I'll admit that I had mixed feelings about going to Beijing before we left. I had no idea of what to expect, and had heard less than pleasant stories from people who had visited. I had heard that there are TONS of people everywhere, people spit, people stare, it's insanely polluted and communicating is difficult. All of those things are true, but nevertheless, I LOVED this city! We packed a lot into the few days we had there, so I'll try not to get caught up and make this post 14 pages long. Here goes:
We arrived late morning and spent the rest of our first day exploring the hutongs (small narrow alleys that connect locals homes and businesses) surrounding our hostel. It's so easy to get lost in these tiny streets! They were packed: people buying street food, taking pictures and exploring the many shops lining the hutong. A lot of the other people were Chinese tourists, but there were also many locals riding bikes and trying to get a motorbike through the hoards of people. We tried new street food like some sort of meat (we think either lamb, pork or chicken) marinated and grilled on a stick and milk custard with brown beans. We played it pretty safe and steered clear of the grilled starfish, seahorses, scorpions and snakes on a stick.
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| Milk Custard with Brown Beans |
You really can't visit Beijing without seeing Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City - they are the two top sites in Beigjing - so they were our first stop. We took the city bus from our hostel to Tiananmen Square to start. Tiananmen Square is one of the largest city squares in the world, and has been the setting for some of China's biggest and most memorable events, including the Protests of 1989. The Square is home to several monuments as well as General Mao's Mausoleum. We waited in a line of pushy tourists that extended around an entire side of the square to be shuffled and hurried through the mausoleum, which took a grand total of 5 minutes. But seeing the people's devotion to his memory was interesting, and getting a taste of Chinese culture while waiting in line was even more interesting. If there is open space in front of you in line, you better run, or someone from behind you will and you'll find yourself several people farther back in line. Also at the Square is the National Museum. Since it was so cold, we made a quick stop at the Museum to warm up and use the toilet, which was slightly entertaining because the guard didn't understand toilet, restroom or bathroom, so I had to act it out in order to get directions. We could have spent a lot more time there, but honestly, it didn't interest us at the time, and we were ready to get over to the Forbidden City, which is now called the Palace Museum (a little more inviting name, but also a little less intriguing. There is something about entering a "forbidden city" in China that is really exciting to me…) The Square and the Palace Museum are connected, but we still had to cross a huge street, so we used an underground walkway where people thrust postcard books, Gen. Mao hats and artistic maps for purchase at us, when they weren't laughing at Scott for wearing shorts in 40 degree weather.
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| Tiananmen Square |
The Forbidden City used to be the Chinese palace and was home to Chinese emperors for nearly 500 years. It is a massive complex with what once was housing, government buildings, throne rooms, meeting rooms, etc. Now it has been turned into the Palace Museum, and the government is restoring and preserving most of the buildings, and using the interiors to display art, artifacts and important relics. When we arrived it was packed with people, but the complex is big enough that we could explore some of the smaller areas off the side "streets" and avoid the bigger crowds. The architecture of the buildings is really cool - exactly what I think of when I think of ancient Chinese buildings: tiled slanting roofs with lots of lions and dragons, and tiered buildings decorated in red, gold, green and blue. But After exploring for a couple hours the buildings started to blend together and it turned into more of the same. The Imperial Garden was one of my favorite places, and features huge rock structures, bonzi trees and cherry trees just beginning to bloom.
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| Imperial Garden |
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| The Forbidden City |
After escaping the crowd of men offering rickshaw rides and tours of the hutongs, we stopped for a quick lunch at a local hole-in-the-wall dumpling place. We feasted on steamed buns and boiled pork dumplings, and it was perfect! At the end the owner pointed to a date on the calendar to show me how much we owed :) Then we headed to several parks in the area that offered spectacular views of Beijing and panoramic shots of the Forbidden City. Beijing has a ton of parks scattered around the city, and each is a little different. Most all of them feature an area with water, and have a walking path leading through the park. People gamble, practice tai chi, dancing, and a game much like hacky sack except it's played with what looks like a giant badminton shuttlecock.
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| The Forbidden City from Jingshan Park |
We spent the next couple days in Beijing hitting up the other major must-sees. The Temple of Heaven is another tourist sight in Beijing. It is a complex of religious structures that the emperors used to visit to pray for a good harvest. The main feature is the round pagoda-type building in the middle of the park, with a 3-tiered tiled roof, painted with bright colors (much like the Forbidden City.) We battled a ton of tourists to take a picture on top of a special stone (looking back, I'm not sure why I HAD to have that picture…) and decided to explore the less crowded part of the park.
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| Temple of Heaven |
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| Scott's New Hat |
The last major tourist site we visited before heading for the overnight train was the Summer Palace. It was used as, you guessed it, a summer palace for Chinese royalty. It features several residences and buildings, but the best feature by far is the lake. We walked several kilometers around the lake and watched people flying kites, dancing and strolling through the park.
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| Summer Palace |
We were able to check off most all of the major tourist attractions during our visit to Beijing, and we also saw some great local sights. The city is a mix of a developing metropolis and ancient tradition, and the transition is exciting to see first hand. We took the city bus and the subway, and they were both easy, efficient and clean. More people spoke English than I expected, and were very willing to help us with communicating and directions. Beijing has become one of my favorite cities, and hopefully we'll be able to go back and visit again some day.
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