Wednesday 29th July 2009 Beijing

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Wednesday 29th July 2009 Beijing
Our train to Beijing was leaving Qingdao at 11, we had tried to leave yesterday but there were no seats available and we didn’t fancy standing for 6 hours. Same kind of train as the last one which was ok. As soon as we got on the teenager in front of us eagerly turned around to introduce herself, obviously dying to practice her English. She was very nice actually and told us how she loves the movie Twilight and how she is going to Beijing to play in a concert. With this she whips her traditional Chinese kind of violin that you play upright, not sure what it is called and tries to teach myself and Mary to play. Some of the Chinese people really are so nice and friendly; you wouldn’t get it at home anyhow.

We arrived into Beijing South train station and it looked like the subway wasn’t running there, well that seemed to be what the signs were saying and nobody spoke English to tell us otherwise. We had to join the long queue for a taxi instead, it moved pretty quickly and in about 10 minutes we amazingly found ourselves in the cab of this Chinese taxi man who actually spoke fluent English. He even had a Dubliners CD in his car and put it on, he was very sad when I told him that Ronnie Drew had passed away. He was great though and went out of his way to find exactly where our hostel was as Beijing is a maze of little alleys called Hutongs. We found our way anyhow and checked into the hostel. It wasn’t much of a hostel really though, you wouldn’t want to be here on your own because it really was just a bunch of rooms. And our room was tiny; literally fit the bed and just enough room to walk around and on one side the transparent doors of the shower and bathroom. Very near the subway and right at the Lama temple and price was ok for the expensive standards of Beijing.

It was about 7pm so we decided to get amongst it and get something to eat. We thought Tiananmen Square was world famous and should have some restaurants around it so headed there on the underground. The train was packed which was to become a constant crush over the next few days; I have never been on a busier transport system. We emerged to the surface right at the top of the square just where Mr. Mao looks down from his mighty portrait at the centre of his communist kingdom. It’s a big bland, empty square with a very busy road running straight through the top of it. The foggy hazy night didn’t add anything to its appeal, but the world biggest public square lacked any impact, it looked like a giant empty car park. We took photos of Mao's portrait and fended off some approaches from the locals trying to bring us off to a tea shop to have dinner with them. A notorious local scam where you go with them and are presented with a massive bill at the end, they do the same with so called art exhibitions also, but once you are aware of it you are ok and can just say no. It took a good 25 minutes walk until we were out of Commie land and on a street that looked like it may have something to eat. We were looking for a famous snack street, we found it and found again that famous in China doesn’t mean it is for every ones tastes, we gave the grilled starfish and squid on a stick a miss and continued on. We found a nice commercial looking place with an English menu and decided to make this our night for trying the essential of the visit to Beijing, the famous Peking duck. The chef comes out and carves up the duck at your table and it really was delicious.

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