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Published: October 22nd 2007
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Beijing
At the Summer Palace 'So what do you want for your thirtieth birthday?' Alan asked me on a rainy summer's day in Dublin.
I sat at my desk and looked around at the impressive array of gray files, paper-clips, staplers and three rulers to my name and thought hard.
A gust of air blew in signalling the arrival of the train and we boarded, making our way to Xizhímén station where we were to pick up a bus to the Summer Palace, where the Emperor used to go to chill, as good a place as any to spend your 30th birthday. We made it fine to the station but stood mystified outside looking up, down, left and right, roads going in all possible directions, not a bus-stop to be seen. As we were about to throw the Lonely Planet in the bin a man approaches us.
We're in a city of 15.6 million people and lost, utterly lost. I don't know what he said and I don't know what to do except smile and point.
We're so lucky - this guy is a legend. With his limited English and my tragic Mandarin, he deciphers where we want to go, and walks
Summer Palace
Stone Bridge - A girl in traditional clothing is making her way across. us for TEN minutes until we get to the bus-stop where he stands and using mime lets us know what buses we can catch, and leaves us with a smile and a wave. Then he nonchalantly walks back and hovers discretely in the mid-distance like a mother letting her fledgling child make its way to school for the first time.
The bus was hilarious. Two lady conductors sold tickets, a driver and a substitute driver sat at the top of the bus, and another two miscellaneous staff slept in the wings. The driver shouted at the conductors whilst weaving in and out of traffic. Beijingers piled in one upon the other, until Dublin bus became a model of all that is efficient in my mind. The sleeping staff slept and we hoped that we would be able to spot the Summer Palace but concluded that if we didn't the bus-ride would constitute an adventure in its own right.
It wasn't possible to miss the Palace, and we walked alongside a million or so tours from many different nations all with a guide at the front wielding a flag, teddy-bear, jaunty balloon or something else with which to lead
Summer Palace
A gateway in the trees their ducklings. It was a beautiful day, and after walking around the big lake for twenty minutes we found a bench to people-watch, and to look at the boats on the lake. The sun was setting on the many bridges, pagodas and other ornate chinese buildings built to house the Emperor and his missus.
Later we went to the world-famous Qianmen Quanjude Roast Duck restaurant for dinner, where Castro, Bush Sr., Kim Jong II and other ahem figures of note had dined, and waited for a table. This place is serious about its Duck, and the capital letter is intentional - four floors of restaurant, private dining rooms, huge ballrooms and all parts of the Duck available in a variety of flavours.
I thought I was getting a few pancakes and a bit of roast duck like you get in Excellent Chinese in Ballygall, but not that night.
Two waiters set our table - one laying out the chopsticks and napkins and his boss then re-arranging them (I felt sorry for Junior but Alan said its just part of the theatrics). Then our own third personal super-waitress dressed in a fancy top came and helped us choose
Stone Boat in the Summer Palace
A bit fancier than the one in Crumlin - This marble boat was created by empress Cixi using funds allocated for the navy! the finest parts of duck. Finally, a tea-waitress attended to our tea needs. Until the chef arrived with his wheelie-cart of Duck which he proceeded to carve at our table. Exhausted, we tried to descend on our dinner, but were thwarted by the pancake-teaching waiter who demonstrated how to package the duck. We tried, but with little success so a second pancake-teaching waiter was dispensed, and as we were flagging at this point the tea-waitress wafted in from the wings to revive us with another cuppa.
Finally we managed to make a camberwell-carrot of a pancake roll, which the pancake-teaching waiters chose to overlook, but they sent in a soup waiter from the left with some duck soup which we weren't sure what to do with, so left for the most part, having slurped a little, as that is what we do in polite company in China, slurp.
Best birthday ever! And thanks to everyone for the lovely wishes!
The next few days were spent sightseeing - Tiananmen Square was closed a lot as the Communist Party conference was on but we managed to see it in the end. Mao was unfortunately not taking visitors, but we
The beautiful birthday girl!
