Beijing

From the far west of China in Xinjiang province we were off to Beijing via a flight from Urumchi. No train for that journey, as it would have taken 60+ hours, and time was starting to play a factor. We spent 6 days in Beijing in total, one of the longest stretches we have stayed anywhere on this trip. There are a ton of things to see and our days were completely full. Of the few main attractions which we'll include here is the Forbidden City. Below is the entrace and the massive picture of Mao above. The forbidden city itself was huge, and we probably needed more time than we allowed for it, but there was also a lot of construction happening so that stole away from a few of the sites. One of Jillenes favorite buildings in the Forbidden City.Another popular attraction we were glad we took in was the Lama temple. Some of its best features (i.e. it's large buddha) your not allowed to take photos of, so you'll have to go there yourself to verify, or just take our word for it.

We love our gargoyles... or whatevery you call these!
Next is the great wall, a definite must see when in Beijing. There are a ton of sections to see, we chose Simatai and were happy with our selection. It is the one with the most 'climbing' involved, and knowing this means it is a safe bet that it will draw the fewest Chinese tourists - whom mostly don't like to walk up hill unless there is a chairlift and bottled oxygen involved. We had the place more of less to ourselves - but I think the rain may have also had something to do with that!

And finally Canada Day. A memorable one for both of us I assure you. Saturday night we met up with my second cousin Matt whom lives in Beijing and we hit the town ending the night at a bar which was actually having a Canada day party - apparently. You'd never know it, except there were free shots for Canadians and an obscure countdown to Canada Day where balloons were dropped on the entire bar, yet wasn't actually well timed with midnight! Either way it was a fun night.

The next day (Sunday) - the nicest of all our days in Beijing - we headed out with Matt to the actual Canada Day celebration sponsored by the Canadian Consulate. It was a fun day of eating cold hot dogs, drinking Moosehead beer, and playing water balloon volleyball.

The highlight of the day however was the watermelon eating competition. I figured I could take this hands down, but it turns out that I am no match for the Chinese whom have mastered the art of sucking back food in record time without taking a breath. Despite my dismal display and poor representation of our fine country, I thought it was still worth including a few pics. Here is me getting ready...
And me wrapping up just finishing my plat of melon before time expired...