GuBei Water Town + friends

Weekend of October 15, 2016 –

After a several hour drive from our home in Tianjin – first north to Beijing, skirting around Beijing and then heading north and east into the mountains just past Beijing- we landed at the outskirts of a rather unusual town of sorts – Gu Bei Water Town. There were several of our friends that also made the drive so that we could spend the weekend together. Annika spent the weekend with her best friend, Mimi, as it was Mimi's birthday.

The town itself didn't allow vehicular traffic so our driver had to park the car outside the town and we had to walk to the entrance. Finding the entrance was quite the challenge! Once our friends arrived – things got a little easier (since two of our friends are fluent Chinese speakers). There was a massive hall where we had to check into our small hotel. After checking in we hopped on to smaller golf carts that took us to our hotel.

The town looked like something from southern China – I think it's a re-creation of an old-style China town complete with a man-made water canal, charming old Chinese buildings (restaurants, over priced shops and hotels), and a stretch of the Simatai Great Wall just up the mountain (accessible by a gondola ride up the mountain). Our friend Frances explained that the best time to see the Great Wall would be after dark- when it's all lit up. So…we'll have to wait several more hours before stretch out our legs walking on the Great Wall.

As it turns out, we aren't the only group of tourists here. There are TONS of Chinese tours crawling all over. Actually, we found it very difficult to find a restaurant that would seat us (they did have the space just refused us service. Sigh). Mercifully we found one that could seat us right away.

We spent the day checking out our beautiful hotel (I would call our hotel more Japanese in style than Chinese) and walking around the town. We even went on a boat tour up the canal with the Eckholt family from Germany. Fun! We checked out a few of the shops but everything was so EXPENSIVE!

For dinner we thought we'd eat at the hibachi (Japanese) restaurant next to our hotel. However, the starting price was $50 (or was it $100?) PER PERSON…. um… no thanks. So we found a different restaurant where we ate for a fraction of that cost. We visited the Great Wall after dark. Due to rainy weather we were permitted to only walk on a tiny portion of the Great Wall.

We left early Sunday morning. We'd planned to leave before everyone else because Ava had musical rehearsal for the school musical production BUT she got sick the night before (throwing up late at night) which meant we went straight home. I'm not sure what caused her to be ill – maybe it was something she ate?

beautiful fall colors…(these could be Virginia creeper vines):

friends wandering together wandering….Jen is also taking photos of the beautiful vines. 🙂

Do you see the Great Wall in the mountains behind this dam? (above photo)

Anna and Chrissi just hanging out in the courtyard of our hotel:

Ava and Romi playing in the courtyard:

Watching cleaners tidy up the canal. Look at the pretty water lilies!

Goofy Ava:

Romi and Ava:

I do wonder what the story is behind these giant, inflated cartoon Peking Opera like characters that are dutifully standing next to the water. Maybe welcoming visitors???

Have you noticed that old Chinese architecture favors circles? I'm sure this bridge would create the perfect circle if its reflection hadn't been so muddled (due to a cloudy day and water disturbance):

We were REQUIRED to wear life vests, even on this short journey.

Nice knocker. 😉

Cotton candy the size of Ava's head!

The sun is setting and we're going to head up the mountain in the gondola (with the Eckholt family).

Simatai Great Wall at night. Unfortunately it was raining so that meant they closed off all but a small portion of the wall to visitors (to keep people from slipping and falling while walking on the slippery rocks and steps).