The Great Wall and Olympic fever
Trip Start
May 06, 2007
1
133
166
Trip End
Jul 24, 2008
Beijing,
China
Friday, March 28, 2008
We arrived safely in Beijing on Tuesday to begin the last part of our time together. We had a reservation at the Marriott Beijing West Hotel using Dad's points. After our wonderful experience in Shanghai we weren't quite sure what to expect. Dad had done some schmoozing with the Guest Services Manager at the Renaissance in Shanghai while trying to get a decent map and directions from the airport in Beijing to the hotel and was hoping he would put in a good word for us with his counterpart at the Beijing West. Well it seems like he came through for us. They put us into a huge suite and it seemed like the bathroom itself was bigger than the entire triple room with bathroom that we stayed in while in Xi'an. We also had access to the Executive Lounge with breakfast, cocktails, evening snacks/desserts, free local phone, and free wireless internet. [This hotel wasn`t nearly as lush or new as the one in Shanghai, but they were still pretty sweet digs. The room was about the size that my apartment in Oakland used to be, including a sitting/tv area and a dining room. But you could definitely tell that the hotel was aging and in desperate need of new carpeting.]
Once we got settled in the hotel, we decided to start exploring. As we always enjoy using public transportation and seeing the people of the city, we found out where the nearest subway station was located. Because it wasn't really close to the hotel, we took a taxi to the station, at a cost of less than $1.50 for the three of us. The subway system in Beijing is growing rapidly. They currently have 4 lines in operation and are working on at least 2 more. The one that connects the airport to the other lines is scheduled to open in the next month or two to accommodate all of the people arriving for the Olympics. I assume that everyone has seen stories about the number of people that take the subways in China, well, the stories are correct. During all the rides we took, there was only one time that we were able to get in and out of the car without having to be careful not to run into someone. The Chinese people, on the other hand, don't seem to care whether or not they push someone aside as long as they get on the cars. Many times during our stay in China were we jostled or even pushed aside for someone to get passed us. Those of you who know Laura will know that she wouldn't let that happen. (What do you think your elbows are for?) By the end of the trip, both Mom and Dad were making their way through the crowded subway stations and cars just like the Chinese. [After my parents left, I learned an interesting fact about the Beijing subway. In preparation for the Olympics, Thursdays are stand-in-line days. The authorities come out during rush hour with megaphones and attempt to teach the Chinese people how to stand in line and wait for the subway. This is just one hysterical piece of their massive campaign to teach people manners. They definitely have their work cut out for them.]
Our first mission was to find a vegetarian restaurant listed in the guidebook for lunch. This turned out to be another wild goose chase (and not the pagoda type). We easily got to the area where the restaurant was supposed to be (south of the Forbidden City) but low and behold, the address we had didn't exist. The review mentioned something about a second floor of the building. There were no two story buildings anywhere near where it was supposed to be. Oh well, we started to head back towards the main city area and found a storefront restaurant that said it had an English menu so we decided to take a chance. It ended up being pretty decent. The menu was in English, but the owners couldn't speak a word, so we did a lot of pointing. I showed them my sheet in Chinese that says what I couldn't eat and they pointed to the things on the menu that were ok. Mom and I shared an eggplant and potato dish that was pretty much sans the eggplant while Dad did his meat eater thing. [Slightly related, there has recently been news of a Lonely Planet guidebook writer revealing that he never even visited one of the countries whose guidebook he updated and blatently made up some of the information, so who knows if this vegetarian restaurant ever existed.]
While we walked around this area of Beijing, we observed some of the Hutongs. The Hutongs are basically small alleyways or lanes in the older sections of Beijing where many people live [and have lived for a long time]. One of the interesting things Dad noticed was that in this area of the Hutongs, there was a wall under construction. He called it the new "Beijing Great Wall". This area appeared to be very dilapidated and in the process of being torn down, so it looked like the city was building a wall to hide it [Olympic preparation and beautification???]. While walking through some of the Hutongs, we came across a street with an entry arch that had vendors in storefronts and on the sidewalks. One food vendor was making what looked like a great big crepe. They called it a pancake and they would fold it up and cut it into small pieces, about 2" by 4". We tried some and found it to be very tasty and bought some for the rest of the week and to take home. They had different flavors including strawberry and chocolate. [I particularly liked the orange flavored pancake. Yum!] We continued to walk around the city and found a construction fence that had pictures of the Olympic mascots depicting the different sports. There was also a billboard that was geared to the Chinese people encouraging them to embrace the Olympics. [Once again, more discussion of manners. Could they really mean that they don`t want the Chinese people to spit while everyone is visiting? Of course not.]
It was our first full day and we went out to the Summer Palace for the morning. The facility was beautiful and is a site not to miss. Numerous buildings spread throughout the facility with a large lake in the center. There is a peninsula that juts out into the lake that has a beautiful building right at the end. Boat tours and paddle boats are rented to get around the lake. We just walked and walked throughout the northern portion of the grounds and climbed the stairs all the way to the top to the Pavilion of Buddhist Fragrance.
