Imperial Beijing with a twist

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We finally made it to Beijing – yeah ;-). Seemed like an end of one part of our trip as we thought that would have been the last stop on the Trans-Mongolian route. Plans have changed along the way but non the less we were excited about the capital. It is such a massive city and you can see how it stretches for miles when you arrive on the train. Our first ride in the Hard Seater section (lowest class) was actually quite nice. Not too crowded, clean and cosy - not sure why they call it that way. We were meeting Anna, our CS hostess in the evening so we had few hours to kill. Anna lives in Wudaokou – University area that is full with students, international teachers, bars and clubs. It was so nice to go to some hangout places and see a lot of foreigners so comfortable leaving there that it even made us envious about that. Apparently it is very easy to get a teaching position and find some place to live in Beijing. We really got to like this place called Helen's Hangout, where we had coffee and breakfast every day on a way to the city and we stopped for a drink or two on the way back few times.

Our first impression of Beijing was that it was so modern and... crowdy. I kept saying that there must have been million people everywhere we went hahha That could actually be almost a fact for the main city spots considering that there is 16m people leaving in the municipality of Beijing. Moving around the city was very easy with the subway system available. Only crossing the street seemed like a challenge sometimes. This is quite common to Asia overall, so we were not that surprised.

Despite the fact that there is so many foreigners leaving in Beijing we were constantly stared at and sometimes it felt really uncomfortable. It was a different kind of stare – so direct that even when my look was reaching theirs, they would not stop. Many times I had photo taken in front of my eyes and I don't even want to mention how many 'Us and Forbidden City' photos were taken all together hahha. It got a little bit annoying as a simple 'Can I have a photo?' would be just fine ;-) So Tomek started to pull funny faces when ever he saw a camera close enough and I was just turning my back or hiding behind something. Few people even got offended that I did that....weird. Anna told us that they think it is a compliment to have a photo taken of you and for the same reason they don't really mind when you do that. Perhaps they like it but we didn't. Of course there are other things that are just in your face like the weird coughing sounds and spiting or not queuing at all, no matter what situation. Just one of those cultures I guess;-)

Anyhow the streets were so modern, full of cars hence the pollution so noticeable that we could almost taste it in the air. We had few nice days in Beijing weather wise but it was always smoggy or foggy (both related to the level of pollution anyway). Anna made our stay in Beijing so much more interesting that we really felt it could not have been better. Our days were filled with wandering around the city, sightseeing and then spending time with her and sometimes here friends. She showed us many nice places where she goes for dinner and we had opportunity to taste some local food that we would not have probably managed to order by our selves. We had endless number of noddle dishes, great garlic eggplant and mala tang soup, which probably stayed our favourite for a long time.

First on the list was the Forbidden City. There was so many people on the Tiananmen Square and we did not even bother to queue up for the Mao's Memorial Hall. We we there for the Imperial sights in the end ;-) Surprisingly fewer people were actually entering the Palace Complex so we did not have to wait long at the tickets office. The price was a nice surprise as well – 40Y (4£) only which was so little when compared with Datong's sights. We also took an audio guide to get to know the history better and we rushed in excitement into the Forbidden City. This complex of Gates, Halls, Palaces and Gardens is a masterpiece. So vast and so beautiful that is hard to even imagine how the ordinary day to day life must have looked like over there. It stretches for nearly a kilometre, has countless number of halls and rooms and it hosts more than a million of historic relics. It was difficult to follow all the history of dynasties and emperors as there were so many of them, however it was very interesting to hear stories and anecdotes from their lives.

