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Published: March 13th 2011
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ItinerarySo as I mentioned in the last Beijing post, Alicia’s friend was so kind to e-mail us an itinerary complete with how to get around. Today’s agenda had us taking a two different bus routes to get to the Great Wall, another to get to the Olympic Stadium & Aquatic Center, and another to get back to the hotel. Since we weren’t wise enough to print off this e-mail before leaving Zhengzhou, we didn’t have a hard copy to carry around with us. Just then, a wonderful idea…take a snapshot of it on the camera and reference that every time we need directions.
We left our room and asked the front desk associate where the closest Bus 5 stop was and headed in that direction. We were thrilled when we saw that the first No. 5 bus was a double-decker and the seats in the front of the top floor were empty. We rushed up there and commenced our photography session throughout the city. As a person who loves to know where he is at all times, I quickly pulled out our city
Map and began following out route. Most of the roads were in Chinese characters and the rest in
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Waiting for No. 5 pinyin. I did my best to keep up and used some of the major landmarks orient myself when I got lost. I enjoyed this little game, trying to figure out the city, all the while taking pictures of buildings, people, and a frozen river.
The way that the freeways are set up in Beijing is that they have Ring Roads. Because the city is so expansive, the rings start in the center and go out, kind of like a squared target. In the last year or so, they finished the 6th ring which has a distance of nearly 180 kilometers (I’ll let you do the conversion). It accounts for 20% of all the mileage driven on Beijing freeways.
I spotted the stop at which we were planning on getting off and tried to predict the route the bus might take to get us there. “Oh we’ll probably head straight up, North, on this road then turn East to get to the bus station.” Then we turned left. “Okay, maybe he’s taking us to the 2nd Ring Road then around to the bus station.” Nope. “Okay, maybe the 3rd Ring Road?” My voice had a little bit of worry in it
at this point but we trusted Alicia’s friend’s directions and snapped some more photos. Next thing I realize, we are passing the 4th Ring Road. Then the 5th Ring Road. Then I start to doubt my map-reading skills. “Okay, maybe THAT isn’t the bus station we need to go to.” We sit back and just go where the bus takes us. After about nearly an hour, we have left the main part of the city and entered a very rural part of town. The bus stops, there is no one left on the bus and the driver tells us to get off. The end of the bus line. And of course neither of us can speak Chinese to try and figure out where we are or how to get to where we need to go. He points us to another bus stop around the corner so we go there. Apparently, we were near the bus yard where they go to end their shifts and switch drivers, leave the busses overnight, etc. Assuming that we got on the RIGHT bus number, but just in the WRONG direction, we waited for the next No. 5 to come by and got on to
take it back into the city. Up until now, all of our mishaps (adventures, as I like to call them) have been funny to me. I have taken them as fun parts of travelling. Things that create better stories and memories my trip to China. This, however, really annoyed me. I think it was mostly because we were scheduled to leave the following day and it had compromised our chances of seeing the Great Wall of China. We decided though, that we would get up really early the next morning and make it to the GW in the morning and make in back in time to catch our train home that evening.
Referencing our trusty map again, I found one of the closest No. 5 stops that would get us to the Olympic Stadium/Aquatic Center. We got off the bus and stopped into a noodle restaurant for a late lunch. Still irritated with public transit, we hailed a taxi and had the driver take us to Olympic Park.
The Olympic Stadium, or “Bird’s Nest”, is amazing to see in person. I remember watching the Olympics 2.5 years ago but the video angles were always from above so it never looked
as grand as it really is. I love the architecture and the way it looks like it was just thrown together from a mixture of concrete and steel. The outside looks like a concrete mesh was wrapped around the entire stadium and at anytime, it could break and cause the whole thing to crumble.
During this Winter, they have an indoor snow attraction park that has skiing, ice skating, sledding, etc. They were charging admission for it and since we had no intentions of partaking in the Winter Wonderland (it was cold enough outside!), we decided not to go in. I was unsure at first- how could I come all the way to the great “Bird’s Nest” and not see the inside- but then I talked to some locals and I heard very similar things: “It’s not worth it.” “It’s just looks like a stadium inside”. I don’t regret my decision.
Similarly, we didn’t go inside “The Bubble”. By the time we walked across the courtyard to the admissions gate, they had stopped admitting visitors for the day. Again, not much remorse, as I heard the same responses from many locals: “It’s a giant swimming pool.” Also, they renovated most
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I love double-deckers of the inside to make an indoor water park. I’m not sure if it’s open in the Winter but I sure as heck wasn’t interested in finding out. The Bubble looks very neat from the outside though. I’m not sure what the exterior material is but it looks as though it is a bunch of curved panels of glass with the inside blue. It would’ve been nice to see the inside but I’m still glad I was able to visit it.
I also especially enjoyed the art that was placed throughout the park. There were sculptures and metal art, and more that was made of natural stone. It was fun to see such a modern and contemporary China after experiencing the Temple of Heaven the day before.
We weren’t sure exactly which bus to take back to the hotel so we went to the nearest station. The young Chinese guy that I asked for help understood us but didn’t know so he was nice enough to translate and ask someone else. They pointed to a bus stop about a block away and told us which route number to take. We got to the right bus stop and waited amongst the
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frozen river (random, but I never get to see these in FL) crowd of locals for at least 45 minutes. When we finally had a chance to get on, it was SO crowded that Alicia barely made it in and the door and I had my feet on the first step, hands on the railings and my body hanging outside. The driver shouted for people to move back to make room but it was only enough for the doors to close. Alicia and I were cramped into the space that the door swings into when it’s being opened. At every subsequent I had to squeeze her and pull her toward me so she wouldn’t get crushed. After maybe five or six stops, we made our way back to the where the seats were and eventually were able to sit. We decided we were in the mood for espresso so we got off at “Old Beijing” and went to Starbucks. We walked the rest of the way home.
By then it was about 8:30 or 9 PM and we were planning on going out to some bars. We got dressed and ready and got a cab to take to one that we mapped out before we got to Beijing. It was about that
time that I discovered my SB cup to be a perfect disguise for my new favorite concoction- baijiu and coke!
After getting there, we realized that the bar I researched is one of those places that only looks good on the internet. The setting was nice but there were maybe three or four other people there (besides the bartenders). One of them was a guy who does business for a company in Beijing but travels to the US frequently for them. His English was very good and after chatting for a while he offered to show us one of his favorite local spots; he called it “Dirty, Sexy, and Cheap”. Sounds intriguing. So we went with him and it turned out to be much more fun. It was more of a bar atmosphere than a nightclub and had some other foreigners there too. A couple girls from California, a guy from Great Britain, etc. OH, and there was a stripper pole on the dance floor. Haha We ended up staying until about 3:30 AM (until the creepy guy from GB wouldn’t leave Alicia alone) and took a cab back to the hotel. I think I ended up staying up
until 5:30 and only got a couple of hours before out Great Wall adventures!
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