Beijing - Sept 25 - Oct 1Oct 1, 2009
|
|
Water Cube
Bird's Nest
Elizabeth inside the Cube
September 25
We arrived in Beijing almost dot on time - 6-ish am! It was still dark but the sun was beginning to rise. We think.
Outside the train station we were offered a taxi for 200RMB - nearly $30. This was crazy as I knew it should only be about 20RMB - $3! The guy laughed at me when I tried to "negotiate" with him so we just walked away to hear his offer of 150RMB. We joined the normal taxi queue and found a metered taxi easily. Unfortunately, we didn't find giving the address to our driver easy! Eventually, we got him to call them and he found the place for us. On the way we got stuck by Tiananmen Square and saw the guards raising the flag for sunset. Due to the smog, we couldn't see the sun but this was a sign that it was actually up! The final fare - 25RMB on the meter. I certainly felt glad we'd ignored the guy trying for 200RMB! What a rip off - he wanted 8 times the actual fare. I just don't know why they do that all the time - they must think all tourists and stupid and uneducated. I've learnt my lesson in the past and I always try to plan ahead now for how much a ride should cost from the airport into the city.
Our hotel wasn't ready for us to check-in but would let us at 8am, which was great for us. It had been three days without a shower again. I'd even had to shave on the train using a water bottle I'd cut in half to make a make-shift sink! Over a week of facial hair was getting itchy!
After a walk around and a McDonald's breakfast(!) we headed to the hotel, checked in and showered! Our room was huge - it had two bedrooms, a large sitting area and two bathrooms. Much bigger than I'd planned or expected!
Cleaned and refreshed, we headed out into the city and onto the excellent subway system, taking the train from our hotel near Xidan right up to the Olympic venues. I wanted to go and see the "Bird's Nest" and "Water Cube" and even in the misty, smoggy weather they looked really cool. We even got to go inside the Cube and it was great to see inside. I'm looking forward to the London Olympics now and hope we can get to visit for some of the events.
After lunch at a typically American place (give us a break, we've been eating train food for 3 days!), we went shopping - I wanted to get a laptop and some books and we wanted some souvenirs, too. We managed to grab a couple of books and a Chinese tea set and chopsticks set, too. However, the book I wanted to get (Lonely Planet's China) is not actually available IN China! I guess LP says things the Chinese government don't like! Also, we failed on the laptop, the one decent one we found having only Chinese or Japanese versions of Windows on it. Not much use!
September 26
Our first real day in Beijing, complete with full night's sleep, we headed to Tiananmen Sq and the Forbidden City. We had planned to do Mao's tomb but forgot our passports so decided to save that. Walking through Tiananmen is awesome - it is really just a huge square but each side is flanked with something - a museum, Mao's tomb and to the north, the Gate of Heavenly Peace. The sheer size was overwhelming and made Red Square look, well, a little pathetic! The columns of red around the square offset the greys of the square itself and the sky! Before we left, if I recall, my friend Ian said Beijing was great but everything was dull with a bit of red thrown in - well, he was spot on! Still, even through the gloom, the square and the Gate of Heavenly Peace were brilliant to see first hand.
Walking through the gate into the Forbidden City we fought through all the people and got inside. Even before you actually go through the entrance the structures facing you are amazing. Inside the Forbidden City, you go through building after building which looks similar to the last, but each one with it's one meaning and character. Even looking back through my pictures now (which I can't upload yet, sorry!), I'm not sure what each building was but I can spot the difference, from the size, to the patterns, to the number of "monsters" on guard on the rooftops!
Of the best things we saw, the Nine Dragon Screen was brilliant - featuring nine dragons(surprising, huh?), all individually carved and displayed in the wall. One of the dragons had a section made of wood - the man piecing it together dropped a bit and broke it so quickly replaced it with a painted wooden section and hoped the Emperor would not notice the difference! We also saw the Clocks and Watches gallery and the Imperial Treasure Gallery which were both interesting collections. Once at the north end of the city, we reached the Imperial Garden which was just about the only greenery in the city and was a very pleasant place to wander around, despite the increasing number of other tourists!
By that point, we were quite tired and we headed back to the southern gate and walked around some of the Palace Moat, finding a tour company on the way which had tours to the wall for around 220RMB compared to our hotel's offering of 470RMB. We worked out that even taking the bus ourselves we couldn't do it much cheaper than 220RMB each so we booked two spots for Monday!
