Day 3 – Last Day in Beijing

As NON-lightweight teenagers, the day started at 6:00 (15 minutes early) to pack our suitcases and go down to breakfast. After this, we checked out of the Rainbow Hotel and headed to the Summer Palace, where past emporers and emporesses stayed in the summer as this is a colder area of the city. We walked through the longest walkway in the world (700+ metres) and followed singing up a hill where we were greeted with a whole chorus of chinese people joined together singing and dancing.

Following this we took a boat across the lake to the other side of the island where there was a bridge that had nine arches, as this was the last emporer’s favourite number.

After a long morning, we went to another authentic Chinese restaurant where we ate spring onion pancakes, lotus roots as well as Natasha’s birthday cake!

We then went to a tea-tasting session where we tried fresh Oolong, lychee and rosebud, fruit and jasmine teas.

Next, we took the coach to Tiananmen square and the Forbidden city which was filled with guards! We saw where emporers lived and the first railway station in Beijing (in Tiananmen square). We saw 300 year old trees and beautiful gardens.

After the long walks around this area, we were taken to the Pearl market where you could buy lots of fake brands… Luke M bought a ‘Louis Vuitton’ bag and he was completely ripped off as it was rubbish! We were later taken to the train station where we picked up a subway sandwich and got on the overnight train to Xi’an. Happy Easter and goodnight!

Blogged by Katie Reed