Beijing part 2- Palaces and Walls
Trip Start
Sep 25, 2008
1
10
29
Trip End
Apr 01, 2009
Beijing,
China
Friday, October 10, 2008
The Forbidden City is huge, we know this because we had to walk along the length of it to get to Tiananmen square and that took at least 20 minutes.
Inside it's a series of buildings and courtyards originally built in the early 1400s and variously destroyed and rebuilt since then. When you think of Chinese palaces, or watch films like Crouching Tiger, it's all based on this place. It was literally a city within the city, and a very nice pad for the emperor!
You could quite easily spend the whole day there but it was very hot and we only lasted a few hours. We got on the metro, which is even cheaper than Moscow, and went to have a look round the shopping centre and food markets.
These markets are where the Chinese get their name for eating anything. On offer were such delights as Scorpions on a stick (choose your own wriggling little friend to be deep fried), Silk Worms on a stick and, a little upsettingly, Star-Fish and Sea Horses on a stick. I didn't see anyone eating this stuff, I think it's just there as a means to create and settle silly bets. Before joining us for duck the previous night Andre had tried both Scorpions and Silkworms. His advice is to stick to Scorpion.
Like everyone who goes to China we had to go to see the wall. But we didn't want to see it along with everyone who goes to China. So the closest and most popular spot was out. We were planning to go to an area where you can hike along the wall, this is a much less popular spot so less crowded.
In life good things just occasionally come and find you and day 3 was one of those days. ON the way to the Forbidden City we bumped into Steen. Actually we'd spoken to him briefly the previous day too. Steen told us he ran tours to a completely empty part of the wall, we wouldn't see anyone and could hike for as long as we wanted. It was also about half the price of the other trips.
This is classic tourist trap territory, you go on the tour, get in a minibus and get carted around gem shops and markets that you don't want to see, spend a few minutes where you want to be and probably get over-charged for the privelidge. But sometimes you just get a feeling to trust someone, he had a guest-book with glowing reports and told us we could pay when we got back to the hostel. So we said ok.
We met him outside our hostel at 7am. The other people on the tour had cancelled, he said, and could we pay some more money (about 8 pounds more) We said no, starting to get a bad feeling about this, and he accepted this. He then told us his brother, who spoke no English, would be taking us. We started to think we'd been a bit foolish.
After 2 hrs we had worked our way up into the mountains, we arrived at a little toll booth where the drive got out and handed over some money. We continued for a bit and pulled off into a bumpy, steep track with a horrible drop to one side! There are easier places to bring people to rob them of their money, I thought, so we are probably alright.
We were alright, we hiked past a 'this area of the wall is closed to the public' sign and clambered up onto the wall.
So, we probably shouldn't have been there, but the views were stunning and sure enough we saw no-one. Parts of the wall were incredibly steep and hadn't undergone the restoration work that the tourist areas have, but this was it as it should be, the same stones that had been there for hundreds of years.
Standing up on the highest point we reached you could see that every peak for as far as you could see had wall built on it. It was tough enough to walk up, it is impossible to imagine what it took to build it. At least with the pyramids the guys knew that once the last pointy stone was on the top they were done-in China they could never have seen the finishing line!
Friday was our last full day. We left early to visit the Summer Palace, where the emperor went when he got bored of the city and wanted a change of scenery. This place is vast, but after our solitude the previous day it was hard to enjoy it with so many people around.
The piped music coming from the trees made the place feel a bit like Alton Towers but without the rollercoasters. We'd read about Suzhou Street which was an 'authentic' little shopping street where you had to exchange your money for silver coins. Much like Disneyland infact.
'Suzhou' translates as 'Tat' every store selling the same tacky souveniers, there was even a visitors centre showing this 'authentic' street being constructed with colour photographs!
After the summer palace we got a taxi to the Olympic park. We'd heard various stories about people finding it difficult and/or being charged to get in but the taxi dropped us right outside the Watercube.
It was great to see the two buildings which we'd watched so much on the TV. We posed for our own photos and then, strangely, got stopped several times to feature in other Chinese people's snaps. This had also happened in Tiananmen Square. I really don't know what it is, and I can't imagine what reaction you'd get if we did the same thing in London, but it makes them very happy and they always ask where we're from. I've stopped kidding myself that they've mistaken me for a filmstar.
We waited for the sun to go down to see the stadium and Watercube lit-up. The Watercube capitulated but sadly not the Bird's Nest, so we headed off for our last sleep before getting the train to Hong Kong, the furthest point we'll reach before flying..
Forbidden City
