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There are 9 million bicycles in Beijing!
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Mon 1st - We arrived in Beijing safely after spending 16 hours on a train. We were expecting the train to be quite uncomfortable as we were in a hard sleeper cabin and these were not good on the Vietnam trains. But the cabins were surprisingly good. The beds weren't too hard and there was a fair bit of headroom on each of the bunks. The carriages were open too which was good as the air circulated more easily. We quite enjoyed the train trip!
Once we had checked in to our hostel we headed off to the Mongolian Embassy to apply for our visas. After queuing for 2 hours and being second in line to the window, the guy decided to shut up for the day! As you can imagine we were not happy, especially as we were last in the queue and so there was only 2 applications left. We voiced our anger and told the guy we were going to sit outside the office until he came back from lunch an hour later, which we did. We refused to leave until he had taken our applications and eventually he agreed. But we had been sitting outside for over an hour while he had been on his lunch, and the whole time there was an office inside we could have gone to. How frustrating.
Since most of the day was spent at the Embassy, we didn't have much time left, but we went to the Silk Market to try to get a Chinese dress. Ed managed to get a warm hoodie too. They wanted over $200 at first but Ed managed to bargain them down to $8! He was there a while though as the girl took hold of his arm and wouldn't let him go! I also got a silk dress which Ed bargained for - he got them down from $220 to $25! He is very good at bartering and he loves it! The Chinese are really good fun when you barter with them as they don't get annoyed, they just have fun. But they start at ridiculous prices!
Tues 2nd - Today we went to the Temple of Heaven. This is a big park with a Temple inside, in which people used to go to pray to Heaven for good harvest. It has a 3 tier roof and is very colourful. Inside the park there are lots of grass areas and several pagodas to see and there are 2 flower gardens. It was really nice for the few hours we were there. Then it was time to go to collect our visas, but would you believe they had lost our passports?! We had to wait around for ages while they found them and did our visa for us. Then we walked back to the hostel, stopping for dinner on the way. Tonight we went for a drink in the hostel bar. Everything was fine until one guy from the hostel started laying in to another guy from the hostel. He was really punching him - it was horrible. Ed did the first aid bit as the guy was bruised and bleeding under his eye and then we decided to leave. The atmosphere was very tense and we felt a bit uncomfortable being there. As it was all in Chinese neither of us have any idea what the fight was about either.
Wed 3rd - The guy who started the fight last night seems to have been fired as when we went to breakfast he was packing up his gift shop. We are still not sure what happened though.
Today we have walked miles! First we went to Tiananmen Square and had a look at all the Olympic art work they have there. They have made lots of Olympic carvings from plants which look quite cool.
Next stop was the Forbidden City, which is a huge area within a wall surrounded by water. Inside the walls are lots of temples. Apparently, this whole area was off limits to people for 500 years and so is a big tourist attraction now. There was lots to see too in terms of the furniture and carvings that remain inside the temples and "houses". There was a museum displaying old clothes and pictures of royalty from the Qing and Ming dynasties. That was interesting to see, although a lot of it was written in Chinese and so we weren't sure what that said! We also saw 2 fantastic art exhibitions from uni students. We wanted to buy some of the paintings but we just can't carry them, and we have nowhere to put them. Maybe in the future.
The Forbidden City is a really large area and so it took several hours to walk around. Then we walked all the way back to the hostel so we are both pretty tired now. We had a lovely dinner on the way back too. Even Ed said the vegetarian stuff was good! Oh and we had a new toilet experience! I have to say that I think I have got much better about the toilet situation, accepting the fact that I have to adjust my standards of cleanliness and also accepting that many "toilets" are holes in the floor, with no toilet paper and no soap or water. I have learnt to arm myself with toilet roll and hand sanitiser! But today, I went to use a public toilet and to my horror the public toilets consisted of a row of holes in the floor with no cubicles or doors to separate them - a whole new meaning to communal toilets! I decided to hold it in and find a nice hotel! I can do toilets that don't lock but I draw the line at toilets you share with others, quite literally! Ed had the same experience in the men's but urinals are never private really anyway so not a mega problem! Can't wait for nice toilets again!
Off to bed now as we are up early for a trip to the Great Wall tomorrow!
Thurs 4th - We went on our trip to the Great Wall. We had a few stops on the way - all part of the commission for organised tours - but some of the stops were really good. First stop was an enamel factory where we got to see how enamel pots and vases are made, from the initial vase to the intricate designs to the painting and firing and finally the polishing. It was interesting to watch but the finished products were too expensive for our budget. The second stop was at the Ming Tombs, where 30 Emperors and Empresses from the Ming Dynasty are buried in the hills, some with memorials inside a Temple like building, and one with a Mausoleum inside the Temple.
