Wow, I don’t even know how to start talking about my month in Beijing. The short version is: we were in Beijing for a month and all we saw was the Great Wall. The longer version is that we were so busy seeing people and eating food that in the end, we only had one free day left for sightseeing, so we picked to go to the Great Wall.
Visiting Beijing is not just traveling to another city. It’s a homecoming. This is the city I was born in and the city where my mom’s side of the family still resides. This is the city where my mom’s very best friends – my unofficial aunties who watched me grow up – also live. This is where my life began, where my earliest memories are formed, and where I’m always welcomed and loved.
And thus, visiting Beijing has never been about seeing the sights, and instead, is more about spending time with the people. This, however, was D’s first time in the city as an adult (he visited once when he was 8 and doesn’t really remember anything), so I found myself caught between seeing my people, showing D the city, and making time to work.
(Oh, and add about a week’s worth of down-time due to an impromptu Lasik eye surgery.)
Before coming to Beijing, I had a list of all of famous sites I wanted to take D to. Must-sees like the Forbidden City, Summer Palace, etc. A whole month will be plenty of time to hit up everything, I thought. But in between seeing people, my surgery, and D coming down with a slight cold, by the end of the month, the only site we managed to get to was the Great Wall.
So what exactly did we do with our month? We…
Introduced D to my family
The last time I was in Beijing was 5 years ago. This time, I came back with a boyfriend by my side. I give D props for speaking Mandarin (even if it was poorly) and taking all their food offerings (even if he was bursting) and they all loved him for it. :)
Stuffed our faces with Grandma’s home cooked meals
Mom, your cooking is good, but there’s nothing like grandma’s home cooked dishes. Despite eating at some more pricey restaurants in Beijing, the best meals I had were all when I went over to my grandma’s for dinner. There’s still nothing like your favorite childhood dishes!
Had lunch with my aunties
No visit to Beijing is complete without seeing my unofficial aunties. As always, they are way too generous when taking us out to eat.
lunch at the very fancy and very expensive Da Dong restaurant
the best dumplings in the city!
And of course, we looked at old pictures and couldn’t help but recreate one!
left: my mom, her friends, and 1 year old me // right: the four of us 27 years later
Reunited with D’s long lost cousin
Turns out, I wasn’t the only one who had family in Beijing. D found out that his aunt (mom’s older sister) and cousin, both of whom he hasn’t seen in 20 years, are also long term city locals. And what’s even more… his cousin, Alex, lived practically around the corner from our rental in Sanlitun.
We were fast friends with Alex as he and D are around the same age. We usually don’t meet too many people on our travels, so it was really fun to have someone to go out with once in a while. Alex gave us an excellent introduction to the Beijing nightlife scene. There was definitely one night where way too many drinks were consumed.
Alex (middle) with his cousin on his dad’s side (left) and cousin on his mom’s side (right)! And with our bartender of the night.
We also met with D’s aunt, but unfortunately forgot to get a picture together. After a great conversation over lunch, I was convinced that D is basically a younger, male version of her.
Got pampered with a day at the baths
When we first moved to Pennsylvania, one of my mom’s best friends (from the dumplings picture above) put us in contact with her family in same city. If not for them, our years in PA would have been a lot more lonely (and maybe even Santa-less). Since then Uncle Shen (as we call him) has remarried and moved back to Beijing. It was nice to see with him again after all these years and to meet his new wife.
They invited us out to a day at the thermal baths. This is apparently a popular activity for Beijing’s retired population. A day pass at the spa not only includes entry to the baths but also to the elaborate lunch and dinner buffet. We were very well fed and pampered that day.
us ladies in our spa outfits. my cousin (from dad’s side) from Shanghai even came to join us!
us with Uncle Shen, his new wife Auntie Yang, and my mom
Attempted to see the Beijing peach blossoms
Beijing’s peach blossoms are very locally famous and can be considered on the same caliber as Netherland’s tulips or Japan’s sakuras. So one very early morning, we piled into my aunt and uncle’s car to make the 1.5 hour drive out there. Unfortunately, when we arrived, most of the blossoms had already died, but we did see a few trees with flowers still hanging on.
The peach blossoms were a disappointment, and so the next day, we made up for it and…
Visited the tulip fields!
Am I in Beijing or am I in the Netherlands?! Last year when D and I were in Holland, we didn’t go to see the famous tulips, but now we got to see them just outside of Beijing (at the International Flower Port). I can always count on my aunt and uncle to bring us to interesting places that normal tourists don’t visit.
