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Published: October 7th 2005
Andrew & Fiona on The Great Wall
at Simatai, about 80 miles North of BeijingWe couldn't wait to get to Beijing and escape Seoul after hearing and reading some great things about the future Olympic host city. It's Fiona here giving you the rundown on our first week in China.
What a place Beijing is, quite simply the best place we have ever been to (yet), maybe that anyone has ever been to?
It was a pleasent flight from South Korea to Beijing despite a rather strange experience in the plane toilet. You know what plane toilets are like, when you really need there are always loads of other people queing before you, typical. Anyway, I waited and waited and finally I was next in line, then an old Korean lady came towards the toilet and tried to get in. I explained as best I could to her in sign language that there was someone in and she was behind me in the queue. Finally, the door opened and I rushed in, when I turned around to close the door I saw this little old lady had followed me in to the loo!! I thought she must be confused and again tried to explain there was only one toilet and I was going
Tiananmen, gate of Heavenly Peace
Complete with huge portrait of Chairman Mao. To the left of Mao it reads, "Long Live the People's Republic of China", and to the left it reads, "Long Live the Unity of the World". first, a struggle then ensued when she tried to push me out of the way. Bemused I tried to move her back, at which point Andrew walked past to see what was taking me so long and witnessed me and the old Asian lady wrestling in the toilet cubicle. As I explained to Andrew what was happening the old lady pulled down her pants and laughed at which point I gave up and retreated outside, fuming and a little confused about what had just occurred, Andrew is still scarred by the sight......
Enough about toilets though and back to Beijing. We were staying in a hostel nearish to the centre of town, about 10 minutes walk to the Forbidden City and 5 minutes to the main shopping area. Our hostel turned out to be a pretty fancy hotel and we were given a luxurious ensuite room for the week. After staying in some rather grotty hostels in South Korea we felt like royalty. This room only cost us around 6 pounds per night!!
We spent our first two days organising our itinery for the week and meeting some fellow travellers. Our first organized trip was to the Great
The Forbidden City
entrance to the Palace Museum Wall. We were really excited about this trip and it certainly was an adventure. We were picked up aroung 7 am and driven to meet the very small tour bus. By the time we got there the bus was full to my eyes, but the guide insisted there was room and Andrew, me, and our campanions, Lenny and Bret were squeezed aboard. Andrew sat in the isle while I sat on the floor just behind the driver. The 4 hour drive was insane, on the way we saw 3 serious crashes and witnessed what can only be described as psychotic behaviour on the road, by both vehicles and pedestrians!! I guess that the driver probably had his hand glued to the horn and pushed it at least two hundred times during the journey.
Finally we arrived in Jinshaling which would be the starting point of our 8 hour, 10 mile walk along the old part of the wall into Samatai. Along with our new found friends we had met on the bus we set off on our journey accompanied from beginning to end by some very determied Mongolian 'hawkers'.
The first 4 hours of the walk were the
most difficult with very steep inclines and stony paths, the views were absolutely breathtaking though and we took lots and lots of pictures. We had picked a perfect clear and sunny day for the trip. The next half of the trip was not quite so difficult but our legs were all getting tired so twice as much effort was needed to execute our way through the stony paths.
We got towards the end of the walk and all felt relieved that it was coming to an end only to see around the bend the steepest largest steps were still to come! Completely exhausted I contemplated staying where I was and waiting for a rescue helicopter but instead plodded onwards telling myself it was mind over matter.
Phew, we finally got to the end to find there was a very appealing (but perhaps a little dangerous) flying fox across the river whcih meant no more walking. We all agreed to take the zip-line rather than walking option and got strapped up for the ride. It was pretty nice just whizzing across and down to the other side of the water with my legs dangling like jelly below me, the
one or the other is fine....
just not both together.
Entrance to the Hard Rock Cafe, Beijing. perfect ending to a brilliant experience.
That night we all enjoyed a bear in the hostel chatting with other travellers and laughing about how much we had all paid for the tourist items that the hawkers peddled on to us, it wasn't a late night though and soon we were flat-out in our bed and planned on staying there for quite some time.
