Continuing on to Beijing, China

We left Ulan Bator on a sunny morning, headed out on a 27-hour train ride that would eventually deposit us in Beijing, China.  This would be the final leg of our Trans-Mongolian Railway adventures, and it did not disappoint.

We traveled southeast on a beautiful, cloud-free day and had great views of the scenery and also of our own train as it chugged along the tracks.

We spent the day resting, playing, and just watching Mongolia go by.  

We passed through a different part of the Gobi Desert than we'd visited on our countryside tour.  We saw a few last camels and horses.

And we watched Colin dance…where did he get these moves?

In the evening, we arrived in the small city of Zamyn-Üüd, just before the Mongolia-China border.  Mongolian immigration and customs officials came on the train to clear us to leave the country, which took a while.  Unfortunately it was dark when we crossed over the actual border so we couldn't see it exactly, but it was clear we were in China when we approached the next station (Erlian) and saw dozens of Chinese officials standing at attention, waiting to board our train.  We had passport inspections, had our foreheads scanned (to check for potential fevers, which could indicate something infectious), completed Chinese customs forms……and waited.  And waited.

After being cleared to enter China, the final border crossing stop was the most interesting.  Mongolian train rails are a few centimeters bigger than Chinese train rails, so the train needed new bogies (the undercarriages with the wheels) in order to continue on.  The bogie-changing procedure involved each train car being raised up with a huge hydraulic lift so that Chinese workers could remove the old undercarriages and add new ones.  The train cars were split up amongst several bogie-changing stations, so we were able to see the whole process as cars on either side of us were adjusted.

This video shows the new wheels that would go under our train car.  It was an interesting process to watch.

The border crossing and bogie changing procedures took 6 hours total.  After watching the bogie changing excitement for a while, we all went to bed because it was really late at that point.

When we woke up in the morning, the scenery had changed quite a bit.  We passed some beautiful hills and lakes as we continued on our way to Beijing.

Mid-morning, we arrived at Beijing’s main railway station—the terminus of the Trans-Mongolia Railroad.  We were 6,439 KM/4,000 miles from St. Petersburg, Russia, where our overland travels began.

We made our way to our hotel using the Beijing Subway, which was fast and extremely easy to use.

For this stop, we stayed at the JW Marriott BeijingCentral--definitely the nicest hotel we’ve stayed in so far on this trip.  We enjoyed an upgraded room and access to the executive lounge (Bob’s extensive prior work travels = platinum status perks), as well as their indoor pool.  Definitely no pit toilets here.  My sister, Caitlin, had thoughtfully mailed us a care package that was waiting for us when we arrived.  We were so excited and touched to open it and find peanut butter, American candy, and artwork from Jack!

After resting a bit, the boys happily swam while I coordinated our Chinese train tickets.  September is still a busy travel season in China, so I wanted to get our tickets purchased as soon as possible.  That evening we headed out to explore some of Beijing's hutongs.  Hutongs (alleyways) are small streets filled with homes, shops, restaurants……and, in this area, lots of people.

We were having trouble finding a place to eat that wasn’t packed, so we had to stop for a snack since people were starting to get hangry.  The first thing we found was…churros with ice cream?  Nothing says “first night in Beijing” like a churro, I guess.  But it held us over until we could find a quieter street for dinner.

We popped into a small restaurant and picked items from a picture menu.  We didn’t quite know what we ordered, but everything tasted great (including our first Chinese beers).

On the way back to the hotel, we saw (and sampled) these beautiful ice cream creations.

The next day, we headed to the Lama Temple complex.  This is the most renowned Tibetan Buddhist temple in China outside Tibet, and it was enormous.  The buildings were beautiful and it was interesting to see so many people presenting incense offerings and praying.

From there we headed to the Drum and Bell Towers, which were used to tell time in Beijing until 1924.  We climbed the very steep stairs of the Drum Tower first.

At the top, we had great views of the surrounding hutongs and watched a short drum performance. 

Next we climbed to the top of the Bell Tower.

We ended the day with another swim and time to rest at the hotel in preparation for the next day--a visit to the Forbidden City.

