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Published: November 12th 2006
Arrived in Beijing 3:30pm really looking forward to our stay in China. Wow!! What a difference! After the quiet/hardly a sole for miles Mongolia, the hustle bustle of Beijing's main train station was quite daunting. The place was buzzing; we just stood in the plaza outside the station taking it all in for a few minutes. After composing ourselves we found a very friendly taxi driver who had heard of the hostel we'd booked, told us 100yuan was the going rate. Ok, great we're off. Got to the hostel and were told that a taxi from the station should cost around 20yuan. Taxi drivers the world over are complete #@%!&ers!!!! Couldn't believe we'd been so naive.
Hostel was fantastic. In a hutong (an old traditional district with small alleyways) not far from the Forbidden City (20mins walk). Our room was lovely and the quaint hutong lanes had loads of bars and restaurants - we were in heaven. Even more so when we discovered we could eat dinner (with beer, naturally!) for 3 quid between us - and we could even get the left-overs boxed up for lunch the next day. Hooray! We're staying for good.
The next day we walked
to Tianamen Square - against all guide book advice to take taxis as distances are greater than you think! They know what they're talking about! Also, it was national holiday so the footpaths were full and walking took forever!! Especially as the Chinese walk so slowly. We've decided it's because they don't sell deoderant in the shops so they're avoiding getting sweaty!!
On the way, Orla had her first Chinese public toilet experience! When we say public, we mean PUBLIC!! There were partitions (hip height) between holes in the floor but no doors and the women wait right in front of you. Orla kept her head down and shades on to avoid eye contact!!
Tianamen Square was heaving with people. We sat down on the curb (with lots of other people), eating our left-overs. Yum!
We decided to give Chairman Mao's mausoleum a miss - Stalin was enough - and instead walked to a hutong area called Qianmen, which has lots of shops and is completely MAD! The streets were teaming with people and girls outside the shops clapping to get your attention and shouting to get you in their shop. The noise and hustle bustle was amazing. We were
Yonghe Gong Buddhist Temple
A stop-off on Orla and Steve's cycle tour!big spenders and bought some re-chargeable batteries for Orla's camera. Steve bargained hard and got them half price! The girl in the shop didn't want to give them to him but her mate intervened and sold them, much to her disgust. She was in a right strop as we left.
We were exhausted after all the walking, so we got a tuc-tuc back to the hostel through narrow alleyways. The Driver pulled over 2 or 3 times to switch off the engine so it could cool down. We wondered if we'd make it, but we were back in our hostel 30 minutes later.
On 4th October, we hired bikes and cycled around our hutong. It's easy to get lost! At one point, we were down a tiny alleyway, wondering how to get back to the main road. We followed a local on his bike, turning right, then left, the right and right again, and next thing found we'd followed him into the courtyard of his house!! The locals found it very amusing as we waved apologetically and started back-peddling.
Lunch was leftovers from the night before again, on the side of the road. A local woman sat in her
Yonghe Gong Temple
More of this temple - the largest Tibetan Lama temple in outside Tibet car stared at us the entire time. Staring is something you have to get used to in China. I think they find us very strange (no comments please!!!).
We visited the Yonghe Gong Lamastery which was impressive with lots of temples, it's the biggest Tibetan monastery outside Tibet. We then went for an expensive cup of tea in Yicheng Tea House. It was in a lovely courtyard but the tea cost 50 yuan per person (about 3.50 pounds). Thankfully, we could have free hot water top-ups so we had about 4 to get our money's worth!!!
After that rest, we cycled onto the Drum Tower. We climbed the ridiculously steep steps to take in the view of the city and watched the drummers performing. In olden days, this tower (along with the Bell Tower next door) were used to tell the time and there were various other devices on show for time telling, like a water clock which had a statue holding chimes that rang out every 15 minutes.
We cycled onto Houhai lake, with its many bars (but didn't stop in any!!!!!!!!!!!), and went around it to Beihai Park. Not allowed bikes into Beihai, which was actually a relief
Afternoon Tea!
Orla taking a well earned rest! as the bottoms needed a rest!! The Park was very nice and we wandered around, catching the highlights such as the Nine Dragon Screen. We then caught a ferry to the island and had a beer at the top, at the White Dagoba. Orla's sister, Deirdre, rang on the mobile and we watched the sun go down over Beijing. Aah lovely!
Back to the hostel, and another lovely meal in our hutong, at a place called Thule.
