It is now April and my trip to Beijing took place in February so from that you can all see how busy and hard-working I am to not have been able to write about the trip. Well I have no idea how I am going to write about my trip in any organized manner so I will just talk about it in the order of the different sites that I went to. (The Beijing Pics are all uploaded in the Photo Album titled Beijing 2005.)
Day One: We arrived in Beijing and got ripped off right from the start. At the airport, we were trying to figure out how we were to get to the hotel and someone at the tourism counter told us they had car service to the hotel. So, not knowing any better and not trusting the local taxis, we decided to go with this car service from the tourism centre. We paid the lady at the counter an amount in RMB that I can’t remember right now but at the time none of us knew how much it meant in HKD, NTD or even CAD/USD- but we figured out we paid WAY too much later on after we got used to spending in RMB. So an Audi A6 came along to pick us up, a brand new one too, and sped us all the way to our hotel safe and sound- no missing limbs or organs, just a few traffic violations I’m sure, but we were OK.
So we get to the hotel finally and dropped off our things (after the front desk lost, and then ‘found’ our names in the registry.) We signed up for tours for the next two days and decided to explore a bit of the city on our own. We made 2 very very bad mistakes that first day concerning exploring Beijing that we continued to make ALL trip- 1. We underestimated distances and 2. We underestimated the cold. I would strongly suggest anyone to never go to Beijing in the Winter but the city really is so beautiful in the Winter that I can’t really say that. So if you do want to go to Beijing in the Winter, please please bring lots of warm and wind-resistant clothing. Do not underestimate the cold. Anyway, we asked the front desk where the closest MRT (subway) station was and he told us to go outside, make a right, walk for 2 mins and we’d get there. 30 mins later we see NO subway station and have almost become walking icicles. A little while after we finally find a subway station and found out later on that we apparently walked past the first station that really was less than 2 mins away from out hotel. The pictures that have the word Wangfujing in it are taken from this first night. Wangfujing is the Robson street equivalent for Beijing. It is absolutely huge and has this quaint little alley behind it that sells local street food which I tried that night and did not get food poisoning!
Day Two: We wake up early to be on time for the tour bus and we were late, as usual. Learning from my experience last night I wore 4 layers and my longjohns to make sure I stayed warm and was still cold by the time we got to the Summer Palace. The SP is so beautiful- as is every other site we visited in Beijing. There is a huge man-made lake in the middle of the palace grounds and it was completely frozen over. All of the pictures with “SP” in the label are from the Summer Palace. One of its key features is its corridor. The longest corridor in the world is in the Summer Palace. It really does go on forever as you will see in the picture. Every single crossbeam in the corridor is hand-painted a different scene. The artwork is just so delicate and intricate on all of the historical structures that I saw in Beijing. There was also a marble boat that is supposed to represent the integrity of the reigning emperor. If the emperor has good values, then the marble boat will stay afloat. But if one day the boat sinks, it means the emperor has been corrupted and has lost his values. There were also these dragon boats at the Summer Palace. Not the skinny long dragon boats that we see in Vancouver during Dragon Boat Festival. These are larger boats carved in the shape of dragons and are also all very beautiful. There are many other pictures but I can only upload a few at once. There is also a picture of me and a statue of a dog (that looks like a lion but is really a dog.) This dog is believed to be very smart as it can speak all the languages in the world and there are little statues of the dog by the emperor’s throne to help him communicate with people from all over the world.
In the afternoon we went to Tiantan Temple of Heaven. Each of the supporting columns that you see in it is made from one whole tree trunk. You can imagine just how large the trees were that the people had to carry back to build this structure. I also forgot to mention in the Summer Palace, there were many large rock structures that were taken from the ocean by divers trying to win favour from the emperor. However, I have discovered to my regret, that I do not have any pictures of any of these rock structures.
After Tiantan, we made our way to the Forbidden City. This place is huge and also comes with its very own Starbucks. Apparently there was a huge controversy when the Chinese government allowed Starbucks to open a store within the FC. This is also where I saw my first 4-star rated bathroom. And believe me, you will want to go to a 4-star bathroom when you are in China, there are some that I have heard from other tourists that were negative stars- you can only imagine what those ones were like. We also saw a couple tree that looked interesting- thought I don’t quite remember if I saw it in the FC or the SP? After our tour through the FC, we went up to a little mountain in a park called Jingshan and took a picture of the entire FC. I must also mention two very interesting signs in the FC- one of them says “Don’t Fall Down” (as if you had a choice,) and the other says “Don’t Span” (which is all good if one knew what “span” meant.)
Day Three: Today is the day I saw the Great Wall. However, before we arrived at the Great Wall we visited the 13 Ming Tombs. On the way to the largest tomb, I somehow managed to miss seeing the other 12. I don’t know how that happened but I just remember looking towards where our guide was pointing and not managing to see anything? Typical Ruth thing to have happen I suppose. Anyhow, it was all interesting nonetheless and I took a picture of a big red slab of rock with writing on it. This slab was covered with a type of red paint that is meant to ward off all evil from the tombs to protect those who lay inside. There is also a little gateway in front of the tomb to signify the passing between the Ying and the Yang. When you go to the tombs, you must go around the gateway unless you are going there inside a coffin. When you come back from the tombs you must come back through the gateway and announce loudly, “I am back.” I think this is all to make sure that your spirit is safely back with you and is not wandering about in the land of the dead.
Then we headed to the Great Wall. It was cold, windy and icy when we went and there were inclines on the Wall that you couldn’t walk up on and had to use your arms to pull you up along the ramps because the ground was so icy. Despite all that, the Wall was just amazing. After I got to the top I paid a small amount of money to get my picture taken and a certificate made of my feat just like all the other tourists there that day. The section of the Wall that I went to was called Badaling and is the highest section of the wall- the highest point being 888metres. To get up to the Great Wall we had to take this little train ride that resembled a roller-coaster and I only mention this because there were these signs all along the way that said, “Don’t Speed” while we were all strapped into our seats not really able to move anyway- go figure. Signs in China are just precious. OH and BTW- I licked the Great Wall. How many of you can you’ve done that?
Day Four: Today we had no tours planned and decided to go explore the city on our own with our trusty guidebook that makes distances between the sites seem so small when in reality no local would bother to walk as far as we did. We went to the Beijing Zoo and found that it was incredibly huge. In the cold weather however, we couldn’t stay for very long but I finally saw Pandas! I also took a picture with a really big bird that looked like it wanted to bite my arm off. We roamed about the city and bought the obligatory loads of DVDs all foreigners end up buying, got ripped off by more taxis and ate more Peking Duck than one would normally eat in a year. All in all, the trip was great and I’d definitely go back again when the weather is warmer.
Day Five: To mark the end of a successful Beijing trip, I got food poisoning right before I returned to Hong Kong.
I have lots more pics of Beijing up in my Snapfish album so if any of you are interested let me know and I’ll send you an invite.
