In the wake of the Olympics last year, the city is rapidly modernizing, evidenced by the rebuilding of the center to rival European cities in aesthetic appeal, the most modern subway system I've ever seen, and the meticulous effort used at keeping the streets clean. Not all the changes are positive, though. The day after I arrived, I head to the Forbidden City, with high expectations from all I had seen, read, and heard. Somehow, I managed to be the first person into the complex, though it wasn't from any foresight or guile on my part. Walking through the sweeping courtyards and giant walled complexes almost alone was quite a surreal experience. This modernization I spoke of earlier has gotten inside the Forbidden City, though. All of the buildings are recently repainted in bright colors, giving it a gaudy look in place of the feeling of antiquity you would expect of a building built in 1420. Luckily, the stone didn't get a layer of paint, so some of the old character remains, though the cool-looking weeds growing in the corners of the courtyard are now gone.
After I left the City, I hiked up a hill just North of the Forbidden City for some great views of it and incidentally, great views of the layer of smog that settles on top of the city. With the great wide, straight streets, you should be able to see for miles, but the haze prevents seeing past a few blocks. Although I didn't get headaches or feel out of breath, as one might expect, the pollution gave me terrible allergy symptoms despite being on quite strong allergy medication already.
The next few days I spent wandering through the various temples of the city. One of which, the Summer Palace, was an incredibly large park with hundreds of pavilions and temples, bridges and corridors. I picked a horrible day to go out there (it was raining and it apparently was a Chinese holiday, so the park was packed with Chinese tourists) but the Long Corridor, Seventeen-Arch Bridge, and Longevity Hill were each unique little sights.
Later the same day, I visited the Lama Temple, the most important Tibetan Buddhist temple outside of Tibet. Unfortunately, no photos were allowed, but the Buddha images, including a 17-meter tall one, were impressive and surprisingly distinct from those in Southeast Asia.
The last temple I visited was the Temple of Heaven, a landmark sight with miles of park surrounding it. But the sights, although unique and interesting, hardly make the stay in Beijing the memorable experience it was.
The first night I was in Beijing, I met some people and we went out to meet up with some people at a pub they picked out of the Lonely Planet. After making several wrong turns on the streets, we jumped into a cab, who drove us around and around looking for this place. Finally, we got hold of the phone number and gave them a call, only to find out it had been closed for over a year. Well, we made the most of it and stopped in at the first place we saw, an English pub in the area with all the embassies. The bartender spoke great English and proceeded to teach us this dice game insanely popular in China, which is known in English as Liar's Dice. Basically, each player tosses five dice by upending a cup, then looks at them without revealing their values to their opponent. Then betting proceeds by estimating the amount of a certain value (like "five fours") based on what you know you have and how much you think your opponent might have. Your opponent can either call or increase the bet by stating his own guess, as in "six fives"; the dot value just has to increase each time. Basically the bet is a statement like, "I bet there are at least six fives between our two hands." Ones, called Kings, are wild. It's quite a fun game and we spent the night enjoying the game immensely. The game is featured in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, when Orlando Bloom and Davvy Jones play for lifetime of servitude on the cursed Flying Dutchman. The next day, I went to the market and bought the dice and cups so I can bring it back home.
My hostel was great for meeting people, so I was able to go out to enjoy the food in Beijing quite often. Though the Chinese food there is often hit or miss, once I learned what to order and what not to, I had some choice dishes you can only find in China. I went to the night food market, which sells the bizarre food like scorpion, starfish, larvae, and other unappetizing things on a skewer and barbecue was interesting, but I couldn't bring myself to eat those ones in particular.
The lamb hotpots, the savory pancakes, the breakfast dumplings, and more were all delicious. The best meal I had, though, was the Peking duck at a restaurant just down the road from my hostel. For $6 a person between three people, we had an entire duck roasted and cut for us into three plates of meat, all of different cuts: one was meat, one was fat (which is incredibly flavorful), and one was fatty meat. They served it with vegetables, plum sauce, and little pancakes, which turned into great mini-burritos, and a plate of stir-fried potatoes and a giant plate of awesome fried rice. Oh yea, and a big beer each, as well. My only regret is forgetting to take a picture of it all. Well, Beijing had a lot to offer, but by far my favorite experience was the Great Wall. I booked a tour through my hostel called The Secret Wall Tour, knowing how I felt about Chinese "restoration" of their cultural relics. They took us to this section of the wall in the middle of gorgeous countryside on an gorgeous, breezy day, where we hiked up to the wall that followed a ridgeline through these picturesque hills. The wall was intact in some places but so overgrown, the formerly paved walkway had long since turned into a dirt hiking path. We spent more than four hours hiking along it for what was my favorite part of China. Anyways, check out the pictures:
And some night photos around Beijing:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Details:
The train from Guilin to Beijing was 23 hours ($59/¥401, departing 15:33). This train arrives at the Beijing West train station. The accommodation in Beijing is all over the center, but I stayed a few blocks off of Tianamen Square at a place called Leo Hostel. The place was great for meeting people, has a great tour of the wall, and decent facilities ($7.50/¥50 for a dorm). But most importantly in such an enormous city, it is right in the center of everything. To get there from Beijing West, you can walk north to the Military Museum metro stop, then take it to Qianmen. Or, you can take bus 69, which leaves just outside of the north exit of the train station. Just take it to its terminus, the keep walking to the end of the block, turn right onto Mei Shi, then continue about 4 blocks down the road to Da Zha Lan Xi and turn right. It will be a short ways down on the left. Currently, that street is under construction and is not as pleasant of a street as it could be, but no doubt that will be done within a few months. The Secret Wall tour, I booked through my hostel for $32/¥220, which I obviously highly recommend. Getting to the Summer Palace is easy enough from Qianmen: just hop on bus 690 ($.30/¥2) until its terminus and you'll be there. The Temple of Heaven is a long walk Southeast of Qianmen or a little bit of a bus ride away. The Lama Temple has its own metro stop, so it is very easy to get to as well. For buying souvenirs, the best place is probably the Silk Market (this also has it's own subway stop), though you have to haggle with them extremely well to get any sort of a deal. Better is just buying things off people wandering the street; it's the same stuff, just cheaper. There is also the Antique Dirt Market, but unless you like "antiques," this is not worth bother with. If it's anything that a local could feasibly buy, go to the Indoor Goods Market, at the far South end of Qianmen St. To get to and from the airport there are plenty of options. The best is probably to take the metro to the Airport Train Station ($.30/¥2, shown on metro maps), then to take the airport train to the airport, which stops both at terminal 2 and terminal 3 ($3.50/¥25). Another option is the bus, which goes to and from various points in the city ($2.50/¥16). These services do stop in the early morning, in which case the only option is the taxi (prices vary, I paid $20/¥140, it is quite a long ride).
No comments:
Post a Comment