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Published: October 20th 2007
Aoife working out
Playgrounds all over Beijing had plenty for grownups too - table tennis, chessboards and these brightly coloured fitness installations!...Was the title of a board game Alan loved when he was a kid so he was really looking forward to getting there. But I hadn't a clue if I was going to like Beijing or not - well, the thing is that on the way here we met a lot of people travelling in the opposite direction - heading towards Moscow - and I always asked them what they thought of China, and for their impressions of Beijing. While some of them were positive, most people were quite negative about the city and said they were glad to leave. This coupled with some things we had read about pollution and overcrowding had made me not expect a lot from the city. I couldn't have been more wrong, and within an hour of a stroll with the lads, I was in love.
We all were. The warmth of the people - singing (and damn good it was too), joking with one another, very tactile (men holding hands with their male friends), fun-loving (people of all ages on every corner playing Chinese chess and cards), hard working (the amount of diy going on around the place was amazing, and as Alan
Alan pauses to appreciate the view
The vertical climb to the Great Wall looked easier from the bottom - did someone say cable car? said, Dad would be very popular here), self-sufficient (this is a real entrepreneurial place with trades of all descriptions being plied in every nook and cranny across the city). And as for the food...
Of course the buildings are amazing - a complete mixture of brand spanking new commercial high-rise, traditional world heritage historical buildings and crowded Hutongs (these are street upon feng shui street of tiny terraced cottages where selling - food, trades, clothes, bags, DVDs, electrical equipment, souveniers, calligraphy, art, more food, anything you can imagine - is the name of the game).
Like Dublin, car culture is rampant, but so are bicycles, so you have to watch out for both when crossing the dizzying roads, neither obeying the lights to the degree with which we are familiar. Alan remarked that disobeying road signals augmented in direct proportion with the distance we get from home, and I have to agree. I thought the driving in St. Petersburg was crazy, but nothing like Beijing.
The Hutongs are home to a huge population as well, and so make a fascinating place for a stroll, where you see people of all ages living, playing, chilling, working and most
Great Wall
Inside the wall of all cycling around ringing their bells like crazy. The Beijingers also are fierce fond of tiny dogs, really cute ones, that they are terribly affectionate to and these little yokes sit like royalty in the bicycle baskets being cycled around at a fierce pace.
Anyone who knows us are probably all too aware of our grá for the bit of grub, and so Beijing was absolute torture. The Chinese love their food, and they love to sell it at extraordinarily reasonable prices. We had planned to be cautious around eating street food, had listened carefully to the doctor in the TMB and her advice, but the smells of the spices and sizzling meats were intoxicating. Within a half an hour I was buying skewers of spicy seared chicken (thirty pee for two!).
That night we headed out for dinner and ended up in a really local place, thanks to Steve, our Australian friend who has been on the road for two years and has a real nose for a bargain. This tiny, dingy by Irish standards, formica tabled café type place was populated by real working types - I imagine that the equivalent in Dublin might be
Great Wall
Aoife watches for rampaging Mongolians. a Beijinger just off the ferry in Dun Laoghaire with the following two words 'Hello' and 'Thank you' dropping into Grogans and trying to order a toasted cheese and tomato sandwich, side order of tayto ('salt and vinegar - oh, you only do peanuts')and pint of Guinness.
Thank God for a very patient waitress, who first off tried to communicate using language (not possible - we just kept saying, 'Hello, thank you, thank you') and then writing (not possible, we had only figured out one Mandarin character which was 'Men' - not as in Men, but as in Tiana-MEN... we didn't even know what it meant, so pretty useless), and then by Lonely Planet guidebook language glossary.
I kept pointing at 'Chicken fried rice' and saying 'Thank you'. She kept shaking her head, so then the lads kept saying 'Hello' and pointing at random things. Eventually she said something and pointed at a few noodle dishes, but shook her head, so we held up our fingers to show we'd like three of these, even though she seemed to be saying they didn't have them, and Steve, sensible boy, somehow gestured that we wanted a beer each. Then she
Great Wall
The wall snakes over hilltops and into the clouds just gave up and went off, in search of food for us, we hoped.
Toasts were made, and then Steve said 'look at the chef', so we did. He was pummelling a big piece of dough, lifting and spinning it around. Then he started rapidly shaving noodles off the lump, amazing. The waitress came back with three big bowls of soupy noodles with pieces of fatty pork, pak choi and coriander swimming in it. It was delicious. We, gobbled, yapped, and people watched, fascinated to hear the slurping of noodles and seeing an old man chewing whole cloves of garlic. People were ordering all types of fab food, but we were happy to make do with the delicious noodles, feeling as though we had conquered worlds. For the other diners we were the curiosity and everyone watched our chopstick etiquette carefully. Luckily as we were so hungry we were pretty impressive. The lads had another beer and we had great chats.
Then the bill was called (funnily enough, every country we go to no matter how bad our language skills are, the bill always arrives). This was cool though - the whole thing cost five euro fifty. Five
beers, three plates of dinner, nice one.
The next morning we got up early and headed off to the Great Wall. We went to Mutianyu and arrived at around eight, so the wall was pretty empty. It was a misty morning, which was very atmospheric, making us feel as though we were walking in the clouds. Alan had great fun taking many photographs, and we wandered a few kilometres up and down the wall. There had been talk of going to a more remote part of the wall for a proper hike, but I was happy with Mutianyu as the steep climb was tiring but perfectly fine. The Great Wall is such a potent image, we're all so familiar with, that it was like visiting a place I'd already been. Strikingly beautiful with autumn colours to be seen in the many trees surrounding it. The sheer history of the country really struck us at that point, and it was one of those moments that you would love to share with other people you know.
By ten or so, the wall was covered with tourists from all over the world, most of them of course from China. Some people
found the crowds annoying, but what struck me, between the Chinese families delightedly tucking into delicious and exotic (for me) picnics to the groups of Americans who had made their way by cable car (I was jealous of these - cable car! Best mode of transport ever) gingerly stepping over the rocks to take a quick photo, and the group of French tourists toasting each other with Champagne from paper cups (this made me think of my Aunt Bernie and parents - I imagine this is what they would do if they travelled there together, and quite right too!), was the sense of achievement and joy everyone was taking from making it to the Great Wall. Its a great thing when a symbol of defence and separation can become a symbol of the potential of human achievement.
Such heady thoughts, so early in the morning. Alan pinched me on the arm and awoke me from these musings, and down we headed. Then on to a Tea-house to learn all about the art of tea. This was actually great and very interesting. By the end of the session, we were all gurgling loudly and holding the cup in the manner
befitting an Emperor or a Emperess. Another reason to love Chinese food, apparently in a tea house or eating noodles, the messier the better - 'no noise, no taste.'
Loads of work is going on all around the city in advance of the Olympics next year. We saw the stadium (under construction) from the train. Maybe the excitement is catching and that's why Beijing was so amazing to me, I'm not sure. Jaysus, there's so much to say about Beijing that I'm going to make a separate entry - otherwise I'll fall asleep at the keyboard.
But before I go, I should say that the Vodkatrain ended so our little group disbanded and we were sad to be saying goodbye for now to new friends. That said, for the first time in almost a month we were at our own pace, and that night the travelling and excitement of the past month and a half caught up with Alan and I and we collapsed into bed, falling asleep before our heads hit the pillows.
xx
ps: proper touristy action to follow anon.
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