After leaving the Summer Palace we had our first negative experience with the taxis in China. As we were looking for a taxi we were approached by a driver trying to drum up some business. Unfortunately, we decided to go with him. As we were driving towards the city, Dad noticed that the price on the meter was going upward too quickly. We knew approximately what it should cost because we took a taxi to the Summer Palace and only half way back towards the hotel we were already way over that. We decided to get out of the taxi only part way to where we were headed and get another one. Dad got the receipt from the driver and saw that for the 16 minute, 10.9 kilometer (6-3/4 mile) ride we had there was almost 14 minutes of waiting time. In China, waiting time is defined as the taxi going 12 kph (7.5 mph) or less. Well, if you run the math the taxi would have had to be going almost 300 kph (185 mph) for a little over 2 minutes to go the distance we did. Obviously that didn`t happen. Dad, working through one of the Guest Services Managers of the hotel, filed a complaint with the taxi company. Moral of the story: If you take a taxi in Beijing, make sure you take an official taxi, one that has a multi-colored paint job and the driver has posted his official certificate on the dashboard. Even with a taxi sign on top of the vehicle and a meter inside it still may be a fraud and rip off. [Ours actually did even have an official certificate inside, but obviously wasn`t so legit.]
Now that we were on our way again we headed over to the Bell and Drum Towers which are directly north of the Forbidden City. From there we walked around the Hutongs and found one street that has been undergoing redevelopment. There were upscale shops, cute little cafes, and the street was pretty clean. We also found another sign that we have no idea what it means [more Chinglish anyone?].
Thursday was a day we were really looking forward too. We hired a guide and driver to take us to the Great Wall of China. On the way to the wall we drove past the new Olympic stadium (aka the Birds Nest) and the new aquatics center.
Now, there are 3 or 4 areas where you can go to visit the wall. The Badaling area is northwest of Beijing and is the most popular with the tourists because of its accessibility. It has been totally rebuilt and has some pretty flat, easy to maneuver areas. Northeast of Beijing are areas of Jinshanling, Mutianyu, Gubeikou and Simatai that have been rebuilt only enough for people to traverse. We chose to go to the Simatai area that is a combination of both and open to be climbed up to a point. Being on the wall is an unbelievable experience. We had a terrific day with blue skies and some great looking clouds. Just getting to the section of wall we climbed was a long uphill trek. When you get about two thirds of the way up to the wall you're met by locals that offer to sell you things (DUH!!!!), escort you up to the wall telling you about their lives, and want to assist you in your climb. We entered the wall between towers 2 and 3 and then proceeded east of the river and up towards tower 4. To get to the wall west of the river there is a narrow footbridge and some very steep steps to get up the river bank. That's why Mom and Dad decided to go to the east. When we got up to tower 4 and Mom and Dad looked at the stairs that proceeded up to towards tower 5, they made the decision to call it a completed climb. Instead of a set of stairs with walls on both sides, it was only, what could loosely be called, uneven stairs with a wall on one side and a chain railing protecting you from a steep drop on the other side. They said it was funny to watch other climbers do the same thing they did. As you can imagine, Laura continued and went all the way to tower 12, which is as far as they will let anyone go. There are two guards stationed there to make sure you don't go further. One of them took her picture standing there with the rest of the wall behind me. It took her about 1-1/2 hours to go from tower 3 to 12 and back. We were told that it's a 4 hour trek to go between Simatai and Jinshanling. On the way down Dad and Laura continued down to tower 1 to get a closer look at the footbridge and the river.
After the three hour drive back, we needed some time to relax but knew this was the night for Dad to have Peking Duck. After lots of recommendations for restaurants where the duck would cost $30-$60 we decided to ask the lovely girl who worked in the executive lounge. She wrote down the name of a place within walking distance from the hotel. It was a local restaurant, we were the only westerners, and perfect for us. We were a novelty for them. Dad enjoyed a delicious Peking Duck. Laura and Mom discovered that they don't like winter melon, and the bill was way under $30 for everything.
On our last full day in China we went to visit the Temple of Heaven, TiananMen Square and the Forbidden City. We started out by getting to the Temple of Heaven as early as we could to be able to observe the many activities that typically go on there. After getting off the subway and getting some help from a police officer to find our way to the Temple we came across a cool bridge with musical notes on it. In the park, we saw so many things going on including dance lessons, hackysack with a feathered hackysack, hackysack over a badminton net, some weird kind of paddle and ball centrifugal force thing, fan dancing (not the Gypsy Rose Lee type), ribbon dance lessons, tai chi, a harmonica band with a singer, a chorus, and numerous musicians and singers throughout the park. At one point we came across a group dancing and saw a Tony Orlando lookalike, though at first glance we all thought it was Elvis. While we were watching trying to figure out what dance they were doing, a man came up to Laura and motioned for her to join him. He was a good lead and had this weird Saturday Night Fever move he did. Walking through the par, we also saw a few school groups with young children that made their own flags.
