When I left Shanghai for Beijing on Friday night, I was
feeling a little frustrated with the city. When I arrived home last night, I
realized how glad I am that I’ve gotten to live here for the past 3 weeks.
Friday
The trip started innocently enough. We were set to ride an overnight train into
Beijing Railway Station, and our departure went smoothly enough. Lauren and Courtney had purchased tickets
late and ended up in one of the “soft sleeper” cars, while Toni, Alice and I
ended up in a “Soft Seat” car. As it
turned out, these cars had the same set up, but our car required bed sharing
and didn’t offer pillows or blankets.
After dropping our things off in the car, we all convened in the dining
car, where we purchased a few beers and broke out the card deck. About two games in, we decided to start a
game of Kings. By the time we got to the
third rule, we had to “Baahh” like a sheep and then pat our heads after
drinking. At one point, a couple came in
to the car, watched the spectacle, and asked, “is that some sort of Chinese
tradition?” “Yes,” we replied, “yes it
is…” Of course, they didn’t believe us,
and as they sat at the table next to us, we heard them say, “they must be
German.” Do the Germans have weird
drinking traditions like that? I highly
doubt it, but I guess I’ll have to wait and find out in December.
At around 10:00, after a rousing game of Kings, Lauren went
to get a beer and came back with five in her arms, “I made an impulse buy…” Turns
out, she bought not 5, but 10. As it
also turns out, the dining car closed at 11.
Apparently our train had a curfew.
We didn’t make it through all ten of the beers, but our empty pile was
still pretty impressive, and after we were kicked out of the dining car, we
moved into the hallway, where we hung out until around Midnight.
When we finally decided to retire, we all went back to our
cars. Alice and I were sharing the top
bunk, which was going to be interesting.
Needless to say, we slept fitfully. Each of us was curled up on our end of the
cot, trying not to kick the other, alternating between being freezing cold and
burning hot. I used my backpack for a
pillow, but without a blanket, it was pretty uncomfortable. I think I probably netted about 3 hours of
sleep (or less).
Saturday
At around 8am, we arrived in Beijing. As soon as we disembarked from the train, we
knew we weren’t in Kansas Shanghai anymore. A sea of people flowed down the tunnel
towards the exit and the air in the station was hot and still. When we got to the exit, however, I was still
not prepared for what we saw.
The square in front of the railway station was thick with
people, some of who were camped out with their luggage on bamboo mats. Everywhere we turned, there were beggars or
panhandlers. We were quickly swarmed by
pushy men offering us a “bus.” The smog
over the city was thick enough to hold on to, and the air closed in - heavy and
dirty and stagnate - on us immediately.
The taxi line was enormous, and we jumped into it, thinking that there
might be some order awaiting us at the end of the line. There was not.
When you got to the front of the cab line, it was a free for
all. The taxis were speeding away from
us as we approached, the line attendant was useless, and no one seemed to know
where it was we were trying to get to.
Desperate, hot, hungry and tired, we almost decided to get in one of the
“busses” after haggling for a price. However,
as they lead us to the bus, the men smirked and laughed, and after spotting the
metro entrance, we slipped away, preferring not to be robbed or worse.
We took the metro to the Tian An Men square stop, thinking
it was fairly close to our hostel. As it
turned out, we were still over 5km away from the hostel and would really need
to find a taxi. Now in Shanghai, getting
a taxi for 5 people is always kind of a pain, because we need to track down
two. But in Beijing, it is an absolute
nightmare. Can’t get ONE taxi? Great!
Now you need TWO! We finally
tracked down one taxi, and Courtney, Toni and I jumped in, with Alice and
Lauren staying behind to flag another.
Well, forty minutes later, what should have been a 10 minute trip was
just finishing up, thanks to our crafty driver, who drove us all over the city
before taking us to the right place.
When we got to the hostel, Alice and Courtney weren’t too far behind
(they had apparently gotten a ride with someone who wasn’t a taxi driver… glad
to hear that worked out ok). Of course,
after a stressful morning, things managed to get even worse. We were informed that although we had booked
5 beds, they only had 4 beds available.
Desperate, we said “fine” and were shown to the room.
Now, when they said “four beds,” they were exaggerating a
little bit. In reality, there were three
beds and a broken army cot that was jammed against the wall by the door and
made it impossible to open the door fully.
