After crossing the border and experiencing the lights, music and Olympic symbols that greeted us, I soon slipped into sleep, waking in the morning to see that the garish lights had been replaced with rolling hills and my first sight of the Great Wall. When the train reached Beijing I had my first taste of the sheer number of people - fighting to get out of the station and into a cab to the hostel.
I hadn't planned how long I'd stay in Beijing but it turned into almost 2 weeks very quickly - it was such an easy (at times) and interesting place to be. Admittedly the first few days we spent suffering and recovering(!) My sore throat from Mongolia turned into Tonsillitis and I couldn't shake it. Their was a huge Chemist near the hostel so I tried some Chinese medicine - some glass vials of 'potion' like cough mixture and some tablets, but they weren't strong enough and when the pain spread to my ear I decided I had to go to a doctor - it was an interesting experience where not many people speak English but they confirmed the tonsillitis and gave me some antibiotics.
I'd traveled with Zsuzsanna on the train from Mongolia and we'd also booked into the same hostel, in fact it turned out that we saw quite a few people at the hostel that we'd met in Mongolia - it was nice to see some familiar faces. The hostel itself was located in a hutong area - small alley ways full of tiny homes, shops, cafes and people. It was a great place just to wander around or sit and watch the world go by. It's not something you could do unnoticed though - as westerners we were an amusement to the locals, something to be stared at, talked about, giggled about. Sometimes they would stop to take photos - wee really were quite a novelty. We also frequented the restaurant just down from the hostel - the food here was great and the owner was lovely and so friendly. He was also a well known photographer and people came from all over to eat there and meet him. Amongst other dishes we had some good Pecking Duck here - yum yum.
The first couple of days I was quite content just to wander around and get acclimatised - there were so many people here! I found a busy food market with people shouting requests and live fish flapping on the floor. I also treated myself to a massage - China is well know for their foot massages using acupressure so I opted for a 1 hour foot massage and half hour body massage. I'd never had anything like it before but went along with a guy from the hostel so it wasn't so scary! A 20 year old boy performed the massage and he laughed when my feet got ticklish or when he made me jump with the pressure points. It felt good after the battering my feet had been taking recently.
So here's a quick run down of some of the other things I did and saw, I have only posted a few photos but have lots more:
The Olympic village - it was a very smoggy day but I had a nice wander around, seeing all the venues from the outside and actually going into the Birds Nest stadium - apparently they had only opened it for visitors in the last 3 days so we were very fortunate. Zsuzsanna and I were able to sit out on the grass of the stadium and see some of the costumes that had been worn during the opening ceremony. In honor of Owain we also had our first Chinese KFC in the seats of the stadium as we watched the security guards chasing eager Chinese tourists off the track. We also tried to enter the Water Cube but Chinese touts brought up all the tickets in the morning and sold them off at far higher prices so we decided to give that a miss. It's funny but even in the throng of Chinese tourists we managed to bump into people we knew - the two Danish guys from Mongolia.
Tiananmen Square was just 10-15 minutes walk from the hostel. I tried to see Chairman Mao in his Mausoleum but every time I tried the square was closed off for some sort of meeting.
The Temple of Heaven - a huge park also containing halls/temples used to pray for good harvests. The park was lovely and Zsuzsanna and I had our first go on the many exercise machines that occupy the parks in China. They are simple frames and stretching machines but very well used and effective. We were amazed by a 78 year old man who hung effortlessly upside down from one of the frames. Another man explained that it was important to him, not only to exercise his body but also to read books everyday to keep his brain healthy. Seeing these guys, it obviously worked.
Big electronics store - there are a few of these around but we went to one of the biggest. I didn't buy anything but it was amazing to see the many floors of smaller stalls selling the latest versions of anything you could imagine. I compared a few prices but it wasn't as cheap as I had been lead to believe - there wasn't really any obvious bargains to be had.
Salsa club - I though of Sharon here - I didn't dance but it was fun to watch other dance - a mixture of some very rigid nervous dancers and better ones that spun around effortlessly. We had a very expensive cocktail in here (about £4) but then headed to a bar across the road and got a tequila sunrise for a much more reasonable 10 yuan (about £1).
The Great Wall - I joined a couple of Argentinians, a Chinese girl and 4 polish to take a trip out to the wall - it turned out to be a fantastic group. We choose the 10km section from Jinshanling to Simatai. Catching the metro, public bus, then taxi, it took some good negotiation and about 3 hours to get to the wall. It was a challenging section with 30 watchtowers, and a mixture of some new wall, some very steep sections and some collapsed sections where you needed to use your hands to climb up. It was hard work but the amazing views and great company meant It was well worth it - and my hips didn't give me too many problems - I was in the lead group for half the climb and I easily kept pace with the others - in fact one girl was complaining because she's had enough! The start point was quite busy with people, there were a few hawkers (calling "coka-water-beer") and in one part a tv commercial was being filmed but we had some non-touristy bits too - some long sections where we climbed alone which was nice. We took our time, stopping on top of a tower for lunch, and finishing the trek just as the sun started to set - we'd certainly earned the beer we went for afterwards...
The Silk Market & Pearl Market - the former market was the bigger of the two and what an experience - it was tough but fun to bargain with the stall holders who would start at over 10 times the final price. They had some great lines, which I soon came to recognise ("you kill me", "give a serious price" "that's not Chinese money - you mean euros or dollars?" "ok..ok..come back") and we in turn had our own stories and lines to get the price down.
The Night market - I went here with the friends I'd met from the Great Wall - it was full of weird and wonderful food and I tried scorpion (while being filmed by a Chinese cameraman), dog, squid, silkworm, ostrich, banana balls and caramalised fruit. I could have also had starfish, mice, birds nest, intestines, sea anemones, penis and testicles, but I was already feeling quite full....! Just down he road from there we found a nice man selling cold beer from a tiny stall. On our 3rd visit he bought out stools for us to sit down on and sat with us to drink. His friend sat next to us, signaling thumbs up and trying to give us all cigarettes. again we were quite an attraction and people stopped just to say hello, practice their English and to find out where we were from.
Beijing zoo - our main reason to go was for the pandas - and we got to see them feeding. We also had a wander around the rest but away from the pandas it was a bit of a depressing place with lots of concrete, glass (shattered in places) and empty enclosures.
Summer Palace - a huge area of parks, buildings, temples and a huge lake. The bad parts were the masses of Chinese tour groups in matching hats and the smog the obscured some of the views but it was still a beautiful place to explore, although a little chilly as the weather started to cool down.
Bar street - a street lit up in many neon colours - I went out with Zsuzsanna and Maurete for my last night in Beijing and we found a cool little club playing English Indie and selling tequila sunrises at 10 yuan...lots of dancing and ice games - it was a fun and late night out!
So that's my whistle stop view of Beijing - it was easy to stay here - so much to see and do, cheap to eat and stay and great to get to know the people it was hard to leave and we actually changed our departure date at the last minute to have an extra day. I encountered friendly and helpful people - mainly girls - that would come and offer help if you looked lost - writing down the names in Chinese and sometimes walking with us to show us the right way to go. I also saw the phenomenon of mothers whistling to signal to the babies that it was time to wee - as they held them over flowerbeds or at the side of the road. It also gave us time to get used to the crazy driving - even worse than in Russia and Mongolia - cars and bikes in all directions, honking their horns at anything they passed.
Zsuzsanna and I were due to meet Joel in Xi'an but we decided to take a couple of flying stops on the way....
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