If you are reading this and you’ve been to Beijing please comment with any additional places to see and things to do, which you really enjoyed, so we can all enjoy your knowledge. The two activities below are two on our “must do“ list. We also want to do a rickshaw/tut-tut tour but we’ll source that when we are there.
Walking Foodie Tour
Foodie tours in Beijing, often focus on the historic hutong neighborhoods, and offer immersive culinary experiences, including evening food tours to sample local Han, Mongol, and Muslim cuisines. The tours take you off the beaten path and eat where the locals eat. They are walking tours in the oldest neighborhood of Beijing, you wander through the lively local neighborhood while sampling a delightful array of dishes, including Zhejiang Mian noodles, soup dumplings, potstickers, candied mulberries, and crepes You eat at local, family-run eateries that you would never find on your own.
Most tours last approximately 3 to 4 hours and are designed to take visitors away from tourist traps. There are a variety of prices for the tour most start around £40/£50 per person. If you want it to include peking duck you will pay a lot more. Hotel concierges can generally organise these tours or you can book with companies like Viator, or Beijing ground tour company.
The Red Theatre Acrobatic Show
Red Theatre Beijing Acrobatics is a showcase for the best of China’s “Acrobatics”. It entertains with breathtaking acrobatics and cultural spectaculars. The show starts with Plate Spinning pagoda bowls, Jujitsu, Partner Stunts, High chair, Ballgame, Shoulder Ballet, chair stacking, and daring motorcycle acts. The acrobatic show combines traditional Chinese techniques with modern, immersive lighting, music, and dance.
It starts at 16:20 and 17:30 every day and last for 60 minutes. You are expected to arrive to the theatre 20 minutes before the show to get started. Red Theatre Beijing Acrobatics Address: No.44 Xingfu Avenue, Dongcheng District, Beijing. The cheaper seats sell out very quickly. The better seats are usually combined with either an elaborate banquet, peking duck experience or dumpling supper. A basic ticket, seat only costs about £25-£70 per adult.
Our next Places to see and things to do in China will be in Xian.
The Forbidden City is situated in the centre of Beijing, north of Tiananmen Square. It is the world’s largest imperial palace complex, serving as the ceremonial and political center for 24 Ming and Qing dynasty emperors from 1420 to 1924. It was the seat of supreme power for over 500 years.
The Forbidden City is a 72-hectare UNESCO World Heritage site with over 900 buildings and 9,999 rooms (according to legend) designed with strict Confucian principles of hierarchy. Today it is the Palace Museum, featuring traditional Chinese architecture, yellow-glazed roofs, and vast, historic, red-walled, wooden structures. It is is the best-preserved ancient wooden structure in the world.
The Forbidden City remains a crucial symbol of Chinese cultural history and is one of the most-visited museums in the world. As one of the main visitor attractions in Beijing tickets must be booked online in advance, often requiring 7 days’ notice due to high demand. Tickets cost about £4.60 per adult. The main public entrance is the southern Gate of Heavenly Purity (Meridian Gate). A full day is recommended to explore the site, which includes museums within the halls. Please note it is closed on Mondays. Lots of tours which include the Forbidden City include it with visits to other places.
Lama Temple
Lama Temple is officially known as the Yonghe Lamasery Temple, it is Beijing’s principal and largest Buddhist Temple. In fact it is the most renowned Tibetan Buddhist temple outside of Tibet.
Located north of the Forbidden City, the Lama Temple is a combination of Han Chinese and Tibetan architectural style, and was built in 1694 during the Qing Dynasty as the residence for the Yongzheng Emperor when he was a prince. After Yongzheng gained the throne in 1722, half of the Lama Temple was converted into a monastery for monks of Tibetan Buddhism, while the other half served as an imperial palace for the emperors.
The temple has five main halls, it is a series of beautiful pavilions and breathtaking statues and artefacts. It features an impressive fifty-four-foot high Buddha carved from one piece of Tibetan sandalwood.