Perfect. At least they were
giving us a discount.
We all freshened up a little bit and, desperate for caffeine
and food, set out for some sightseeing.
We had a delicious soup lunch followed by coffee slushies at DQ. Satiated, we found the bus line to Tian An
Men Square and set off. When we got on
the bus, it was drizzling. However,
after the first or second stop, the skies opened and the rains began in
earnest. After every stop, the rain
seemed to fall harder, until it looked like a river flowed over the
windows. When we got off at the Tian An
Men Square stop, the streets looked like canals – people washed clothing in the
water, and we sunk up to our ankles as we crossed the road. This was especially disturbing given that a
few minutes later I saw a large pile of poo on the side of the road. It wasn’t yet caught up in the newly formed
river, but I’m sure it also wasn’t the only poo in the area. I’ve just decided not to think to hard about
what might have gotten on my feet that Saturday.
Before heading to Tian An Men Square, we took off down
Qianmen Street, a famous pedestrian street offering shops galore. When you venture off of the main road, there
are tiny little shops selling trinkets and food. I snagged a beautiful silk dress for a
pittance. As we wandered down the narrow
paths and wove in and out of striped awnings, the skies once more opened up,
sending fierce waterfalls off of the plastic canopies.
Once the deluge had abated, we set off for the square. Tian An Men square is incredible. The sheer scale of it is mind-boggling. Directly in the middle of the square is Mao’s
mausoleum, which is, as you might guess, massive. The only silver lining to the foul weather
was that it kept the masses at bay. When
our cabbie had trucked us all over the city earlier, Tian An Men was packed
with people, but by the time we arrived, only the hardcore tourists were left
over. Well… the hardcore tourists and,
inexplicably, the Chinese Quiddich team.
By the time we crossed the square, it was nearly 4pm and we
were all wet, tired and in need of a sit down.
In front of the Forbidden City’s Meridian Gate, we veered off for a cup
of tea. We thought nothing of it at the
time, but this proved to be a mistake.
By the time we had finished our tea and formed a game plan (see
forbidden city and then head to Wangfujing snack street), it was 5pm. Off we marched to see the Forbidden
City. Instead, we got to experience the
Forbidden City in the same way as the ancient Chinese lay people – we were
chased out by a policeman in a golf cart (ok, fair enough, the ancient Chinese
wouldn’t have been chased by a golf cart, but you get my point.) Turns out the Forbidden City closes at
5.
Slightly deflated, we set off for the snack street
instead. On our way, we were stopped by
two Chinese guys. They asked us if we
spoke English and then asked what we were doing in Beijing and blah blah
blah. Then, they tipped their hand. “Do you want to go get some tea and we can
practice our English talking to you?”
Ahh. There is was. The Beijing Tea House Scam. We politely declined and went on our way,
having a good laugh over the fact that they tried to scam us.
Eventually we stumbled upon the snack street, by which point
my umbrella had thrown in the towel and succumbed to the torrents of water,
letting drop after drop land on my head.
The snack street is an endless row of red and white food stands, with vendors
trying desperately to sell you their snake, sheep balls, baby sharks, squid…
you name it, they’re probably trying to sell it to you. We tried some veggie dumplings and a duck
pancake. Then, Alice and I decided to
get a little weird, so we ordered a starfish.
The woman fried it up and handed it over. For as weird as starfish sounds (and looks),
it is actually pretty tasty. It is crispy
and a little fishy (expected), and reminded me a little bit of calamari.
With a few snacks in our stomachs and rain pouring through
out umbrellas, we decided to try our luck with a taxi for the ride home. The first one to show up looked at our hostel
card and said “150.” I replied, “Turn on
your meter.” He drove away. We finally ended up in a covered tuktuk, who
offered to drive us back for 80rmb.
Lauren and I took one and Alice, Courtney and Toni ended up in the
other. The ride was terrifying. The tuktuk kept hydroplaning, didn’t stop at
red lights, and sounded a bit sick. The
driver then stopped at the end of our street instead of our door. We didn’t have exact change, and had to hand
him a 100rmb note. Mistake. At that point he starts saying “no, 80 per
person. 160.” We tried to argue and get our change, but
eventually we just got out, each of us 50rmb lighter. fà ng pì. We walked
back to the hostel through a foot of water.
