Manchuria

Beijing has its charms but after a couple of days it becomes a bit of a grind so we headed for the hills, literally. We spent the weekend two hour’s drive north of the capital at an eco-tourist lodge in the mountains of Manchuria. The lodge is modeled on a royal hunting property and sits on 50 acres that actually were hunting grounds of Qing emperors. The setting was stunning, but the best part was access to the unrestored sections of the Great Wall that ringed the mountains around us. It was the perfect escape to balance nature with history!

The Great Wall is awe inspiring and Lizzie wasn’t going to let being 7 months pregnant get in the way of hiking over history, even though the trail was quite steep and very treacherous in certain parts. Thankfully the lodge assigned a young Tibetan kid named Lo Tzu to Sherpa Lizzie up the Wall which was extremely helpful since I was carrying my own 30 lb bag of rice named Ingrid on my left arm.

The lodge had lots of wildlife to keep Ingrid entertained. Horses, dogs, fish, frogs, cats, gnats, bugs and bats. There were also mosquitos and she is a magnet for them but we kept her slathered so she went unbitten. Stone statues of various animals and Buddhist deities were all about the ground and kept Ing wide eyed. Ingrid donned her Junior Ranger utility vest for much of the weekend so she was well equipped to collect specimens (rocks, flowers, bugs) and stash them in any of her many pockets.

When we weren’t hiking we were dining on hearty and rustic Manchurian fare like Mongolian Beef and Tibetan Yak. The Eight Notices was a favorite of mine, more for the menu write up than the actual dish, and washing it down with Harbin Beer after a long day’s hike had me feeling like a true warlord.