Happy Easter

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For the most observant of you, you will notice Easter was, like, months ago. Well, let's imagine for a second that we travel back in time and we are still in March, and I've just come back from the Easter week end, m'kay?
Soooooo, "LAST" week end was fab, I sampled at last the Great City, the Great Palace, the Great Wall, the Great Food. Yes, I was in the beautiful city of Beijing, on a week end trip with Linda, an equally adventurous HK friend whose memory proved to be a life saver, as you will discover later on in the text. (Suspense, tadadah).

We arrived in our beautiful little bamboo garden hotel on the Saturday afternoon and spent the afternoon simply walking around. On the map it looked like we were slap bang in the centre of town, but that is not how Beijing works. The city is HUGE. So what looks like a stone's throw away from somewhere is actually a million light years away from it. Each block can be one km long, so if you are two blocks away from where you want to go, you should get your hiking shoes on. After walking for an eternity and realising we were not making progress we decided to do the sensible thing: ride taxis everywhere.

We explored the hutongs, that big network of old low rise houses in narrow streets that snake through the city. So one moment you are standing on an enormous sort of highway which goes through the town, the next you are in a tiny little alleyway where not even two bicycles can pass each other, and then you walk on and stumble upon a street of bars away from the traffic, on the shore of a lake..

The city has a wonderful magical feel to it, I could have walked there for hours, exploring the hutong nooks and crannies, sitting in cafes sipping green tea and shopping in the extremely trendy shops and art galleries.

However the next day was not one of leisure, but of professional tourism: we embarked on a visit of the Forbidden City. I can't even begin to express how huge, beautiful, surreal everything was, even if all these sites were taken over by swarms of tourists. The magic was definitely there.

After the Forbidden City we decided to head out to the Summer Palace. The problem was that neither of us 1) had a map 2) had a guidebook 3) could speak Mandarin 4) knew where the summer palace was or how to get there.
The problem in Beijing is that not many people speak English once you leave the touristic zones (well often even in them), which makes you automatically have hilarious cultural encounters. In our case, let's say that we decided to take a bus (not knowing where we were going or how to ask for directions). You see Linda thought that she maybe potentially remembered the number of the bus necessary to go to the Summer Palace. So we ended up boarding a probably random bus and really crossing our fingers, toes and legs hoping we not only were in the right bus but also that we would know where to get off and avoid driving to some obscure bus terminal.
But all's well that ends well, by some miracle (thank you gods of bus rides) we ended up in the right place and totally kissed the ground when we arrived there. The Summer Palace, as the name suggests, is where the emperors spent their summers, a bit like the Russian Tsars who would relocate to pleasant less hot environments during the hotter months.

The third day we went to the Great Wall. The pictures speak for themselves, it was quite a sight... On the way back we saw the Bird's Nest and Olympic Village. It was 6-7pm on a Sunday and there was quite a frenzy of activity. Obviously they were rushing to finish all this in time for the games in August!

Last but not least: I've been told before by someone that it's impossible to eat bad food in Beijing. Well, I agree. Every meal was a delight, wether it's a cheap little sumpling place or a palace of sophistication.. Needless to say, we are already plotting to go back..

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Photos

Summer Palace
We B********Y made it!

Guide
Follow the Guide, we are climbing up the Wall

Zee Wall
It's Great!