The night before we were slated to leave for China, I walked outside to get the mail. It was already dark (nearly 9:00 p.m.) and the full moon was high and bright in the sky. As I looked up at it I couldn’t help but think that the next time I’m going to see that moon I’m going to be on the other side of the world.
After arriving in China, I made a point to look for the moon on our first morning. It was 5 a.m. when we left to track down a Japanese Waxwing, so still plenty dark, and there it was, the full moon I said goodbye to back home. Now a waning gibbous welcoming me to China.
We were on the other side of the world. Truly. But still looking at the same moon. The feelings I get recounting that make my heart flutter.
Getting to China
From the U.S. to China, we traveled nearly 30 hours: Philadelphia to San Francisco (maybe the worst airport in the U.S.?) and then from SFO to Beijing. Overall, it wasn’t too bad of a journey, and both boys did really well on the planes. (Despite Roger having a full meltdown about an hour before we landed, I would still call it a success. And this is the same Roger who had zero accidents on our 14.5-hour flight from SFO to Beijing! Not bad for a newly potty-trained two-year-old! I could not imagine having 2 kids in diapers for this trip!)
Meeting Xiaorui
We arrived in Beijing and met Xiaorui (pronounced shyow-rye) at the airport. He had flown in to meet us and was slated to be our English translator/bird guide for the first 5 days.
I should probably mention that this trip to China wasn’t a true budget trip by any means. With two babies in tow, we absolutely did not want to navigate public transportation. That left only one real option: hiring a driver. (Foreigners aren’t allowed to rent cars in China, or so we thought.)
Ross coordinated the driver hire with local bird guide Steven An, who not only helped arrange drivers throughout our trip but also coordinated English-speaking translators for a few of the regions we visited. (The original plan was to have an English speaker for 40 days in addition to a Mandarin-speaking driver, and just a Mandarin-speaking driver for the remaining 50 days…of course that all changed, but more on that in later posts) Steven’s expertise and local knowledge were invaluable. If we had to hire drivers anyway, it was a huge bonus that Steven could connect us with drivers experienced with birding tours, who understood early departures, the importance of being on time, and the nuances of remote birding locations.
Beijing was our first stop, and it was one of the segments where we had both an English-speaking guide and a driver. I’m so glad we had an English speaker at the beginning while we got our bearings. We could ask Xiaorui all kinds of questions. And since he has studied in the US for some time, his English was the best English we encountered on our trip. It was flawless.
Ross, being Ross, let Xiaorui coordinate all logistics at first, but it didn’t take long for him to notice the small inefficiencies like when we entered and exited the botanical gardens from the furthest entrance to the birding spots, adding an extra 6 kilometers walk to our day. Walking more would not normally be a problem, but it’s hard for a 2 year old to keep up. For what might seem like obvious reasons, we did not bring a stroller with us. (But in case it’s not obvious, we simply did not have the room for one!)
Xiaorui, still considers himself a bird guide, but he only does this part time. He will be the first to admit that this is something he has been doing on the side during a gap year before pursuing his Ph.D. in East Asian history.
One of the most unique things about Xiaorui is that he likes the birds for the birds. I call him a purest. He goes birding with only binoculars, something extremely rare in China. (Actually, it’s pretty rare around the world but especially China, where most people are bird photographers above all else.) But it was nice that Xiaorui would be content with just good views and not have to worry about getting a good photo. Also he was FANTASTIC with the kids! (In the end we LOVED birding with Xiaorui and maybe someday we can meet him to go birding again!)
Spring in Beijing
Ross warned me that our first five days in Beijing would be pretty fast-paced, and he was right. By the end of the first few days, it truly felt like a whirlwind. On top of that, we dealt with cold weather and strong winds, making birding a bit more challenging than we’d hoped.
Someone asked me before we left if I was sad to be missing spring at home. The short answer: no.
The long answer: Beijing’s seasons mirror Pennsylvania’s pretty closely thanks to a similar latitude. Sure, I was missing spring in the U.S., but I was experiencing spring in China and that felt like a gift.
