Day 3 in Beijing

For our third day in Beijing we were on our own.  Our only regret of the trip is that we didn't book the tour for all three days, but we managed to get around and had a good time.  Before we went neither of us bothered to research what we would like to do on our free day.  We knew we were covering all the really major highlights with our two days of touring and figured we could just find something else to do when we got there.  We asked our guide what else he would recommend and he gave us a few good ideas.  We wanted to go to the museum he had suggested but due to a lack of Google and lack of English understanding by the hotel staff, we're not really sure if we ended up at the right museum or not.  We ended up taking the subway to the Military Museum.  Unfortunately it was closed for renovation but they did have some outdoor things to view like original military tanks, planes and cars most of which were left from the WWII and Cold War era.  They even had the wreckage of the United States' U2 spy plane that was shot down by the Soviet Union in 1960. 

After a short trip at the museum we took a taxi to Olympic Park.  This Park and the surrounding buildings were, of course, built for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.  The stadium is called the "Bird's Nest" because it looks like one and we got to see the Water Cube where Michael Phelps won his eight gold medals.  We also took a lunch break at a McDonald's that is still located within the park.  The park is HUGE.  We started at one end and walked all the way down to the other end where there was a forest park area.  After walking so much for the previous two days and then walking the whole length of Olympic Park we decided to buy tickets for a golf cart trip around the forest park so we could see all of it while we took a little break before walking back to the other end again.  Although the size of the park was impressive, it honestly looked like there had been very little upkeep since the Games ended five years ago.  We both agreed that Olympic Park in Seoul, which is twenty years older, is kept up much nicer.

After taking a taxi back to our hotel late in the afternoon, we did a bit of souvenir shopping near the hotel and then had one more delicious Chinese meal before having to get up very early the next morning to get to the airport.  Our same driver picked up early Sunday morning and our plane left close to on time this time and we got back to Seoul earlier than scheduled.  It was a really great quick trip to get away and see some new things.  We are so glad we had the chance to see a small piece of China during our time in Asia!!

 U2 wreckage

 The Bird's Nest at Olympic Park

We tried to take this without being too conspicuous so it's kind of hard to see, but those are scorpion, cockroach and centipede skewers for sale in the snack tent at Olympic Park!  And we thought the larva they eat in Korea was bad!!