Ate A LOT of food
I gained so much weight in Beijing and I attribute it to too much good food and everyone overfeeding us (though a lot of it is self-incurred too). Among the most memorable:
I must include Da Dong, probably the fanciest meal I’ve ever had!
my aunt and uncle took us to eat lamb hotpot – a Beijing classic!
I also went to a Japanese teppanyaki for the first time ever (thanks to my aunt and uncle again, of course)
and of course, my grandma’s food! here, we are eating spring rolls (think Chinese burrito)
Got impromptu Lasik surgery
I already wrote about how this impromptu decision was made. I plan on doing a detailed post all about my experience soon! This took me out of action for a few days, where I did nothing but listen to audio books and nap. 
Petted a giant panda!
One of my mom’s best friend’s son now works at the Beijing Zoo… in the panda house, no less! He seriously has my dream job! I may never get to be a panda caretaker, but I can visit them and even get to pet + feed a baby panda!
I seriously wanted to bring him home! He was just like a big puppy!
And finally, saw the Great Wall
Finally 2 days before we were due to leave, we made it to the Great Wall! My aunt and uncle took us to the Simatai section (a less touristed one) and truly, on a weekday, there were barely any other people. Words completely fail me and I will probably have a post coming up with just 50 pictures from the Great Wall, but for now, here’s a sneak peak!
After coming down from the Great Wall, we all headed to my grandma’s house for our send-off dinner. We gorged on a delicious spread of dumplings and my favorite home-style dishes. We talked about how fast the month flew by.
“That’s too bad that you guys didn’t see any of the important things,” my uncle said.
“What are you talking about?” I replied. “We did all of the most important things.”
We spent a lot of time with family. We reunited with long lost relatives. We visited a couple of local sites. We experienced Beijing night life. And of course, we ate a ridiculous amount of food, both expensive and cheap. And we even got to pet a panda!
I can’t think of anything I missed. :)
What! You never went to a teppan yaki before? They are all over SoCal!
Believe it not, never once! I was surprised to find out that it’s just as expensive in Beijing!
OH MY GOODNESSSSSSSS. You fed a panda. You can die now knowing that you lived a fulfilled life.
Haha but actually, you make Beijing look amazing! I have to admit, it’s not #1 on my travel bucket list– but I really like your snapshots! :)
I KNOW!!! Hehe! I still can’t stop squealing at my panda pictures!!
I think Beijing maybe seems intimidating to people. If I didn’t have family there, it would definitely have been a very very different experience. Having locals to show you around is always the best!
Love this post!! Family always comes first before sightseeing, especially if you’re visiting your hometown. Traveling to a city where you have family is always the best, because of the reunion and simply the experience of living life the way your family does and getting a taste of that. I think you captured your reflections so well in this post.
Can’t wait to hear more about your Great Wall trip! Your grandmas cooking looks awesome and I love that recreated photo oh you and mom and the aunties. Cute!
I would have had such a different experience if I didn’t have family there! And I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much at all. Having family in a city is the best!
The Great Wall was soooo gorgeous and I seriously can’t even think of words to adequately describe it, so it really may be just a bunch of pictures, lol.
Also I’m totally jealous you got to feed a panda. I went to ocean park in HK hoping to see them but the park closed and I missed it. Argh!
Awww!! That’s too bad :(. I’m guessing that you don’t have a panda in a zoo near you, huh. Petting the panda was definitely a highlight!
I don’t know if I’ve ever been more jealous of anyone for doing anything….feeding/petting a panda is literally a lifelong dream of mine! x
Hehe petting any baby wild animals is a huge dream of mine!! You can plan to come to Beijing next year at the same time I’m there ;) x
This sounds amazing! It’s so cool that you got to visit home and that you both had family in the city. That recreated photo is so cute! Love the tulips and can’t wait to see your photos of the Great Wall! I only spent five days in Beijing when I was in China, and by the end, after seeing all the tourist sites, I was exhausted. My favorite parts were probably just wondering around the city and finding neat things :)
Having family in the city definitely made all the difference. We were able to go to a lot of the locally famous restaurants and it was really fun to actually go out for drinks at night! I think my Great Wall post will probably really just be a photo dump because I can’t come up with words for how beautiful it was!
It definitely sounds like you did all right in Beijing- super curious about where else you’re going/went in China. Eating is always a good idea in that country- God I miss Sichuanese food. It must be so interesting to see the city you grew up in
We’re only doing Beijing and Shanghai (with a quick stop in Shantou to see some people D knows). We wanted to go EVERYWHERE, but it was too much to keep on traveling around. And we signed a 10-yr tourist visa, so I’m sure we’ll be back to China a lot. I really want to visit Sichuan next. I love the food from that region too!