Lama Temple is situated at No.28, Yonghegong Street, Dongcheng District, Beijing. This popular tourist attraction opens between 9.00-16.30 and the ticket price is approx £2.60 per adult.
Temple of Heaven
The Temple of Heaven, is located in Southern Beijing in Temple of Heaven Park. This 15th-century imperial complex of religious buildings is where Ming and Qing dynasty emperors worshipped and prayed for good harvests.
The Temple of Heaven became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1998 because it represents a masterpiece of Ming/Qing architecture. The layout emphasizes the concept of “round heaven, square earth,” with circular buildings often on square foundations. The complex spans a 267-hectare park and is best visited in the early morning to see locals practicing tai chi, dancing, and playing games. The park is vast; consider using a combined ticket. A ticket for the Temple of Heaven pass and an English speaking tour guide can be booked through the Klook APP for £10.20 per adult or just a Temple of Heaven admission ticket is £2.29.
We got up early 6.30am, showered, put on relatively clean clothes🤣🤣, breakfasted, made a pack up lunch and got on our way. It was our last day in Satara…tomorrow we move down to the south of Kruger to Pretoriuskop.
We headed down the tar…I selected zebra today and John selected wildebeest as first spot. It was a cold grey morning a real contrast again from yesterday’s sunshine and heat. We drove some time before seeing some Zebra …sorry John 8-4 to me🤣
Today we had decided to take the S126 which cuts across to the Orpen tar road. It’s a lovely scenic route, with chances to see lots as it runs alongside a twisting and turning river, which has patches of water in it.
We saw a huge amount of varied game around a waterhole…elephants, wildebeest, zebra and impala…a lovely wildlife picture…
We travelled on, the road was not great…unless the parks board spends some money on upkeep of their dirt roads, it won’t be so long before only 4×4 vehicles will be able to handle them.
We came across 2 big lone male buffalo, called dagger boys.
As we slowly picked our way down a hill I suddenly stopped, asked John for the binoculars….there about 400m on the far side of the river was the derrière of a large rhino. It stopped its route march and turned sideways giving us a wonderful view…this is really a majestic creature, reminding us of prehistoric times. A few moments later he continued his route march and completely disappeared from sight…how lucky were we…even John had to marvel at how I had seen it….these eagle eyes still work when they have to🤣🤣
We travelled on to the picnic spot….its unfortunate that I needed the loo…a long drop…defiantly not to be recommended…not only did I have to contend with that but the door had no lock and a lady walked in and caught me on the throne🤣🤣….never mind, I’ll never see her again and I hope I didn’t traumatise her too badly🤣🤣
Back on the road we crossed the main Orpen road. Had a Quick Look in the dam…the hippos and crocodile were all happy and we continued onto the dirt road which comes out on the tar north of Satara…..This road had been graded so it gave us a more comfortable ride.
We passed elephants, impala, zebra, wildebeests and giraffe.
……before long we saw a Kori bustard…its thin greyish neck made us think it was a female as it was very different from the two males we’d seen several days ago.
Around the next bend there were 3 more Kori bustards…a really lovely sight.
Further up the track a car stopped us and asked what we had seen…they were as excited as we were by the Kori bustard.
They told us of a leopard sighting just a few minutes away. However when we turned back onto the Olifants Satara tar road there were about a dozen cars all vying for position…we asked 3 different cars and none had actually seen the leopard…the 4th car said it was no longer viewable as it had laid in the long grass..another almost saw it, moment…..!!!!
We returned to camp and decided to go to the Cattle Baron for brunch rather than eat our sandwiches, they would be ok tomorrow…brunch was great
After a rest we headed out for our usual S100, H6 circuit. The cool, dull overcast weather meant we only really saw groups of the plains animals- zebra, wildebeest, impala and a scattering of giraffe and a few largish herds of elephant.
