Beijing: Great Wall, Summer Palace, Olympic Park

The number one reason people visit Beijing is to see the Great Wall. The Wall is thousands of miles long, so you can see it in places other than Beijing. However the Wall is in varying degrees of disrepair and the best maintained portions are near Beijing. The Wall passes through northern Shaanxi province (where I live), and I was tempted by the proximity to go see it there in lieu of Beijing. I asked a dozen of my students from northern Shaanxi and no one knew the Wall passed by their hometowns.

THE GREAT WALL

There are three sections of the Wall in Beijing that are open to tourists. The closest is packed with tourist and the farthest has only a few but it is several hours farther from Beijing than the other sections. I visited the middle section known as the Mutianyu Great Wall. I was pleasantly surprised that this section was not overrun with tourists, especially because it was a holiday in China (Dragon Boat Festival).

Its like it goes on forever

Couldn't you put this telephone pole somewhere else, like not on the Great Wall?

After hours of walking along the Great Wall, there are only two ways to get down that dont involve walking

The toboggan is a very dangerous way to descend from the Wall. That is unless you are stuck behind someone who wont let go of the break, then its just a very boring way to descend from the Wall

SUMMER PALACE

The Summer Palace was built for the emperor during the Qing Dynasty. It's 2.2 square kilometer lake was dug by hand. The excavated dirt was used to build Longevity hill.

The palace complex contains many long covered walkways making it a good place to visit in the rain

Kunming lake is man made and fashioned after the West Lake in Hangzhou

A boat made out of stone? Interesting concept...

OLYMPIC PARK

Arguably the best monumental additions to Beijing since the height of the Qing Dynasty. If you are going to see the Olympic Park, go at night for the lights.

The cube...where Michael Phelps won all those medals

The bird's nest

The Olympic Tourch. Sadly the flame had already left for London.