Beijing - The Chinese Frontier

Our journey to Beijing was another eventful affair.  This time it involved 36 hours of travelling, 4 flights, 1 delayed flight and a night on sofas in Bangkok airport.  The consequence of the flight delay to Shanghai was that we missed our connecting flight to Beijing; our re-connecting flight was then cancelled; we were bused over to Shanghai Hongqiao airport (40 mins away) for another connection which there was no guarantee we would get on; all around us there were people shouting in Chinese while the two of us just stood there and agreed that following the crowd would be the best bet!  Eventually we arrived in Beijing where our troubles weren’t quite over as we had to communicate with our taxi on how to get to our hotel.  Luckily we had printed out maps and the name and address of the hotel in Mandarin as the taxi man did not have one word of English.  In fact, of all the taxi drivers we encountered, not one of them spoke a word of English.  We finally got to our hotel which turned out to be a bit of a gem right in the middle of Beijing, not a 15 minute walk from Tiananmen Square.  We were shattered but ready to explore what Beijing had to offer.

There is LOADS to do in Beijing.  We realised this after our first day and decided that we would stay there for another 3 nights, bringing our total stay in Beijing to 7 days.  One of our first ports of call was to Tiananmen Square which is the largest public square in the world.  The view of the square from the Gate of Heavenly Peace really is impressive.  Hanging from the Gate of Heavenly Peace is a giant portrait of General Mao (this is the Gate that everyone would be familiar with from photographs and television).  In the centre of the square is Mao’s mausoleum or the “Maosoleum”(!).  Unfortunately we didn’t actually visit the Maosoleum, but by all accounts, if it’s anything like the Square itself, it would be jam-packed with people.  In fact, every time we visited the Square, we were swimming along in a sea of people.  Beijing is a hugely popular destination for domestic tourists.  Not surprising given the amount of history that comes with the place.  We took a turn around the square which is about a mile long and half a mile wide.  We also paid a visit at nighttime, which really was beautiful as all the buildings in and surrounding the square were covered in fairy lights.

Tiananment by day

Tiananmen by night

Smoggy View of Tiananmen Square

Tiananmen selfie

North of Tiananmen Square is the Forbidden City.  This is the imperial palace of a number of Chinese dynastys down through the centuries and is so called because it was off-limits to the common folk for around 500 years.  What is ironic is that the headquarters of the Chinese Communist Party, another notoriously secret political group, is only a mile away back at Tiananmen Square!  The Forbidden City is a gargantuan complex.  You would easily spend the whole day there browsing through the many many halls and buildings dedicated to some happy event or another, “Hall of Supreme Harmony”, “Hall of Moral Cultivation”, “Palace of Heavenly Purity”.  The buildings themselves were really beautiful from the outside, coloured in reds, blues, greens and gold and in the traditional Chinese style with dragons and other animals hanging off the corners of the roofs.  Once again this place was really packed with visitors (I guess the 1.6 billion have to go somewhere!), but you could still appreciate the grandeur of the complex and its buildings.

Outside Hall of Supreme Harmony

Beautiful intricate artwork on the buildings

During our time here, we also visited a number of parks, with the hope of escaping the crowds.  Boy, were we wrong!  We strolled around Zhongshan Park and Jingshan Park, both of which are beside the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square.  The more famous park we visited was the Temple of Heaven Park.  This park contains a number of temples which served as a vast stage for the solemn rites performed by the emperor as he sought good harvests, divine clearance and atonement for the sins of the people.  The park also contains the famous Echo Wall, which is a circular wall which surrounds one of the temples.  Legend has it that if you speak facing into the wall, the person standing on the opposite of the wall, i.e. with their back to you will hear what you are saying.  We gave it a shot.  It didn’t work!  Maybe you have to speak Chinese or something?!

Zhongshan Park

Short lived park calm

Temple of Heaven Park

On one of the days we decided to take a stroll around the Dongcheng district and check out what it had to offer.  This proved to be a great decision as we got to experience real Beijing without having to deal with the crowds of tourists.  Our first stop was to the Bell Tower, which was a magnificent building which housed a massive bell (believe it or not!).  Back in the day, the bell was rung to herald sunrise, midday and sunset.  You had to climb up a ridiculous amount of steps to reach the top but the views of Beijing and of the Drum Tower behind us were very impressive.  After visiting the Bell Tower, we went to the Drum Tower.  This tower contains 25 drums that were beaten at various, intervals during the night to communicate time.  When we arrived, we were just in time for the drum show.  We had no idea what to expect, but then five drummers appeared in traditional costume, walked over to a drum each and treated us to a ten minute spectacle of the beating of drums in various different rhythms and beats.  It really was brilliant and the video below should give you an idea of what it was like.

