I'll apologise now. These entries will be long, and maybe tedious, but China is not just different geographically and with language, but their culture, traditions, and politics are so different, that there's no end of things to write about. Couple that with a country booming and expanding with me being a construction geek, and you've got a worrying mix.
Landed in Beijing on a hot, sunny, and slightly smoggy Thursday morning. I was immediately enthralled by the size of the airport; the roof seemed to go on into the horizon!
We collected baggage and managed to suss out which bus to catch and where from without too many problems. We also took a photo of the word "toilets" with the chinese script beneath, and set it as the background on the mobile so that we could flash it at people if needed!
The bus took an hour and a half, then we jumped off in Xidan in Beijing, where our instructions were to get a taxi from the bus to the hostel. The language barrier reared it's ugly head, and every cab we flagged (4) just looked at the address (in English not Chinese script) and shook his head. So I got a map out and figured out where we were, got us to the metro station, and got us to Qianmen, which is just below Ti'annamen Sq. We found the hostel just before heat exhaustion set in, got shown round and did what came naturally after NZ: dumped our bags and went straight out wandering. We found a little stall selling big flat buns cooked in a pizza oven with a sweet centre (we think passionfruit and brown sugar) for 30p around the corner, and walked a couple of miles around hutongs (backstreets where all the little local stalls and restaurants are), then went back for a shower and relax with a beer (under 50p for 660ml bottle in hostel bar!), before heading back out to sample the famous Peking Duck (Peking IS Beijing). We found a place that looked good (you can't use the rule that you do in the UK that if there's Chinese people in there it must be good, as that's true of EVERYWHERE), and sat down with more cheap beer. I have to say, I quite liked the real Peking Duck, it was a really nice roasted crown with lots of meat, and not shredded to bits like you often see, but Jo preferred the UK shredded type. The sauce was amazingly strong though, you really didn't need much, but really good. We got to bed stupidly early after a flight of little sleep. (On subject of the flight, we did get seated in the fire escape with more legroom than i could use which was good though!).
Next day we went hunting for cash machines then cheated and just had breakfast at the hostel (French toast for Jo, eggs and bacon on toast for me, both with coffee), then headed for Ti'annemen Sq via the first gate to the city, past Chairman Mao Memorial Museum, to the Forbidden City. It was bloody boiling, about 33 degrees, with no breeze and thick air all around (the smog is always around, it just gets better or worse, but never clear), but we managed to spend about 4 hours wandering around the Forbidden City with it's many grand buildings of funny names (like "the palace of earthly tranquility" which I think was the one where "concubines would await the emporer and his advisors to pay respect" - in other words; get their jollies). Beautiful buildings, with unfathomable amount of attention to detail. Nearly every beam has a painting depicting animals or events on every face, and there's normally 3 beams layered on top of one another, there must be thousands throughout the city walls. The Chinese have obviously tried to keep this all in good condition, but they only seem to repaint or refurbish something once it's well into degradation, and their methods aren't light. Sandstone is touched up crudely with strong mix cement, so that the joint is obvious. The marble steps are let be worn away to smooth and very slippery surfaces, and if chipped or broken, they're fixed with ill-matching blocks if at all. Concrete seems to be the next best thing for everything, including even some of the replicas of the palace buildings where the old was in too poor condition so needed to be totally replaced. Each member is cast and erected to exactly the same style, but probably weighing 20 times as much as the timber original, and then painted. This seems very strange in a country that has in the past lost a lot of buildings, and hence, people to earthquakes.
We moseyed around in the heat and took billions of photos, listened to the strange American lady on our audio tour, which cleverly works out what section to tell you about via GPS, although she got it wrong a couple of times, and finished up in the Imperial Gardens where the Emporer and his concubines frolicked, and left through the North gate. We tried to work out whether it was best to try and suss the bus system out or carry on walking on weary feet. The foray of people, electric trikes, and buses confused us enough to opt for the latter. We stopped for a late lunch in a little place with a menu with pictures AND English translations of the grub. Jo chose some pork dish and I went for a cold dish of beanshoots, spinach wilted in vinegar, pak choi and egg. We decided to avoid tripe, pig intestines and stinky tofu for the time being.
