Onwards to China

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The flight to Beijing from Seoul was uneventful. Gimpo Airport is only about 15 minutes on the airport subway line from my hostel in Seoul and the check-in and security process there was really easy. A few hours later I was landing in Beijing. Immigration and customs was easy as well - just show them the passport and visa and you are good. An airport express train took me pretty close to my hostel in Beijing. It was only a short walk from the station to the hostel, well it is supposed to be short. I ended up going in the wrong direction before realizing my mistake, but it wasn't too bad. I got to see a small part of the city and I didn't walk too far off course. The hostel - Sanlitun Youth Hostel, was much larger than the ones I've stayed in so far. This hostel was more like a hotel, at least in size. I think there were some 60 or so rooms. Plenty of guests too, especially since I arrived right in the middle of one of the national holidays. October 1st is the Chinese National Day, and they get a week off. It seems like a lot of the Chinese go to Beijing for their holiday. Back to the hostel though. The first floor had a restaurant/bar as well as some computers and a pool table. There were a few animals running around too - a small dog and several tiny kittens. They had a pair of rabbits and some finches in cages too. A brief aside - I noticed quite a few people carrying around birds with them when they were walking around or riding their bicycles. They seemed to be mostly older men with a cage or two with some finches in them. I noticed a lot of pet birds in houses too, when I was walking around. The room I stayed in was a pretty basic 6 bed room - a bit small for 6 beds but manageable and comfortable enough.

After I was checked in and my bag was in the room, I headed out to the Olympic village. The subway ride there was fairly complicated - I think there were 4 transfers, but the Beijing metro is easy enough to navigate. Cheap too, it only costs 2 yuan per trip in the city, wherever you want to go (it was 26 to the airport). It was getting close to sunset, so it was a good time to see the Olympic stadiums. The birds nest, the big outdoor stadium, was pretty cool. The whole thing looks just like a birds nest with big metal beams going all over the place. Across the promenade was the water cube. During the day, the cube was not especially interesting, but once it was lit up starting at 6, it was pretty neat. The bubbly-textured outer wall was entirely illuminated from the inside which created a cool visual. Farther down the promenade was a couple of other big buildings where other indoor events were held. The whole space was pretty big, and crowded, at least up around the stadium and water cube. There were plenty of people selling various things - kites, cheap toys, etc. After I made my way back to the hostel, I was pretty hungry so I walked a few minutes away and got a nice big pork and green pepper (and a few other things in there too) dish. With a small bowl of rice it was pretty filling, only coming to about 22 yuan too, a few dollars. Food in China is pretty cheap. Drinks too, at least in supermarkets. You can buy a 500ml bottle of water for about 1 yuan, a 500ml bottle of coke or other drink is about 2.5. A 1.5L bottle of water will cost about 2. At about 6.5 yuan to a dollar, its pretty cheap.

My first full day in Beijing I decided to do the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square area. It was easy enough to get to, but very crowded. As I mentioned, it was a national holiday week and it seemed like everyone goes to Beijing. Outside of the big tourist spots, however it is pretty normal. The Forbidden city had a pretty long line to get tickets, but I made it through and got my ticket. It costs 60 yuan to get in, plus a few more for one part. The place is really huge. It looked like about half of it was open to the public - all of the main halls and areas, plus a few others. To even get to the first main hall, one has to go through 3 huge gates from the street, each with a big courtyard. Each of the largest halls had big crowds of people in front of the open doors trying to get a look and photo. The Chinese will just push their way to get anything, which makes it pretty rough to get in to get a look for yourself. You have to be willing to push people out of the way and not let anyone slip past you. The buildings themselves were pretty impressive. They had a similar architecture to that seen in palaces and temples in Japan and Korea, which is no surprise. Most of the buildings here had golden colored tile roofs, with a few green ones too. There were a lot of dragons painted onto all parts of the beams and in the details. The metal brackets and hinges for the doors had dragons on them. There were about 3-4 main buildings in the main stretch down the middle of the Forbidden city, all pretty similar I thought. Off to either side were a few rows of smaller buildings and halls. Each building had its own little complex - a wall, a few smaller buildings around it, etc. Between each complex there ran streets bordered by the tall walls. The whole city seemed to be layed out on a grid so it was easy enough to navigate. Most of the smaller halls seemed pretty much the same. They had exhibits with different artifacts and pieces of art in them. Overall, it wasn't quite what I was expecting, but it was still a very fascinating place. The amount of detail in each building is incredible. All throughout the city there were glazed ceramic images, mostly flowers or dragons, on many of the walls and gates. I'm sure it would have been better if it was less crowded, but it was still good.

