Grand cities- Beijing & Shanghai. Aug 19-24 2015

Beijing

Beijing's the capital of People's Republic of China. Its also the 2nd most populated city in the world. Beijing is one of the four ancient capitals of China and it has 7 UNESCO world heritage sites: Great Wall, forbidden City, Temple of heaven, Summer palace, Ming Tombs, Grand Canal and Zhoukoudian. 

How did we get here: Another dreadful (1) night train  (Hard seat couch, 160 rmb per person booking on C-trip, 12.3 hours ride). to the West train station. From the station we used Beijing's amazing subway system to get to our Hostel.
Sleep: Happy Dragon Courtyard (90 rmb per bed in a 6 bedroom dorm)  the hostel was Ok.
Eat and drink: Spicy snacks- Wow we fell in love with their dishes and sauces, We had a few drinks at Pub 86 and Alt Cocktail.
There's no real street food vendors in Beijing by law the only places that have vendors, cater only to tourists and there really not good :(
Did:
-Forbidden City  (60 rmb entrance fee) we went inside also to the treasure gallery (10 rmb entrance fee). The site is really nice. Here you can see what's the meaning of overpopulated.          
-Tiananmen square-well it's just a really really big square.
-National Museum Of China- (Free entrance) Really nice. We were there when there was a moving -exhibition about shark fins that was really good.
-Great Wall- We started our walk on the wall from the unrenovated side and walked to Mutianyu (the renovated side). I really recommend doing the wall this way.
This is how we did it: Took bus 916 (11 rmb ticket, 1 hour) to Huairou town from there we took a taxi (120 rmb, 1 hour) to Xizhazi Village. You pay an entrance fee of 20 rmb each. from there you need to go from the edge of the town along a path that takes you up to the wall (about 1.2 hours). at the entrance to the wall we paid 5 rmb each to a nice lady to use her ladder to go up the wall it self.  after that we walked up (extreme up) and down (extreme down) the unrenovated part until we reached the renovated part (about 1.1 hours) then we continued down to the upper parking lot (around 1.3 hours). Then you take a Bus (10 rmb each) to the lower parking lot then you switch to a minivan to Huairou town and catch a bus that is heading to Beijing center.
-Going around the narrow streets of Hutong (Including the drum & bell tower)- it's really crowded but worth it.
-Summer Palace (30 rmb for the basic entrance only to the park)- We really enjoyed the walk around the park and felt it was more them enough.
Lama temple- (25 rmb entrance fee Inc free inscens pack)  Has a really nice atmosphere and a beautiful  giant White sandalwood buddha.
Confucius Temple and Imperial College- (30 rmb entrance fee)  nice and there's a free dance show.
Art district 789- really nice place to walk around  pop into a exhibition or buy a few nice things.
Bottom line: GO 

Trying to find the way to the great wall

Confucius Temple Show

Confucius Temple Show

Hard Seat Couch-so much fun

Matching 4#

Matching 2#

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matching 5#

Shanghai

The most populated city by in China and the largest city by population in the world

How did we get here: A nice and easy going night train (339 rmb per person)
Sleep: Blue Mountain Youth Hostel (80 rmb per bed in an 8 bedroom dormitory) the hostel is really good, clean, good location and they "upgraded" us to a double room.
Eat and drink: Sushi express- nice sushi for 6 rmb per plate.
Did: Walking around the Bund during the day and night is really nice (at night time its much more crowded). Shanghai Urban Planing Exhibition hall (30 rmb per entrance) nice place to get a prospective of the city.
Bottom line: If you don't have a flight from here or a business meeting, you defiantly can skip this city.