Beihai Park

This week was very long: we actually had seven straight days of class to make up for the time we had off for National Day (the week I went to Shanghai). By Friday, I was so ready for the weekend that I pulled “a Chris” and skipped class. I slept in and then headed to 北海公园 Beihai Park located in the center of Beijing behind the Forbidden City.

Beihai Park is smaller than the Summer Palace but it would be easy to spend a day wandering around temples and pavilions, not to mention hanging out by the lake. Our admission ticket included entry to 永安寺 Yong An Temple. The temple grounds contains several pavilions and (surprise) a Buddhist temple, but my favourite part is a large rock formation which contains a grotto that houses several Buddha statues and has colourful murals on the wall.

Beihai Park pictures are here.

However, we cut the visit short to head back to Wudaokou. We had other concerns at hand: Chris, Craig, Puja, and I are hiking the Great Wall tomorrow and need to gear up with food and water, arrange transportation to the wall, oh and of course, get a good night’s rest.

After a trip to Wal-Mart and a bite to eat, we headed to the South Gate of BLCU where plenty of drivers linger on Friday nights hoping to earn the business of students heading out to bars and clubs in Sanlitun or Houhai. We wanted an early start the next morning so the plan was to find a driver, arrange transportation to and from the Wall and negotiate a price for the day. This was surprisingly easy: the first driver we approached was friendly, immediately recognized the hike we wanted to do, and knew the dropoff and pickup points. He was so pleasant that we didn’t even bother bargaining down his price of 500 RMB (60 USD) for the day - which seems perfectly reasonable considering the 3 hour drive to reach the section we wanted to hike. So that’s settled! We head out 6am tomorrow morning towards our adventure on the Great Wall.