Beijing Part 2: The Not so Forbidden City, Summer Palace and tasty Night Market !!

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Day 29 (Thurs 4^thOct)


So the first task of the morning was to get the money back that the housekeeper had stolen. On waking up I packed my bags and headed to reception. I handed them my key and asked for my money, which I was given in full along with the 3 days I had paid for and wasn’t going to be staying there for. So off I go to my new hostel, which is actually a hotel but the top floor has some dorms in it instead, it’s far nicer than the previous hostel so I’ve fallen on my feet here. First major problem on the road overcome and time to enjoy the rest of Beijing. With it being early afternoon by the time I got settled into new surroundings, I decided to head out and walk the hutongs to near where I am. Now these are little narrow streets that are very local, with every 10 yards a different shop or persons selling food or souvenirs. They are quite quaint the streets and good to waste an hour or so just wandering around them watching the daily beijingers life.


As it approached tea time I’d agreed to meet Dorothy who I’d met in Xi’an. I obviously got lost trying to find her hostel but once I did we headed out for some local cuisine, being classy meat on a stick and a duck casserole sort of thing. Now the duck was very nice but incredibly bony and there wasn’t as much meat as I’d hoped but it was still nice.

We wandered around a few hutongs until we found a decent looking bar and proceeded to drink the local Yan Jing lager. Time obviously went pretty quick because it was suddenly 2am and I was feeling pretty drunk. Dorothy headed back to her hostel and me to the nearest major road to try and find a taxi. I found one that quoted me 100 Yuan to get to Tian’anmen Square, quickly exited that cab and stood in the middle of a 4 lane highway and waited for another. This one quoted 30 after I got my ipod out and used an app to ask how much. This was probably the perfect time to see Tian’anmen Square as it was completely empty. Walked back to the hostel where my American roommate had only just got back in also, although he’d been salsa dancing and me drinking.



Day 30 (Fri 5^th Oct)



Woke up with a sore head at 8am as I’d set my alarm to try and get to the Forbidden City before China descends on it. Didn’t happen as it was rammed at half 8 when I got there, the ticket office very quiet though as most must have been on tours. Paid my 60 Yuan (6 quid) and headed in. The Forbidden City is forbidden no longer as it’s swarmed by multiple thousands of generally Chinese tourists. Now the Forbidden City to me is an amazing sight and series of buildings, but I did find it a bit samey as each courtyard presented a new ‘Hall’ which looked exactly like the previous one. I had been told it was a bit like this but I couldn’t not go. I didn’t spend the full day there guides say you need. More like an hour or so just walking north trying to take a picture of anything without other tourists being in the way, this didn’t happen though.

I exited the north gate and headed across the road into the Jingshan Park, climbed up the notably few stairs for once to the pagoda at the top. The top of Jingshan park gives a brilliant view out over Beijing, and the Forbidden City. It’s quite a sight. I lingered about in the park for a bit and then decided to walk back to my hostel for an afternoon snooze as the hangover was starting to kick in.

I have 2 new roommates today being from Siberia and I’ve just had some of their ‘Russian’ food, actually not bad although not sure what it is.

The evening plan was to head to the Donghuamen Night Market to sample some ‘different’ foods. First though I walked to a different hostel to meet a girl (Megan) from London who I got chatting to before I left Shanghai. We had a couple Yan Jing’s and headed off to Wangfujing station to find this street. Now it doesn’t stand out, it’s just a small hutong street of the main shopping area it seems. The first item I saw was scorpions on a stick, alive! I had told myself I would eat scorpion but I needed a few more beers first. We walked through the street which isn’t much more than 100 metres or so and out the other side, bought a few cans from local supermarket. Its amazing, you can actually barter in a supermarket. Got the beer down my neck and we headed back to a counter we stopped at first time. The guy serving had really good English so it made it easy to find out what everything was and how much it all cost. In the end we ate scorpions on a stick, grasshoppers on a stick and like a shark fish cake, along with more normal lamb on a stick and dumplings. Everything I ate was good, not one thing I didn’t like which surprised me. Megan tried a centipede but I didn’t bother after she said it was awful. There were also various other things that looked too wrong to try.

We also stumbled upon what looked like a Chinese drag act down a side street. It was very odd, there was music playing and now and again he’d slowly move around in a traditional Chinese dress making strange sounds. It was horrible but I still couldn’t take my eyes of it, it was surreal.

We wandered through a few more hutongs whilst on the beer and back to the hostel for a few in the bar before I headed back to my own hostel, slightly drunk but it was a good night, certainly different.



Day 31 (Sat 6^th Oct)



Waking up with a sore head has been a common theme the past few days. My last day in China was to be at the Summer Palace, the leader’s getaway place on the outskirts of Beijing when the city was deemed too hot. Takes about 45 minutes by subway to get there but the trip is most definitely worth it. It’s not too expensive and I spent best part of 4 hours walking around the north east corner, which hosts the pavilions, palace and many pagoda’s all close to Kunming Lake which is crammed with boats and pedalo’s.


The original summer palace was destroyed in 1860 so what’s there now is the rebuilt buildings from 1866, so still pretty old and well maintained to this day, the work that goes into some of them is incredible. Although some may look the same they are always decorated differently to make them unique. Obviously being a main attraction of Beijing and a Unesco World Heritage Site and being a Saturday it was incredibly busy, but seemed quieter than central Beijing. There was the possibility to find a quiet area to stroll around lotus ponds, or a small river with some locals fishing. It wasn’t completely overrun by people, which was nice.

I’ve also become a local it seems at the nearest meat on a stick joint. I’ve eaten there at some point each of the last 3 days and today she knew exactly what I was after before I ordered. Snacking on street food is definitely better than having regimented food times like lunch and dinner etc; just eat when you fancy something, although I am craving a chippy tea these past couple days.

Headed back out to meet Megan for a couple drinks and try and find the premier league footy. We went to Houhai area of Beijing but for trying could not get footy on anywhere including the football bar, typical. We headed back to her hostel and had a few more beverages there and that is the end of China.

China overall for me has been an amazing country, the landscapes, history of the place and everything about it are amazing, I do have one qualm, it’s that the majority of people are pretty rude and in a ‘slow’ rush to get everywhere. I would definitely recommend it and would go back given the chance, although I’d see new places that I’ve missed this time.



Average spend in China: £21 a day basic (£31 a day incl flights and trains)

Coming Next, South Korea

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Photos

Donghuamen Night Market
Tucking into Scorpion

Donghuamen Night Market
Ahh Grasshopper