BEIJING, CHINA

TRAVEL DATE - March 2012

STAY @ Holiday Inn Express Beijing Temple of Heaven No. 36 Nanwei Road, Xicheng District, Chongwenmen & Qianmen, Beijing, China 100050

We (Myself and my colleague) arrived Beijing airport in evening from Dalian airport.We extended our ticket for a day to stay in Beijing and see the Great Wall of China. Hotel was a bit far and it took us almost an hour to reach there. We reached hotel at 10 PM and ask receptionist to look for a next day trip. She was able to manage a trip but suggested that we will have to go another hotel to meet the guide. Next day morning we headed for Hyatt hotel after breakfast, Where we met our guide. We were small team of four. He told us that we are going to cover Forbidden City, Tiananmen square, silk factory, precious stone factory and finally The great wall of china. Our guide was speaking good English and he had good knowledge as i asked too many questions.

We could not go to  infamous Tienanmen square as there were some High level Political meeting going on. I was able to get a glimpse of Tienanmen square from a distance. 

Tiananmen square  

The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace for 500 year starting from 1400. It is a beautiful example of Chinese architecture. It was renovated just before Beijing Olympic. It spreads over a large area and i would have been surely lost without guide. 

Front gate of Forbidden city 

Guard marching inside the Forbidden city.

 Gate of Supreme Harmony of Forbidden City

           

A gilded lion in front of the Palace of Tranquil Longevity

 We were told by our guide that all the utensil was gold coated, which was chipped away by Japanese.  Also these utensil was used for water storage in past.

 

We were taken to silk factory,where i saw the silk making process from silk worm.A guy from factory explain the process in detail and suggested us to buy some silk clothe from their shop.

Life of silk worm

Extracting silk thread

Making silk bed

Next destination was jade stone factory.  Jade is a precious stone found in china.There were beautiful items ranging from small bangles to big dragons. 
 I just walked inside the factory and shop. Even the price of small items was unseasonably high.

Mythical jade cabbage

Olympic medals made of jade stone

We had lunch in the restaurant inside the jade factory

It took us almost an hour to reach The great wall of china.On the way I was able to see the mountain terrains and the the great wall. Our guide told us that only a small part of the wall is accessible to public.After reaching the gate our guide arranged the tickets for us.

 I was just thinking how they were able to built such massive structure. The wall is wide enough to pass two cars at a time. Our Journey to the end of  wall  was bit hectic but the view from the great wall was amazing.It is well maintained and there were no sign of degradation, I could not see the other end of the wall. There were many local tourists and few of them requested us to have picture with them.

Mountain topography on the way 

                            

Starting the jouney 

Final destination.

Names engraved by tourist on  the wall 

In evening ,we started our return  journey  to Beijing. 

                                   

I did some shopping in one of the  mall in Beijing  The mall was having only counterfeit items and I was not able to distinguish the difference from real one . I brought D&G bag for 30$ :). , souvenir and some toys for my nephew

After shopping ,we returned to our hotel and started onward jouncy.

AMRITSAR,PUNJAB,INDIA

TRAVEL DATE - April 2012

STAY @ Shiraz Regency(INR 1600) 4,Queens Road  Amritsar,

We arrived Amritsar airport at night from Delhi. It was my second visit to Amritsar and first visit of my wife. I visited Amritsar in 2009 with my friends. After reaching hotel i booked taxi through the hotel for next day to take us around.

Amritsar itinerary

 Early morning we left for Golden temple. I always recommends everyone to visit golden temple at least once in lifetime. It is very beautiful temple and the divine experience  cannot be explained. We spent almost two hour inside the temple.  There is also a museum on the first floor near the entrance. It houses mostly gruesome paintings about torture of Sikhs by Mughals.

 
 

We walked to Jallianwala Bagh from the golden temple. There are many kiosk selling souvenirs and famous jutees (ladies sandle) on the way. My wife bought pair of jutees and i brought two small swords as souvenir. Jallianwala Bagh is a memorial commemorate the massacre by British occupying forces of peaceful public. There is still bullet marks on the walls reminding the barbaric act. There is also a preserved well, where hundreds of people jumped to save themselves and a house exhibiting paintings.

Entrance of Jallianwala Bagh 

Jallianwala Bagh  memorial

Bullet marks on the wall  

 Jallianwala Bagh  massacre in painting

Durgiana temple is famous Hindu temple derived its name from goddess Durga and it is also called by name of Lakshmi Narayan temple. The temple was constructed on the pattern of golden temple. In fact i was perplex to see the similarity between two temples. It is having many silver doors with beautiful carvings on it.

Durgiana temple, Amritsar

                                     

Beautiful silver door at
Durgiana temple, Amritsar

We had to leave in evening and it was not possible to see famous wagah Flag meet. Anyway I thought may be i would be able to show the famous border from a distance  to my wife, On the way we stopped and had lunch at punjabi dhaba. The makke ki roti and sarso ki saag with lassi was unforgettable.

Dhaba near wagah border, Amritsar punjab

Later i realise Going wagah was a foolish idea as no one is allowed to enter near the border except trucks and traders. I  saw many trucks full of onion and multani mittee. After spending few minutes we decide to see our last destination, mata temple.

Shitla mata temple is famous Hindu religious temple. It houses replica of many famous temples of India  It is bit far away from main road,  on the way to temple we were able to get a glimpse of prosperous rural Punjab.

Another temple near mata temple

After the temple visit, we went to railway station to catch the train for our next destination.