China is one of the countries that was in our "Bucket List" for many, many years. Over 10 years to be exact. In April 2017 we decided to visit the beautiful city of Beijing and stayed just five minutes walking distance from "The Forbidden city".
Hotel Kapok (Picture below) was also just a walk away from a modern shopping center with all the main stores we know and love like Zara, H&M, forever 21 and many more.
It was also very close to Wangfujing street, one of the most famous street markets in Beijing. (picture below)
Wangfujing is the destination for all culinary weird things. You can find anything that walks, crawls or swims in the world cooked here. The main dishes are scorpions on a stick, dry seahorses, fried tarantulas, stiff snakes and off course cooked iguanas.
We didn’t know how our kids would react to this culinary shock, but they did great! Innocence is bliss! Us? Well we were... let’s just say we didn’t eat or drink anything for hours, and that night Pizza Hut was heaven considering our stomachs turning and twisting. In our YouTube video we documented this adventure step by step.
Food in general was a problem, specially because of the kids. To our surprise Chinese food in America and Europe is completely different from the actual food in China. The hotel staff was only able to recommend ONE restaurant in the neighborhood, we went and it wasn’t a pleasant experience.
That scared us... and honestly because of fear we ended up eating mostly at the food court of the mall, in places like McDonald’s, Subway, Pizza Hut and other world famous establishments. The only other times we ate out, was during organized tours.
Visiting the “Forbidden City” on our own:
The first tourist attraction we visited was “The forbidden city”. Because it was so close to our hotel we went walking on our own. Big mistake, language is a barrier, neither our English or Spanish got us too far. Sign language and gestures saved us. Also we realized that us westerners and specially the kids were and attraction for the many Chinese nationals visiting from other parts of the country. They wanted to take pictures with us. The kids felt like celebrities.
It was a little scary but soon we felt ok about it, people are very polite and ask, or just snap pictures from far away.
To top our disappointment we could not buy tickets because we had forgotten our passports, TIP: don't forget your passports, you need two forms of identification in order to get your tickets. Additionally! Get ready and try to arrive early in the morning it gets very crowded later in the day. Big recommendation >>> Book a tour with a tour guide, specially if you are traveling with kids. After the first day, we did It and it was a much better experience.
The boys were mega excited about visiting the Giant Pandas and we headed to the Zoo. Something to keep in mind; you have to purchase the entrance to the zoo and pay but a separate ticket just for the Panda exhibition. WOW! It was fascinating to see these black and white creatures in real life. Before this day we had only seen them in cartoons or movies. The experience was amazing for all of us. The boys just kept on talking about Kung Fu Panda the whole time.
But the “Panda House” as they call it, has an ugly side to it. Get ready for people pushing and screaming when the animals decide to move close to the gate, people want to capture the special moment and they forget there are kids around. We had to push and scream not to be run over. Our youngest one was a bit sad, he was not able to see the pandas very clear due to the amount of people at the time, but he settle for a Panda toy.
The Best For Last; The Great Wall of China:
Now I left this part for last because it was absolutely the most amazing part of the trip. THE GREAT WALL, what? I can pinch myself again, yes I was there.
What an experience to visit this wonder with the boys. Many years ago when we used to talk about this trip, kids were not included, but having them along was definitely better than expected. So you might wonder; How did they do it with kids? Simple, we decided to get a private tour to have some comfort with the boys and be on our own time. We highly recommend the “Mutianyu” side of the Wall. Why? You might ask... The answer is simple, you can take a chairlift very comfortably up to the Wall. This side of the great wall is very well preserved and more organized for tourists. Once on top we captured the most magical memories that I'm always, always did a I mentioned ALWAYS going to treasure. Wow!
The way down was very comfortable and definitely something we highly recommend specially with little ones, going down on a toboggan or also known as slide. What can I say, they absolutely loved it.
Our China visit was very memorable. It marked our fifth wonder of the world visited and an unforgettable experience. In the end both of our kids told us, the adventure was both good and bad for them. The language barrier and the constant staring at them without actual communication made them uncomfortable. The places visited and many things they saw made up for it.
A couple of weeks ago I realized our Visa is valid for another ten years. I'm hoping to go back and visit a different region, still undecided if with the kids again or not.
Have a wonderful day and thank you for reading my thoughts and experiences.
Love ,
Sajay