Eventually got back after a couple more miles walking in the increasing hazy heat of late afternoon, did some internet planning of the next couple of days, and went out with Penny, a woman staying and teaching English for a little while in Beijing. She took us to a cheap little place for dinner where we had pork (though from what part I've no idea) with peppers and garlic, tofu with chilli, and rice. Lovely chilled meal with cheap beer too!
Next morning we got our train tickets to Datong (7 hour day on hard-seat), then went to the Summer Palace. This is where the emporer went when he needed to get away from all the hustle and bustle, and is set in acres and acres of grounds with a huge lake in the centre. Was a simple tube trip, and we decided against the weird audio-guide this time, just buying a map which is hand-painted on brown parcel paper, (going on the wall when we get back).
The day was another scorcher, so Jo bought a hat, a big floppy blue thing, which she realised she could barely see under.
The whole summer palace was laid to ruin by the Brits in the second opium war (gives you a warm feeling inside doesn't it), so it's been pretty heavily renovated, but a lot more sympathically than other places. You walk in immediately over a stone bridge over Suzhou street, which is a riverside street, named after the canal town of Suzhou. Then up the hill through palaces to the grand the Tower of Buddhist Incense, which is 4 stories high, and covered in thousands of Buddhas, and was the place of worship. It is from here that the hill slides away down to the lake, and you can see the tourist dragon boats and hundreds of little covered pedalos pootling along.
We made our way down past and through more palaces and intricate bronze statues of dragons, lions, turtles and cranes, some of which are literally caged to stop tourists touching them, but in doing so they can't be cleaned, so they're filthy apart from the odd area where a tourists prying finger can reach and has rubbed it clean.
We got to the lakeside along the imposing and covered Long Corridor which was just to shelter the emporer when walking around, and wandered up to the 17 arch bridge, via a little photo stop, where Jo and I got dressed up as Emporer and Empress! The guys working there all laughed at me though, as I am so tall in comparison that the robes ended around my ankles, so when I sat down they were up to my shins, showing off my bare feet!
We moseyed around, a bit longer enjoying the scenery, until the crowds got a bit much and we left to get on the tube to a hutong which has been renovated and famed for being a bit cooler. It's very similar to the lanes in Brighton, with fashionable little cafes and food stalls and shops crammed in with market stalls in front. Very nice little place, with all kinds of different foods available (tapas was quite popular). We got back to the hostel late that night and found a little place just down the road where we had chicken with peanuts and chilli (kung pao), pork with peppers and onion, and egg fried rice. Loving all that pork!
Following day was our last day, so we went to see the Great Wall. There are places everywhere offering tours which take you mostly to a place called Badaling, which is the most heavily rebuilt, and touristy, and the tours normally herd you to lots of shops and restaurants for half the day. We got up early and got a bus to a section of the wall called Mutianyu. This is a steep section which zig-zags up and down the mountains. There was a cablecar, but we walked up, and trekked through 5 watchtowers. After 2 hours and hundreds of photos, we started to make our way back to the first watchtower for the route back down, and we saw a lady on her knees who looked like she was taking a photo. I asked if she was ok, and it turned out she couldn't get up, her legs had given up. Her name was Cynthia, quite an elderly lady, who had got the cablecar up, wandered too far along the wall downhill, and couldn't get back up to the cablecar in time for her group, so was going to try and walk down. I knew that I couldn't walk her far, as some of the steps are huge, and the way down is hundreds and hundreds of stone stairs, so we got her to a watchtower, sat her in the shade with a drink, offered her some grub and ran down the mountain to find her tour-group. It wasn't hard to find a big group of elderly aussies, and the tour-guide thanked us and headed back up with a few local blokes to get the lady to the cablecar. As we stood awaiting the bus in a huge queue (with a weird middle-eastern european lady patrolling to make sure no-one pushed in otherwise she wouldn't have got a seat), we saw her again walking to her tourbus. She thanked us and lauded us her heroes! Good deed for the day done! We dozed the whole way back, popped into McDonalds (please don't judge) for a coffee and soft drink as it's the cheapest place to get a coffee, then showered and changed to go out with Penny again as she was going to take us to a great dumpling place on the other side of town. It was a walk along lots of hutongs in the dark, until we happened on the busy little place. We had some boiled dumplings (pork and tomato), and some fried (carrot and cabbage), and some little pumpkin cakes, plus of course; cheap beer.
