A weekend in Beijing

The weekend after the conference I stayed in Beijing. This was my third visit to the Chinese capital and I actually liked it a lot better than I've done before. The first day I just walked around the city. Had been to the forbidden city so I was ok with just walking around it, taking in its grandness from outside. Started my walk in Tiananmen Square, the fourth largest city square in the world. On the one end there is the gate to the forbidden city, Tianmen, which is also where Mao proclaimed the founding of the People's Republic of China on 1 October 1949.

Walking around the Forbidden City towards Jin Shan Park to the north of the monuments, I saw several people fishing in the waters around the sights. Here is Forbidden City viewed from Jin Shan Park. 

On the way back to the hotel I saw street vendors selling birds... 

...and food. 

Before heading to my quarters I took a tour in the street market just off Wangfujing Street  called Wangfujing Snack Street where you can travel back in time to to feel the old Peking Food Street. They serve things that I have not seen anywhere else and that I would not taste. Someone told me that they are mostly for show - for tourists (but then that someone told me that some still eat that food...  

The day after I went to the summer palace and the wall. The wall was magnificent. I have been to Badaling before so this time I went to Mitanyu. Like last time I was speechless. 

Short stop in Shanghai

This year's China conference with work was in Shanghai and Beijing and the first stop was Shanghai. I got a chance to walk around some in the central parts before the conference started and started out taking the metro to Nanjing Road, the main shopping street. Nanjing East goes down to the Bund or Zhongshan East No 1 Road. The Bund was the heart of colonial Shanghai, flanked on one side by the Huangpu River and on the other side by hotels, banks, offices and clubs. It was extensively rebuilt for the World Expo 2010.

From the Bund you get a good view of Pudong with the modern skyline and the famous TV-tower. 

From the Bund I walked along busy streets to Yu Gardens and Bazaar.

Yu Gardens is not really old but still appealing with its fanciful roofs. It was Sunday and very busy and it was impossible to find a tea house or a dumpling restaurant without long queues. 

Instead of eating in Yu Gardens I could have had street food, of which there was plenty! But I was  not ready to take that risk. 

On the way back I walked by some street vendors. Some busier than others... 

Local transport.

In the evening we went for dinner in Pudong and after that for a drink at the roof top bar at Ritz Carlton. The view over Pudong and the Bund was amazing.

Emil days at Skansen

On May 24-25 there were Emil days at Skansen, the first open-air museum and zoo in Sweden on the island Djurgarden in Stockholm. It's an amazing place and we bough a yearly family pass so we will definitely be going back. We did not have a lot of time but we had a little peek at the Emil day. Alexander seems to fit the description quite well. 'Hu jeda mig' for what this little trouble-maker will cause when he grows up... :)

A May evening at Sjopaviljongen in Bromma

A Friday evening when I was in Stockholm we decided to go for a walk around Bromma and go for a meal at Sjopaviljongen, a restaurant which is really close and has really good food. It was a really nice evening - a typical nice May evening - and we got to sit outside. Everyone was equally excited!