After recovering from the wall experience we decided to treat ourselves and go out and find some roast duck, the Beijing speciallity. A friend at the hostel had recommended a place that was fairly cheap and had a good atmosphere so we headed out to enjoy a night on the town. We finally arrived at the restaurant half an hour late after being taken in the wrong direction by the taxi driver (not an uncommon experience in Beijing). It didn't matter that we were late, it seemed that we had to wait for a table anyway. The restaurant was pretty small with as many tables as possible crammed in, I think it was a pretty typical Chinese restaurant, nothing fancy at all but with a good social atmosphere. There were lots of other Westerners in
Mao Zedong Mausoleum
Where the chairman now rests in a see-through crypt. there, probably because it is mentioned in the Lonely Planet guidebook and half the price of most other duck places.
Andrew sought out the kitchen and got some pics of the cute wee ducks roasting with there beaks on, I decided it was better for my conscience not to look. We had one duck between us and it was cut up and served the traditional way, with pancakes, spiong onions, cucumber and plummy sauce. It was really tasty and we washed it down with a cheap bottle of plonk, 'Great Wall' wine. A few more beers were consumed by which point the hang over was inevitable.
The following morning we were pretty rough so we indulged in the famous hang over cure and ate good old McDonalds, no Irn-Bru though, perked up we headed for the Silk Markets to seek out some bargains.
The Sik Market is an inside market housing 5 levels and hundreds of clothes, shoes, jewellry, luggage, optical and toiletry stalls. I was in heaven, after nearly ten months in the same clothes I was eager to find some bargains and get rid of some of my old dirty things. Andrew was pretty good,
in fact excellent at haggling, I don't think I really have that skill in me so I chose the clothes and he did the talking. They have 'China Price' for the locals and 'Stupid Tourist Prices' for the rest of us. Bargaining for any item began at around 450 CNY, which is about 30 pounds, in the end Andrew had them down to 30-50 CNY (2-3 pounds)!! Hs favourite phrase was "Ehm no an American, eh dinnae hae any munney" and the point seemed to work.
We emerged from the markets 4 hours later with two pairs of trousers, two t-shirts and a pair of trainers for Andrew and two skirts, three tops and a new pair of sunnies for me and all we spent was 450 CNY (30 pounds). A good days work if I do say so myself! We have even contemplated coming to China every couple of years to stock up.
Our time in Beijing was coming to an end and we spent our last day visiting the Forbidden City. This is a pretty amazing tourist attraction that streches on and on. It was difficult to get a good look though as it was mobbed
Chinese Revolution History Museum
with the clock counting down to the 2008 Olypics, Beijing. with Chinese tourists.
The Forbidden City was where the Royal Family stayed and never ventured out into Beijing, it s quite understandable, I don't think you would need to leave this vast compound of temples and beautiful statues.
It took a fair while to get through the city and we were guided along by a Rodger Moore English Audio guide, this started out as quite funny but as his voice droned on it became more of an annoyance than anything.
On the way home Andrew decided he needed his hair cut, we found a wee place with the old red/white/blue spinning tube outside and went in to enquire, no English was spoke but they offered to cut his hair for 40RMB, about 3 pound, Andrew offered 10RMB, about 66p and the finally settled on 15 RMB, one poond. So as they got down to it Andrew realised that he didn't have 15RMB on him, he only had 12.5 (86p) so they reluctantly accepted and started the shave.
They didn't have guards for the razor so Andrew's request for a "number 3" was met with deaf ears, the boy done well though, taking his time going over
Monument to the People's Heroes
with the portrait of Zhou Enlai, the founding father of modern China, infront. the hair with a comb then shaving it through it. It was looking real good, just as Andrew liked it when he stopped to admire his work, we though he was going to 'touch-up' a few bits so got ready to leave when the other 3 hairdressers joined in for a Chinese conference than ended with the resolution that he needed to shave it right to the bone!! You should have seen the look on Andrew's face, I couldn't move for laughing, he says this happened to hime once before in "Roebucks" but I don't know where or when that was. Nae luck.
Well goodbye Beijing, we love you and hope to see you again soon.
Next stop Xi'an and the 'Terracotta Warriors'.
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anonymous
non-member comment
china is cool!!!!!!!!