Right outside the main entrance is Tiananmen Square. The square is bordered by the Forbidden city on one end, the National Museum and the Great Hall of the People on each side. The end opposite the Forbidden city is another gate, Qianmen, from when Beijing was a walled city. Just past Qianmen is a pedestrian shopping street (with a few restored streetcars). The square was full of people, but since it is so huge, it didn't feel as crowded as the fairly narrow streets in the Forbidden city. To get into the square (and all of the metro/train stations too) you had to go through a security checkpoint. The checkpoint was no problem, you just had to send your bag through an x-ray machine. In the square, there are several monuments -the main ones are one to the People's Heroes and the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong. Besides that, and a few smaller, temporary monuments, the entire area was a huge flat space - no grass, no trees, no benches - just flat space. I walked through the square to the south end where the shopping street was. It was pretty interesting, at least to walk around. A lot of the shops were a bit out of my price range. I picked up an extra battery for my camera and some more memory cards since I kept running out of battery power at inopportune times. The prices weren't especially great, but they were a little cheaper than if I bought them at home. After some searching, I found a section down a side street with a bunch of food carts. One of the spots had a lamb skewer, which looked pretty tasty, so I got one, and it didn't disappoint. It was actually really really delicious, although a bit pricy for street food at 12 yuan. I wasn't too hungry, but on my way back to the subway, I passed another lamb skewer place, so I got another, just because the first was so good. I was pretty tired from all the walking so even though it wasn't especially late, I went back and just rested at the hostel.

The third day I decided to see the Temple of Heaven, as well as some of the markets - the Hong Qiao (Pearl market) and the Silk Market. The Temple of Heaven is situated in a large park. Again you have to pay to get in, 35 yuan this time. The main building is a large, round, three tiered building, where the emperor would pray for good rains and harvests and such. The building sits on a 3-level stone and marble base with several sets of stairs leading up to it, very similar to the bases of the buildings in the Forbidden city, only round. Again, the level of detail in the ornamentation and decoration of the building was incredible. There were a few smaller halls around it as well. Also in the complex was another smaller, round building, with other halls to either side, almost like a small version of the main building. Next to that building was a large, 3 level circular "mound," really just a large platform similar to the base of the main hall.

Near the Temple of Heaven park is the Hong Qiao market (Pearl market). There is a large 5 or 6 story building filled with vendors. The first few floors were full of people selling clothes, shoes, bags, suitcases, belts, leather goods, and other stuff. The top two floors was almost entirely pearl jewelery and other jewelery. Overall I found the market to be pretty boring and not worth shopping at at all. The vendors were very pushy in trying to get you to go into their stall or even look at their stuff. Each row had about 5-10 vendors all selling pretty much the exact same stuff, all yelling "t-shirt", "polo", "belt", "bag," etc and pushing stuff in your face or path. Not really an enjoyable shopping experience. I don't understand how any of them can actually make any money, since only a handful of people were actually looking at anything. The silk market was pretty much the exact same experience. In both places I just did a quick walkthrough and left pretty disappointed. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I thought it would at least be interesting. When I got back to the hostel, I decided that I should stay in Beijing a little longer than I had originally planned. I added on two nights to my stay and booked a train ticket to my next location, Datong. I ended up getting a train in the morning, which was the only one available without getting in too late. I also decided to book a tour for the Great Wall the next day. I didn't really want to do a tour since it was kind of expensive (not too bad, but still more than I'd want to pay). I did it since it was a holiday and the closest section would be too crowded and the better parts would be a hassle to get to on my own. The tour included transportation, an english speaking guide and breakfast and lunch. That evening they had a free hot pot dinner at the restaurant. It was rather spicy, but pretty good.

