Beijing

As I arrived at Beijing International Airport I was immediately hit by just how different a country China is when compared to anywhere I've ever been before. I found myself being amazed by all the simplest things from just the presence of Chinese symbols to seeing that every toilet in the terminal has been given a star rating out of five – mainly fours.  Having found myself in the centre of Beijing thanks to the Airport Express train, I needed to navigate the city’s underground system to get to my hostels local station. The subway in Beijing is almost identical to London’s except the trains seem to have advanced by a few years – they have electronic tube maps showing you where the train is in between stops, tv screens in the carriages and the trains themselves even project adverts onto the walls of the tunnels so you can see them out the window as you go along.

Having arrived at Jishuitan station I consulted my directions which clearly asked me to walk north on the only road available, at which point I grabbed my £3 impulse bought compass and set off. It wasn’t until about 30 minutes into my walk that I realised my compass has a different opinion of north every time I looked at it depending on how I held it. So an hour after arriving I was back at Jishuitan station. At this point, to my huge relief, a passing American student identified I was clearly lost and offered to walk with me to the hostel as it was on her way. I am still very grateful for her help but she was unfortunately talking crap and I ended up walking for a further hour with my 20kg bag only this time having to answer her unrelenting questions. Eventually she gave in and rang the hostel and the receptionist came and found me. By this stage the adrenaline of starting my 6 month trip had well and truly evaporated so I hit my bunk bed at 2pm and barely woke until the next day.

All the sleep I had got the previous day help me get up at 5.30am so I could make it to Tiananmen Square for the daily flag raising ceremony timed to start at sunrise. I was pleased to arrive early as I found I had to pass through one of two security gates to enter the square. Already I could see security was a big issue in Beijing as my bag had also been passed through an x-ray machine on entry to the underground. 

The flag raising ceremony was over all too quickly but I was glad to find myself in the square before the hordes of tourists (mainly Chinese) would descend on it later. Having wandered round the square I headed over to the Forbidden City only to find it wasn’t open yet, so instead decided to just start walking and see what I could find. I followed the frozen moat of the Forbidden City round to the rear entrance where I found Jingshan Park. The park has one of the only hills in Beijing so having reached the top of it, I got an excellent view especially of the Forbidden City itself. However, the best part of the park had to be the dozens of elderly locals who had arrived that morning to take part in various group activities including flag waving, some sort of ballroom dancing and, the weirdest of all, just yelling! They seemed to just find an area of the park they were happy with and just all scream something at the same time.

After the comedy of the park I headed back to the Forbidden City, a centuries old collection of 700 houses and temples used as residence and office of various Chinese emperors until 1911. Its gutting to admit it but this was the biggest disappointment of Beijing as what could have been an amazing look back into Chinese architecture and history was destroyed by the sheer number of tour groups and the worst audio tour I ever taken. Tour groups in China purely consist of Chinese people from other areas of the country who believe the only way to see attractions is to follow a guide waving a flag while they all wear matching luminous caps to represent what group they are in. Apologises if this all sounds a bit dark but im still not over how bad my audio tour was! It was meant to know what part of the city you were approaching and then tell you about it, but it didn’t know which direction you approached it from so it would tell me to look to my left at an emerald encrusted throne but in fact I was looking at a tree. All it did was reiterate my belief that the best things to see China are away from the crowds.

The Forbiddden City seen from Jingshan Park

After the Forbidden City I decided to head back to the hostel as I’d been up walking around for 6 hours and was getting tired, but I realised I hadn’t eaten anything since my questionable airline noodles. So I bought a pineapple.

Although day two had good moments I was feeling a little concerned that Beijing’s biggest attraction hadn’t really gone down very well. So, on day three I decided to try and find the more authentic areas of the city where I could wander around small Chinese stalls and taste real local food. To do this I headed for Wangfujing which, based on my research, I was sure would deliver. Instead of small stalls selling local food and merchandise I found Gucci, Tiffany’s, Prada and some incredibly westernised shopping centres. Very poor research. In addition, I also had to put up with a Chinese student called LeiLei ( I’ve guessed the spelling) and her teacher Thomas (not his original Chinese name) following me around for 10 minutes as she wanted to try out her English on tourists. I ended up having to dive into foreign language bookstore to escape.

Having failing to find authentic Beijing I headed for the Drum and Bell Towers further north (using the 20p per ride subway), and it was at this point where I first found something I really enjoyed. The Drum and Bell Towers were originally used as methods of telling the city what time it was. Firstly, having climbed its 60 insanely steep stairs, I entered to Drum Tower to find it deserted and that I had arrived just before a classic Chinese drumming demonstration was about to begin. Following this I scaled the stairs of the Bell Tower where I found another great view of Beijing and was enlightened by a traditional Chinese tale of how the 7 meter high bell was created from various metals as well as the mason’s daughter after she threw herself into the forge!