Originally, we had planned to go back to the
apartment, clean up, and go get some real dinner. However, waterlogged, frustrated and
exhausted, we opted to just stay in, instead. After showering and hanging our clothes up to
dry, we shoved three of the beds together and folded the cot up, deciding it
would be easiest to just share one big bed, family style. We settled in for the night and bought a few
beers from the hostel. After a few
hours, we decided we’d like to try to get something more substantial that a few
snacks. The hostel owners told us that
KFC or McDonald’s would deliver. Turns
out they were wrong. As it turned out,
this was the worst rain storm that Beijing had seen in the last 40 years. In fact, as we later learned, 3 people died
in the flooding and parts of the city were under 9 meters of water. One newspaper had a picture of people being
rescued from the top of a double decker tour bus, which was submerged up to the
second row of windows. Disheartened, we
decided to just go without, at which point Lauren announced that she was
getting another beer. When she came
back, she had five beers in her arms, and was followed by a guy carrying
another five. Yup. Another impulse buy!
That night, we fell asleep to the rain pounding
the ceiling. The bathroom was leaking
and the hallway was lined with sleeping bags to sop up water. Luckily our room stayed dry. Somewhere around 3AM, the rain stopped and an
eerie silence fell over the room, waking me up.
Could it be? Had the rains
finally stopped? Would our trip to the
Great Wall actually be pleasant? At that
point, Beijing had a lot of making up to do.
Sunday
The morning dawned blue and cool. The humidity was gone with the rains, and the
heavy winds had managed to oust the smog.
What a day to go to the Great Wall!
We dressed and walked down the road, where we found a street vendor
selling delicious steamed buns for breakfast.
The buns were filled with spinach and only cost 1rmb each. At about 7:45 we were picked up by our tour
bus. There were only three other groups
on the tour – a man from Shanghai who was travelling with his son, two American
businessmen, and a French man (who had lived in China for 7 years) with his
girlfriend. Off we went to the Great
Wall. Our destination? Badaling.
Badaling is the section of the Great Wall that is most frequented by
visitors, and it was also the first section ever opened to the public. The whole section is 4.7 miles long and averages
19 feet wide (which allowed soldiers to ride 5 abreast). While we weren’t thrilled at the prospect of
sharing the wall with thousands of other tourists, we were still excited to see
it.
As it turned out, our tour guide didn’t take us to the section
of Badaling most visited by tourists. We
ended up at a lonely outpost, which offered beautiful views and an incredibly
steep climb. The wind whistled up the
mountain as we climbed ever higher, going from tower to tower, drinking in
views that continued to improve.
I don’t think I can really describe to you the wonder that
is the Great Wall of China. Words don’t
do it justice. This wall spreads out as
far as you can see, snaking across imposing mountain peaks. It’s hard to imagine even needing the wall,
as the mountains seem an obstacle enough, but I suppose that after the Mongols
got through once, it made sense to try to make the route through the mountains
a bit more daunting.
At one of the towers, a corner of the roof had crumbled,
leaving it open to the air. Feeling
ambitious, we climbed up through the hole and up to the top of the tower. While we were up there, looking down into the
tower (the center of the towers were open), two young boys passed through and
saw us. The confusion on their face was
evident as they poked around the tower, trying to figure out how all of the laowai got up so high.
After climbing up and down a mountain of stairs, we all
promptly passed out on the bus. Our next
stop was a “jade market,” which was actually more of a show room. We did get to see some beautiful jade pieces,
and I ended up buying a “happy family ball” as a souvenir. The ball is carved out of a single piece of
jade, with independently moving balls within it and symbolizes family love, a
big family, happiness and luck.
After looking at the jade, it was time for lunch. I think our tour companions were a little
surprised when the five of us grabbed our chopsticks and dug into the plates of
food, ignoring the forks entirely. The
food was very much “western” chinese food, but it was pretty good and plenty
filling.
After lunch we went off to the Ming Tombs. We were to see the tomb of Zhu Di. Zhu Di, the Yongle Emperor, was the third
emperor of the Ming Dynasty. This was
the emperor who moved the capitol to Beijing and constructed the forbidden
city. His final resting place spans 30
acres and is quite the site to behold.