The Great wall tour started early in the morning, so I had to be up for breakfast at 7:30. The bus arrived about 50 minutes later. The bus wasn't especially comfortable, it had less legroom than an airplane. The section of the wall we were going to - the Mutianyu section, is about an hour and a half from Beijing. The tour guide provided some commentary about the history of he wall on the way there. We arrived about 10:00 and after waiting in line to buy a ticket for the lift up, got on the wall about 11:00. It was kind of annoying that we pretty much had to buy a lift ticket in addition to the tour fee. You could walk up, but the wall was at the top of the mountains, so it would take a while and a lot of energy to get there. We had about 3 hours to walk around the wall by ourselves before lunch. The restored section we could walk on was about 3km long (it wasn't quite clear exactly how long it was). The chairlift put us up somewhere in the middle. In one direction was a short, but steep part, and the other side was the longer, less steep part. I decided to tackle the short, steep part first, while my legs were still fresh. At the end of several long, steep, awkward sets of stairs (some nearly vertical), you ended up at the unrestored section of the wall. You weren't really supposed to go on the crumbling part of the wall, but most of the people did anyway. At the last restored guard post there were three ways where the old wall was. Only one of those had a sign that said do not enter. The crumbling part of the wall was much more interesting to climb along. I didn't go very far out, but the view was incredible. The newer section (restored in the 80's) was still cool, but the crumbling part that was several hundred years old was much better. I went back towards where I got on the wall and went in the other direction. The view along the whole wall was beautiful. It was especially so since all along the other mountains you could see parts of the old wall and guard towers sticking up in the distance. All along the wall, ever few hundred meters or so was another guard tower. The amount of work required to create the wall must have been incredible, especially since they built it along the top of mountains. I walked most of the way along the wall, up to a section where it became steeper. The wall didn't have many flat spots, most of it was up and down, up and down. A lot of the steps were very awkwardly sized. Some were at an angle and most of them were either really tall or really short. If I didn't have to be back in time for lunch, I would have climbed to the top, the highest part of this section. I didn't though, and walked quickly back to the lift. One of the unique features about this part of the wall is the toboggan run down to the base from the wall. That was part of the round trip ticket I bought to get up to the wall. Unfortunately the line was way too long and moving too slowly for me to make it to lunch on time, so I just took the chairlift down. The chairlift is still pretty nice, since you have the view of the mountains on the way down. I might have been able to wait in line for the slide and make it on time, since there were several stragglers who made it to lunch late and still had plenty to eat. I didn't want to take the risk though. The lunch was about 9-10 dishes, all of which were good. There were a variety of meat and vegetable dishes. It was a good experience, since it would be difficult to order that many dishes just for myself. There were about 40-50 people on the tour (between two hostels), and there was plenty of food to go around. After lunch, we boarded the bus back to the hostel and arrived about two hours later. I was pretty exhausted at this time, so I didn't go out anywhere else, except the area nearby the hostel. I kept dinner simple since I had eaten a big lunch - nothing special.

For my last day in Beijing I hoped to seek out some interesting markets. There must be somewhere interesting to shop in Beijing. I had found a few promising leads online, all pretty close to each other. I left in the morning and went to the first area - Liulichang Antique street. There were plenty of shops with various jade pieces and other possible antiques, but I didn't really look in any of them, since I'm sure they were out of my budget. They didn't really look especially interesting either. I walked over to the other lead, which was more promising. It took a while to walk there, along a few major roads, but eventually I ended up at an old temple that wasn't in use anymore. At least not as a temple. The entire area, as well as the street in front was full of people who set up little stalls of various things. Some had just a blanket on the ground with a few things out on it. I walked around first to scope it out, since it was still fairly early and people were setting up. Right outside the front gate, I found a noodle shop where I got a big bowl of noodles with some pieces of beef for 5 yuan. It was very filling. After eating I went back in to the market and looked more closely at what there was to be had. Many of the people were selling old collectible coins and paper money, there was a section with books, plenty of people with various pieces of jade and other little objects. Others had cultural revolution and communist party memorabilia, others had broken pieces of the blue painted porcelain, some of which were shaped into pieces of jewelry. Lots of other random things were being sold as well. Although it was very interesting to walk around and look at the stuff, I didn't see too much that I really wanted. Some of it was too expensive for me and others were too breakable. I ended up buying a few Mao pins for a couple dollars. Hopefully I can find a market like this elsewhere, maybe in Xian or Shanghai, where I can pick up some more interesting little pieces. One of the best parts about this market is that I didn't see any other foreigners, it seemed like almost all Chinese there. After I was finished with this market, I walked through a few alleys towards a subway station. The alleys were pretty interesting to walk through, and I wish I had found some more to check out during my time in Beijing. A lot of the old buildings in these alleys and back streets are made of stone and stone bricks. All along the alley/streets were bicycles of all kinds. I really enjoyed walking through them. On the way back to the hostel, I did a quick stop at one of the main shopping streets in Beijing, but it was not very interesting. A big mall, a few brand name stores, and not much else.

