Advertisement
Published: August 8th 2012
The train to Beijing was pretty uneventful - our carriage was entirely full of Western travellers but there was no vodka fuelled madness. Even the border was simple with only cursory checks, no smuggling of boots or anything else was visibile last time (though maybe in the other compartments?). Once again the wheel bogies had to be changed (as China uses standard gauge) but after Belarus we knew the process and it was all a little tedious really. As we rolled towards Beijing you could immediately tell China is a much richer country than Mongolia, there are visible paved roads and construction happening everywhere. As we approached the capital the smog visibly thickened!
We arrived into Beijing Central Station (which isn't very central) and said goodbye to Cathy and Lianne who were staying in a different part of the city. We then walked off the platform into possibly the busiest station I've ever been in, it was just a wandering mass of humanity with what seemed liked no order. Thankfully Tom was waiting for us just outside and having lived in the crazyness if China for 14 months was a useful guide through the crowds. It was about this point
the heat and humidity hit us, it was a horribly sticky and hot day which is a weather we rarely experience in the UK - not a day for lugging a rucksack around to a youth hostel... Thankfully unlike London the underground stations and even the trains are air conditioned which was welcome relieve even from our short walk. Again there's very little order such as organised queues, basically you start pushing your way on before everyone has got off, but if you don't push you don't get on. Still, we got to the hostel after a slight bit of getting lost (thanks Tom ;-) ) we arrived tired and more than a little sweaty.
Our hostel is a gem, it's located is a traditional Hutong (alleyway courtyard) which is something all the guide books recommend walking around. I can see why, they are full of local people walking, riding bikes, electric scooters and anything else you imagine on wheels. I saw a woman pushing a set of weighing scales along on a sofa the other day - only in China. Crazy is the only word I can use to sum up this country and we've only seen a
small part of one city. The central courtyard of our hutong, though, is a chillout area with outside tables and a bar - a much needed place to relax and escape the madness of the city outside.
After a shower and a change of clothes we headed out to grab some food and have a quick look at the main sights. Walking and the underground were much more fun when not lugging rucksacks and we headed to Tianaman Square and down to a local noodle bar Tom knows. No English menu, non-English speaking staff and lots of pointing. Tom speaks a little Chinese so we ended up with tasty noodles but I'm not quite sure how we'll cope when he leaves on Monday. The streets are also full of people trying to get you to eat their food or buy their wares, there's a constant background sound of "hello - t-shirt", "hello - chinese beer", "hello something". These hawkers don't actually speak English but just know a few phrases - the best tactic is just to smile and walk off!
We then headed to a local spot that is a cross between Covent Garden and Camden Locks -
bars, quirky shops and street food. This was more of a quick preview than a full night out - by this point we were starting to flag. It was just after our first beer that the heavens and down poured some of the worst rain I've ever seen. Lightning, rain and people selling cheap umbrellas. Even with one of these we still got completely soaked on the way back to the hostel - and as everyone who was there will remember I was irrationally worried about my shoes getting ruined (well they are really comfy).
Early(ish) the next morning we hired a minibus to drive us to the airport to pick up the rest of the gang - Alex, Kelly, Ben and Ian. With them all safely arrived, if slightly jetlagged, the next part of the holiday can begin!
China Part 2 - Hashed do China
By midday everyone was checked in and all agreed it was a good choice of hostel. We were all staying in the East Yard of the Red Lantern, a newer part away from the main building. This is looked after by a local family who could not have been more helpful even
Meat on a stick
Available everywhere!with the language difficulties. Add into this a lovely outside seating area on £0.50 beers we were happy. Tom suggested a quiet afternoon which due to jetlag and humidity seemed like a good idea so we set of for the Llama Buddhist Temple. This was more touristy than the temple in Mongolia, in fact I saw little evidence of it being a working temple at all. What it did have was a lot of historical information and was a good relaxed introduction to Beijing for our jetlagged companions!