Got back late, and passed out pretty fast, as next day we had to get a 7.30 train to Datong!
Landed in Beijing on a hot, sunny, and slightly smoggy Thursday morning. I was immediately enthralled by the size of the airport; the roof seemed to go on into the horizon!
We collected baggage and managed to suss out which bus to catch and where from without too many problems. We also took a photo of the word "toilets" with the chinese script beneath, and set it as the background on the mobile so that we could flash it at people if needed!
The bus took an hour and a half, then we jumped off in Xidan in Beijing, where our instructions were to get a taxi from the bus to the hostel. The language barrier reared it's ugly head, and every cab we flagged (4) just looked at the address (in English not Chinese script) and shook his head. So I got a map out and figured out where we were, got us to the metro station, and got us to Qianmen, which is just below Ti'annamen Sq. We found the hostel just before heat exhaustion set in, got shown round and did what came naturally after NZ: dumped our bags and went straight out wandering. We found a little stall selling big flat buns cooked in a pizza oven with a sweet centre (we think passionfruit and brown sugar) for 30p around the corner, and walked a couple of miles around hutongs (backstreets where all the little local stalls and restaurants are), then went back for a shower and relax with a beer (under 50p for 660ml bottle in hostel bar!), before heading back out to sample the famous Peking Duck (Peking IS Beijing). We found a place that looked good (you can't use the rule that you do in the UK that if there's Chinese people in there it must be good, as that's true of EVERYWHERE), and sat down with more cheap beer. I have to say, I quite liked the real Peking Duck, it was a really nice roasted crown with lots of meat, and not shredded to bits like you often see, but Jo preferred the UK shredded type. The sauce was amazingly strong though, you really didn't need much, but really good. We got to bed stupidly early after a flight of little sleep. (On subject of the flight, we did get seated in the fire escape with more legroom than i could use which was good though!).
Next day we went hunting for cash machines then cheated and just had breakfast at the hostel (French toast for Jo, eggs and bacon on toast for me, both with coffee), then headed for Ti'annemen Sq via the first gate to the city, past Chairman Mao Memorial Museum, to the Forbidden City. It was bloody boiling, about 33 degrees, with no breeze and thick air all around (the smog is always around, it just gets better or worse, but never clear), but we managed to spend about 4 hours wandering around the Forbidden City with it's many grand buildings of funny names (like "the palace of earthly tranquility" which I think was the one where "concubines would await the emporer and his advisors to pay respect" - in other words; get their jollies). Beautiful buildings, with unfathomable amount of attention to detail. Nearly every beam has a painting depicting animals or events on every face, and there's normally 3 beams layered on top of one another, there must be thousands throughout the city walls. The Chinese have obviously tried to keep this all in good condition, but they only seem to repaint or refurbish something once it's well into degradation, and their methods aren't light. Sandstone is touched up crudely with strong mix cement, so that the joint is obvious. The marble steps are let be worn away to smooth and very slippery surfaces, and if chipped or broken, they're fixed with ill-matching blocks if at all. Concrete seems to be the next best thing for everything, including even some of the replicas of the palace buildings where the old was in too poor condition so needed to be totally replaced. Each member is cast and erected to exactly the same style, but probably weighing 20 times as much as the timber original, and then painted. This seems very strange in a country that has in the past lost a lot of buildings, and hence, people to earthquakes.
We moseyed around in the heat and took billions of photos, listened to the strange American lady on our audio tour, which cleverly works out what section to tell you about via GPS, although she got it wrong a couple of times, and finished up in the Imperial Gardens where the Emporer and his concubines frolicked, and left through the North gate. We tried to work out whether it was best to try and suss the bus system out or carry on walking on weary feet. The foray of people, electric trikes, and buses confused us enough to opt for the latter. We stopped for a late lunch in a little place with a menu with pictures AND English translations of the grub. Jo chose some pork dish and I went for a cold dish of beanshoots, spinach wilted in vinegar, pak choi and egg. We decided to avoid tripe, pig intestines and stinky tofu for the time being.
Eventually got back after a couple more miles walking in the increasing hazy heat of late afternoon, did some internet planning of the next couple of days, and went out with Penny, a woman staying and teaching English for a little while in Beijing. She took us to a cheap little place for dinner where we had pork (though from what part I've no idea) with peppers and garlic, tofu with chilli, and rice. Lovely chilled meal with cheap beer too!
