Beijing, North eastern China 16.04

We took our final train from Xi'an to Beijing. Loren was quite tired and starting to get a little sick, so as soon as we got on the train, she dropped onto the bed and slept for almost the whole trip non-stop.

When we arrived at our hotel, they let us check in, but when we got into the rooms, they were still dirty from the last inhabitants. Rubbish all around the room and sheets piled on the bed. We were a little surprised as it was quite a fancy hotel. We had breakfast in the buffet while we waited for our rooms to be cleaned, and then headed out to explore the enormous city of Beijing.

Beijing Olympic ParkWe decided to check out the Olympic site and see how the preparations were going. We took the subway to where it looked like the site would be close by. We walked along the river, and were stunned by the beauty of the area. Cherry blossoms had been planted along the pathway beside the river, and they were in full bloom! The petals were raining down on us like snow. It was just magnificent! We saw two girls dressed up in kimonos, posing under the trees for photographs. They were well placed, it was hard to believe you were in China not in Japan.
After a long walk, we spotted the Birds Nest Olympic Stadium in the distance. We trekked towards it for a long time, but couldn't get across the highways that were intertwining in front of us. Eventually we managed to get across to the other side, but couldn't find a way to get inside the gates. We found a soldier on guard out the front, and realised that the stadium wasn't open to tourists. We gave up trying to get in, and made another huge trek to find the closest station. The subway stations in Beijing are so far apart they are more like railway stations. We found out later that the stadium was actually in use that day for the Good Luck Beijing pre-olympic games.

Wanfujing Nightlife
That evening, we went to Wanfujing looking for a guidebook for the next country we'd be visiting. The bookshop there was known for having a large selection of foreign books, thankfully we found a good one.

Along the same street, we went to a smaller street which offered weird foods of all kinds. There were cockroaches, scorpions, seahorses, and who knows what else. Loren was brave enough to try a skewer of 4 grilled scorpions, and they weren't too bad. They were crunchy and tasted nutty.


The Great Wall of China
The following day we took a long bus ride to the Great Wall of China. We decided to do the long walk, which was 10km. It doesn't sound like that much, but the wall is along the ridges of mountains which rise up and down constantly. Some of the slopes were so steep to climb and to almost slide down. There were 30 watch towers that we passed, and there was a rise and a fall between each one of them.

Poor Loren had trouble breathing, as the air in Beijing is very dry, and she was getting a cold, so her throat was like sandpaper. After a while she rallied her spirits and marched on ahead. She was hard to keep up with.
The view from the wall was incredible. We couldn't stop taking photos. The mountains stretching into the distance with the wall snaking along it was beautiful. The wall is over 5500km long! It goes so far that it starts at the sea. We also heard that it's only a myth that you can see the wall from the moon.
Eventually we made it to the end and we took a flying fox across the gorge to get to a hostel that had a nice outdoor restaurant. We also had to take a little boat to get further along the river. We were exhausted, and we just collapsed around tables to have some food and a cold drink.

Tiannemen Square
The following morning, we visited Tiannemen square. It was enormous! Apparently you can fit up to 1 million people there! People gather there for celebrations and parades. There is a huge monument in the center which is guarded at all times.
The government building and other buildings alongside the square are at least 650m long. There is also a mausoleum where Mau is preserved. We didn't have enough time to look at it though.


The Forbidden City
After seeing the square we made our way into the Forbidden City. It was given this name because it was forbidden for ordinary people to enter it. Apparently, when the emporers lived there, those who were allowed to enter had to enter through specific gates. If you entered through the wrong one, you were beheaded. There were also marble pathways that only the emporer was allowed to walk along.
The city was enormous! It was quite a trek just to get through the outer courtyards. We saw some of the thrones that they used, and the armor, weapons and instruments that were used. There weren't many trees in the majority of the city, only a few courtyards had one or two trees. We visited some of the buildings where the concubines used to live. Some emporers had about 3600! In one dynasty boys got married to their empress at 16, and in another at 13! Once they were married, they could take as many concubines as they wanted.
One of the most influential concubines almost ruled from behind the throne. She put her sons into power after the death of the emporer that loved her, and told them what to do. She dined on 100 dishes a day! Obviously she couldn't eat all of that, but that's what was on her table every time she wanted to eat.
We finally found a section that was full of trees. It was an enormous garden, filled with trees of all shapes and sizes, There were flowers everywhere and enormous stones that were brought from the very south of China. Apparently their value in the emporer's time, was the same as gold. One display of this rock was like a small mountain! The emporer must have been extremely wealthy!
There was also a temple in the centre of the gardens. In front of it, there were two trees that had grown intwined together at the top. They are a celebrated symbol of love, and are hundreds of years old.

