China Postcard 1 - Beijing

I admit feeling somewhat apprehensive in the hours before leaving Montreal, as I have immediately prior to my other backpacking trips. But as soon as I left the arrivals area at Beijing airport and was confronted with a throng of shouting and jostling Chinese, many offering me "deals" in a strange currency on a taxi to a strange city, I felt a smile creep across my face. This is a feeling I know. This is a feeling I love. By the time I reached my hostel, I had completely reverted to backpacking mode.

Standing in Tian'anmen Square, barely 18 hours after leaving Montreal, I could hardly believe that I was in China. The direct flight from Toronto to Beijing, which flew almost directly North from Toronto, over Hudson Bay and Victoria Island before returning South over North-Eastern Russia, took a mere 13 hours, two thirds of which was over Canadian territory. Resetting my body clock to the 12 hour time difference also proved surprisingly easy after 30 hours without sleep.

First impressions
Beijing is big, bustling and brown with smog. The air pollution is made worse by 95% humidity and temperatures nudging 40 C and the ubiquitous coal-fired power plants. Beyond that however, Beijing streets are kept clean by an army of tricycle-riding cleaners and sweepers. There is an impressive number of green parks and carefully groomed and watered shrubs bordering major streets.

The city is easy to navigate on foot (but don't expect cars to stop on a red), on the excellent subway and by taxis which seem unusually honest once you manage to communicate your destination. I found it best to figure out and draw the Chinese characters of the destination name on a piece of paper before hailing the cab. While English speakers are rare in Beijing (and almost non-existent in smaller cities), many signs are bilingual with at least a semblance of English that can take some head scratching to decipher.

Beijing is more expensive than other Chinese cities (except presumably Hong Kong and Shanghai) but deals can be had. My 30 RMB ($5.00 CAD) dorm bed would have been an even better deal had the advertised air conditioning worked. A pint of beer at 2 RMB ($0.30 CAD) sometimes costs less than the equivalent quantity of water.

For a communist country, there is a huge dichotomy between rich and poor. This is most evident walking down Jiangguomen Street, the main East-West boulevard in Beijing, lined by the most exclusive hotels and businesses in the city and occasionally by extremely poor migrants from rural regions. I saw dazed and obviously malnourished boy in the most ragged clothes huddled on the curb. He was clutching a bowl and swishing a few drops of precious soup. Directly behind him, through the smoked glass window of the Lamborghini of Beijing dealership, I could imagine an over-weight man in a designer suit contemplating his next step on China's new economic ladder.

Circuit of Sites
I saw the usual list of tourist sites starting with Tian'anmen Square with all the hawkers of Chairman Mao watches complete with waving hand. I doubt the chairman would approve.

I passed on the line-up for 5 seconds with Mao's preserved corpse and headed across the street to the Forbidden City, residence of emperors from the 15th to 20th centuries (Ming and Qing Dynasties, see China Postcard 0: Problogue). It was interesting having recently watched "The Last Emperor of China" set and filmed here but, like much of Beijing, large sections were under scaffolding in preparation for 2008. A sign here and at all sites says that the park has been restored and protected owing to the "correct cultural policy of the people's government". Of course less reconstruction and restoration would have been necessary but for the destruction of so many historic landmarks owing to the not-so-correct cultural policy during the Mao's cultural revolution (see China Postcard 0: Problogue).

The Summer Palace built in the late 18th century with money embezzled from the navy is impressively and massively beautiful. It is an immense park containing a large lake divided in two by a man-made causeway interrupted by numerous bridges. An example of the excess is Empress Ci Xi's marble steamboat (which of coarse does not really float). Almost every information panel reminds visitors that the park was destroyed by British and French troops during the opium wars, presumably saving Mao the trouble.

And now the best for last. I had seen all the postcard pictures of Great Wall and only hoped not to be too disappointed. I was not. There are several places to access the wall around Beijing and I wanted to avoid the bus-loads of Chinese tourists plaguing most sites. My plan was to go to an unrestored and touristically undeveloped section called Huanghuacheng but I learned that it is now completely closed for reconstruction (2008 approaches). I went about twice as far from Beijing to a section reputed to be difficult and dangerous, at least for the average tour group, and hiked on the wall from Jinshanling to Simatai. It was indeed a strenuous hike over the largely unrestored ruins, without a single Chinese tour group. No postcard or photo can do justice to the sensation of hiking on ancient ruins amid with so much history majestic mountainous scenery.

Next will be the cities of Xi'an and Chengdu by overnight train, and you should not have to wait long because the next China Postcard is almost done.

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