Our trip to Beijing and Xi’An: Part 2
Table of Contents
In the second part of our Beijing itinerary, I’m going to talk about our visit to the Beijing Zoo, a very nice, local restaurant recommended by my friend, a newly opened Pop Mart theme park, and, lastly, our trip to the Great Wall.
Links to the other parts
The Beijing Zoo
Pandas are the symbols of China and we weren’t able to miss a chance to watch them in their country of origin. At the beginning of the day, we decided to go to the Beijing Zoo. Our hotel was well-located, so the overall trip didn’t take too much time - only about 30 minutes in the metro. The Zoo is located very close to a metro station, so it took us only a couple of minutes to get tickets and enter the place.
Panda-enclosure is the most famous place in the entire zoo, so we immediately went there in an attempt to beat the crowd. I think we succeeded even though the place was rather full of people at the time we were in. The enclosure is big enough and provides a lot of opportunities to observe pandas. From my last trip to China, I still remember that you have to be early enough (before 11) to see pandas awake as they are sleeping the majority of the day. It was a great pleasure to enjoy the cuteness of these animals, to see their playful nature, and to enjoy their clumsiness. We spent about half an hour at the enclosure and continued exploring the rest of the zoo.
The Zoo is a bit run down, but it was still nice to see the other animals, such as giraffes, zebras, a variety of monkeys, tigers, etc. We decided not to go to the oceanarium, as it looked a bit too dilapidated.
Baoyuan Dumplings
The next stop after the zoo was a restaurant recommended by my good friend. The restaurant was in a different part of the city, so it took quite a while for us to reach the place. That’s a traditional restaurant specializing in local dumplings, so we were saving space for the whole day, and it was worth it. The dumplings are not only good-looking but extremely delicious. There are a variety of dumplings and their flavors, so we blindly followed my friend’s recommendation. I don’t remember the exact taste of the items, but I do remember that we left the place very satisfied.
The restaurant name and address:
Suggestion to order:
- 二两饺子
- 五彩茄子
- 炸小黄鱼
- 水煮牛肉
Pop Land: Pop Mart theme park
On the way to the metro, I also spot a couple of statues of Molly, the most famous Pop Mart figure. A quick detour for people, who don’t know what Pop Mart is. That’s a collectible figure that recently became extremely popular in Singapore. The main Pop Mart characters are Labubu, Dimu, Skull Panda, Molly, etc.
Labubu is a mischievous, wide-eyed creature with a playful and cheeky personality; Dimu is a mystical and dreamy character often depicted with elements of fantasy and space; Skull Panda is a unique, dark, and edgy character that mixes gothic and cute aesthetics; Molly is a curious and expressive girl known for her distinct pout and whimsical costumes.
Figures a packed in blind boxes, so you can’t really guess what’s inside before you open the box. It’s common in Singapore to see people trying to identify what figure is inside the box by shaking it. Also, Pop Mart collaborates a lot with various brands and artists, so there is a huge variety of these figures.
My wife wants to visit the park very much, so I can’t refuse. The park reminds me a lot of Snoopy park in Jeju that I described a while ago. It consisted of a various playground with Popmark characters- Plaki, Labubub, Demu, etc. But Plaki and Labubu dominates it. There is a huge Pomart store on the first floor of an artificial castle. The second floor is an event space, but the first floor has an interactive show. The show is a story about how Plaki got her cat. It was nicely crafted and entertaining, so even I enjoyed it. By buying a couple of new figures from the flag store, we concluded that day.
Goose Island
We wrapped up the day in an amazing local brewery - Goose Island Beer Company:
I highly recommend their green tea beer.
The Great Wall
The next day it was another must-have destination in China - the Great Wall. Two pieces of the wall are easily achievable from Beijing - Mutianyu and Jiankou. I’ve been to the first one 10 years ago, and, we also, read that the second piece is less popular due to its reactivity. By Universal Studios’ example, we learned that queues aren’t a joke in China, so we decided to visit the Badaling piece with a tour.
After about an hour’s drive with Mubus, a tour company of our choice, we arrived at the wall. It’s important to keep in mind that you have to pay extra - a ludge, and a cable car to the different segments of the wall. It’s obviously possible not to pay for the cable car, but you should be reasonably fit to be able to conquer the wall on your own within a given time slot. The luge is not mandatory, but it’s really fun, so we decided to get everything. The combined pay was about 150 RMB per person.
That’s my at the other pieces of the wall 11 year ago:
The guide shared his suggestion of what to visit first, and we just followed his advice. Firstly, we went to a part of the wall with the luge as he told us the queue to the luge can grow fast quickly. It was a great pleasure to return back to the wall, enjoy the viewers from the top, and admire the engineering complexity of it. I also enjoyed a bit of exercise as it’s necessary to walk up & down to conquer various pieces of the wall. The slide back on the lodge also was quite fun as you were in full control of the cart and could enjoy the beautiful views.
After a short break, we went to the second part of the wall. It’s a bit easier to get and walk there as the second part of the wall is more flat. We spent there may be a half an hour as the viewers are very much similar to the first part of the wall. In total, we spent about 2 hours enjoying the Chinese engineering genius and went back to Beijing.
The evening ended at another craft brewery - Great Leap Brewing 大跃啤酒:
Highly recommend this unique and authentic place. Also, I would advise you to allocate at least an hour to explore the district, where the brewery is located.