Beijing

We’ve arrived in the big city!  This place is vast and fast.  It’s one of the world’s great metropolises, and with the recent Olympics, has definitely caught up.  So have the prices.  We started near Beijing’s center and for the next several hours checked out numerous lodgings. There were tons of places available, but most of it either “too nice” and above our price range or more affordable and very grotty.  Miles of walking later, we gladly took the first clean room at the New Dragon Hostel for $25…

In the morning, we walked over to see the former imperial palace, the “not so Forbidden City.”  Hordes of tour groups, not unlike the marching armies of yore, cross the moats to invade the hallowed grounds.  It can be hard to squeeze through its gates, but compound remains the chief attraction, courtyard after courtyard and tower after tower.  Standing from the emperor’s dais, imagine what it felt like to command the Middle Kingdom.  A lot of history has occurred here and many emperors have come through…

Pictures

Adjacent to its proud history lies more recent history.  Imposing Soviet-era buildings of the Peoples Party, peoples’ this, peoples’ that, and whatnot surround the central Tiananmen Square.  Mao’s embalmed remains are on display and a huge portrait looks benevolently down.  The place is crawling with police, plain and plain clothed.  Security cameras are the eyes in the sky.  It’s kind of fun to play “spot the undercover policeman.”  One was taking pictures of people walking round.  We even got to witness security in action.  A group of Chinese tourists was in the act of unfurling some kind of banner, probably harmless.  Sirens on and horns tooting, a security car raced over and immediately pounced on the group.  No expression of any kind allowed.

On the other hand, the food here has been great!  No donkey noodles here (but I’m sure it could be found…).  We found a moderately priced restaurant with great Chinese food.  Had to try the Beijing/Peking duck, but the spicy eggplant and braised pork were maybe even better.   The street food is tremendous and fairly cheap – grilled spicy kebabs, meat or vegetable filled breads, spicy noodles, steamed buns, and whatever else your eyes can feast on.  There’s squid on a stick and fried crab, but who the heck eats live, wiggling scorpions on a stick?  Why?

To avoid the exorbitant tour fees, we took public transportation to the Great Wall.  Bus 980 for 40km to Miyun, which dropped us off at the edge of the city – and then what… No other option than to negotiate with the private taxi drivers, but it worked out well enough.  He drove the 75km to Simatai and waited three hours until we were through.  The first sight of the wall was jaw dropping.  This section was unbelievably steep, high walls snaking high up the surrounding narrow mountainsides, it makes you wonder why there was even a need.  The climb up looked extremely strenuous – we took a cable car up halfway and walked to 12 towers.  At times the wall was so steep you could not even see portions below.  The surrounding mountainous terrain and the relative solitude completed the experience.

Back in Beijing, the Temple of Heaven was heavenly, but Jiangsu Park less so.  We were “templed out.” The old Summer Palace was nice, but felt a bit too artificial and well renovated.  Many of the old neighborhoods and narrow hutongs now have either too much neon or have been razed to make way for something more modern.