on a Monday evening to try a different restaurant for dinner. Or if there is an electrical storm (happens more often than you think in Summer!) we cuddle up and watch a movie while the rain drives pellets into our corrugated roof.

Below are some photos we took last week at Beijing's highest restaurant (Atmosphere Bar). It is part of only a very small handful of places you can go in Beijing to see a city outlook.

The view over Beijing

Looking Northward (can you see the tall factories)

On Tuesday and/or Wednesday's, if the weather is fine, we will visit a new park in the city for some outdoor activity. We like to get out exploring new parts of the city as much as we can! Whether it is a park, lake, historical sight or tourist attraction we are knocking them off our list!

Our local coffee joint

Breakfast from seven11

First stop however is always the local bakery for a coffee (mmm... roast hazelnut coffee) and breakfast or the seven11 across the street for some sushi!

Jogging the 10km track at Beijings Olympic Park

Beijing's Olympic Park

We usually will buy lunch downstairs from us at a local restaurant which are below our building (salad and rice, beef noodles or dry egg fried noodles are our favourite!). We also try to make a trip to the supermarket on the weekend to stock up on groceries for the week like eggs and veges.  If our budget allows it we also might venture to an expat food shop that specialise in international food. We might get a little treat of some Australian red wine, cheese or our favourite: olives! Mmmmmm.

Mix salads (eaten with rice)

Watching the subway come in

We find that during our weekend we spend quite a bit of time on public transport (2yuan per ride or AUD20c). Going to and from the parks of course!

One of the advantages of taking our weekend on Tuesdays and Wednesdays is that we miss most of the peak subway traffic!

Sunset over Ciqikou

Depending on the weather (it is VERY hot here!) and the air quality we usually end the weekend with a stroll around our neighbourhood stopping at the 'local' for 'leno ji dan' dumplings or stay in and cooking veges and rice for dinner!

Playing in the rain on the balcony

So our weekends aren't full but we are busy. Our most important thing is to relax and have fun after such tiring weeks. We love and appreciate having the time each week to explore more of China in a no-rush (backpack free) way!

Tot siens,
John and Kara

A trip to the Summer Palace, Beijing, China

Paddle boats on lake Kunming, Summer Palace

It was a beautiful warm and sunny Wednesday when we ventured to Beijing’s Summer Palace. 

The air was clear, a little overcast and perfect for a stroll around one of Beijing’s biggest attractions (720 acres), which is located 15km North West from the centre of Beijing.

Some of our colleagues have ventured there in the spring and had highly recommended it (along with our Beijing guide citing it as in the top five Beijing attractions!)

Around the man-made river there are many shops

So we made the subway journey north with our backpacks over-full with water and sunscreen feeling prepared for the 38 degree day! After arriving and joining the masses for tickets we wandered (map-less) into the Beijing's Summer park. Construction of the Summer Palace began in the year 1121 with the building of the Wang Hill Palace by Emperor of the Jin Dynasty.

John in front of a palace

In later years imperial gardens blossomed and the area was re-named ‘Garden of Clear Ripples’ as the current emperor built a whopping, giant man-made lake (about 520 acres) in the middle of the garden. As you do! All the excavated soil was piled and packed down then named Longevity Hill which is bejeweled with a number of grand buildings (the cloud-dispelling hall, Temple of Buddist virtue, Sea of Wisdom temple and the Tower of Buddist Essence).

A boat venturing off between the water lilies

As we pumped it up the old stone steps of Longevity Hill it got hotter and hotter, the dry heat made it hard to breathe. But we continued, as we were on a mission to find the ancient ruins often talked about. 

The Summer Palace has suffered two major attacks – during the Anglo-French invasion of 1860 and during the Boxer Rebellion (8 allied groups) in the 1900s. The garden was torched and many stone building destroyed. Since the destruction, the palaces have been under restoration. 

Just posing in front of a small tree

After a few hours we started to get quite tired and hungry – but still no ruins! We walked around the big lake, up and down small little paths, stopped for a sausage on a stick and climbed the multitude of unsightly tall bridges before John mentioned he thinks it was in another location- at the OLD Summer Palace!

Pretty between the flowers

After remembering that we actually live in a modern age, the GPS on our phones told us the Old Summer Palace was not far away - another 1.5kilometers to the west. So we exited the park and walked west stopping for a small lunch of local cold (but very spicy) rice noodles. 