Outside the Bell Tower

Climbing up Drum Tower

View across to Drum Tower

Drum show

Big bass drum

After visiting the towers we took a walk around the hutongs of Dongcheng.  Hutongs are essentially the narrow backstreets and lanes of Beijing that lie between the mains roads of the city and Dongcheng is riddled with them.  Some of them are so small that cars won’t fit up them.  Here the Chinese people go about their daily business, be it selling fruit and vegetables, washing windows, or sitting down in a group on the side of the street and playing cards.  It really was a marvel to see and we had a great time just wandering around, getting lost and appreciating the city beyond the shopping malls and tourist attractions.

Another day we took a trip out to Beijing’s Olympic Park, site of the 2008 Olympic Games and home of the Bird’s Nest stadium and the Water Cube swimming complex.  The two stadia themselves were impressive from the outside and we were able to go inside the Bird’s Nest stadium and have a walk around.  It actually seemed much smaller than on TV but we enjoyed watching some kids flying around the running track on segways, while their parents ran after them as they sped out of control!  The outside is a vast open space, and there were lots of people flying kites when we were there.

Outside the Bird's Nest Stadium

The Olympic Flame

One of the more highly recommended things to do in Beijing is try Peking Duck.  It is said to be the best in the world here.  We decided to try the most famous duck restaurant in Beijing, Quanmenjude, so we rocked up one evening, without a reservation (naturally!) to be told that they were fully booked up and had no tables available.  The hundred strong queue of people were there in the hope that they night actually get a table.  The girl then told us that she could take us to “sister” restaurant up the street which was owned by the same man but would be cheaper in price.  We were a bit sceptical about this, given that there are a number of tourist scams going on in Beijing, but decided to go along with and see what it was like.  Unfortunately our suspicions were confirmed when our duck arrived at our table.  Disappointment central!  We both agreed that we had eaten way better duck before, be it at Wong’s, Chinatown London or the Chinese restaurant in Ashford!  We were just kicking ourselves that we had been gulled and while it was only to the tune of about €25, it was the principle of the thing.  We won’t be so gullible next time!

Fancy Starbucks building

When we were in Beijing, we had to go and buy our onward train ticket to Shanghai.  This is a task in itself that is worthy a mention.  We arrived at the zoo that is Beijing main train station.  There were people everywhere and that was just outside.  Inside it was worse.  The first thing we had to do was find the English-speaking ticket counter.  We had read online where it was but reality was a little different.  We wandered around for about 20 minutes in the blazing heat and met a number of other Western tourists doing the same thing.  Eventually we found the ticket centre but met some tourists coming out who said they couldn’t find it in there.  We took a deep breath and decided to see for ourselves.  This ticket area had about sixty counters, each with a line of about forty to fifty people.  After another few minutes we finally saw a sign which directed us to the English-speaking counter.  Unfortunately for us, this counter wasn’t exclusively for tourists, so we joined the lengthy queue.  The queue itself could be classed as a study of the manners and personalities of the Chinese people.  We saw all sorts of antics going on.  Every few minutes, some gap toothed or gummy old woman would come up to us and smile innocently and proceed to stand in front of us in the line.  So, in true Chinese fashion, we pushed her out of our way and resumed our original positions in the line.  There’s no way you can be a pushover in China, otherwise you will get absolutely nowhere!  When we got to the top of the queue, about six or seven people crowded around, trying to get a good look at the Western people trying to buy tickets in a foreign language.  We did get the tickets by the way and walked away with our sanity intact (just about) and our pockets €130 lighter!  What an experience.

Random Chinese English signage

Another experience after we had been to the railway station was going to the famous Silk Market.  This is a giant seven floor indoor market that is full of designer goods for sale for next to nothing.  Each floor is dedicated to different things, be it shoes, handbags, t-shirts and other clothing items, jewelry, DVDs, textiles and souvenirs.  As you wander around the girls at each stall are trying their very best to try and get you to come into their shop.  They really do hound you.  But the amount of brand names on sale was incredible – Mulberry handbags, Hermes scarves, Ralph Lauren t-shirts, Converse trainers etc etc etc.  Inside Claire was crying that there was no room in her rucksack to stock up the many handbags that she was coveting.  Rob, on the other hand, was more vocal in the fact that the wallet wasn’t going to be emptied on this occasion!  One of the traders had a great grasp of the Irish language and had a great time showing off her cúpla focal.  Maybe it had something to do with the O’Brien’s sandwich bar that was beside her stall!