Visit to Charity Village
After the Forbidden City we visited a place where mentally disabled people live in China. They served us lunch and each person was responsible for something, eg. one responsible for napkins, one for drinks, one for tea etc.

They gave a performance for us after we ate, and they were so cute and funny. One guy loved to dance by spinning his head around and around in circles, and rocking very energetically back and forth. Another guy was a singer, and he was so enthusiastic! These two guys were our favorites. The enthusiastic guy played the triangle in a few songs. We see that instrument in a whole new light now, he was rocking away like he was in a rock concert.
One of the guys there taught us Chinese calligraphy. It was quite difficult to shape the Chinese characters, as we had never written in Chinese before. It was fun though, and we even wrot e our own names in Chinese.
Afterwards, we played some Chinese games with the residents, including the hacky-sack game with a feathered badminton shuttlecock, and the game where you keep a rounded object spinning on a string. As you can see, not too sure on the names.

We had so much fun interacting with the residents there, and you could tell that they loved performing their songs and drama pieces. I think the guy that like to spin his head around, knew that he was funny, and played up to it. We loved every second of it.

The Final Farewell

That night was our final night as a group in Beijing. We went out for a big banquet dinner at a Muslim restaurant. It was strange though, the entertainment for the evening was belly dancing, so it seemed more Indian, but most Indians are Hindu? Confusing, but it was a great evening. Four different people from our group were pulled up on stage to dance with the belly dancers or sing with the singer. One of the guys even got a snake put around his shoulders by the girl that was dancing with a snake. We went out afterwards to a local bar. It was a really good place, it reminded us of the Rooftop bar above Cookie bar in Melbourne. It was bigger and more crowded with a lot more dancing though. We had fun dancing the night away, on the raised dancefloor by the bar. Two of the guys, Mattieu and Thomas were out until the following morning partying!

The Underground City
We had an earlier night than they did, but in the morning were still very tired. We checked into a new hostel, as we still had another two nights in Beijing. Loren, who should have been in bed 2 days ago, finally got her wish and lay in bed recovering from her fever and sore throat and cold.
The following day, we went out to find the Underground City beneath Beijing. It was pouring with rain, but we found it without too much trouble. The entrance to it was tiny, and our guide took us down into a long passageway. We weren't allowed to take any photos because it was government property.
We were told the underground city was enormous and they'd built a rollerskating rink, a mushroom cultivating farm among other fantastic things. It supposedly covered 500km, took 10 years to build with hand tools only, and 20,000 people were involved in building it. It was supposed to house 50,000 people, the population of Beijing in the 1970s when it was built. The idea was that it would protect people incase of nuclear invasion by Russia.

But when we got there all we saw of it was the tunnel. There were signs leading to different doors saying hospital room, reading room etc, but we didn't get to see inside anything. It was a great concept, and I'm sure it's big, but we sure didn't see anything impressive in our short tour at all.

Silk Market
We visited the Silk Market, and bought a dress and a scarf to replace some that were lost. The sales assistants were so pushy! They didn't want us to try anything on in case it didn't fit. One girl was saying 'she so skinny, your girlfriend, so pretty, look-a look-a, no try'.

Beijing Acrobatics Performance
That evening, we went to see the Beijing Acrobatics Performance. We weren't expecting a lot, but it turned out to be absolutely incredible! It was almost the same as Cirque du Soleil! They had the same industrial feel and crazy outfits and make-up, and they performed incredible tricks with the same types of props and instruments as Cirque du Soleil. We were astounded and enjoyed it so much!
After the performance, we ran into some people from the tour, who had come to our hostel for drinks,. It was good to see them again. We played another table football tournament, and Loren was the champion again!

The next morning we caught a taxi with Thomas, the Danish guy from our group, to the airport. We were running a little behind time, so the airline gave us seats on the following flight. They didn't think we'd make it through the airport in time. They were right, it was a huge place and the lines for immigration etc were so long! We made it just in time for the later flight that they'd given us.

Impressions of China
We loved China, and found the people to be very friendly. If we were able to learn the language, we could easily live in Chengdu, Xi'an or even Beijing. We were impressed by the number of electric scooters in China. It's very progressive of them to be using them instead of petrol ones. So much better for the environment.
We were impressed that Beijing had screens along some of the subways where the ads would move at the speed of the train, so you could watch it while you were flying through the tunnel. Inside the trains, they had flat screen TVs that showed programs on different sports that will be in the Olympics. They showed things like the width and height of tennis courts, nets and rackets, and where the ball is allowed to go.