Beijing and Chongqing with a  Toddler

Hanoi to Beijing

After some local Vietnamese trips, we thought we would venture to China and take Lily to the Great Wall. Matt did some research and decided we would go to Beijing and Chongqing with a toddler. The start of our trip did not go so well. As the 3-hour flight took off, I heard the man behind me coughing and spitting but I could not determine where he was spitting. Halfway through the flight, I felt my arm get wet and then realized he was spitting on the wall of the airplane and on the floor right behind my seat! To make matters worse, the plane ride was very bumpy and turbulent, making my anxiety and stomach start to turn. Luckily, Lily slept most of the way and I was able to use her headphones to listen to music to calm my nerves. It is a common thing in Chinese culture to spit in public so the flight attendants did nothing to stop this, even though it was a Vietnamese airline.

Once we arrived and got in our car to take us to the hotel, 50 minutes away, we all felt tired and exhausted from the annoying flight. Lily laid down and as we nearly reached the hotel she threw up all over herself! She definitely gets her carsickness from me. Since we arrived later in the day, we just decided to hang out in the hotel until dinner time and we would venture out then.

We stayed at the Crown Plaza Wangfujing, which had an excellent location as it was close to the Forbidden City and the Wangfujing Pedestrian Street and Snack Street. We ventured to the pedestrian street to find food for dinner. We walked around and took pictures of the famous snack street which was so busy we determined a stroller was not the best idea so we collapsed it and held Lily. The snack street is where you can get almost anything on a stick, including bugs.

After taking in all the strange foods we decided to retry our luck at the Cheesecake Factory (see our Hong Kong blog for how that restaurant outing turned into a disaster). So we ordered our food and drinks and after getting my food, something in my stomach made me nauseous and I couldn’t eat the food. I felt so bad that I ordered it and wasn’t able to stomach it. I think we’ll forgo additional trips to the Cheesecake Factory for the time being. Afterward, we headed back to get some sleep for our tour of the Great Wall the next day.

Day 2

We woke up early and were picked up by our local guide and driver who took us to the Great Wall. Last time we were in Beijing, Matt and I went to a different section of the Great Wall where it was very steep and probably not child-friendly, so this time we chose another section, Mutianyu.

It’s about an hour and a half outside Beijing. At this area of the wall, visitors can take a cable car to the high up section or a chair lift the lower part of the wall and toboggan down. Since we had Lily we went for the cable car. What they didn’t tell us is that from where the cars dropped us off we then have to take a bus to the area where we got on the cable cars and lifts. When we got off the bus we then had to walk a pretty steep hill that took about 10 minutes to get to the cable car.

Once at the top you exit the platform onto the actual wall through a narrow doorway. Then, we were free to walk as far up as the wall would allow visitors. We spent about 30 minutes up there taking pictures and letting Lily walk on the wall.

Then we headed back down and stopped at some souvenir shops along the way to buy T-shirts and a hand-carved stamp of Lily’s name in English and Chinese.

We also stopped at another souvenir shop close to the car park area call Lily’s Souvenir Supermarket where we bought her a small panda animal and a silk embroidered art piece.

Then we headed back to Beijing and stopped at a local restaurant along the way to have lunch with our guide and driver.

Once we arrived back in Beijing we headed to Beihai Park where we were going to take a paddle boat ride on the lake, but it was very windy and all the boats shut down. At this point, Lily was asleep so we just decided to go back to the hotel and relax for the rest of the afternoon.

We decided to venture back out to the shopping street again and Matt wanted to try the scorpion on the stick and I wanted to try the strawberries dipped in some kind of candied sugar. We also had our faces made into these clay dolls. . . random, but fun!

Day 3

Matt had to work, so Lily and I stayed at the hotel. We went for a swim in the hotel pool where we were required to wear swim caps, which we ended up having to buy. We lounged in the hotel the rest of the afternoon and prepared for the next leg of our trip to Chongqing. There are many tourist things to do in Beijing, but since Matt and I had been there before we decided to skip some of the highlights because it would not have been enjoyable with a toddler and we only had a limited time in Beijing.

Chongqing Day 1

No issues on the flight to Chongqing from Beijing, but once we arrived we quickly noticed we were the only foreigners around. We made our way to the taxi stand to take us to our hotel and these taxis were something out of 1980. They were bumpy, old and the taxi driver didn’t even get out to help us load our luggage into the car, which barely fit. After about 30 minutes in a traffic jam and nauseous bumpy ride, we arrived at the Intercontinental.

We were upgraded to a suite. We had a corner room with a living room and separate bedroom and large bathroom with views everywhere, as we were on the 38^th floor.

Feeling hungry, we went out to the pedestrian street, which starts right next to our hotel to look for a restaurant. Along the way, we stopped at the Jiefangbei (Liberty Monument) in the center of the street. Back when it was built in 1940, it was the tallest building in Chongqing. Nowadays, many skyscrapers have taken over the city.