The Forbidden City is the largest palace complex in the world, right at the heart of Beijing.  It was the home of both the Ming and Qing dynasties until the last emperor was overthrown in 1912.  The Forbidden City is a “must see” for both foreign and domestic tourists, and it was definitely crowded the day we visited. 

We saw the Gate of Supreme Harmony and the Halls of Supreme, Middle, and Preserving Harmony (lots of harmony going on in the Forbidden City).  The halls were used for various ceremonies, examinations, banquets, and other events by the emperors. 

We saw these huge copper vats, which were filled with water to use for fighting fires.

We also saw this 250 ton stone marble imperial carriageway.

We visited the Clock Exhibition Hall, which displayed ornate clocks from all over the world.  

Our favorite part of the whole complex was the Imperial Garden, which had beautiful, shady trees and pagodas.  And cool dragons.

Leaving the Forbidden City was a bit confusing and time-consuming, since we mistakenly went back to where we entered, only to realize we could not leave that way.  After quite a bit of walking back and forth, we finally made it out of the massive complex.

We stopped to try a street food that we’d seen vendors selling everywhere….turns out it is a drinkable sweet yogurt and it was delicious!

 Eventually, we wound our way around the Forbidden City complex and towards Tiananmen Square.  

Tiananmen Square is famous for many different reasons.  Physically, it is the largest public square in the world—3 times larger than Red Square in Moscow.  Culturally, it is at the heart of Beijing and all of China because of the important buildings that are situated around and in the square, including Chairman Mao’s Tomb.  Historically, the square has been the site of events that grabbed worldwide attention…one in particular that I vividly remember watching as a 10 year old child.  For all these reasons, standing in Tiananmen Square was exciting, impressive, and sobering at the same time.

This is looking towards the Gate of Heavenly Peace and the Forbidden City while standing at the north end of Tiananmen Square.

This is looking south into Tiananmen Square, towards the Monument to the People's Heroes and Chairman Mao Memorial Hall (Mao's Tomb).

This sculpture is located on either side of Mao's Tomb.

The atmosphere around Tiananmen square was noteworthy.  Access to the square is possible only after passing through a security screening across the main avenue and then crossing underneath it via a tunnel.  From the nearest subway stations and through the entire square there were Chinese soldiers, policemen, and plainclothes officers—most with riot gear and fire extinguishers.  They were stationed about 20 meters apart in every direction.  And security camera after security camera……I have never seen so many security cameras in my life.  This is just one lamp post.

The next day, we took the subway out of central Beijing to the Summer Palace complex.  The Summer Palace is centered around Kunming Lake, which was made by an army of 100,000 laborers in the 18th century.

Bob climbed the Tower of Buddhist Incense and got some great views of the lake and surrounding area.

We walked across the 17 Arches bridge and also took a boat ride.

We walked the Long Corridor, which runs along the lake and is adorned with beautiful paintings.

Much of the Summer Palace was destroyed during the Anglo-French War of 1856-1860.  In 1888, the Empress at the time used money that had been earmarked for naval activities to restore and rebuild much of the Summer Palace.  This marble boat was the only "nautical" thing actually built with that money.

And we had our pictures taken...a lot.  We definitely attract a lot of looks, and it's impossible for us to blend in here.  The boys are loving all the attention from people who want to take pictures with them--adults and children.  This Chinese grandmother came running up to us, so excited to have her grandchild take a picture with our boys.

Compared to the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace is more natural and less crowded.  There were still a lot of people but with the water, trees, and numerous paths it felt less chaotic.  We all really enjoyed our visit there.

We returned into Beijing in time to watch the flag lowering ceremony at Tiananmen Square.  Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau was in town, and so Canadian flags were flying alongside Chinese ones.

Even though we got there 45 minutes early, it was already very crowded...with tourists and also eventually with soldiers and policemen in front of us and also lined entirely behind us.  

Just before sunset, soldiers marched out of the Gate of Heavenly Peace, across the main avenue (traffic is stopped), and into Tiananmen Square.

Here's a short video clip of the ceremony:

As soon as the ceremony ended, police vehicles and soldiers started directing people off the square.  We'd planned to walk through to the other end, but we weren't allowed to pass soldiers like this one:

We eventually made our way back to our hotel to rest up for the next day's exciting trip:  to the Great Wall of China!