Another of the “things to do in Beijing” is go to an acrobatics show.  We made contact with a man who went by the name of “Dragon Wang” who arranged to get us cheap tickets for a performance.  That evening, we met Dragon, who silently did the deal with us, we passed over the money, got our goods and he went on his way.  Just another bizarre thing in China!  The show itself was brilliant.  The things these acrobats could do was sometimes inhuman, as they contorted their bodies in the craziest ways, jumping up and down blocks, throwing and kicking footballs and jumping through hoops.  It really was a spectacle.

We also went to see a Kung Fu show called “The Legend of Kung Fu”.  Apparently this show is world famous and has toured Russia, Canada and America, as well as having a run in London’s West End.  The show turned out to be a cross between a musical and kung fu acrobatics and while the kung fu itself was really impressive and cool to see (try breaking 3 metal bars over your head), the overall performance was a bit weak and amateur.  Ah well, you can’t win them all!

Rob tries his hand at kung fu!

One evening we took a walk down Wangfujing Street food market.  This is a great place to eat all things weird and wonderful, including scorpions, tarantulas, crickets, beetles, along with normal food such as chicken, goat, pork and horse!  I can tell you now that we both abstained from that meal.

Mmmm, scorpion and beetle, my favourite!

Looks delicious

Beijing was a great spot for people watching and seeing what the Chinese people are like.  As I said earlier, queue skipping was a major feature of the train station and it isn’t only there that we saw it happen.  It happened in supermarkets, bus stops, toilets and at the cinema.  Naturally the locals think that they can chance their arm more with the Western tourists as they think they will let you get away with it because you can’t speak the language.  But you have to be ruthless even if it involves you being rude.  Another thing is the subways.  Pushing and shoving is definitely the name of the game on the subway.  Everyone wants a seat and God help anyone who gets in the way!  Public hygiene was definitely something else that was definitely a hot topic for discussion in Beijing.  Socially acceptable things included belching loudly, coughing and hacking in the middle of the street, the airport or even onto the floor in a shopping centre, which we actually saw!  The thing which was also jaw-dropping was parents holding their children over a litter bin or a plant so they could go to the toilet!  Often times they just went in the middle of the street.  It was incredible and no one batted an eyelid, except us!  Sometimes the Chinese people were just plain crazy, including the woman who smacked Rob across the head because he said her bananas were too expensive!  Watching the Chinese people really was an eye-opening experience in itself.

I mentioned earlier that there are a number of tourist scams operating in Beijing at the moment and if you haven’t read about them, you could find yourself with an empty wallet very quickly.  The most popular one, which was tried on myself and Rob on numerous occasions was the teahouse scam.  This is where Chinese people who are fluent in English, approach Western tourists at popular tourist destinations and engage in a friendly conversation with you.  When they think the conversation is going well and that they have built up a rapport with you, they invite you to go for a beer or a cup of tea with them in a traditional Chinese teahouse.  What usually happens then is that you are stung for a massive bill at the teahouse, which the local refuses to pay, the proprietor gets really angry and is adamant that the police will have nothing to with this case.  Of course, the reality is that the proprietor and the local are in on this little scam and the police are actually very sympathetic to travellers who are victims of this con.  The first time this happened us was at Tiananmen Square, where two women, probably late 20s, came up to us and asked us where we were from.  Claiming to be English teachers from North-Eastern China, they were delighted to be talking to Irish people.  We chatted with them for a little while and walked around with them, all the while inside voices were saying that this was more than a little strange.  When they asked us if we wanted to go for a beer with them before the flag-lowering ceremony at the Square, the bells in our brains started ringing, big time!  We started to make our excuses to them, but they kept trying to convince us to go along with them and that we would have a great time.  Eventually they got the message that we weren’t interested and we went along our way.  We were still wondering the next day whether we were bit a harsh on them and that they were genuinely being nice when we were approached again.  This time, they got the picture that we knew the game straight away!  I guess you can’t be too careful!

Anyway,  Beijing – brilliant, and a great introduction to China.  Hopefully the rest will be as easy.