Beijing

Beijing #

Beijing is huge. I mean… just huge. There’s really no other way to put it. Everywhere you go, everything is overwhelming. From the size of the buildings to the number of people. It was here that I ate a roasted tarantula on a $500 dare from my brother. I should mention my dad at one first. So I knew it was safe.

The Great Wall snakes along a ridge below craggy mountains near Beijing, a red pavilion tower in the foreground Aerial view of the Juyong Pass fortress and pavilions, the Great Wall climbing the mountainsides beyond Stepped section of the Great Wall climbs a scrubby hillside toward a watchtower with a pagoda-roofed gate tower at left Visitors climb a steep stretch of the Great Wall, a watchtower and valley parking area far below Curving battlements and steps of the Great Wall lead past a tiled-roof watchtower above hazy ridges Double-roofed watchtower on the Great Wall overlooking a deep valley with a winding river and road Hikers dot a steep ridge of the Great Wall above a carved white marker stone with Chinese characters The Zhengyangmen gate tower rises over a Beijing boulevard as a car passes gold-colored railings

Hazy layers of mountain ridges fade into gray sky beyond dark treetops and Great Wall battlements Crowds queue on Tiananmen Square near the Monument to the People’s Heroes and the Great Hall of the People Tour groups gather in a vast stone courtyard of the Forbidden City ringed by red halls with golden roofs The Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City atop tiers of carved white marble balustrades Crowds of visitors stream toward a golden-roofed palace hall in the Forbidden City Weathered, hole-pocked scholar rocks beside a carved marble stairway in the Forbidden City’s garden Silhouetted visitors exit a massive studded palace gate framing the hilltop pavilion of Jingshan Park The Forbidden City’s north gate tower with tiered golden roofs seen across its stone-walled moat Ornate blue-and-gold archway with dragon panels spanning the entrance to Wangfujing snack street in Beijing

Four men pose on a brick terrace at the Ming Tombs, a golden-roofed hall rising behind autumn trees Man walks a cobbled path past a painted gateway toward the red Soul Tower at the Ming Tombs Skewers of fried scorpions stand upright in wooden buckets at a Beijing street-food stall Shoppers stroll the Wangfujing pedestrian street at dusk beneath lit signs and yellow ginkgo trees Panorama of the Forbidden City’s red Meridian Gate wings, a man checking his phone in the paved plaza Busy food court crowded with diners at white tables under an open industrial ceiling in Beijing Indoor hotel pool with lotus-topped stone columns, a tiered fountain, and palm trees under warm lights

512KB Club Orange Team member