Next morning we got our train tickets to Datong (7 hour day on hard-seat), then went to the Summer Palace. This is where the emporer went when he needed to get away from all the hustle and bustle, and is set in acres and acres of grounds with a huge lake in the centre. Was a simple tube trip, and we decided against the weird audio-guide this time, just buying a map which is hand-painted on brown parcel paper, (going on the wall when we get back).
The day was another scorcher, so Jo bought a hat, a big floppy blue thing, which she realised she could barely see under.
The whole summer palace was laid to ruin by the Brits in the second opium war (gives you a warm feeling inside doesn't it), so it's been pretty heavily renovated, but a lot more sympathically than other places. You walk in immediately over a stone bridge over Suzhou street, which is a riverside street, named after the canal town of Suzhou. Then up the hill through palaces to the grand the Tower of Buddhist Incense, which is 4 stories high, and covered in thousands of Buddhas, and was the place of worship. It is from here that the hill slides away down to the lake, and you can see the tourist dragon boats and hundreds of little covered pedalos pootling along.
We made our way down past and through more palaces and intricate bronze statues of dragons, lions, turtles and cranes, some of which are literally caged to stop tourists touching them, but in doing so they can't be cleaned, so they're filthy apart from the odd area where a tourists prying finger can reach and has rubbed it clean.
We got to the lakeside along the imposing and covered Long Corridor which was just to shelter the emporer when walking around, and wandered up to the 17 arch bridge, via a little photo stop, where Jo and I got dressed up as Emporer and Empress! The guys working there all laughed at me though, as I am so tall in comparison that the robes ended around my ankles, so when I sat down they were up to my shins, showing off my bare feet!
We moseyed around, a bit longer enjoying the scenery, until the crowds got a bit much and we left to get on the tube to a hutong which has been renovated and famed for being a bit cooler. It's very similar to the lanes in Brighton, with fashionable little cafes and food stalls and shops crammed in with market stalls in front. Very nice little place, with all kinds of different foods available (tapas was quite popular). We got back to the hostel late that night and found a little place just down the road where we had chicken with peanuts and chilli (kung pao), pork with peppers and onion, and egg fried rice. Loving all that pork!
Following day was our last day, so we went to see the Great Wall. There are places everywhere offering tours which take you mostly to a place called Badaling, which is the most heavily rebuilt, and touristy, and the tours normally herd you to lots of shops and restaurants for half the day. We got up early and got a bus to a section of the wall called Mutianyu. This is a steep section which zig-zags up and down the mountains. There was a cablecar, but we walked up, and trekked through 5 watchtowers. After 2 hours and hundreds of photos, we started to make our way back to the first watchtower for the route back down, and we saw a lady on her knees who looked like she was taking a photo. I asked if she was ok, and it turned out she couldn't get up, her legs had given up. Her name was Cynthia, quite an elderly lady, who had got the cablecar up, wandered too far along the wall downhill, and couldn't get back up to the cablecar in time for her group, so was going to try and walk down. I knew that I couldn't walk her far, as some of the steps are huge, and the way down is hundreds and hundreds of stone stairs, so we got her to a watchtower, sat her in the shade with a drink, offered her some grub and ran down the mountain to find her tour-group. It wasn't hard to find a big group of elderly aussies, and the tour-guide thanked us and headed back up with a few local blokes to get the lady to the cablecar. As we stood awaiting the bus in a huge queue (with a weird middle-eastern european lady patrolling to make sure no-one pushed in otherwise she wouldn't have got a seat), we saw her again walking to her tourbus. She thanked us and lauded us her heroes! Good deed for the day done! We dozed the whole way back, popped into McDonalds (please don't judge) for a coffee and soft drink as it's the cheapest place to get a coffee, then showered and changed to go out with Penny again as she was going to take us to a great dumpling place on the other side of town. It was a walk along lots of hutongs in the dark, until we happened on the busy little place. We had some boiled dumplings (pork and tomato), and some fried (carrot and cabbage), and some little pumpkin cakes, plus of course; cheap beer.
Got back late, and passed out pretty fast, as next day we had to get a 7.30 train to Datong!
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