Stop 3 was a Jade Factory where we saw lots of statues and carvings made from Jade and were taught how to tell the real Jade from the fake. We were also taught how to put on a seemingly too tight bracelet using a plastic bag. That was fun as I thought I was going to be stuck with the bracelet on me!
We had lunch at a restaurant attached to a second Jade Factory. The food was really good and we had lots of Chi tea which is really nice. Then we went to see The Great Wall at Badaling. It is amazing. It is so well built and goes through some beautiful countryside, although the views were not totally clear due to a little bit of smog - the first we have seen since we got here. Some parts of the wall are exceptionally steep and hard work to climb but it was good fun getting to the top of our section and touching the top wall! Altogether we walked about 4km along the wall and felt the pain afterwards! Ed felt like he was famous too! People kept stopping to ask for him to have his picture with them, and one guy even asked if Ed would sign his cap! That blonde hair is certainly a hit with the Asians! I must look normal by their standards as no-one is interested in mousey hair! I'm quite the photographer now though and Ed is quite the poser!
Once we had finished our walk on the wall we went to the Great Wall Museum where we saw a reconstruction of the wall and how it was built, and learnt how the bricks were made so long lasting and durable. It was very interesting.
The last stop of the day was at a Chinese Medical Clinic where we were given a free foot massage and medical. We had to soak our feet in hot water and herbal stuff and then had a foot massage with oils. It was lush after a hard hike! Then a Doctor came over and took our pulse to establish if we had any weaknesses in our system. His diagnoses were spot on too, so we were very impressed. That was a great way to finish off our day!
By the time we got back to the hostel we were all shattered so it was a case of dinner, a quick drink and bed. Hopefully all that fresh air will make us sleep well!
Fri 5th - We have had another busy day today! We walked to The National Theatre and looked all around the outside. It is a dome shape made of titanium and is surrounded by water on a partly glass floor, so the reflection of the sun makes the water look really green. We got a ticket to look around inside and started in the museum section. Here there are lots of pictures and details of different big Theatres and Opera Houses from around the world, and then there are models of the proposed National Theatre (proposals 1 and 2) Proposal number 3 is the one that was agreed upon and so there are then photographs of the construction process. It looked very complex as there was so much to achieve. We were then able to go and look around the Theatre itself. It is a huge building but is even more impressive from the inside than the outside. The light and the way the sun reflects inside the building is beautiful and the design of the inside is amazing. There are 5 different floors, each holding different sections of the Theatre. The Opera House, Theatre and Concert Hall are the three main sections, but then there are the smaller practice rooms, an art gallery and a press conference room, among others, not to mention 2 cafes and a record shop. From the outside you wouldn't think all that would fit but it does! We weren't allowed to go inside the main halls but we were able to wander between floors and check out the smaller rooms. The architecture is fantastic.
Opposite the National Theatre is the People's Building so we stopped to take pictures of this on our way out of the Theatre, then we went on the tube up to the Olympic Village, where we saw the Birds Nest Stadium and the Aquatics Stadium. The Aquatics stadium has 3D bubbles all over the outside and looks really cool. The Birds Nest Stadium, funnily enough, looks much like a birds Nest with an awesome design. Needless to say we couldn't get particularly close to the stadiums as the Paralympics starts tomorrow and some of the athletes are inside the stadium now checking it out. But we could stand behind the railing and got to take some good pictures, so all was ok.
It was quite a long walk from the tube station to the stadiums and so by the time we got back it was getting quite late. We stopped in at Wumart, the local supermarket, to stock up on provisions for the train tomorrow and then we got the tube back to the area near our hostel. We intended to go to a famous duck restaurant for dinner but it turned out to be closed for refurbishment, so instead we found a nice Thai/Indian restaurant, which incidentally was better for vegetarians!
On the way back to the hostel we passed a park where we could hear music playing. On closer inspection we saw that there was a dance class going on, and couples were using the park as a dance floor. The park itself was lit up and the atmosphere was very romantic. It was lovely to watch all the couples dancing so openly.
It has to be said that Beijing has been a total surprise. It is a very modern city with some beautiful buildings, but the most surprising thing is the lack of smog. We were both expecting the smog level to be quite high, but surprisingly, it has been very low and we have been able to do and see a lot. We could stay here for another 2 weeks and not get bored! We have decided that we both really like Beijing and definitely want to come back. The list keeps getting longer!
Tomorrow we start our stint on the Trans Siberian so we are really excited. Let's hope it's as good as we are anticipating! First stop will be Ulaanbaatar, travel time 30 hours. Will keep you posted .....
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| 94. | There are 9 million bicycles in Beijing! - Beijing, China Sep 05, 2008 |
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