Beijing (pt. 2)

Day 3, we went out to explore some of the big sights in the city:  Temple of Heaven, Tienanmen Square, and the Forbidden City.  These things took pretty much all day!

temple of heaven

temple of heaven

Tienanmen Gate (Gate of Heavenly Peace)

Tienanmen Square

Forbidden City

Forbidden City

view from the other side of the Forbidden City

When we got to the other side of  the Forbidden City, we started started on about an hour walk towards an area famous for lots of restaurants called Ghost Street.  After dinner, Tony's friend (from elementary school/who has lived in Beijing for 8 years) came to meet up with us and took us to her friend's bar.

a hutong neighborhood

around Dongsishitao

more delicious spinach and buns

yummy eggplant

Day 4, we didn't have an exact schedule so we headed to check out the Olympic Stadium in the morning.  The buildings there were awesome, and I can't wait to see what Korea has in store for Winter Olympics 2018!

Bird's Nest

water cube

tv transmission tower

After snapping some photos of the Bird's Nest etc., we went to the area where the Drum and Bell Towers are located to grab some lunch.  We only climbed to the top of the Bell Tower since the view seemed to be about the same from both.
 

Drum Tower

Bell Tower

hutongs from the Bell Tower

Bell Tower

For the afternoon, we rented a couple bikes to ride around the traditional hutong neighborhoods and the Hou Hai Lake.  After dropping off the bikes, we were off in search of video games for Tony and ended up being directed to another random market which sold everything from fake goods to dog food.  Just as the place was closing down (at 7:30! why?!) Tony started buying a bunch of games.

riding through the hutong streets

frozen lake ice skating

That night we met up with Tony's friend again to eat pizza at her house (which was awesome, nothing like Seoul apartments and super modern).

Finally, the day 5, we had to leave the hostel around 2pm so we only had a little time to go out and explore.  We decided to go to the Wangfujing shopping area where there was also a street food street.

scorpions on a stick

Wangfujing

candy coated strawberries > scorpions

street food