Once I got back to the hostel, I went out in search of Beijing duck. I went to a place nearby, but they didn't do half ducks, but luckily I ran into a couple of guys there who were in the same room as me, so I joined them for a duck. They were planning on coming back about an hour later with a bunch more people who they knew for another course of duck, and I happily joined them. The first course, with the 4 of us, we got one duck, but later on with 11 we had 3 ducks and a few side dishes. The duck was sooo tasty. I could probably have eaten duck each day I was in Beijing and not gotten tired of it. They carved the duck and brought a plate of the meat with the skin on top. The skin was the best and most flavorful part. There were some wrappers which you would put a piece of cucumber, some onions or radish, a few pieces of duck and plenty of plum sauce, roll it up and have some of the most delicious bites ever. A duck costs 98 yuan, about $15, but split among several people only worked out to a few dollars. Including side dishes, we each ended up owing about 40 yuan for the whole feast. It was worth every penny.

After enjoying my last meal in Beijing, I had to start getting ready for my train in the morning. I packed my stuff, including the food and drinks that added quite a bit of weight to my bag. I woke up early, got ready and hopped on the bus to Beijing West Station, about an hour away. I got there with some time to spare so I just waited in the waiting room. The station is very large - there were at least a dozen large waiting rooms and as many platforms with trains waiting. I had booked a hard sleeper, since no seats were available. The bed cost 108 yuan to my destination: Datong. The sleeper car I was in wasn't completely full, at least most of the way. I left Beijing at 10:24, scheduled to arrive just before 5:00pm. The scenery outside was nice and I had a book to read so it went by pretty quickly. Despite the name, the bed was actually not uncomfortable. I could easily sleep there, and I will be sleeping in such a seat tomorrow on my way to Pingyao, the next stop in China. Once I arrived in Datong, I bought a ticket for my next leg and then got on the bus to a hostel I had read about. I gambled that it wouldn't be very busy, so I didn't make a reservation. (I tried to by email but without luck). They had plenty of beds available so it worked out fine. I will leave my description of Datong for another time, after I've seen the sights. Tomorrow morning I get up nice and early to get a cab with 3 other people for one of the more interesting sights in the area - the hanging monastery, about 2 hours away. I will then hopefully make it to the Yungang Grottoes, a series of caves with thousands of buddhist statues and carvings.

I'll leave with a few random thoughts about Beijing and China so far:
1) The Chinese are awful drivers. Seriously bad. They should just stick to bicycles. They have a tendency to either drive incredibly slow, or quite recklessly. Also, they have no problem stopping in the middle of the road. For example, on the bus back from the Great Wall, there were several trucks on the side of the road selling fruit. A few cars had decided to stop right in the middle of the road to buy fruit. There was no shortage of space to pull off and an impatient bus driving close behind, yet they stopped literally in the middle of the road. They also tend to merge whenever, often slowing to a crawl when doing so. The bad traffic is probably a mostly a product of poor driving, not too many cars.
2) They love using their car horns. Half the time it seems justified, but the other half there is no reason.
3) When it comes to riding the subway, they seem to lack a bit of common sense - for example most people will just crowd around the area right next to the stairs down. This means that when the train arrives, those few cars are packed full, but the next couple are half empty, which often works out nicely for me.
4)Beijing is perpetually covered in a cloud of smog it seems. You can stare directly at the sun on some days and not even be bothered by it.

I did enjoy my time in Beijing though, and I would definitely be able to find more things to see and do if I had more time.

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