China!

Over the Eid vacation we took a quick getaway to Beijing! And we loved it. Beijing really covered the whole spectrum of things to do, from really old, cool historical places to fun markets to top-notch international shopping. It’s a huge city! And seems to have everything on offer.

Coming from Bangladesh, as usual, things seemed organized and clean. Still, we were surprised and impressed with how easy it was to get around. The metro was well-signed in English, major landmarks had signs on the street and there were street maps everywhere. I suspect in large part this came about due to the Olympics, but we found it quite easy to get around. Spoken English on the other hand – not so much. We were told to get cards for places we wanted to go (i.e. our hotel) and show them to taxi drivers. This also worked for metro stops and other locations – we couldn’t communicate with the driver, but if we pointed to where we wanted to go on the map, or to the address written in Chinese in our guidebook, they could usually get us there. Most restaurants had picture menus with English as well, so we just pointed to what we want, and usually got the right thing. All in all, we got along, saw a ton of cool stuff, and generally had a great time.

An unsurprising observation: China is quite large. We were totally wiped out by all the walking we did! With so much to see and do, and a metro to conveniently get you there, we were on our feet most of the day. Conveniently enough, they also have Starbucks, which provided a good excuse to sit for a while.

and the Lama Temple.

At the Wall!

Despite what this picture might imply, English signage was abundant.

The Forbidden City.

The Summer Palace

Also at the Forbidden City.

A main shopping district.