431. Beijing | The Maya Island Hotel

When we were in Beijing, we stayed at The Maya Island hotel. The hotel was huge and very beautiful inside. The designs were very unique and I loved the pool area..however it wasn't one of the best hotels I've stayed at. Nobody here spoke English so it was hard to communicate (& I can't speak Mandarin). The Internet/Wi-Fi was extremely slow and a lot of places they said they had were non-existent (like all the restaurants and tennis court listed on their map..were not there or shut down). It was a bit weird. The layout of the whole place was quite complicated as well. There's different pyramids/buildings. After checking in, it took us like an hour to find our room. Our room was pretty nice though. I liked the design of the bathroom too but it was so dark in there I wasn't able to take any good photos. The buffet breakfast was very good; I looked forward to that every morning. Their hallways had a lot of Mayan style sculptures and art pieces. It was like a museum. I took a lot of photos of them as you'll see below.

I really loved their lobby and entrance area. It smelled really nice in there. The scent in there was exactly the same as Blakes Hotel where I stayed in London a few years ago lol I was quite surprised. As soon as I walked in here, it reminded me of that!





Here was our room. Unfortunately I didn't take more photos of it. I usually don't like to after everything is messed up. When I travel alone, I always have to take photos of the room as soon as I walk in/before touching anything. When we checked in here we were so tired I didn't bother with the photos.


This was the breakfast buffet. I really loved it.













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430. Beijing | Great Wall of China

I can't believe it has already been a month since I was in Beijing!! I wish I could rewind time and be back there again. I had been wanting to visit the Great Wall of China for a long time, so I was very excited to finally go and see it in person. As you know, the entire Great Wall is extremely long so it's impossible to walk it all from end to end. They split it up in different sections for visitors. I don't know what section we went to but it wasn't quite what I expected my Great Wall experience to be like. I guess I was expecting something more like THIS..being able to see the Wall winding around on mountains for miles away without any sign of modern civilization. Instead, at the section we went to, we could see roads and vehicles driving by..and even at the top of our section, it wasn't high enough to see too far away. I don't mean to sound so negative, because I still had a great time. It was the most extreme cardio workout I've ever had in my life! When we were at the bottom looking up, it looked like an easy walk but walking on there it's like 85% steps..there is only a short flat section after every like 20min of steps. The steps aren't low either. They're quite high so it was very tiring, and my calves took close to a week to recover from that walk. Most of the people didn't make it up to the top so I was proud that I was able to. & luckily was also able to take some nice shots without hoards of tourists in the background.

This photo above is my favourite I took from Beijing. I had just made it to the top, out of breath, and extremely hot as I turned around to look at the view..I saw this man walk by. I thought he fit perfectly into the surroundings so I snapped this shot quickly on my phone and it turned out pretty nice :)

I'll start at the bottom. Here is the entrance:


This was the section we were walking. Our destination was that little building at the top. At first I was disappointed because it looked like such a short section to walk..but by the time I was up there I couldn't feel my legs anymore. Walking up there is a LOT more tiring than you'd think.



These are the steps/the view as we kept going and going on what seemed like endless steps. It was very uneven as well. The steps ranged from 2-4 or bricks high. Some were so high that a lot of people had to hold on to the railings on the sides to walk.







Made it to the top! It was only us up there.


Inside the little building







Then we made our way back down..which was actually a lot harder than the way up. I definitely want to visit the Great Wall of China again someday..and explore other sections of it!




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429. Beijing | Wangfujing Street

This is Wangfujing Street; one of the most popular shopping and night market streets of Beijing. Unfortunately we didn't have much time here. I really wish we could've gone to the night market part as well to see some of the exotic foods they have (like insects), but we were only able to walk around one small part of it.


















We got some tea at this tea shop (which I now think was very over-priced).



We also visited this jewellery store which I now think we got scammed at. If you ever visit China, I recommend not buying anything at all (unless its small souvenirs). My mom and I both got a jade and gold pendant necklace (2 photos down). I realize now we paid a LOT more for it than we should've, by reading similar scam stories online..they will make you believe their products are worth a lot and that they're selling it to you for a huge deal.








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