On the H6 there were some WBV on the giraffe carcass, which is a sure sign that the lions have left …as seen in the pictures above…..( I haven’t worked out yet how to move a picture when I put them in the wrong place !🤣)
We stopped at the hyena den and sat patiently. It was very quiet and our patience paid off as the mum and 2 pups appeared.
Hyenas are nocturnal and have interesting social structures. Their clans are led by a female matriarch, mostly because hyena females have three times more testosterone than males, meaning they are physically stronger and have more aggressive temperaments. The highest-ranked individual in a hyena clan is the alpha female, followed by her cubs. Hyenas are Intelligent, curious, and opportunistic in matters of diet, they are known as the vacuum cleaners of the bush…basically they eat all the left overs from other animals kills….that doesn’t mean they won’t kill something themselves, but they tend to be scavengers.
We watched on our own for quite some time before continuing back to camp.
Our count for the day was 99+ impala, 99+ zebra, 9 vervet monkeys, 1 red billed hornbill 3 lilac breasted rollers, 23 giraffes, 5 yellow billed hornbills, 4 Kori bustards, 7 grey Lourie, 2 bateleur eagle, 2 buffalo, 24 Chacma baboons, 1 rhino, 88 elephants, 1 crocodile, 6 hippo, 4 hooded vultures, 1 tawny eagle, 1 martial eagle, 58 waterbuck, 1 steenbok, 9 warthogs, 99+ wildebeest, 2 WBV, 3 hyena, 7 kudu, 3 guinea fowl……not a bad days viewing.
We returned to the Cattle Baron for a light supper then an early night.
After a superb day yesterday we awoke early ..just before 7am. John made the coffee, while I attached photos to yesterday’s blog….the best time to get a quick upload is around 1-2am…but failing that due to being asleep morning tends to be quicker …just 2/3 minutes per picture. My task completed I met with Josephine who had our laundry all fresh and sweet smelling. I gave her 170 Rands (about £7,50) which made her absolutely beam from ear to ear….it was a small price to pay to save me doing it…I hadn’t quite worked out how to dry it and I’ve never had much success at handwashing🤣🤣
We had our last two yogurts in peace…no vervet monkeys pestering us today…perhaps they have the day off on Saturdays🤣. At the garage the kindly attendant washed and polished all the car windows while filling it up with petrol, we showed our gratitude and away we went..
We had decided to go up to the northern end of the Park , to Punda Maria some 76 kms away. John hasn’t been doing too well at naming first spot of the morning so once again I gave him first choice…he chose Waterbuck, we had seen lots around camp yesterday, and I chose Elephant.
We didn’t see much game for about 20 minutes, probably due to the smell of smoke still hanging thickly in the air from the controlled burn yesterday evening.
Eventually we saw a giraffe…closely followed by a few elephant….oh dear!!! I couldn’t help but remind John that I was now 5-1 up 🤣🤣. it was almost an hour later when we finally saw a Waterbuck 🤣
We saw some great sights on our trip up the road. There were a herd of zebra in the dried river bed. We witnessed them drinking out of some holes in the sand we automatically presumed the elephant had dug. Elephant often do this when water is either dirty or in short supply. However while watching the zebra we witnessed two different ones using their front hooves to dig out the holes further…it made us wonder if they had dug the holes from scratch or were just deepening elephant drinking holes. It was a practice we had not seen before. We sat some time watching these ingenious creatures meet their own needs and helping the youngsters get water.
Further along the road a car was pulled up at the side of the road and we focused where they were looking. There were some buffalo to the right but they weren’t looking there. So I asked the lady who told me there were some Eland….and sure enough in the thick bushes we made out 4 beautiful Eland. We haven’t seen these in Kruger for many many years. They are only inhabitants of the very northern part of the park.
The eland is often referred to as the cow of the wilderness. It is the world’s largest antelope. It has the endurance to maintain a trot indefinitely and can jump as high as 1.5 meters. It is known for its strength, stately presence, and spiral horns. The eland is surprisingly agile and graceful. It is a browser which utilises a wide variety of plant species. It can survive without water for periods of time by eating fruits and using their liquid to sustain it. Wow…were we delighted when we caught this fleeting glimpse.