Aoife celebrates her birthday in the Quanjude Duck Restaurant with a cup of Wu-Long tea! had met Lenin only a few weeks ago, so didn't take offence.
The Forbidden City was overwhelming - we spent an entire day getting lost in there and only managed to see less than half of it in the end. Some of the Temples were under renovation, however it didn't detract from the experience at all. The scale of the complex and masses of detail on every surface - interior and exterior - was staggering. At one point I thought Alan was going to take up residence with his camera but (luckily for me) the memory card was filled eventually so we moved on.
We also visited the Lama Temple, which is the biggest Tibetan Buddhist monastery (lamasery) outside of Tibet and also has Mongolian architectural features which gave us a great sense of continuity from the monastery we visited in Ulaan Baatar. When visiting these religious buildings we're always struck by the devotion shown by the locals, and it really makes us feel privileged that they allow us visit their special places. As a result we haven't taken any photos of the giant Buddhas that we would love you to see, but we have photographed a post-card
At the restaurant
Wee ducks bear the brunt of our chopsticks we bought to give you an idea of them.
The Temple of Heaven was a great place to spend a relaxing afternoon, strolling around to the sound of many locals singing, chanting and practicing playing Chinese instruments - some of which was very funny, hearing strained serious poignant string sounds colliding with quick tempo jaunty 'Jingle Bells' being played really badly in such ornate ancient surroundings was just absurd.
One of the nicest moments in our Beijing adventure happened here, when we were strolling in the rose garden. As a westerner we get stared at a lot, particularly by curious children who love when you say 'Ni Hao' (hello) to them. Older people are generally more discreet, but you do get a lot of looks - people are curious, sure we are too, so it's a two way thing.
However strolling in the rose garden we came across a group of ten or twelve older ladies out on a day trip catching up on gossip and a few rays in the afternoon sun. The leader spotted us and jumped to her feet to the joyful hilarity of her friends.
'how arrrrrrrrrrrrrrre you?' she beamed at us.
At the restaurant
Your roast duck is expertly carved at your table by the very man that cooked it. He may also have plucked it, but we didn't ask... 'Hello!' we said.
The gaggle giggled.
'Pllllllllllllllleased to meet you' she said.
'Pleased to meet you too' we said.
'How arrrrrrrrrre you? Pleased to meet you!' she said again.
'You too' we said. They hooted with laughter. This went on for a few minutes until the conversation wore a little thin, so we proceeded on our walk to the collective chanting of 'Pleased to meet you'
Anyone coming to the Beijing Olympics, I envy you, fantastic city, lovely people. I was only glad she didn't make me answer her in Mandarin.
On our last day we met up with Chris from the Vodkatrain gang. He had headed to Hangzhou for a few days to catch up with a friend as he was heading home to the States a week after we arrived in Beijing. Unfortunately we only got to hang out for an afternoon as we were heading to Shanghai on the night train.
He had booked himself into a really fancy hotel, so we were delighted to drag our scruffy backpacker asses in to visit him.
Best hotel ever - live music and perfume wafting in the foyer -
At the restaurant
Aoife's birthday dinner! Delicious! his room had TWO bathrooms (neither of which were of the squat variety) and wait for it, he had his OWN BUTLER!!! There was a driving range on one floor, which unfortunately due to excessive gossiping I didn't get to check out, but we did go BOWLING in the bowling alley (we were their only customers).
We bid him a sad farewell and then headed into the bedlam of Beijing Train station to catch the Z1 to Shanghai (gluttons for punishment or what!). We shared a cabin with two business men, one of which decided he was going to place our backpacks above the bunkbeds for us - he realised his mistake when he tried to lift them!
xx
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Helen
non-member comment
Tea
My only connection is I drink Oolong (wu-long) tea all the time. And Ti Kuan Yin also from Chinese supermarket. Not quite the same a s having it there I think!!! On darker note, I watched a sad programme on China's stolen children. Thousands missing and stolen, bought and sold. Did you see any sign of that darker side of Chinese society?