Was this an ancient bridge?

We got into the Old Summer Palace park but couldn’t see any ruins! After walking over 12km in the heat and in our jandals we were exhausted, our legs ached our stomachs were grumbling and we had reached the end of our water supply.

Perhaps only through sheer stubbornness (on Kara’s behalf) we continued on, driven by the fact that after looking for these ruins for over 6 hours, surely we must stumble on them sometime soon??

Another 3km later winding around small lakes and over hills we found the ruins, behind a large fenced off area with a women demanding a ticket. Doh! Somehow we had missed the ticket office and had entered the main park unknowingly, without a ticket. 

This would have been a beautiful fountain

After some negotiation and an exchange of money, we entered the special area and explored the ruins of the Old Summer Palace.

Exploring the ancient ruins

The Old Summer Palace known as Yuan Ming Yuan (the gardens of perfect brightness) and its surrounding park cover an area five times the size of the Forbidden City (or eight times the size of the Vatican City). 







The existing ruins and remains of western mansions and 18^th century European palaces, fountains and gardens were built by the Qianlong Emperor. The beautiful buildings were destroyed in 1860 during the second opium war. 

Not much left of these buildings

We didn't stay long, after a few photos our legs cried for fear of the additional 2km walk back to the subway so we slowly and painfully stumbled to the closest subway and headed home. It was a beautiful day and we felt so lucky to be outside enjoying China's fresh air with the other 38,000+ people enjoying the park that day!

Tot siens,
John and Kara

(a little more nature below).

A local butterfly resting its wings. 

Caught just at the right moment

The surrounding park had stunning flowers

A little on the language barrier......

In China, we have the opportunity to see all sorts of interesting and funny things. Here are some examples we want to share..... (all in the name of a good giggle). Enjoy!

That will be tasty :) 

You mean toilet right? Just checking.... 

Chase what? 

The mountain sees me?....

Keeping head in

Hope those monkeys can read.

Right on the grammar huh?

Hahahahahahahaha!

Did I flush in time?

That's super cool!

You should see what they make next door.... 

Seems legit. 

Ok.... lost me here. 

That's beautiful :) 

A visit to Huang Shan, Anhui Province, China

Ellen and Helen on the bus towards Huangshan

This blog centers on our recent four night and three day trip to Huangshan in the Anhui Province over the Chinese Dragon Boat festival weekend. 

A quick break stop

As China's most famous mountain range, Huangshan is as spectacular as the guidebooks promote and as the old legends suggest!

Based in the hot and humid southern region of China, Huangshan was imperially named China's "yellow mountain" around 750AD. Our handy guidebook told us that Huangshan is rock that was once under the sea and was uplifted then eroded away over time by glaciers. This has created a very craggy type rockface.

Delicious fishy and sour tasting tofu

Now with over 15 million vistors each year the mountain sees its fair share of tourists. We decided to head there before it got too hot, before the tourist season picked up but also because it was a long weekend for us! China celebrated June 2nd with a national holiday "the dragon boat festival".

To get to the mountains was a bit of a mission. Thankfully Ellen and Helen agreed to join us and then did quite a significant part of the organisation and prep work. We helped them prepare the right attire! 

A small fish pond in the mountains

To get to Huangshan we first went to Nanjing the capital city of Jiang su Province via a 12hour fast train - Nanjing was also the capital of China for 6 dynasties and the name translates to south capital. 

From Nanjing it was a short 4 hour bus trip to Yun Hai, Tang Kou village based in the foothills of Huangshan. 

Catching the long distance buses in China are really quite a horrid experience. The driver is 'the boss'. 

Sometimes (like our particular bus) your unlucky enough to get a 'boss' who enjoys chain smoking the length of the trip and no one dears open a window to let the hot outside air in. 

John taking a break on the way up

After arriving and settling down at a local hotel, we toured the village (which specialises in tea) on foot before enjoying a dinner of some surprisingly delicious local fishy and sour tasting tofu (which comes recommended by the President... or so they say). Hmm... 

The following morning we were up at 6am and after consuming our 5 yuan breakfast of pickled vegetables, black tea eggs (eggs boiled in salty tea for 48hours) and sweet bread we boarded a government bus to take us to the mountain entrance.