September 27
Today we had an early start so we could see the "Mao"soleum - Mao's tomb. Having cleared security into the square, we had to leave to check my camera therefore having to go through security again afterwards! We got into the tomb pretty quickly. Unlike Lenin, the tomb was in a huge building with pictures and a statue of Mao in the opening room. The room behind contained his body. Again unlike Lenin, much of Mao's body was covered with a Chinese flag, with just his head showing. He was obviously quite fat when he died as his large chin showed. It was much more sombre than the Lenin tomb and the people seemed to take it much more seriously here. However, once outside the actual tomb room, the building contained a shop with all things Mao - I couldn't resist buying a key ring!
From here, we had zero luck - firstly, we went to the Imperial Museum which was shut for renovations and then to the Underground City which appeared to be permanently shut! Walking to the Underground City we had to go through a rougher area of Beijing, a Beijing which was more like we expected to see with people living in poorer conditions and the streets much dirtier. Compared to the centre which was very clean, this was an eye-opener. Still though, we didn't feel remotely threatened.
After this we headed to the Lama Temple and Confucius Temple which were both interesting in their own ways. Elizabeth didn't like the Lama Temple as many people were praying and burning incense which she didn't like the smell or smoke of. The Confucius Temple was less busy and less smoky and had a very peaceful atmosphere. The more we saw in Beijing, the more the buildings blended together, all in the "Forbidden City" style, as Elizabeth named it!
We had lunch at a Malaysian restaurant and to get there we walked through some hutongs, Beijing's small alleyways which connected the larger roads and where many people lived. IT was really cool to see the people living and working outside of the centre and their way of life. Part of the hutong was a building site but the men in hard hats happily waved us through!
In the afternoon, we walked past the Drum and Bell Towers which were both closed - thankfully, we'd only gone there to photograph them, not climb them! Close by were the lakes so we wandered there and walked around a couple of small streets lined with shops. One shop had pictures of Obama merged with Mao and were really funny, christening him Oba-mao!
In the evening we went to an acrobatic show. It started really badly - it was very cheesy dancing and there were parrots flying everywhere! However, once the acrobatics actually started it was really cool - the stunts were amazing and the balancing acts they did were almost unbelievable. The final act was one woman riding around the small stage on a bicycle with about 14 or 15 other girls balanced with her. It was crazy, especially in such a small space!
September 28
We had a mixup with our tour to the Great Wall. We'd told the hotel we wanted one and then cancelled it, replacing it with a cheaper one. However, last night we got a phone call about the tour. The woman didn't say who she was and I assumed she was from the hotel reception and told her we'd cancelled that tour. Unfortunately it was the NEW tour and, of course, no-one turned up to collect us! I was annoyed with myself and Elizabeth was pissed off with me, too (although she didn't admit as much, it was obvious!)
As it was a nice day, we headed to the Temple of Heaven Park to see the UNESCO sites there. The park itself was pretty plain - rows of non-descript trees and quite bare grass. They had placed flowers and flags along the walkways for the 60th birthday celebrations but these were a bit tacky and tatty.
The temples themselves were great - the large temple was stunning and beautifully decorated. We'd bought an ornament of it in Bermuda so we were keen to see it for real, and it was amazing. Even with the crowds, the views up to it and from the balcony around the lower floor were brilliant.
Further along, was a smaller single tiered version of the large temple which was equally intricately decorated. Surrounding this was an echo wall. This was a sign for lots of Chinese people to shout but I didn't hear any echoes!
Finally, we headed to the final section which was a raised courtyard (I can't remember the name if it) but everything was done in 9s. The stairs up to the top were in groups of nine, the stones were in multiples of 9, etc. It appears 9 is a lucky number here!
The rest of the day we wandered around. We'd planned to go to the Capital Museum but that closed on Mondays and then we headed to the CCTV Tower but this seemed to be closed too despite a security guard telling us it was open. Another bloody TV tower...!
September 29
Finally, today, we got to go to the Great Wall. Sod's law, after the nice day yesterday, the weather today was AWFUL. Really awful.
Our tour wasn't great, either. We started off at a jade factory. Why do these tours always drag you around these places? We spent over an hour here and at the end we'd even succumbed and bought something - Elizabeth's birth sign is the pig and they had some quite "cute" jade pigs so we got one.
So, after an hour there, we headed to the Ming Tombs. Most tours stop at 1 or 2 of the three tombs plus the Spirit Road. We went to one tomb, the largest. After some buildings and temples, we were stood in front of a mound of earth covered in trees and were told the tomb was under the mound. We thought, after Egypt, we'd be actually going into the tomb but alas not. Our guide told us it was bad luck to take too many pictures but frankly there was nothing to take pictures of. In total, we spent just over half an hour here.