The cherry blossoms were nearly at peak bloom, painting the city in waves of pinks and whites. Their colors shifted from deep pink to bright pink to creamy white, and they were everywhere. Someone made sure to line the streets, parks, and even birding sites with cherry trees and it was hues of pinks and whites along all of our drives.
Beijing Botanical Gardens & Summer Palace
Beijing, the capital of China, is home to over 22 million people, yet still boasts some truly beautiful natural areas. We spent five days exploring the city at the beginning of our trip, hoping to catch a few winter birds that wouldn’t be around when we returned at the end of May. (Our itinerary started and ended in Beijing.)
The Beijing Botanical Gardens, when visited on a gorgeous spring day, were full of life. Birds like Snowy-browed Nuthatches and Silver-throated Tits flitted through the blossoms. It’s easy walking and very enjoyable. But the Beijing Botanical Gardens when visited on a cold, cloudy day with gusts of wind up to 30mph? A lot less enjoyable. I should know… we experienced both. Our first visit was the latter, but luckily on our second visit we were able to track down our main target, Yellow-browed Bunting along with other birds such as Yellow-billed Grosbeak, Tristram’s Bunting, and dozens of Mandarin Ducks.
Summer Palace, once the private retreat of the imperial family, was another highlight of our time in Beijing. The cherry blossoms here were spectacular, making the scenic views even better. We ended up visiting twice: once to see a particularly showy Eurasian Bittern, and again to track down a Baikal Teal we didn’t have time to find the first time around. It’s a lovely spot and absolutely worth two visits just for the scenery alone!
Our first two days in Beijing were tough (read: cold, windy, and filled with “dips”.) We hurried down from Lingshan after striking out on most of our targets (that Japanese Waxwing I mentioned was a pipe dream anyway, but we didn’t see any other birds either.) Hoping for better luck at the Botanical Gardens, we headed there. But with the wind we again came up short. Thankfully, the weather improved dramatically after that.
Wild Duck Lake & A Gull Disaster
Wild Duck Lake, a stunning wetland at the base of the Yanshan Mountains, was absolutely breathtaking. It was chilly but at least the sun was shining. And when we looked north, we could even spot a distant stretch of the Great Wall of China. (We didn’t make a separate visit to The Wall on this trip, but seeing it from Wild Duck Lake was a memorable sight. Let me know if purposefully dipping the wall up close was a bad idea!) The highlight of this stop surely was the Baer’s Pochard seen amongst the reeds!
One of the main reasons we started our trip in Beijing was to see Relict Gull. Unfortunately, to put it bluntly, the Relict Gull experience was nothing short of a trainwreck. The vehicle we had for Beijing was way too big (considered a ‘bus’ by Tianjin Province) so we were limited to only going 80 km/hr (50mph) which significantly extended our time to get there. What we thought was supposed to only take two and a half hours, ended up taking almost 5 hours!
Not only did it take longer, the vehicle was too big to drive down the narrow port road to get close to where the gulls hang out. We had to settle with mostly distant views of one of Ross’s most wanted birds of the entire trip. Although we saw ~200 Relict Gulls, only a few were in close amongst thousands of Black-headed Gulls and a few Mongolian Gulls. (Don’t ask me why, but Ross just went through a big gull phase*** where he couldn’t get enough time studying and learning the intricate differences in what most of us would pass off as a boring, cracker-stealing, white bird.)
Leaving the cold behind
Although the first leg of our trip was frustrating due to the weather, logistics, and overall lackluster winter (Beijing was having a very poor winter overall bird-wise), we still managed to find a number of our targets and get acquainted to how birding in China was going to be. Our next stop was going to be quite different. Trading in the cold 30 degree temps of Beijing for hot humid 80 degree days in Hainan. Stay tuned
This birding took place March 16-20, 2025
Here’s 2 eBird checklists if you want to peruse: Wild Duck Lake and Beijing Botanical Gardens
***I read this post to Ross and he said “I wouldn’t call it a phase.” And then he started rambling on about how he needs to figure out access to Tullytown landfill (a large dump near Philadelphia where we live) so he can stare at all of the gulls who come to feast amongst the garbage of the eastern seaboard’s largest landfill. A whole long drive filled with nothing but gull features.