Goodbye Beijing

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With the exception of the Great Wall section I visited (which was not actually in Beijing), I've been a bit disappointed by Beijing's "must see" tourist sites. However, the people I've met and the experience of backpacking for the very first time on my own has been amazing. I've had an great time and I've been able really enjoy being on vacation. Here, halfway around the world, I think I've managed to leave all my worries back home. Physical distance does create mental distance.

I've been staying at a cozy little youth hostel located on one of Beijing’s hutongs (old roads). The hutong still have some of the rustic charm of yesteryears. Although selling goods on the street is prohibited, the small family owned shops and laid back restaurants aimed at backpackers make it a nice place to just kick back and unwind a bit. Outside of the hutongs, Beijing is one big busy metropolis, decked out with skyscrapers and shopping malls. There wasn’t really big historical site in Beijing that I particularly enjoyed. The Forbidden City was actually much smaller than I thought it would be. It only took several hours to walk around and see everything. Some of the buildings were under restoration. A big problem with many of China’s historical landmarks is that restoration is not really restoration. The term recreation seems more appropriate. The work is not done historians, but by Joe Smoe construction company. Sometimes I can't help but feel that the end result is not what it was before. What authenticity has survived through the ages is quickly being torn down and rebuilt, replaced, of painted over in some way. It is pretty hard to not feel like you are in some cheesy amusement park even when you are in front of the real thing. Some if you want to see China, hurry and go see China's historical sights before they are all "restored".

The Summer Palace was bit better than the Forbidden City, although parts of it still feel cheesy. The entire Summer Palace area is so big that it takes a whole day to explore. There are various pavilions from which to view the lakes, Buddhist temples, museums and galleries. Still not quite my couple of tea, but it was worth a day of walking around. I also visited the Old Summer Palace (Yuanming Yuan), not to be confused with the newer Summer Palace (Yee Wall Yuan). It was just a big park that was in ruins. Not really much to see but there is a haunted feeling it - I bet it can get scary a night.

Wangfujing Snack Street is a street in Beijing where you can really shock and confuse your taste buds. There is lot Chinese food at the market that could be considered normal: meat skewers, noodle soup, candied fruit, chow mein, etc. There are also a lot of eats that most people would consider weird: grasshopper, scorpions (live on the stick before you order it - they fried it up for you to eat. I’ve been told that if stung by a scorpion, the sting area becomes paralyzed for 30 minutes), cicadas, silk worms, starfishes, seahorses, geckos, and more. I tried almost every creepy crawler I could find and in my humble opinion, they all tasted bad. The only people who ever eat these are tourist. I’ve yet to see a local order a skewer of fried scorpions. The more I think about it, if these thing tasted good in the first place, They'd probably be on menus in restaurants. Oh well, at least I know now that I'm not allergic to scorpion venom.

Anyways, off I go to the next city. It is kind of sad to say goodbye to the people I've met although we've only known each other for a couple of days, but the road is calling my name.

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Photos

Old Summer Palace
A walkway to a pavilion on the lake.

The Forbidden City
I don't know why, but the guards at the Forbidden City march around alot.

Summer Palace
Suzhou Street. Shops along the water.

Summer Palace
The Summer Palace is filled with old buildings and architecture.

Wangfujing snack street
Stuff yourself silly at the snack street

Candied fruit
Color fruits like apples, grapes, etc. are dipped in sugar and sold on the Wangfujing snack street.

Mmmm...Candy
And lots of it too

Weird food on the snack street
Grasshoppers, scorpions, catepillars, worns, etc. All fried on a stick. I ate almost everything. Too bad they don't have variety sticks, I would have saved me a lot of grief.

Just chilling after a long days walk
Drinking beer in front of the hostel. This was a great way to unwind.

Comments

[Ming]

those geckos look pretty good. do u eat the bones as well? i'm totally down to try them.