Advertisement
We have been constantly surprised by China (mostly good, some not so good) and the final part of our trip was no different. We arrived from Xian to the tree lined highways and blue skies of Beijing. We made an easy exit from the airport on a cheap bus out into the suburbs, not really what we had expected but definitely a pleasant surprise.
Beijing has proved to be a clean, easy place to get around with a nice vibe, the hosting of the Olympics has obviously been a real benefit to the city and the experience that it now offers to tourists.
We found the subway a great way to move and surprisingly didn’t end up heading in the wrong direction at all (not thanks to my subway skills however).
We visited The Forbidden Palace and Tiananmen Square on our first day, unfortunately if was fairly hot which meant keeping this itinerary exciting for the kids was fairly tricky.
The Forbidden City is right opposite Tiananmen Square, it is huge and was built in the Qing and Ming dynasties in the 1400’s. The City was pretty much off limits to the common people for
500 years hence its name. We spent about two hours there and definitely didn’t see all that there was to see, in hindsight a guide would have been good, perhaps they could have explained to the girls what a concubine and a eunuch were (the Royal city was not forbidden to them) but instead Mitchy and I had passed the buck back and forth and then invent a diversional tactic which is a little tricky at a place like the Forbidden City!
The Forbidden City wasn’t really up the kids royal alley but the heat really didn’t help. Grace whispered to me that she didn’t want to be rude but she didn’t really think that it was very interesting, I said that I could understand that but you can’t really come to Beijing without visiting the Forbidden City to which she replied “Well I think I could very easily come to Beijing and not come here”.
June the fourth this year is the twentieth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square ‘incident’ as it is referred to here and Mitchy and I both remember this well, being in the square brought back memories of seeing the events unfold on television.
Security is more intense at the present time as the incident remains very sensitive in China, there is no public commemoration of June the fourth permitted. The boys were very impressed by the soldiers marching through the square.
The Summer Palace was also one of the must do sites and it is beautiful with a huge lake the focal point. We were amazed at how much public space there is in and around the centre of Beijing and the locals obviously enjoy the Summer Palace for kite flying, playing music, dancing and performing the blood curdling singing that the women inflict on those around them (oops did I say that). The Palace grounds are beautiful and they do give some hint of the opulence of the times with a huge boat made of marble on the lake.
We also visited the Temple of Heaven but I think enough was enough and it became the Temple of Doom for the Mitchell family instead. We did see the sacrifice pits and the hall for prayers for good harvests before we headed out the gate and got swamped by a group of women dressed in traditional Miao costume. Luckily our next
adventure was an all round success.
The Great Wall was the reason that we came to Beijing and we were all excited about making the trip, we were however completely unprepared for how amazing it would be to actually visit, it really took our breath away. We went to the Mutianyu section about an hour and a half out of the city and then battled our way past the hawkers to head up the steps. The kids all did really well with the steps as it was another sunny day.
Once we were on the wall it was hard to believe that we were actually there. The view of the wall snaking up through the hills was extraordinary. There weren’t the crowds of tourists that we had been expecting and on the day we visited it was a really peaceful part of the world. There was not a sign of any rabbits or of the nomadic troublemakers or Huns that the wall was actually built to keep out. For those of you still keen on the rabbit theory the Great Wall is actually lots of small walls built by tribes people to protect themselves from nomads and then
joined together when China became a more unified entity.
The wall today is approximately 6500 kilometres long with some parts restored and others which remain in disrepair. In hindsight we would really have loved to visit the wall again rather than fit in all of the other ‘must see sights’. It has made us think that a visit to Beijing might appear on another Mitchell travel itinerary in the future.
Obviously as the Wall is the number one attraction in China there are souvenirs galore and the hawkers, as they do everywhere, try their best to ‘do over’ anyone who comes their way. Mitchy had his greatest bargaining success here, as he has really practiced and refined his technique over the past months so got one guy down from 280 yuan (56AUS) to 25 yuan (5AUS) with the guy chasing Mitchy down the hill to clench the deal. Finn and Mac are now proud owners of two Chinese police hats which they wear as often as possible causing great excitement among the locals, no young boy should be without one! Mitchy also practiced his skills at the Silk Road market in Beijing which is chocker block full of
people selling ‘genuine products’ mostly clothing and accessories but we were surprised that the ‘genuine’ companies that make these clothes can’t spell very well.
We tried the Peking duck eating experience in Beijing which was extremely tasty although we continue to find really authentic budget conscious cuisine experiences difficult to find for non-Chinese speaking/reading families. We did have some great food at the street stalls in the centre of Beijing, but we drew the line at the scorpions or seahorses on skewers. The scorpions are alive, impaled on the stick until you ask for a serving at which time I think they meet a rather toasty death.
We did a quick trip to the Olympic stadium for a peek and saw the birds nest and water cube which were very impressive and had huge crowds of people visiting.
We had a pool at the Beijing hotel which we thought would be a relaxing treat for the children. Little did we know how complicated and un-relaxing this would initially be. Firstly we were told that as per government regulations we would need to wear swimming caps which, if we didn’t have they could of course sell us. Next
we had to proceed to the change rooms with escorts showing us our lockers where we had to dress and place sanitized thongs on and then walk to the pool through some sort of chlorine foot bath, remove the thongs, and walk to the pool where there was definitely no jumping in. On our first trip I thought that I would just watch so didn’t don the togs only to be told that if I was in the pool area I had to be in bathers so it was sitting outside the glass windows upstairs watching my five bathing beauties in their swimming caps for me. If I took the kids swimming by myself the change room attendants were most distressed that I didn’t make the boys go to the male change rooms but kept them with me. Trying to leave the pool involved the same procedure in reverse plus being shooed into the showers. Not the relaxing start to the swimming experience that we were expecting.
We took the overnight sleeper train from Beijing to Shanghai to start our journey home with flights that leave from Hangzhou (an hour and a half from Shanghai). We had not originally
planned to visit Shanghai but then found good tickets to Australia so it was an unexpected but worthwhile stop-over on the itinerary. The train was a great experience, apart from the girls losing the boys when we arrived to catch the train in separate taxis with our ever growing luggage in the dark and were dropped at two separate spots. The girls didn’t cope quite as well as the boys (who were oblivious to the fact that they were ‘lost’), the girls had several scenarios running through their heads as to where the boys were.
We had heard that the architecture in Shanghai was spectacular and the buildings were definitely worth the visit. The night time scene is fantastic and we had treated ourselves to a hotel nearby the most impressive buildings so we had a sensational view.
We spent the rest of the two days in Shanghai finalizing some plans for the trip home and pottering about, we met up with the owner of the guesthouse from Lijiang and his wife for a cup of tea which was lovely and also headed to Tian Zi-fang a great art and café area in the city (after being
lost for a little while, not that you’d believe that).
So for now we are in Hangzhou getting our heads around our return to our beautiful island Tasmania with a new found love of the things that make it so special but also a definite appreciation of the world and all it has to offer…
Advertisement
Tot: 0.066s; Tpl: 0.017s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0379s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Leonard
non-member comment
WOW!
As your trip winds down that is the only word I could come up with that describes how it has been following your trip. I can only imagine what kind of experience it has actually been for your family although your stories do a great job! Thanks for all the sharing. This weblog is a great resource for travelers, especially those considering a family adventure. What's next? Another trip or back to 'normal' life in Tasmania for now? Be well!