Renee my best friend since forever it seems, got a chance to come and visit me in my last year of Beijing!
Here is a pictorial account of that fabulous week!
DAY 1: THE GREAT WALL AT MUTAINYU
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| Gondola ride up the mountain |
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| The Wall at Mu Tain Yu |
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| Sun and brisk air! Fabulous! |
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| Best Sales person ever! Sold us a beer on the Wall! |
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| Saluting Chairman Mao!! |
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| First Sip!!! |
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| Beer Front and Center! |
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| Peace and Bunny Love |
So this was the best experience ever on the Great Wall. We drove straight up to the top (you cannot do that normally) parked in the first row, and saw maybe a total of 25 people in 2-3 hours! We had to jump on the Wall.. so we did!!
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| Making sure it still stands for years to come |
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| Toboggan ride to the bottom! |
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| Sleeping sentries-- oh no!!! |
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| Chinglish |
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| Not sure when this happened but in the last 6 months! |
We ended the first full day at an English Pub called the Stumble Inn. And walked home amidst the huge fire work stalls and of course Hooters, which is located five minute walk from my house.
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| Yup them be Fire Works |
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| Nails being done! Bunny's painted on! |
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| Go Bunny! |
DAY 2: Jing Shun Park, Forbidden City, Tienanmen Square and Capital M for Lunch!
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| Momma Dragon |
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| Jamming in the park! |
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| Trying not to freeze! |
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| Fabulous doors to back entrance of Forbidden city |
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| Almost caught, but not quite! |
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| Where is Renee? |
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| The progression |
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| Found her! |
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| Peace Baby or is that Bunny Baby? |
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| The boots- waiting for their owners? |
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| Did you find your boots? |
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| Only on China! |
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| I love this shot!!! |
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| Proof we were there! |
DAY 3: ICE BIKING, HOT POT LUNCH AND THEN THE FIRE WORKS SHOW!
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| CAN'T STOP LAUGHING! |
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| Had to have the Panda hat picture!! |
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| You can rent one of these chairs as well. |
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| Keeper of the peace and trash! |
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| Sweet potatoes on the ice yummmm! |
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| This man is sooo cute! |
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| Everyone wants fuzzy muffs, right??? !!! |
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| Hot Pot! |
LATER THAT EVENING: Fireworks in Beijing are hard to explain other than people save up all years to set them off.. There are no government sponsored one, they are all from individual owners.
It is scary and fascinating and just breathtakingly amazing!
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| The reso! |
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| Renee, Jo and me! |
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| The leftovers.. |
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| Shrapnel |
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| Renee amongst it all |
DAY 4 Was spent at home watching a zillion movies and not being able to move very well....ah the joys of getting older!
DAY 5: Temple Fair to celebrate Year of the Bunny at Ditan Park!
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| Traditional Singer |
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| Split pants with a diaper....hummm |
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| Scary Pig.. stall worker..ahh! |
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| Oh the people! Hold on tight! |
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| More fabulous Chinglish |
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| Who knew Bugs would show up? |
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| Working hard! |
Now we end the trip at Black Sesame Kitchen- one of my favorite spots! Where you sit and drink good wine and have a 10 course meal! Renee even got to participate! It was Renee, Jo and I!
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| A redo from Paris days I think! |
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| Chairman Wang- as mentioned in the book we have called Serve the People! |
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| dumplings a la Renee!!! |
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| hair in the dessert! |
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| More Shrapnel... these things are scary!! |
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| Never would be allowed in the US! |
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| paper shrapnel every where- so loud!! |
What a whirlwind week and fantastically fun! Happy year of the bunny!!!
