Beijing: The City of Love

Editor's Note: Apologies for the chronological gap. The blog post dedicated to the week of scuba diving with Sophie and Grace in Indonesia is forthcoming. In the meantime I figured I would keep the readers entertained. 

After spending almost a full month in Indonesia I hopped on four consecutive flights to meet up with my girlfriend Julia in the romantic beating heart of Asia: the People’s Republic of China. In particular, Beijing.

Julia and I reunited for the first time in almost four months in the lobby of our fancy hotel - The Fairmont. We loved the Fairmont so much.

Luckily Julia is also a major proponent of the wander and eat travel strategy, so we did exactly that. We started with this delicious folded savory crepe pork situation. My first bite of food in China and it was fantastic. An auspicious start to my two and a half weeks in this country.

Next up - noodles and pork. At this point Julia began to question "are you really about to take a photo of me eating every single thing on this trip?" Yes, yes I am.

Next up - dumplings! The hand folded freshly steamed dumplings with vinegar and chili crisp were a confirmed flavor bomb. China was rapidly climbing the power rankings for best food of the trip and it was only day one.

Please stop taking photos of me and the food.

We took a break from the food to check out another one of China's strengths: technology. This car has reclining seats that can massage you while you watch a movie on the massive projector. It also is fully self driving. And it costs $45,000. America may be cooked.

Then we went back for more dumplings.

I can't believe I flew across the Pacific Ocean to put up with this for eight days.

The next day we set out for the Great Wall of China. In true China fashion, we encountered strong resistance when we explained we wanted to walk up to the wall instead of taking the cable car. We were given a range of time estimates, some suggesting it may take as long as an hour and a half for this athletic endeavor.

It took us fifteen minutes.

Not only was there resistance to climbing up to the wall, some seemed averse to walking along the wall as well, hence this storefront selling literal bionic legs that you can attach to your body to make walking easier. Maybe America isn't so cooked after all.

We reached the wall, and it was even cooler and more impressive than I expected. I am putting it above the Pyramids of Giza in my Wonders of the World power rankings.

We wandered along the wall for a couple hours. I of course attempted a few artsy shots.

Later that day Julia and I swung by the Bain Beijing office, since we will both be working at Bain starting some time next year (Julia in New York, I will be in Boston). They kindly gave us a tour of their three conference rooms and working area. They also gave us free tea (no I am not holding a bottle of my own urine).

We celebrated our successful Great Wall of China day with some fresh Peking duck. This also achieved flaborbomb status.

And then we topped it off with some buns from our favorite dumpling shop.

We started our second and final full day in Beijing with of course more buns and dumplings from our prized local shop. For those counting at home, this is visit number four.

Just look at that stack of steamers and handmade dough.

We headed off to the Forbidden City for some more tourist sightseeing.

I tried to convince Julia to rent some traditional attire, but she was not interested.

The buildings throughout the sprawling complex were fantastic.

Our next stop was Tiananmen Square. We made it past three checkpoints until we learned that we needed to make an online reservation at least one day in advance. Tough.

I did take this picture on the way out. This is the Beijing hotel. In 1989 out of one of these rooms an AP photographer named Jeff Widener took the famous "Tank Man" photo. I am using a VPN to get around China's Great Firewall to write and post this. If the blog goes radio silent and I don't make it out of China then blame NordVPN.

Before we left Beijing we went to our local dumpling shop for a fifth and final time.

Julia and I then set off to see Tiananmen Square attempt #2. Armed with proper reservations, we made it through four different security checkpoints.

Unfortunately the lines moved so slowly that after an hour we had to leave before passing the fifth checkpoint so as to not miss our train.

We caught some views of Mao's face and the famous monument on the way out though, so it was not all for naught.

Then it was high speed train time to travel around 1,200 kilometers in six hours to Nanxun, the next stop on our China tour.

We passed miles of farmland interspersed with factories, power plants, and dystopian apartment complexes.

And so our time in Beijing, and our first dance with China, came to an end. Beijing was a surprising blend of security checkpoints and literal constant camera surveillance mixed with booming capitalism and displays of opulence (see the Lamborghini below). And of course fantastic food. I guess that is just China.