Demonstration inside the Drum Tower

I was starting to gather momentum in Beijing now as from my view point I could see what I was after – traditional Chinese “hutongs”. These are narrow alleyways filled with strange foods and locals just going about their daily lives where I found a sugar glazed fruit kebab including tomatoes, plums, whole tangerines and an unidentified purple fruit.

This was a big success except the purple fruit as it was rock solid!

Following a good hour or so just wandering the back alleys of Beijing, I decided to put in the effort and take the four trains it takes to get to the Olympic City to see the Birds Nest Stadium. Although its clearly not being maintained as well as it should be, the stadium is still amazing to witness and as a bonus, for about £2.50, I was allowed to stroll unguided around it and found my way to the highest seats. After this I fought my way back through the dozens of people trying to sell me replica stadium models and headed for the hostel.

The Heyuan International Hostel was very nice, especially seeing as I was only paying about £4 per night, where I had a bunk in a room with five others and a shared bathroom. I was hoping to meet some other travellers but other than Güner (a not very talkative German) I only ever shared my room with Chinese people, although Frank and Eric (not their original Chinese names) were friendly.

I was up early again on day four as I had booked myself onto a tour for the Great Wall of China. Once again I feared a huge attraction was going to be tarnished by crowds so I had booked the tour which takes you considerably further away as apparently the Chinese tourists are not keen on the long drives. Despite being delayed by a car-versus-bus crash in front of us, we made it to the Wall early in the day where our guide explained we had to take a ski resort style chair lift to the wall itself. Having reached the Wall we were given three hours to trek along it however we wanted to – there was a relatively easy direction or the elite mountain climber direction. I opted for the easier flatter route but it was still hard going as I ended up considerably higher up the mountain than when I started. The Wall was built to prevent Mongolian attacks on China and it was an incredible feat to achieve given the mountains the wall passes over. I had no issues seeing as the chair lift had been built to make it easier for tourists however I was a little surprised at the method of transportation built to get them back to the bottom – a toboggan ride. Every tourist, regardless of age or ability seems to be expected to slide down a 500 meter metal track to return to their tour buses. It was fun though.

The so-called flatter part of the Great Wall of China

Following the Wall trek our group, including a nice couple from Manchester and another from New Zealand, were treated to a meal where I first came up against chopsticks. I also found it hard to work out exactly what different meats I was eating, especially one of them as I later found out it was egg.

Those of you reading this may be aware I have a tendency to sleep walk and I was really hoping I could get through my travels without any issues regarding this problem arising. This unfortunately was not the case. When you are the only westerner in a room full of Chinese people the last thing you want to do is wake up in the night and fear that someone, somewhere is in trouble as, if you do have a tendency to sleepwalk, you may be inclined to shoot out of bed and violently shake the bunk bed of the person above you while trying to explain in a language they don’t understand that you need their help! The person in the bed above me left the hostel the next day.

On day five I got up early to head back to Wangfujing to revisit the foreign language bookstore I had used to hide from LeiLei the Chinese student, as I realised I could do with the Lonely Planet guide to China. It was at this point that the Chinese government’s block on certain types of media really hit me. The shop assistant explained to me that I wouldn’t be able to find the guidebook as it contains information regarding aspects of Chinese history the government try to hide, for example the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989. I had previously tried to look this event up on the internet at the hostel only to find the Wikipedia page had been blocked by the 30,000 strong team the government use to regulate the internet. It’s for similar reasons that while I’m in China I can’t access Facebook, YouTube or even my own blog! (I’m having to send this update home so it can be uploaded from there).

Seeing as my trip had failed I decided to try and find “Snack Street” – which I managed. I knew there are some crazy food options in China but this street was unbelievable as all the way along there are just stalls selling anything it seems they can find – scorpions, starfish, spiders and seahorses to name a few! Back at home I know I said I’d try a scorpion but I seriously bombed out!

A typical stall in Snack Street

I also took the opportunity to visit the Summer Palace which was the Emperor’s residence and offices during the summer. For me this was a bigger highlight that the Forbidden City and is was far less crowded and in a nicer setting down by the frozen over Kunming Lake.

On day six I had my first lie in and then took the time I had before my evening train to plan my next couple of destinations in China. To get to the station involved taking my first Beijing taxi which I managed after being rejected by a few first as they couldn’t be bothered to drive in the direction I needed to go. Having eventually reached the station I managed to find my train through the vast number of people who were waiting for trains even though there were only four trains scheduled to leave in the next hour. I am writing this from the bed in my overnight train cabin which I am sharing with Clark (not his original Chinese name) who has just got back from the Ivory Coast. 

Three hours down and nine more to go.