While walking around, many people were stopping and staring at Lily and us, probably because they have never seen a foreign baby before. As we were looking at the shops that we recognized (H&M, Nike, and Forever 21, for example), we did not recognize any restaurants and all of the restaurants’ menus were not in English. Chongqing is known for their hot-pot cuisine, but passing by the stalls of the Hot Pot restaurants, we did not think the items that they cook in the hot-pot looked appetizing. So we kept walking found a place called the Corner Bistro, literally in a corner of a building that had some recognizable foods for us to eat, with an English menu. Afterward, we went back to the hotel to decide what to do for the next two days.

Day 2

We wanted to venture to the Three Gorges Dam Museum and see the People’s Hall, so we had the hotel hail us a taxi which took 15 minutes and then when the taxi driver told us to exit the car we didn’t know which direction to go, but luckily we found some signs in English pointing us to the museum. The People’s Hall and the museum are right across from each other. The People’s Hall was built to look like the Temple of Heaven and Tian’an men in Beijing.

The museum was interesting as it gave the history and info about the dam. There were other sections of the museum that were about the history of Chongqing. As we got further into the museum, translations into English started to diminish, so we viewed things quickly and then headed for the exit. It took us another 15-20 minutes to hail a taxi on the street to get back to our hotel.

After Lily’s nap, we walked to Hongyadong, which is built to look like the local traditional architecture style and is located riverside. There are 11 levels with many shops and restaurants and we decided to eat dinner there.

Along the way, we stopped to get Lily some milk at a convenience store. Once we got to our restaurant and ordered, Lily had two of the small to-go milks and became really fussy. She didn’t look well and was very lethargic. I asked her if she wanted to go back to the hotel and she said yes. I started to carry Lily back to the hotel and within 100 feet from the restaurant she threw up all over her and me. I had to set her down on the walkway and try to clean us up as best as possible. I had no choice but to just wipe it off my hands and her legs and carry on. We finally made it back to the hotel and my stomach was hurting too from smelling the vomit on me as we walked back to the hotel. Lily felt fine and we cleaned up and rested. Later that evening Lily was feeling better so I gave her an oreo to help her feel better and she immediately threw that up as well all over out hotel carpet. The housekeeping came and we did the best we could to help clean it up and mask the smell. Between the chemicals and the vomit smell, we all did not sleep well that night. Looking back at the milk we bought, I noticed there was a possibility that they might have been expired, which was probably the reason why she got sick.

Day 3

The next day we just needed some time away from people so we lounged in our hotel for most of the day. We had pizza hut for lunch near our hotel, which is nothing like American pizza hut, but it did taste pretty good and Lily ate with no issues. While Lily and I napped, Matt went back to Hongyadong to do some souvenir shopping and came home with a ton of goodies. My stomach had been hurting all day and I wanted something simple for dinner so we went back to the Corner Bistro from the first day and then came back to the hotel to relax, swim, and pack up for the next day’s departure, which according to me, couldn’t come any sooner.

Day 4

Our plane did not leave from Chongqing until 9 pm so we had all day still in the city. We were able to get a 4 pm checkout from the hotel and were able to let Lily nap before heading to the airport. One of the things we wanted to do was go to the Aquarium, so we hailed a taxi and were dropped off at this large mall where the aquarium is located inside.

After going through the small aquarium, they had a kids play area where Lily was able to go to the playground and play blocks with other toddlers.

We then made a stop at H&M and bought Lily and I some new clothes before heading back to our hotel. Our hotel had a kids play area so we let Lily play there for about an hour and then headed to the airport. Once we arrived we were not allowed to check in for international flights until 7:30 pm so we had some time to eat dinner…KFC (also not like in America), but Lily ate some chicken and was happy to run around the airport to burn some steam. We finally checked in and made our way through immigration and security to get to our gate. By the time we took off Lily was so tired she slept the entire way home. 

Food: A lot of Chinese food is fried so depending on what you like to eat you can find it fried. The Chinese also eat most of the animal so when you go to a hot-pot restaurant you are sure to find all the parts…including the pig’s snout. We stayed with familiar food thanks to having a picky toddler eater.

Observation on Beijing: Since we have been to Beijing before we were pretty familiar with the culture and the area around Beijing. A lot of people speak English so that was helpful, but beware of shop owners trying to get you into their stores by bothering you on the street, especially in the tourist areas.

Observation on Chongqing: Chongqing was a large cultural shock for us as there was hardly any foreign tourists and not many people spoke English. Many stores and restaurants were not in English as well. It was also a very busy city with hilly and winding roads, bridges, and one-way streets, so getting around was pretty crazy, but they did have a metro system.

Things we didn’t do but wanted to: Beijing-Since we did most of the tourist stuff the first time, we feel we didn’t miss out on anything this time. Chongqing-River Cruise on the Yangtze, Nanbin Road Night Fountain Show, and the Zoo.

Check out more blogs about our travels here.

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