Beijing


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Asia » China » Beijing
August 2nd 2014
Published: August 21st 2014
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Beijing...the city of 20 million people and I think we've seen them all! There are just so many people wherever you go, the whole place is buzzing. But its not as bad as you'd think and the girls have coped remarkably well.

People told me that in Beijing, you can't see the sky. I thought....yeah right, surely you just look up and there it is. You know if its cloudy, you know if its sunny. But you can't, seriously you can't see more than about half a km in any direction and that includes up. The first day, I just coughed as the air just made you do that. The hotels provide elaborate filter masks, the kind you see in the movies when they're trying to stop the spread of the abola virus, just in case you need it. We haven't resorted to that, yet, and haven't seen any others either. We caught a glimpse of the sun yesterday and I was a little excited to say the least. But its not the sun as you and I know, you can actually look at it and it looks like the moon. One upside of the pollution is you don't need sunscreen!

Day 1

We wandered to T. Square and the Forbidden City. Our hotel is in an awesome spot, we can walk to heaps of places. The F. City is just amazing. It is so huge and even when filled with a couple of hundred thousand people, no I'm not exaggerating, it was fine. There are 999 rooms and it covered an area of about 1km long by 400m wide. There is a white marble path that runs between all the buildings and back in the Emperor times, this path was solely for their use. I tried to imagine what it would have been like just the one dude strolling through this massive space and am sure it would have truly been a feeling of power and supremacy.

After this we wandered through Bei Hai park. We boarded a small boat and meandered through the exquisite pink lilies. I climbed the small man-made hill, there are no real hills in Beijing, the place is oddly flat...more so than even Adelaide! The view was a little hazy but I enjoyed the view of the first 2 buildings in the F. City as I couldn't see further than that.

We then headed to our first shopping experience. We'd like to consider ourselves as seasoned bargainers as we've travelled a lot in Asia and the Middle East, but nothing prepares you for the haggling required here. Sara was a little scared at first and said, "why is mummy fighting with all the market ladies". You forget how foreign this is for her at times! Their starting price for basically anything, including for example a Hello Kitty hair tie, is 680 rmb which is about $117. You end up talking them down to about 5 bucks but then you think, I could have bought this at Bargain City for $2 and walk away thinking I've been somewhat ripped off. Hence we haven't bought as much as we thought we would.

OK, we were still feeling a little brave (or stupid), so decided to tackle the underground metro, along with half of the city's population. We paid the 35c fare...makes Brisbane's public transport seem a little ex-y...and squeezed on board. Piece of cake!

Day 2

Happy Birthday Hannah! I woke at 5.15 and thought why not leave the others to sleep and head to T Square and beat the crowds. Ha! I'm not kidding when I say I had passed about 150,000 people by the time I stepped foot onto the sacred ground. It is so huge and can hold 1m people. The museum building is opposite and is, next to the pyramids and coliseum, probably the most imposing building I've seen. Everything here is so BIG!

Next it was off to the Great Wall, and truly a great wall it is! We had organised a driver from home and he arrived to take us on our adventure. He kept Hannah giggling all day by bursting spontaneously into renditions of Happy Birthday to you! We drove the 80 odd km on surprisingly good roads and highways to enjoy of all things a Subway before tackling this amazing display of architecture. Again I thought, were a way out of Bejing, it will be nice to see the sky. Ha! Still no sky. The area is very hilly but it turns out were a mere 400m above sea level. We rode the cable car up to the wall, yes, its a little touristy, and walked, and walked, and walked. Then we climbed about 400 stairs, I know this as Sara counted them, and looked back on the half km of wall we could see, and it is awesome. So very cool.

After this we drove to the Summer Palace back in Beijing. For the locals, this is the place of most beauty in Beijing. The lake was huge so I asked the obvious question is it natural and of course, its not. The little Chinese dug it out at the request of the Emperor and used the dirt to, you guessed it, build a mountain to overlook the park. We enjoyed the marble boat, a creation of one of then Empresses, and no, it doesn't sail...its built of marble, and the 800m covered walkway with 14000 individual paintings that meanders alongside the late, built to keep the sun of the same Empress. You might have guessed by now, they don't do things by halves here.

Now we've stayed at nice places before, but Raffles have taken that to a new level. We're staying on the floor where the club lounge is and have made friends with Sage. He gives us a call and says he's arranged complimentary access for happy hour for Hannah's birthday. Wow...we're so excited...free 5* food and booze! When we get there, he's set up the private room with balloons and yummy food for us. There are gifts of pandas for the girls, a birthday card and of course a small cake and candle and another rendition of Happy Birthday. We had a ball and you couldn't wipe the smile from our or Sage's faces!

After this, we wandered to the night markets at Wangfujing and ate live scorpions, not really but once deep fried, plenty of others did. Ewww! Only in China...

Day 3

Err...not feeling so great. Must have been the lettuce and raw veggies from the night before...lesson learnt! We sucked it up and headed to the Beijing Zoo to see the pandas first hand. We got there early to beat the crowds (are you catching onto my sarcasm yet!) and spotted the much awaited creatures. They were scoffing bamboo and were really cool.

Next off to the Hutongs, a labyrinth of old time Chinese courtyard houses, now tourist shops. It was nice to see some traditional places which have been obliterated to build the new Beijing.

The afternoon was spent recuperating, thank goodness again for 5* luxury. Scott and Hannah headed to T Square where Hannah waved the Chinese flag and was the subject of the local "paparazzi", something the girls have become very accustomed to! In the evening we headed out for much anticipated Peking Duck for dinner...yum!

Day 4

Its Sunday and again, another "yeah right, as if that would happen" moment. I'd heard that come Sunday, the air is noticeably cleaner as the factories have been shut for 2 days. Like that would make a difference but sure enough, it does. One could definitely breathe a little easier.

We arrive at the Temple of Heaven and its beautiful. Blue tiled roofs that once would have been even more spectacular as they reflected a crystal clear blue sky. And what was that...the sound of birds chirping? A luxury not upheld 50 years ago when the famous Chairman at the time decided birds were a liability to the food source and chose to exterminate them. A rumour maybe...

We battle our way to Beijing railway station. We had been warned. Central station in Sydney during Monday morning peak hour could be compared to tumbleweeds blowing down a deserted dusty road vs the Beijing railway station. One queue for security, one queue for tickets, one queue to the main entrance to show tickets, one queue for security again, only to end up in a jam packed waiting lounge before, you guessed it, a queue to get on the train. All this in 33 degree temps. Yay!

We board the overnight train to Xi'an and Sara exclaims "I want to stay on this train forever". How quickly one forgets! (The plane nightmare still fresh in my memory!). A perfectly adequate 4 birth cabin transports us to...


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