After the temple we broke one of our own rules and ventured to a Western chain, Costa Coffee, but it did iced caffeinated drinks and had air conditioning so I'm sure you can forgive us... Refreshed and more perky we set off back to the bar/shopping street Tom, John and myself had visited the previous evening to have a few snacks and beers. Alex discovered he was a big fan on the local meat skewers (or "meat on a stick" as he named them) and I'm sure many more of these will be consumed before he leaves China. We also had a whip-round and bought Ben a hilarious T-Shirt that I'm
Donkey burgers
ok, not quite burgers but they are made of donkey afraid I can't share in polite company.
The rest of the week has been spent doing the standard touristy things and a large amount of eating and a reasonable amount of drinking (nothing silly though). The weather has been a real mixed back of hot and humid, gorgeous sunshine and torrential rain but we've made the most of it. The main sites of The Forbidden City and The Great Wall we had excellent weather for so I'm not complaining!
Rather than boring you senseless and also because we're having a lot of fun and I shouldn't be holding everyone up by tapping away on a keyboard I'll just summarise some of the key things we've done:
* Tianamen Square and The Forbidden City - touristy but full of history and good photo opportunities
* The Great Wall of China - a small section just outside of Beijing. A ski-lift up to the wall, lots of walking along very steep sections followed by a taboggen run back down to the bottom. That last part was ridiculously good fun and not something I'd have expected to find at the Great Wall
* China Train Museum - very geeky but
John and I had been travelling on them for 3 weeks. The rest of lads (sorry we dragged you there Kelly...) also found the engineering interesting and in China there was a lot of political bias and messages that everything is wonderful but you just have to accept that.
* Beijing Police History Muesum - horribly one sided and actually disturbing in places this chronicles the history of the local police from the founding of the Communist state through to the modern day. Lots about how everyone is protected from counter-revolutionaries and how safe everyone should feel.
* Temple of Heaven - similar to the Forbidden City in that it's a tourist must see this is where the emperor made annual sacrifices (usually cows) to pray for rain and bountiful harvests. Lovely architecture, lots of photo opportunities and the first and only time we were approached by a student who "wants help with their English". This is a common scam where eventually you are led to a cafe or a bar and the drinks are extortionate. We knew what was going on and Ian managed to get rid of the student.
* Looking through the shops at the fakes -
Hiding from the sun
Everyone in China uses umbrellas to hide from the sun. The lads decided to be local. fake phones and fake clothing seems to be the most common. We also found that the government owned book shop sells photocopies of Western text books.
* General wandering - this is the most enjoyable think to do. Wandering through the hutongs and the markets just seeing what is going on. As I've said China is like no place I've been and seen some crazy things - a woman wheeling a set of weighing scales down the hutong on a sofa, cages full of ducks and cats, a street dentist and children using bins as toilets.
And just a hint of the crazy food available - we went to a place that specialises in Donkey meat burgers. Everything else was quite normal in comparison. As well this tasty treat we have also eaten
* Dumplings, dumplings, dumplings - for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Very tasty!
* Crap Food - the guide book recommended a poo-themed restaurant. The whole restaurant was done up like a bathroom and you sat on toilets. The food was crap - though we can't work out if this was intentional
* Meat on a stick - after dark every hutong has at
Group photo
Hashed do China least one man selling grilled meat kebabs. Alex was very pleased at this, and they were very happy.
* Noodles - there are noodle bars everywhere serving noodles for about 80p. Very tasty and very filling. No one spoke English but they usually have picture menus to point at. What you receive rarely looks like the picture.
* Vegetables with meat on - every vegetable dish Kelly ordered seemed to be covered in meat and in a meat sauce. My favourite so far has been pak choi covered in beef stew.
* Peking duck - the well known local dish. Amazing!
On to Japan...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.165s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 9; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0823s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Grandy & Grandad.
non-member comment
Brilliant traveloge.
Keep it up Jamie. We are really enjoying reading about it. Just like "Around the World in 80 days. Bet the dumplings aren't as good as Grandy,s