The first part of our hike was predictably all up hill!! The mountainous park has over 60,000 steps carved into the hillside and for the first several hours we walked and walked then climbed and climbed quite a few of them. 

Chinese pine tree- like a large bonsai

The forest and tropical bush was just stunning, with such greenery and an array of different fauna. We saw wild squirrel and birds and not long after wild monkeys! 

Actually they were the biggest monkeys we had ever seen and they weren't happy monkeys! (Think small gorilla). 

We were terrified! They were probably after our food so when Kara said grab your food (that was dangling in plastic bags off our backpacks) to everyone, Ellen panicked and dropped hers!!! John saved it, but after that we didn't stop to take photos, we bolted. Looking back now it's a little funny imagining four grown adults sprinting away (upstairs) from potential man eating monkeys. 

When the fog rolled in

After a few hours as we neared the top a huge fog rolled in. A thick, wet and humid fog. Our visibility dropped to only several meters and it remained like that for the rest of the afternoon.

The fog made the mountain feel very mystical and spooky because you could see it wisping around trees and because the undercurrent was warm. You can see in the picture how thick the fog was! It did make the mountain views somewhat bland, actually all we could see was white! 

We can't really be sure of whats behind John

As we climbed, after another hour we got to (as the sign pointed out) the best photo spot on the mountain, however all we saw was white... spooky, spooky white nothing. 

The fog slowly dissipated in the late afternoon and we did manage to get in a few better snaps. 

In fact it was really quite magical, with the low hanging clouds and the beautiful green of the trees. 

As we toured the mountains we travelled with two maps. An English version and a Chinese version. 

Standing beside a Tiger pine

It was an absolute hoot reading all the translated names. 

We visited 'falling rock from sky, trutle peak, the flower grown out of a writing bush rock, bookcase peak, fire old men peak and the place of immortal drying boot'.

Beautiful view down the gully

John taking a moment to admire the view

We spent the night at the top of the mountain in what was advertised as actually a fancy pansy four star hotel. In reality it was small 8 dorm bed room but it had hot showers. 


Frankly, we were all so nackered after 10 hours hiking and after consuming a bowl of instant noodles, it didn't matter. We all crashed out by 8pm. 

Morning sunrise at 5.10am

Early the next morning we woke (at precisely 4.30am) and in the dark, with a herd of people, climbed up a small hill peak to watch the sunrise. As the sun neared the horizon a very large number of tourists congregated on a very small flat rock cliff to take photos... and then more people came... and then more. 

We remember one particular women who was so insistent on getting to the front to take the clearest photos that she was willing and attempted to push people out of her way (never mind the steep cliff face). Considering most people hadn't had breakfast and were tired, her behaviour didn't go down well.   

This aside, it really was wonderful and it was our first sunrise in China.... in case you are wondering, the sun rises very early and is always up and about long before us.

Our second day wasn't any easier than our first day. After our early start we returned to the hotel (slash dormitory) packed up and headed off. 

The first stop was Huangshan's highest peak 'Lotus Peak' shaped like a the lotus flower, fortunately for us the passsage was closed off for maintenance. For if it had been open and we had climbed it, there is no way we would have made it to the summit of the second mountain peak 'Celestial Peak'. 

Celestial peak is renowned for being the steepest mountain to climb and it was literally 1km of small steep, steep uphill (no winding, no turns, no breaks- just up!). John (perhaps slightly dehydrated?) counted each step and after 1050 steps we reached a narrow (and what we thought was the top) summit. 

Morning view from the hotel

But it wasn't and we kept climbing up and up! Before hitting a just-as-steep (if not steeper and more narrower) downhill climb. 

We really missioned it up however and made excellent time. The downhill through the gully was very relaxing as we passed through temples and saw several small waterfalls. We saw one more monkey but he seemed friendly. 

We were lucky to return back in plenty of time and had a very late lunch at the hotel in Tang Kou village. 

She's on top of the world!

John then left his phone behind and realised on the bus back to Nanjing. Eek. We spent three hours in Nanjing exploring the city and jumped on our second overnight and surprisingly peaceful train to Beijing at 9pm! 

Steep lookout -we climbed up here!

Tot siens,

John and Kara

(a few more adventure photos below)

John by 'the falling rock from the sky'

A step 1km climb!

Climbing, climbing, climbing

On top of the world- well on top of celestial peak!

Looking back up the gully