While the tomb itself hasn’t been opened, we were able to tour the
temples, which are magnificent.
We had been told that after the Ming Tombs, we would get a
chance to see the Bird’s Nest. I guess it was a bit hasty of us to assume this
meant an opportunity to get out of the bus and see it. In fact, it meant that as we drove by on the
highway, the tour guide said, “and there’s the bird’s nest.” I snapped a picture. Barely.
It was kind of disappointing, because I would have liked to get up
close. It looked quite impressive.
After we did a drive-by of the Bird’s Nest, they took us to
a “pearl market,” which was another display room. Alice and I didn’t even bother going inside,
instead opting to enjoy the Beijing sun outside.
The bus then dropped us off back at the hostel, and we set
off to find get slushies before dinner.
Courtney, Alice and I found some pretty good slushies at a little hole
in the wall place (though not up to Coco standards, in my opinion), while
Lauren and Toni opted to have Blizzards at DQ.
Once we had finished our treats, we split up for an hour, with Alice and
I opting to wander through the Hutong while everyone else went shopping. After finding a charming little courtyard
hotel that put our hostel to shame, we stumbled onto the local market. Locals were carting home their groceries, and
there were hundreds of stalls to be seen.
The market was broken into sections – fruit, veg and dairy made up one
section, spices another, and then miscellaneous odds and ends. The meat was kept in a separate
building. I couldn’t actually bring myself
to go inside. First, the stench was
unbearable. It slammed into my senses
like a truck and I knew that if I went inside, that slushie probably wouldn’t
stay down. Second, the first thing I saw
when I glanced inside was a fish being beaten to death with a club. No thanks.
Alice went and had a look, though, and apparently the fish were the only
things being killed right there. Thank
goodness!
We all met up at the hostel at 6 and got ready for
dinner. The plan was to go find Nan Luo
Gu Xiang Hutong, which is supposedly chock full of great bars and
restaurants. Well, the best laid plans
and all that rot… Frustrated when we
couldn’t find a taxi who would turn the meter on, we ended up wandering down a
little side street and finding a restaurant called “My Home,” that had some
delicious looking things sitting at the tables of the customers inside. It turned out to be wonderful. The high point was a spicy shrimp, beef and
noodle dish that we absolutely devoured and then wished we had more of. After dinner, we were finally able to find
not one but TWO honest cab drivers in Beijing, who took us to Nan Luo Gu
Xiang. Once there, we found a cute
little bar and had a couple of drinks.
By this time, my eyes were crossing from lack of sleep, and the thought
of a super-late night was not appealing.
So, after drinks, Alice, Courtney and I opted to go back to the hostel
while Lauren and Toni opted to find some real Beijing nightlife.
Monday
I slept in until around 9 on Monday (well, probably until 8,
but no one else was up until 9, so I just kind of laid around until someone
else got up), Alice and I were the first
ones up, and since we knew that Toni, Courtney and Lauren wanted to go to an
art gallery, we opted to go to the Summer Palace before we got on the train
back to Shanghai.
Summer Palace was absolutely packed with tourists, but it is
an impressive place. For one thing, it
is enormous. I still can’t quite believe
that something that big and serene can be hiding in the middle of a city as big
as Beijing. There is a lake, more
temples than we had time to see, and plenty of flowers and trees. Of course, even with all those trees, it was
still sunny and HOT. Because of the sun,
many people were walking around with umbrellas (making for dangerous going at
times – I kept getting poked in the head).
However, some people were wearing
the umbrellas. Yes, that’s right. Umbrella hats! An ingenious idea, if you ask me.
We didn’t have enough time to see the whole Summer Palace,
because we needed to be back at the hostel by 2pm in order to get out to the
train station in time. The high speed
train we took home was pretty impressive – it got past 300km/hr and took us
home to Shanghai in a little under 6 hours.
When we got into Shanghai station and made our way to the taxi stand
(because we were too tired to take the metro and then have to lug our stuff
over a mile from the station back to the apartments), we just smiled knowingly at
the men halfheartedly offering us busses.
Sorry guys. We know the
schtick. We’re basically locals now.
It’s good to be back in SH.