Next day went to the Great Wall (see other blog entry)
Friday - we were going to go to Jingshan park to get a good view of the Forbidden City but there was no point due to the smog! Alot of pollution in Beijing. Today seems much quieter, so perhaps some of the Chinese holidaymakers have gone home!
Visited the Forbidden City - only managed to walk around a small part - its so huge! You could spend a week in there and not see it all. Had our lunch, left-overs again, inside a huge square in the Forbidden City. We then went to the Temple of Heaven, lots of walking today but at a nice relaxing pace. Had a bit
of difficulty getting a taxi back to the hostel, none of them wanted to take us! and we hadn't even been drinking!!! Strange lot! Eventually found one that a) knew where our hostel was and b) could be bothered to take us!!
Back in our lovely hutong we had a baileys coffee and cake (thought we deserved it after all the walking!) at a place called Sandglass, and then later another delicious meal, outdid ourselves as it cost us only 2 quid! We're loving China.
Saturday - we caught the bus to the Summer Palace. It took us a while to work out how much money the Conductor wanted for our bus tickets. Lots of hand gestures with her holding up her thumb and forefinger and us offering 2 yuan. Luckily she spoke a little English and managed to tell us it cost 8. She then proceeded to teach us the handsignals for numbers Chinese style. One to five is straightforward but they only count on one hand so six is thumb and little finger extended, for seven you put the tips of your fingers and thumb together, eight thumb and forefinger, nine bent forefinger and ten just the
Drummers in Drum Tower.
Still on our cycle tour - visiting the Bell and Drum towers. thumb extended!! Knowing this made life a lot easier.
It's quite a long way northwest of the city centre to the Summer Palace. The kind Bus conductor helped us and made sure we got off at the right place. The Summer Palace is a huge park with a lake. It was quite busy but we just ambled round, and you'll never guess what we had for lunch!? Yep, left-overs again!! Taxi back to the hostel, Steve had to sit in the front and give directions!!!!!! Chinese taxi drivers don't seem to be able to read maps. Oh for a black cab!! Back in the hutong, another coffee and cake session at a different place called Xiao Xin's Cafe. Dinner at same place as last night as so good and very cheap. We read about a cooking course in 'Time Out Beijing' when we were back at the hostel. The course was just around the corner so we thought it might be a good thing to while away our last day in Beijing, so Steve got on the phone and booked it up.
Sunday - our Chinese cooking experience. This was fantastic! It lasted from 10am till 2.30pm. Chunyi was
View from Drum Tower
Looking towards Jingshan Park (which overlooks the Forbidden City) a great teacher and so much fun! We cooked steamed fish with garlic, ginger and spring onions, then spicy Sichuan chicken and steam vegetables - delicious even if we cooked it!! Steve's was much better than Orla's (although Orla is reading her emails at the moment, and might not agree!!!!).
Next we went to Jingshan Park for the view of the Forbidden City, you get to appreciate just how big it is! We started to climb the hill to the Pagoda. Half way up we encountered a large group of Chinese having a sing-song, with a lady conducting the crowd. They were very good and all seemed to be having a really good time. We stopped to listen to a few songs and in our enthusiasm even picked up a song sheet, unsurprisingly it was in Chinese so we were lost!!!!
We carried on up to the top, there were great views of the Forbidden City to the south and the Bell Tower to the north. This view emphasised the sheer enormity of the Forbidden City. Tried to take a photo but could barely frame a third of it.
We came down the other side of the hill and found
Stairs of Drum Tower
Attempting to show how steep these stairs were! just ridiculous! that the Park had gone mad! There was a brass band playing songs like "Oh when the saints", "Ol' Langs Syne" and "Jingle Bells", and lots of people dancing, mostly waltzing but some making up their own dances. We sat down on a wall for a while, had a beer, and were thoroughly amused by the weird and wonderful!!
Having recovered we made our way back through the Park, witnessing a group of pensioners playing keepie-uppie. They were very skillful and quite agile and must have been between 60-70 years old. Steve thought about asking them to join his 5-a-side team in Cheltenham as they were about the same age as the current players but much more skillful!!!
There were lots of other bands, dancers and groups of singers throughout the Park. We decided it must be a Sunday afternoon passtime for the locals and they all looked to be having fun, even if some bordered on insane!!
Another fantastic meal in our hutong before getting a taxi to Beijing's West train station, a very impressive building for any of you train-spotters (you know who you are!!!), catching the 11:30pm train to Datong.
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