Further up the road there was a large water tank and trough with zebra and elephants milling around. The very strong smell of decay alerted us to the remains of a dead elephant near by. It looked as if it was just the skin and some bones left.
On a mound of earth near it stood a “Jimmy”…….he had a wee and skirted around the carcass before disappearing into the scrub land. Jimmy Jackal – my nickname for a black backed Jackal is one of my favourite creatures…Cheeky, intuitive, sprightly and intelligent. I was ecstatic as we’ve only seen one other so far this trip.
As we continued we came across a small pocket of water with a lot of zebra, a few waterbuck and a couple of buffalo.
Not far from here, on the opposite side of the road, was a huge amount of White backed vultures in the air, on trees and then we saw even more on the ground . We realised it was a feeding frenzy. The ones on the ground were feasting on the remains of a buffalo. There was even a Maribou stork getting stuck in. We could see no signs of the lions who had presumably killed and had their fill of this beast.
Almost walking behind and round the kill was a huge herd of over 100 buffalo obviously going to the water.
We really were seeing a lot. Continuing on our journey we got to a waterhole….it was literally teaming with activity..zebra, impala, several wildebeest’s, a small herd of elephants and would you believe it a herd of 7 tsessebe. All were strolling in to the waterhole having a drink and wandering back away again. We sat along time watching this amazing sight….
We left the main road which continues up to the border post of Pafuri. We turned left towards the gate and camp of Punda Maria. The vegetation was quite dry and we went a fair way of the 20 kms without seeing anything. Then we had a km or two of successful sightings. A handsome bull nyala stood at the side of the road in the shade with 3 females, a young buck and another bull…they really are a handsome antelope…
The males with their yellow stockings and shaggy brown coat with white stripes and patches,…. The female so much smaller with its tan shaggy coat and barcode type white markings and white dots…such a beautiful couple.
We continued to see zebra, giraffe, impala and the odd elephant.
We turned right up to the camp…..oh dear this really hasn’t moved on in the past 35 years… The two rows of terraced tiny rooms standing adjacent to the communal washrooms with their shower, bath and toilet. The communal kitchen stands next to this. The reception, shop and restaurant all housed in the same building at the far end of the camp.
The only difference I could see over the decades is that it now has a petrol filling station. We browsed the shop, used the toilets and left…this is not a camp we would ever consider staying at…just that little too authentic of a bygone era.
We retraced our steps stopping regularly at sightings both new and already seen on the trip up. The waterhole was still a hive of activity. We ate our rolls watching the feeding frenzy on the buffalo carcass…the Maribou stork was gone but a lapped faced vulture had joined the table…this is a rare sighting these day.
We turned up to the water tank and trough where the dead elephants carcass was…we soon realised we had joined a wake or perhaps a memorial service or celebration of life. There was an eery silence from over 50 elephants, spread around the area, in family groups, a respectful distance from the deceased. We felt very privileged to witness this final farewell attended by so many of the wildernesses giants…..with such a huge gathering one may have expected a lot of noise but there was total silence…..we showed our respect by backing away and leaving them to mourn in peace.
Returning to camp we saw a number of the usual wildlife- elephants, zebra, waterbuck, impala, and just before we got to the camp gate we witnessed a male nyala walk across the dry sandy river bed to a tiny pocket of water.
Back at camp we rested until 17:15 then made the barbecue. There was no outside spotlight on the braii so we decided to do it in daylight. However it was gone 6.00 pm by the time the coals were ready to cook on.
We had 8 chicken skewers… we were having it with noddles and sweet and sour sauce. It would have been very nice if I hadn’t of over cooked the chicken…I was anxious to cook it all the way through and over did it….but the meal was still tasty…the cremated chicken effort took my barbecuing skills back down to 3/10 which even John didn’t disagree with.