The story of the last Qing Emperor was obviously repeated few times together with the revolution period and then communism time. What surprised us was the fact that the Forbidden City was always very well looked after even by communists which wasn’t the thing they would normally do. Everything culturally rich was usually destroyed but somehow they protected this place and even invested money in its conservation. It took us 5h to wander around and we did not even managed to see everything due to the winter time hours. We climbed the small hill in Jingshan Park to watch the sunrise over the FC and it seemed like a perfect ending to the great day out. On our way back we managed to find some small Houton full of food and souvenir stalls and we spent an hour to wander around it as well. I was still astonished by the vivid colours of the street, amazing décor and red lanterns every where. Love the oriental look of it ;-)

Another great story that I loves especially as a women was the Empress Cixi's story whose name and objects came out some many times in the Forbidden City and then Summer Palace. As a young girl she was chosen as an imperial concubineand she climbed the ranks of harem and gave birth to a son who became the emperor himself later on. She became very powerful and effectively ruled the country for almost 50 years. Even though she was ruthless she was also responsible for many important reforms and changes in China. I liked the fact that she came from some small Chinese village and then ruled the country. The way from rags to riches was then possible in 19 century China ;-)

We loved the Summer Palace even more than the Forbidden City. Amazing architecture of the place spread over the hilly landscape around the lake seemed like a perfect location for the emperor's court to relax during the summer. The Suzhou Street in the northern part of the complex was just so charming that we could stay there for hours and wander around ;-) All the halls of the main temple and palace are connected by many levels of stairs and we felt really happy that we entered by the north gate as this allowed us to walk down rather then up the steep hill ;-) Also the view is magnificent when you walk down and if only the pollution level was better that day we could have enjoyed more of it. But summer palace it is not only the halls and temples but the lake, bridges and little island on the east side of the lake. The Marble Boat and the Long Corridor were great spots too and we really enjoyed the time we spent there. I was just thinking how lucky the royal family was to be able to enjoy this place for themselves as again even in winter season the place was filled with thousands of people (the meter by the gate showed 17,000 that day - uhh).

The last of the imperial sights on our list was Temple of Heaven. Well, it is not actually a temple but a massive park that again is beautifully landscaped. We did not pay for the main hall as it just looked like a massive pagoda but we quickly realised that it wont be possible to take any good photo of it without paying. They built a massive brick wall around it preventing people from seeing too much without ticket. It was not the first sight like that though. The Summer Palace is surrounded by such a high wall that is not even possible to tell what is in side. Surely Chinese know well how to protect their income from the most expensive sights hahha Anyhow we only wanted to wander around the park and see the Palace that used to serve as the meditation place for the Emperor before the sacrificing ceremony. It was so empty – no one was bothered to look inside this place and we found it really beautiful and peaceful. Huge place just for the Emperor to have some time to think though;-)

Again staying with Anna gave us opportunity to see another side of Beijing. She took us to the 798 Art District to see some Modern Art and we spent few hours there looking at some painting workshops, galleries and sculptures. We even came across Cannon Photo Exhibition which was a highlight especially for Tomek but we all really enjoyed it. There are some funky clothes shops and designer shoes & bags shops as well. If you are a music collector you can get some vinyl of Pink Floyd, Elvis or others. What surprised us was that this could even exist in communist country like China. The internet, press and TV are controlled so we thought that it would be similar with art. It means that they have some sort of freedom of expressing themselves – I guess as long as they don't say anything against the government it is ok ;-) We finished a day by taking part in a 'China trough film' evening in a local Culture Centre. Anna is attending it almost every weekend and it seemed just a nice way to get to know the country. It would be even better if the film was Chinese not Taiwanese but never the less it was a great story in a small cosy room with just maybe 15 people around.

Of course we did not see everything in Beijing even though we stayed almost a week. We decided to take it very slowly and just see what is really interesting to us. We enjoyed the city, we met some new interesting people and we tried some nice food. I was a little bit disappointed by food actually. Tomek loves every bit of it but for me it was not exciting enough. We are in China it should be an adventure to dine out. Maybe it is just because it is a northern part of the country where Mongolian influence is quite strong or maybe it is not to my taste. I found it almost blend, very similar and lacking 'the thing'. I have to give them credit for noodles though. Especially the fresh, wide ribbon noddles just made in front of your eyes. They say food gets better and better when you move south so fingers crossed😉

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Photos

The manifestation of Emperor's Power
all the palaces in China would have two of those in front of them

local delicacies
some of them were still moving ;-(

Gate of the Supreme Harmony
leading gate to the Forbidden City

Temple of Heaven Park
one of the halls

Gong Bao Ckocken
Tomek's favourite

garlic fried eggplant
yummy and easy to get in Beijing