Day 27: Beijing

Today was a fabulous day! By far one of my favorite days of the trip.

We woke up early to go to the GREAT WALL! We had to take 2 buses and bargain for a car for a 3 hour journey to Mutianyu, a section of the great wall about 2 hours north of Beijing. Here is what a part of it looked like:We hiked all up and down the wall for 4 hours. There are 13 guard towers on each side of the entry and we pretty much hit them all up. The views were spectacular and the climb was taxing at times but well worth it. Here is a picture of Andrew jumping over Steph. It was also great because the wall was not crowded at all, unlike Badaling (boo), which made for a comfortable climb. Stephanie and I passed as locals at times, with foreigners being wow'ed by our perfect English. The wall was also great because there weren't too many people trying to sell us junk; it was a very peaceful climb. On top of that, the weather cooperated with us and it was cloudy/smoggy and warm but breezy.Here is another picture of me, for the parents:

When we got back to the city, it was around 5 o'clock and we had a reservation for Liqun Beijing Duck at 7 so we headed over there. After a nice walk of getting lost in Beijing we found the famous restaurant that Anthony Bourdain ate at on No Reservations and found out that all the hype was well worth it. IT WAS SO DELICIOUS! We had 1 roasted duck, duck liver, spicy duck boneless wings, and garlic bean sprouts (for 296RMB) and it was one of the best meals I've ever had. It also helped that the people there were super friendly and let us sit down even though we were half an hour late. Here is what our food looked like:The roasted duck was really moist and delicious, everything Anthony Bourdain mentioned, and more. Apparently, the duck is special because they use special fruit wood to roast the duck. Super tasty! I'll have to take Nicole when I get back to Beijing in July. Here's the sign from outside:
After the delicious dinner, which we inhaled since it was our only meal of the day, we walked around Beijing in the area where I had been 2 yrs ago with PLU during jterm, and the fam. It was nice to see all the old familiar stores. We had milk tea at RBT [rabbit] and then headed back home. It was a long but great day! Steph's happy.
-b