He kindly washed up and we played cards while eating some chocolate for dessert….i know I shouldn’t but we’d had very little edible food throughout the day and a little tastebud delight was required…followed by an early night.
We arrived at Terminal 5 Heathrow in good time…..wow is it different from the last time we’d flown out of here…we usually fly Virgin, but Maisie Morton at DialAFlight (+44 1616418179) had done a great job getting us cheap British Airways flights. Everything at Terminal 5 seems to be automated – boarding passes, baggage tags and drop, security – very efficient…machines certainly do it quicker than humans !!! From being dropped off to sitting in the departure lounge was just under 30 minutes.
We boarded the plane and took off 30 minutes late. The flight was uneventful. The food was the usual airline food….who serves curry on a long haul flight….the smell in the cabin proved it’s a definite “ no, no”!!!! The plastic “English Breakfast” was also rejected so I got off the plane somewhat hungry.
Getting off the plane was easier said than done. The ground crew were unable to attach the gang-way to the upper deck so we had to climb down the stairs into the main cabin to disembark….not BA’s fault we hasten to add. By the time we had reclaimed our baggage and cleared customs we were about 40 minutes late to pick up the hire car….no big deal they had our flight number so they would know of our delay…..or so you would think
Alas!! They claim because we were late they had let our car go and consequently they didn’t have the Toyota Urban Cruiser we had booked instead we were getting a Kia, they claimed it was the same category as the Toyota….I wasn’t at all happy as we had booked a “ guaranteed “ car ….but evidently the tiny small print states it’s only guaranteed if they have one 🤣🤣 and because we were late …..grrrrr…… I don’t think so…Alamo, Enterprise and Woodford cars all use the same desk…there were about 6-8 people all stood around waiting for cars which just weren’t there… they said to wait for 15 minutes….45 minutes later I asked if we had been forgotten!!! Eventually after me telling them that “ sorry” didn’t solve the problem and I would pay more if we could have the car we’d ordered NOW !!! Miraculously we were told to go upstairs to bay 26 and a Toyota was waiting for us…yeah!!!! Our elation was short lived. There was no car in Bay 26 …the priority desk on the garage level told us to wait 15 minutes and the car would be there !!!! 30 minutes later a Kia arrived….its nothing like a Toyota Urban Cruiser…much smaller, only one case would fit in the boot, it was much lower to the ground and I couldn’t get the very narrow drivers seat in a position where I could reach the peddles, see over the steering wheel and fit my fat tummy in….NO we were not accepting this car for a month…The manager was trying really hard to be helpful…he rang around trying to locate a Toyota…he did manage this but it meant us driving into Johannesburg and swapping the Kia over there….No!!! We know didn’t trust them at all so we didn’t believe they would honour their promise and we’d be left with an uncomfortable biscuit tin on wheels for a month….so wait we did…along with numerous other people who were threatening to pull out of their corporate contracts unless they got their cars NOW……of course they got ungraded immediately after losing their cool….not just one customer but 4 while we waited…eventually our nice man went off and came back with a Toyota Urban Cruiser… as we went over to it a rep said “no” it was for his customer…where upon I said “ No “ that’s for us….our nice man agreed the checks were done and I asked about the paper work for it…our nice man said he would change it and we could get going…. as far as we can see to date the paperwork hasn’t been changed…but hey ho…3.5 hours after we should of picked the car up we were on our way, in the vehicle we had hired. ……Would we use Holiday Autos again..Yes but we would select either an Avis or Hertz car defiantly not a Alemo, Enterprise or Woodford…
We drove through to our friend, Gills, very easily. We were so late she was on grandmother duties so Salmena, the domestic, greeted us with her usual cheery persona and we went straight to bed for an afternoon nap.The horrors of the car hire desk began to recede and we were able to relax. We had a pleasant evening with Gill. She cooked us a nice lasagne and salad and we had a good natter and an early night.
2 J's World of Adventure 