Beijing, a New Camera and Simatai

On the ride from Tai Shan to Jinin, our camera was gone. Arriving 4am in Beijing after the lousiest bus ride we've had here, we were tired, pissed off, upset, hungry and seriously considering taking the first plane home. That was the first time we felt this way in our travel. Adding to our misery were the not-so-friendly staff in the only hostel that had a room for us (surprise: they only have a Deluxe room available. Yeah right.) Yupp, just the right way to start our 5 days stay in Beijing.

Day 1:
Going to the PSB (Public Security Bureau) to file a Lost Property Report. Ended up spending quite amusing 4 hours with a translator, a good cop and a bad cop. Finally received the form about our missing property so at least we'd get our money back.
Then missioned across town looking for a camera store, only to find a good one which was already closed. In summary it was a day of errands and a bit of wasted day, but at least we had the police story behind us.

Day 2:
Bought our new camera ($260 vs. $280 in the States). Already feeling better! Went to Forbidden City - unbelievable area, a must-do and interesting and beautiful... Finally starting to get to know Beijing! Flew another kite and ended up sinking it to the river - ooops. Had a great Friday night meal, one of the best so far.
Beijing's pollution is so bad that you can barely take landscape/telephoto pictures. The locals claim it's because of the rain/fog - maybe since that's what they hear in CCTV ;-)
Beijing is ten times less developed than Shanghai, and even Boston's T is better than Beijing's metro (ditie). Sure, they have announcements in English but we'd be damned if they modernize this city and clear the pollution before the Olympics. Though I guess if the Greeks could pull it off, the Chinese sure as hell can.

Day 3:
Left for the Summer Palace, where the emperors used to spend their summers, away from the heat in the Forbidden City. Quite a beautiful area and we join herds of Chinese tourists here who are fun to watch and talk to.
At the evening we go to Wanfujing Daxie to have some great street food - check out the crickets in the pictures. Maybe a new Bisli flavour is due? Beijing's shopping malls are nice, although not as trendy/nice/cool as Shanghai's.

Day 4:
Thought about going to the Great Wall today but realized it was a real mission so found out all the info needed so we could go tomorrow at 6am. Left to Lama Temple which was a surprisingly good sight! From there we continued to the Silk/Pearl Market and bought amazing silk beddings, Chinese robes and more. Wish we had at least 2-3 more hours to spend here. Maybe on our way back from Mongolia we'd come back. Lots of haggling here, but after Hoi An we're armed with some more experience.
At night time we meet up with some HBS friends Stella, Marcelo (+3) and Meghana, at the Lao Tea House. It's a really cool place with traditional Chinese shows e.g. opera, the Changing Masks act, etc. We had a fantastic time and it was great getting together with them and catch up. Another really enjoyable evening here.

Day 5:
The day before we already arranged a taxi pickup to Simatai, 3 hour drive from Beijing and one of the better, less touristic places to climb the Great Wall. We were accompanied by Joon and Pearl, a really cool and cute Korean couple. Joon is such a funny and smart guy, it was a real pleasure to travel with them both.
The Great Wall is truly impressive and obviously a must for any visitor to China. Even our short climbed proved rather hard (despite Tai Shan we're still not that amazing climbers). It's amazing to think how the wall functioned thousdand/hundreds of years ago and what an immense human endevour its construction was.
The pollution and haze make our pictures look mediocre compared to the blue skies in the touters' postcards. Nonetheless, had a great time there and would definitely recommend Simatai over any other Great Wall sight.

Tomorrow morning we're taking off to Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia. All in all, we had good time in Beijing, only darkended by the camera episode and the grey skies. We're happy we've done everything we wanted but we're really looking forward for a change. We are China-ed out for some reason. Maybe because we hadn't seen a real sunny day since we've arrived in China.

We'd be back in China in a few weeks, to start our Tibet chapter. In the meanwhile, bring on Mongolia.



TO COMPENSATE FOR LACK OF PICS IN OUR TWO PREVIOUS POSTS: PLEASE NOTE THERE ARE TWO PAGES OF PICS THIS TIME. AND DON'T MISS OUR WEEKLY VIDEO, TOO.

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Videos from "Beijing, a New Camera and Simatai":

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