Takin' it to the Streets

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Our final day in Beijing and Cass suggested we rent some bikes from the hostel to cover some ground and see as much of the city as we can. My first thoughts were of images of honking speed demons and the previous day’s traffic encounter on the way to the Great Wall. “No thanks, I rather enjoy being alive…” but the more I thought about it, it was a brilliant idea. The early morning sunshine cast long shadows on the locals navigating rusty, dirty bikes along the grey brick streets of the hutong. The ‘prrings’ of bike bells in the distance was too much, I could handle this scene.

Cass was game right from the get go, after I came to terms with the realistic possibility of becoming a hood ornament, I was pretty psyched about it too. Our hostel was in the center of town, roughly equidistant from the places we wanted to see. It was the cheapest, most adventurous way to see what we wanted.

So, before I knew it, I was unlocking our cruisers and heading down the streets of this Asian metropolis. The first street we navigated out of the hutong quickly baptized us in this madness. I played lead blocker, and often times chicken with the traffic… getting uncomfortably close to the local busses that passed us. Once he turned off, onto a bigger street, yes bigger street, we were amazed at how biker friendly this city is. On every street, there were bike lanes lining each side of the street, even, at times, separate side roads only for the bikes. Intersections got a little hairy… but we learned to follow the China- Ajumma, what we later dubbed as the Cha-jumma, and to stay in the wolf pack of bikes.

We started heading south to experience the many markets we’ve heard Beijing offers. We stopped short of our intended destination because we came upon the ‘Pearl Market.’ This building was huge and had six or so floors piled with electronics, clothes, pretty much anything… and the top two floors were strickly pearls and fancy jewelery. I personally got too excited while practicing my bartering skills (Cass plays the good cop role), and we left the market with two Ipods, and a t-shirt. Or what we thought we Ipods… at under $20, I didn’t really care what the name of the miniscule machine was, as long as it played my music for me. On closer inspection, I guess an MP4 (yes…4) doesn’t hold music… at least ours… and we were out some money. No worries…. We had our fun bartering in the Chinese markets so it was worth it.

We were going to stop at the nearby Temple of Heaven, pictures of it are pretty impressive. We decided not to. From a small rooftop terrace on top of the Pearl Market building, we got fairly good look at it, and pairing that with the fact that it was severely smoggy at that time and talking with a traveler from Holland at breakfast who said it was a bit overrated, we opted out and continued on our bikes.

Turns out, we were heading in the direction of Tian’anmen Square and stumbled on what seemed to be a brand new shopping district. The new, yet traditional brick buildings barely had businesses in them. There were people everywhere and the pedestrian mall, perhaps six or seven blocks long had a trolley running the length of it. The more traditional, smaller and more crowded market streets crossed this district which ended at the back gate of Tian’anmen Square. It was a cool, festive atmosphere where we hung out for a while and stopped to pound some dim sum… good stuff.

We stopped back at the hostel on our way to Olympic Park, in the northern part of town. I was particularly looking forward to this since the recent Olympics and their emphasis on the two dominatingly interesting structures- the bird’s nest and the water cube. It was a bit farther than we thought, but that may have been because we didn’t necessarily know where were going, but - in true Jon and Cass style- we found a back entrance gate and started biking around the park.

After finding the right section of park, we saw that we could’ve shortened the trip substantially, but that’s part of the adventure, right? Getting closer to the Bird’s Nest, the roads were blocked off and virtually the entire park was a pedestrian mall. The Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube are right next to each other with a giant plaza probably a half mile long running between them. Tons of people were there, just hanging out and sitting on benches. It is by far one of the most impressive stadiums I’ve ever seen (sorry Lambeau Field). The Water Cube is a weird little structure, it is kind of transparent and we could see the sun’s light through it. Both are super cool, and being so recent to the Olympics, it was incredible to see them first hand. Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps would be proud of us.

We hung out taking in the atmosphere, took some crazy pictures that were too tempting to pass up- the growing crowd watching us was funny-, took some pictures with some Chinese people because Cass is apparently a rock star in this country, and we headed back home. For some reason I’m learning that I’m kind of an Olympic nerd. I love the idea that the entire world, or representatives from all over the world, can come to one place, backed by the support and pride of their country to compete the best they can. Despite all of the rules/ doping/ gymnasts that are too old/ etc. I choose to focus on the idea of the games being a microcosm of the possibility of what truly can and could happen in the world. It’s a powerful thought.

Beijing is an incredible city- for the short time that we were there, anyways. I’m trying to compare Seoul to Beijing in my head and find they are very different. The sentiment back home is one, typically of, ‘Asia is Asia is Asia.’ I am by no means an expert on this, but where I have been, S. Korea, Philippines, now Beijing, I’ve found they are incredibly different, incredibly unique, and incredibly wonderful places.

Beijing does a wonderful job of cherishing their culture and heritage, bringing that into the modern. For example, the hutongs. They are basically small brick cubes people live and work in; most likely no plumbing- there are public toilets everywhere. The walk we took through the hutong under construction made me realize they are preserving these neighborhoods, but updating them. There is wonderfully kept history that gets an immeasurable amount of people, but is in great shape, and the people seem more real.

In comparison, what I’ve experienced of Seoul is that of progressivism. The attitude is that of get modern as fast as possible and as much as possible. I can’t see that city going through the trouble of renovating small traditional neighborhoods, such as a hutong in Beijing, when a monstrosity of high rises could go into that particular space. The people, so caught up in materialism and keeping up with the Jones (I guess it would more accurately be ‘Keeping up with the Kims’), give off a more Beverly Hills energy in contrast to the more down home Midwestern feel of Beijing-ites (Beijing-ers? Beijing-ans?). It was an interesting comparison between the vibes of the cities.

The next day, we jumped aboard our flight and landed back in the Repubic of Korea. I did stop to watch the infrared scanners as people passed by in the airport. Then I witnessed the scurry of action when someone was just a little bit too red. Kind wish I didn’t see that, it gave us a little worry about our health, but eventually we left the airport without any poking or proding, or quarantining.

***** Just as a side note, I got an article published on the website www.intravelmag.com about the Korean school lunches. It is also entered in a writing contest that I would encourage everyone to vote. It would be awesome to win, and a great boost to a writing resume. You’ll have to register, then go to the site, click on the ‘intravel forum’ link, find the May/June writing contest in the blue boxes, and vote for ‘The Art of Korean School Lunch.’ The contest finishes June 30th and as of this morning I’m in second place by 3 votes!!!! Thanks for the support everyone!!

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Comments

[ritchie]

pix
i like your pix in the olympic stadium! great!