Author: Maren Hanetho

with guide

The forbidden city build from 1406 – 1420.

After going through a lot of checkpoints we came to a massive queue. And our guide told us its like this every day. Of course everybody wants to go to the forbidden city.

The tour operator had booked the tickets, but since they are linked to our name – we have to show our passports to get them and pay. We got money from the guide – and me and Maren voulenteered to stand i Line to get tickets (the guide was not allowed, we where not on a tour.. if anyone asked) So – 1,5 hour in line, 13 passports. 🙂

From the outside it looks very splendid. And amazingly buildt in only 12 years, predomanatly in wood.

The moat that surronds the forbidden city is beautiful and about 50 meters vide.

Our guide getting our gear ready, we all had earpices, so we could hear her even if we were lagging or trailing behind in the group.

And lagging behind was not hard to do – she moved at great speed, walking speed only beaten by the talking speed. I think she drew her breath at 08:00, and just kept going on a single breath until 12:00. 😀

The forbidden city is huge, there is no way one can se it all in one day. It is mindblowing that this huge luxurious area in the middel of Bejing was forbidden for anyone but the emperors and their family for 600 years. Trespassing was punishable by death. And it takes a looong time to walk around.

It has been open for the public since 1924 and it is supercheap to get in. It has somewhere between 15 – 20 million visitors annually.

It got a bit crowded at times, but still well worth it. Its one of those places you just have to se.

While the South Korean people have a very spesifc exprience linked to the Hanbok rental. The Chinese are more limitless. You can rent you Hanfu for 24 hours and do whatever you like. Which makes it a collective experince and fun for all of us.

We went to visit the art zone, and it was a super cozy, highly creative and fun. We spent hours here. And we could have stayed a couple of days in these creative spaces without sering everything. Among cool museums, there were small atliers and shops. We found a DIY atelier, were you could buy the supplies and rent a small workbench and tools. There were selfdriving snacktruks and old industrial buildings turned into artspaces.

We found small cafés with amming food and even a prize winning brewery.

It was a bit of a metro ride to get here but we are super peoud of our metro skills.

Hear me out. I know Lego is a Danish brand. And I been to Legoland several times, but this store was FUN. Cool exibit pieces, a massive colletion and a huge selecton of Lego by the wheight. You could make your own figures. And all at a price cheaper than in Denmark and original. So if you love Lego like I do, its well worh a visit. Even though it feels a bit like cheating. Travel half way around the world to see Lego….you know what I mean. But next stop is a hip Chinese art district, so I figured I had 30 minutes to spare. I made myself a Lego man, and bought 2 premade just bcause they were super fun and I have never seen so much accessorizes for the Legowomen/man.

Last night as we were walking to our hotel we noticed a huge line and was very curious. It was a small hole in the wall with cold drinks and ice cream. Everybody walked away the same green ice cream. Today as we were walking by, there was just a few people in line. So Maren decided to give it a try. You could chose green tea or jasmine. I chose Jasmine, it it was super light, melting on your tounge, like a cross between slush and soft ice. It was super good and only cost 15 kr. I will defenetly go back and taste green tea.

Saturday is shoppingday! We first went to the Silk market which turned out to be more like a fancy depatment store. If you want the famous brands more reasonbly priced this is the place to be. We were more in the mood for a marked. So after looking around here moved on to the Pearl marked.

Pearl Marked was a super fun and intense marked. With everything from Electronics to clothes. We have done a little reaserch and haggeling is expected. And that you can get things at 70% under the asking price. We got a lot of presents here and Trond is a master at haggeling. The experience was so intense so we have no pictures from inside the store. But it was super fun and if you get the chance, derenetly give it a try. The locals think its fun when you haggel with them and all of them was intrested in communicating even if they didn’t know english. We used googel traselate a lot. We had to take a break after some serious shopping, super happy with the experience and our loot. We were also planning how to get our loot to Norway.

We feel very assimilated now, and Maren was super proud when one of the staff asked if she was part chinese.

We did a little research and found the place that the Internett belived to be the best Peking duck in Bejing. Jingzun Peking Duck Restaurant 京尊烤鸭店 It was truly amazing and the best duck we have tasted. In addition till the traditional way. They also served the crispy skin as sushi bites. Very nice,

we made it, we are in Bejing. The flight went well and we the airport was very efficient. But when we came to the ATM it was not running. And it was the only one. The cabs didn’t accept cards. And we didn’t have internet to use Alipay. We were lucky and a cab driver who were willing to drive us to a ATM found us.

Bejing baby, its going to be an adventure.