Awww, going back home. It looks like you did alright, yup, alight I’d say. And you’ve got “unofficial” aunties, too! It must be an Asian thing. I have more aunties than I can count! Thanks for sharing home!
Yes! I think the aunties is a very Chinese thing (not sure about other Asian countries). I love that you have them too! They are the best because they just want to feed you!
I’m much like D. I’ve been to Beijing when I was 7 or 8 and I don’t really remember much of what happened when I was there!
And, I don’t think things will be any different had you stayed two or even three months. It is basically home for you, so I doubt you will be given much chance to be a tourist there.
We could have seen some more sights, but we were so busy in the first couple of weeks that we both got tired and then D got sick. But we’ll probably go back pretty regularly now that we have a 10 year visa to China!
We went to Beijing, and saw so much, and absolutely love it. We also ate mounds of delicious food. But what I wouldn’t do to trade any of those experiences for one home cooked meal! That’s really the heart and soul of any country :) Sounds like an absolutely amazing month Anna!
The homecooked meals are always so special, and my grandma makes the best. They just taste like my childhood. :) I’m so glad to hear that you loved Beijing! I feel like it doesn’t have the greatest reputation in the travel world.
OMG, I want to do everything/eat everything in this post! Home-cooked Chinese food? Yes! Dumplings? Yes! Hot pot? Yes! Pandas?! YES! ha
The food in China is so good!! I think it was worth gaining some weight for, hehe. And getting to pet a panda was such a highlight! I still can’t stop looking at my pictures!!
Exactly!! That for me is the BEST part, getting to know the family and building memories with them. Sounds like you were right at home, I’m so happy for you guys!! Your family is super cute!
Thanks Isabel! I’m so happy I got to introduce D to my family and show him my childhood home and share our foods. This was our best month of travel yet!
I just found your blog, and I’m happy for you! My husband and I just came back from our own trip around the world after 26 countries and 7 months. Looks like you’ll be going for a lot longer? We were in Beijing last year and had a great time. :) Can’t wait to read more travel posts!
PS. I REALLY appreciated the post you wrote about your internal struggles. That was definitely me for awhile. I hated it whenever people asked “What do you do?” Because…it does feel kinda lame to say, “I’m a writer. I have a blog.” I’d like to say I eventually learned to embrace it, and I sort of did, but never completely.
Jen
http://www.lifeunrefined.com
Thanks so much for taking the time to read and leave a comment, Jen! I went over to your blog and it’s so pretty! I’m looking forward to read through it!
That’s so cool that you guys went around the world!! We’re on a trip for an indefinite amount of time, hehe. But we will be slowing down a lot soon, and probably will be staying in one place for a few months.
I know… seriously, why is it so embarrassing to have a blog?? Like, it’s less embarrassing if you write for an online magazine than if you’re just writing on a blog. But a blog is basically an online magazine where we’re the only editors and content writers, so we should be proud of all our hard work! x
What a month!! Can we just trade places for a little bit, so I can eat all that food. You can make me a few presentations and wear my clothes. I’d offer you my good vision, but you’ve got that sorted ;)
Does his chef hat have to be SO big?!
Where are you off to now??
Yessss you have the cutest clothes… all totally my style! And I wouldn’t mind some Belgian waffles and chocolate for a bit, hehe..
We’re in Shanghai right now for another month, and it’s AMAZING!!! I feel guilty that I like Shanghai more than Beijing, lol. But Beijing will always be the most special to me.
I certainly never associated Beijing with baths and tulip fields! and that part of the Great Wall looks amazing :-) We went to the Mutianyu section, which was also wonderfully quiet and devoid of the huge numbers of tourists I expected to find there (though whether that was more by luck than judgement, I don’t know!) Like you, I took way too many photos up on the wall and could quite easily have spent all day doing exactly that :-)
I went to Mutianyu when I was young! I remember getting a medal at the end that says “I climbed the Great Wall” lol. I definitely appreciated the beauty of the Wall more this visit as an adult!
What a wonderful month in Beijing! The food looks amazing… I don’t blame you for gaining weight! :p Spending time with people is sometimes so much more fulfilling than seeing all the sights. I’m sure you’ll get to take D back in the future and get to see more! That’s so cool about petting the panda!
Oh I definitely gained too much weight there and have been trying to take it off ever since. But it was so worth it! I’m glad I got to spend so much time with my family. It is a more fulfilling experience than seeing sights! We weren’t that upset about not seeing everything because we know we’ll be back. :)
I can’t wait to eat all that food! I’m moving to Beijing in a few weeks and I am pumped. I hope my Mandarin is decent enough to be able to buy fresh veggies everyday, something I also enjoyed while living in Spain. Great post, and excellent photos.