So far, we weren't impressed, especially as the next stop was a Chinese herbal medicine centre! Another con where doctors could tell you what was wrong with you based on your pulse, your tongue and your eyes. Elizabeth didn't want a free consultation but I gave it a go. Apparently, I drink too much beer and eat too much meat. Doctor must be a genius - I'm a bloody 31 year old man; what 30-odd year old male doesn't eat too much crap and drink too much alcohol???!
Obviously, I could be "cured" and he prescribed a herbal remedy which cost $60 for 15 days worth. I'd be cured in a month, apparently... for just $120. I declined, politely, of course!
Having spent almost all morning doing nothing but crap, we headed BACK to the jade factory where we had our lunch stop. It was a Chinese buffet and was very average.
Finally, we headed to the Great Wall and when we got there the fog had really closed in. At the top of the cable car, it was cold, wet and we couldn't see anything. We climbed to the norther fortress at Badaling, just to say we'd walked some of the wall but pictures were pretty pointless! On the way back down, we bought some postcards of what it should look like!
Back in Beijing, and quite disappointed with the day, we headed out for dinner. The security levels were really being raised now with National Day getting closer. We reached the supermarket where we wanted to get some groceries for the next couple of days (most things would be shut from the middle of tomorrow) and decided to make use of one of the restaurants nearby here, too. We settled on Thai - we'd still not had "proper" Chinese here but we knew we would when we got to Xi'an and Chengdu. To be honest, neither of us are big fans of Chinese food so we were both happy to avoid a little longer!
September 30
We were short of options today with places closing for the holiday but thankfully the Summer Palace was still open and that was good as we both wanted to see that before we left.
We took the excellent, clean and effecient subway out there and arrived in just over half an hour.
The Summer Palace was great - the gardens were full of bright flowers, the lake, complete with lillies, looked a little mysterious in the smog/mist ("smist", for short!)and the buildings were equally as impressive as any others we'd seen. They weren't kept as well as those in the Forbidden City but the look created by the fading paintwork actually gave it more a look of antiquity. We climbed up Longevity Hill to see the temples higher up and were rewarded with a quickening heart rate and some great views, even with the thick smist.
We walked along the Long Corridor along the lake and saw the huge boat made completely from marble. The story about the boat is that one of the empresses who stayed here was accused of wasting all her money building this boat but it appears this was false as the boat was most likely built before she was even born!
The Palace was definitely one of the highlights of our time in Beijing. We even managed to find a couple of Olympic Chinese teacups here - I'd wanted a souvenir of the Olympics but we'd struggled to find them anywhere, amazingly!
Back in the centre, we headed to the internet cafe to check a few things and so I could do some more of this darned journal! However, at 5.30, the place just emptied, every person just making a run for the door. It appeared even the 24 hour internet cafe was closing at 6pm for the holidays and we were soon evicted too!
Thankfully, we'd bought dinner at the supermarket the previous night!
At the hotel, we asked where we could watch the parade tomorrow to be told we couldn't. When we asked why, the receptionist at our hotel shrugged and said "ask police". Really helpful!
October 1
I was woken at 3am this morning by my brother who told me Naomi had given birth to Charlotte Alice, a new addition to the family. Her birthday is September 30 but with the time difference she almost shares her birthday with China! Congrats to Nick, Naomi and little Charlotte.
When we got up, we put the TV on and all the channels were showing the 60th Anniversary celebrations of the People's Republic of China. When they showed the Square, there was not a single "regular" person there - they were either involved in the parade or an invited dignitary. So much for the "People's Republic".
We decided not to even try to get to the square and spent the entire day watching on TV - an hour long military parade including troops, tanks, missile launchers (including a new long range missile which was being shown for the first time - can reach the US apparently - what a nice birthday message!) and planes from airbases around the city started proceedings. This was followed by a two hour parade of civilians from each Chinese region and ethnicity (56 of them, of which China seems so proud. Didn't notice Tibet though. Hmm). Over 100,000 people took part in the parade. Around 10,000 watched it in person.
Whilst watching on TV, a reporter asked about the perfectly clear weather compared to the previous few days. It appears they had sent planes up and fired "rain-making" devices into the clouds early that morning to make it rain and create a clear sky. They hadn't left anything to chance!
Later in the day, they had musical shows and fireworks in Tiananmen Square. We could hear the fireworks but not see them from our balcony. The music and songs were awful but Elizabeth enjoyed the fireworks!
