Jonathan Morof in China: Beijing Days 1 and 2

This past weekend was my trip to Beijing and the Great Wall of China. It was awesome. I will take this day by day:

Day Train: We took the Bullet train to Beijing, which is cool from an engineering standpoint since it uses Magnetic Levitation and goes 300 km/hr. It also only took 4-5 hours, which is why it is so convenient. Finally, we arrived and got to the hostel, which was also a pretty nice Hostel. We were dead hungry when we got to the train station, so we ate there, not in the city.

Day 1: Tienanmen Square and Forbidden City: Very cool area also. Hard to really describe, you just have to go there. Forbidden City is a huge city where a Chinese Emperor would live in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Lots of beautiful buildings and a nice garden area. And...my camera was out of batteries.

Olympic area: We toured around the area that held the 2008 Beijing summer games. For me, this was really special; I love the Olympics, and I thought the Beijing games stood out as one of the best in recent memory. We were able to go into the Birds nest and Water Cube. Again, no camera, but I do have some pictures from my phone, which will upload when I get back to the US. (On August 11th)

We had dinner at a restaurant that served really good Peking Duck. It was awesome and delicious. There was also a dish with bacon wrapped mushrooms (also incredible, we ordered a second plate). And my camera was still out of batteries (warning, I am breaking trends; no amazing food pictures will be included in this post, even though the food was amazing)

Day 2: Summer Palace: Finally my camera was charged! Summer Palace was a HUGE area with lakes, bridges, ponds, and temples. Really really cool area. Proof? I finally have proof!!!:

(Ok, but first, dinner: we were in the mood for Mexican, so we went to a really good mexican restaurant and I had steak for the first time in two and a half months. It wasn't the best steak I've ever had, but it tasted glorious)