Beijing

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Beijing - China's capital. With a municipality the size of Beligiumm, over 15million inhabitants, numerous cars, bicycles and construction sites, it is an absolute immensity of heat, humid and heavy pollution.

We arrived into Beijing at 05:00 and jumped into the first taxi we found. Stupidly. Once again, you can spend all your time trying to prevent yourself from pickpockets and other scammers but the taxi drivers always get you. We paid well over the odds for our taxi, but arrived at the Far East International Youth Hostel fairly quickly, checked into our dorm room and went straight to sleep. By the time we woke up in the late afternoon and had sorted ourselves out, there was just about time for us to grab a few beers before it was time to go to bed.

Having done sweet nothing on our first day in China's capital, we decided our second day should be somewhat more productive.We set an alarm for 08:30 and actually got up. We headed for Tiananmen Square and on the way passed one of Uncle Ronald's fine eating establishments. With time to kill, we nipped in for an egg mcmuffin and a cup of tea.

The first thing you notice about China is the people. Not necessarily their kindness or hospitality although some of them are very kind and hospitable, but just the sheer number of them. I'm telling you, if China ever decides to take over the world, they have the resources to do it. Everywhere you look, there are hoardes of them, whether on foot, on bicycle, or whatever. Its like being in an ant colony!

We made it to Tiananmen Square and pushed our way through the crowds lining up to go and visit Chairman Mao - now pickled in a big box in a mausoleum in the centre of the square. Apart from the mausoleum, there is not much else to see of Tiananmen Square except for a load of grey paving stones and a flag pole. No nice fountains. Just the paving stones, flag pole and about half a million people - some of them were flying kites which was quite nice. We walked right through the square upto the Forbidden City which was even busier! After buying our tickets and renting our spanky audio guides (the things you stick in your ear and it tells you what everything is), we were ready for the off and entered through the massive gate which displayed a beautiful portrait of Chairman Mao (If you like that sort of thing).

Beijing is preparing itself for what is probably the biggest event in it's history - The opening of China to the rest of the world through the vehicle that is the 2008 Olympic Games. Hence, everything in the city is in the process of reconstruction, refurbishment and rennovation. Including the Forbidden City. Once I had finally managed to get my audio guide to work, it began telling me about a building that was completely obscured by scaffolding - for 15 minutes. I put up with it, listening intently and continued on for a while, but then got inanely fed up with it and decided I would just wander around and take the place in sans audio guide. I spent well over an hour walking round in the humidity, sweating Vanessa Feltz in a sweet shop. I took in all the architecture and wasn't sure if I was suprised to stumble accross a Starbucks right in the centre of the place. (Yes, you heard me right, a STARBUCKS! Bye bye Communism, hello Starbucks) To be honest, the architecture was all very samey and although the place was massive and the gardens were quite nice, the Grand Palace in Bangkok is much more spectacular. Sorry Mr. Mao - your Forbidden City is just a tad dull. After 2 hours in the FC, it was just too hot and we retired for the day back to our hostel and its lovely air-conditioned rooms.

In the evening, we booked onto a tour to the Great Wall for tomorrow and then went down the Hutong for the local speciality - Beijing Duck. For 2 Pounds each, we had a whole duck with unlimited pancakes and all the trimmings. Absolutely delicious, although slightly different to what we are used to at home, the duckk isn't as crispy and comes with a lot more fat rather than just meat. Anyhow, it was nice to see the bird's head on our plate - that really whetted the apetite! We washed down our BJ Duck with a few bottles of local brew Tsingtao - light and fluffy! - before heading back to the air-con and bed.