From here we found a subway station and went up to TiananMen Square. On the Museum of the Revolution there is a countdown clock for the Olympics and when we were there it was only 133 days to the Olympics start. While we were on the square a young Taiwanese couple came up and started talking to us. They said they were from Taiwan visiting and would like to talk to us in English for a while. He was a history major in University and wanted to tell us all about the Square and other things. We were trying to figure out if they were going to try to sell us something so after giving them some English practice time we did the best we could to get rid of them. They probably would have joined us for the whole day if we let them. When we finally got away from them we headed across the street to the Forbidden City. The City was pretty interesting, but it started to rain harder and harder so we cut our visit short and headed on to get Laura's rail pass for Japan. It could only be gotten at 4 locations throughout Beijing. After numerous phone calls the evening before, we picked the one that cost the least. [The railpass price is set in Japanese yen, but it`s up to the individual travel agent to determine the exchange rate into the local currency. This pass also must be bought outside of Japan and is only for foreigners on a tourist visa.] From there we went to a much fancier vegetarian restaurant and had a delightful dinner to celebrate Laura's birthday [which was still over a week away, but my parents will be back home and I will be in Japan by then]. It was pouring rain when we finished and so we were delighted when a cab finally stopped and took us back to the hotel. [We had one hell of a time flagging down a cab since not only was it pouring rain, it was also the middle of rush hour. We split up onto two separate street corners to try to get one to stop. By the time we finally got one about 30 minutes later, all three of us were soaking wet from the combination of the rain and the cars splashing through puddles as they drove by. Not exactly fun.]
On their last day, right before they left, Mom and Dad went over to see the new Olympic stadium and the swimming facility while Laura took it easy relaxing in the hotel. Dad had read some articles about them in architectural magazines so he wanted to see the area close up. Well, what they found was that they couldn't get very close to it. The construction of the stadium, surrounding buildings, and the grounds around the stadium appeared to be nowhere near complete. There were so many workers, materials and equipment on the street to the east of the stadium that it was difficult to even get close to the construction fence to get any pictures. The fact that it was very cloudy didn't help things either. They looked around at the area and then hightailed it back to the hotel. Observation: With the progress of the work around the venues at the stage that it is, even though we know it will be done, we'd be concerned that some of the areas won't be ready in time for the Olympics to start on August 8th.
We had a wonderful two weeks together and we were all a little sad to say goodbye. Laura stayed in Beijing until Monday when I headed off to Tokyo, Japan.
This concludes my parents stint as guest bloggers. The rest of this entry is from your permanent blogger. I spent my last two days in Beijing couchsurfing with Lisa, who was born in Shanghai but moved to LA when she was 5 years old. She spent her summers in China as a child and decided to move back there as an adult a few years ago. I spent time over the weekend with her, her French boyfriend, and some of their expat friends and learned some very interesting things about the Chinese government and their censureship policies. Lisa had bought the Lonely Planet Beijing guidebook purely because the Chinese government had censured it before allowing it to be sold in China. They placed white stickers over pretty much anything and everything involving Tianamen Square, including its spot on the timeline. We both found it pretty funny that the government thought it could just pretend that this piece of history never happened (especially since you could easily hold the page up to the light and read what was behind the sticker).
I had gotten my own taste of Chinese censureship in reading the news. The China Daily, the main English newspaper in China, gave a rather unique view of current events compared to the American and British news I typically read online, particularly surrounding the current situation in Tibet. Adding to this, many websites, like bbc.com and youtube, are blocked in China. Sometimes sites will only be blocked for a day or two, or others (like the aforementioned examples) for years.
I found the Olympic preparation in Bejing fascinating. There are many, many workers from the countryside who have come to the city to work restoring, building, and tearing down different areas of the city. Most of these workers live in dorm rooms set up in ramshackle buildings next to their worksites. I learned from Lisa, a lawyer working with a human rights organization, that most of these workers are forced to work long hours and only paid once they have worked their for a year. There`s no such thing as a union and when they`ve tried to teach people about unions and worker`s rights, those workers have ended up without jobs because there are 5 others waiting in line ready to take any work they can get. It`s a really sad circumstance that so many people are living in such extreme poverty that they feel this is the best solution. We walked by a number of people who were doing construction work while wearing suits. My guess is that they wore their best clothes to go to Beijing and look for a job. This was all they found and the only clothes they own, so they wear it every day toiling away in the sun or rain. I`m sure by the time the Olympics come around, all of these people will have been sent back to their villages so that the international world doesn`t see how everything in Beijing got to look so nice.
Also, as I`ve mentioned before there is a big push to teach people manners in Beijing. Signs are posted everywhere telling people to have good manners and not to spit. Lisa also told me about some of the advertisements on Chinese television asking people to be nice to visitors. Obviously the Chinese government understands that what`s considered part of the culture in China will not be viewed endearingly by the rest of the world. There`s also a massive effort to swap out squat toilets with Western-style toilets to accomodate the visitors, but I can`t see them being able to replace all of them in time. It will be very interesting to see the China coverage during the Olympics to see just how different everything looks and how many "cultural nuances" they mention.
Comments
Hi Laura
It appears that you survived China and actually really enjoyed it. I've been busy and haven't read your blog in ages. I need to catch up on Europe but decided to skip to China to see how you enjoyed the experience. Great insight on all the stuff happening in China. Beijing will never get ready for the Olympics by August. It's gonna be a crazy ride.