Saturday saw an even earlier start than the previous day - 06:30 no less - and we were collected from our hostel at 07:00 to spend an hour driving round the city picking up more people from various other hostels. After that, it took us another 4 hours just to get out of the city through the heavy traffic. It really is a very very big place! We finally got out into the countryside with towering, rocky mountains either side of us and arrived at Simatai at 13:00. The wall is perched on top of the mountains, running the width of the country and apparently viewable from space. We took a cable car up halfway and then there is a little train that runs you up a bit further. In the heat it was simply just too hot to walk. In the end, we did have to walk a fair way up steep stone steps to the top by which time I was sweating like Vanessa Feltz in a pie shop. The Great Wall. Its just a load of old bricks really. Its not quite as great as everybody makes out. Ok, it's very long and that but when you have a workforce the size of the Chinese, it can only have taken them about half an hour to build. We walked along the wall for about an hour, through a few of the guard houses, now empty until we could go no further due to safety restrictions. Then walked back and headed back down the mountain to a little cafe for lunch.

Perhaps I'm being a touch harsh on China's major tourist attrations. Maybe after the simplicity and isolation of Mongolia's 'sites', these are just very different and a lot more crowded. But for some reason, I just wasn't bowled over by either the Great Wall or the Forbidden City. Perhaps i've just been spoilt over the last four months?

We got the bus back to Beijing, arriving at 22:00 and headed straight for bed after what has been a long, sweaty and draining day.

On Sunday we slept until lunchtime and spent the afternoon in the air-conditioned refines of the hostel cafe. In the evening we went out for dinner to a Korean restaurant with Tim and Sue, an English couple who turned out to be just a touch dull. The restaurant was quite exciting though. Each table had a small fire pit in the centre on which you could cook the raw meat and fish that the waitresses brought you. Note to owner of Korean Restaurant round the corner from the Far East Youth Hostel in Beijing - If you're going to put fire pits in the middle of every table in your restaurant, SORT OUT YOUR AIR-CON! No more comments about Vanessa Feltz, but you can imagine!

After dinner we headed out to Mix Club, allegedly the most expensive night-time haunt in Beijing, where we bought a bottle of Bombay Saphire for 30 Pounds and danced the night away to some Hip-Hop beats. Quite relaxing actually.

After recovering from a Bombay Hangover, I went down to the Chinese Laundry (in China it's just called 'Laundry') and they did a cracking job on repairing a hole in the crotch of one of my pairs of shorts and the rest of my clothes came back smelling nice and fresh with no whiff of sweets or pies. In the afternoon, we had a walk along some of the local Hutongs, traditional little market streets and spent some time haggling over items we didn't want and didn't buy. Its always fun. My back was still a bit out of sorts from the bus journey to Beijing so I treated myself to a massage. Despite the fact that I was asked three times if I wanted a full body massage and the masseuse complimented me with "Oh Mister, You wery strong" when I took off my T-shirt, it was reasonably legit with no 'Happy Ending' (I think thats the common term!)

Thursday was another reasonably quiet day spent attempting to avoid contact with the Beijing climate. I walked up the Hutong to a dress maker and ordered a custom-made dress for Becca then spent the rest of the day catching up on various correspondences and drinking a few beers. In the eveing I went to pick up Becca's dress. For 22 Pounds and in 10 hours the tailor had done a cracking job - just hope she likes it!

Wednesday was our final day in Beijing and we went back to the Hutong for some last minute shopping. We were conned into buying a copy of Pirates of the Caribbean 2 which when we got it back to the hostel, realised that it was actually a recording made by a guy in a cinema with a camcorder and that the person sitting in front of him had a very weak bladder. The picture was very grainy and the sound distorted, Guess thats why one shouldn't purchase Pirate DVDs (excuse the pun).

At 19:00 we took a taxi to Beijing West Train Station which turned out to be more like an airport. On entering the terminal, you had to put your bags through an X-ray machine and once inside, you had to check the departures board, find the departure lounge corresponding to your train number and then wait there until they opened the gate. Seriously! We didn't have to show our passports. We boarded the train and set off at 20:30. I tell you, British Rail could learn a trick or two from the Chinese - Large air-conditioned compartments with TV screens on each berth and comfy beds with clean linnen. Come on Blair - sort it out!

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Photos

Forbidden City
Forbidden City

Forbidden City
Forbidden City

The Great Wall
The Great Wall

The Great Wall
The Great Wall

The Great Wall
The Great Wall

The Great Wall
The Great Wall

The Great Wall
The Great Wall

Beijing Huton
Beijing Huton