Travel China Planner

Great Wall of China

We arrived sweating at the post office to see not so friendly looking roller shutter doors and cursed the fact we would have to start ‘backpacking’ with 3 extra boxes of stuff meaning our total weight was up to 70kg.

We managed to relieve ourselves of the boxes in the more reasonable China post office which doesn’t just slope for a lie down whenever it feels like it. After a couple of days in Beijing, China.

We had bunks right at the end of the room facing the side of the boat and the window so we had almost complete privacy.

We were slightly suprised (but still merry) when we arrived at our guesthouse to find the place in an impressive state of disrepair.

Qingdao is hosting the 2008 Olympics and it seems that they are having a little bit of a ’spruce’.

Tiananmen Square

We did find some nice areas, when we were in Qingdao, the biggest draw is the German influenced architecture, the clean air and its location at the seaside. None of which are really what you’re looking for on your first stop in China.

We were ready for jostling crowds, honking traffic, people…we were ready for Beijing. So we decided to hop on a bus to Beijing. It was a sleeper bus which consists of bunk beds so on you get, off come the shoes and you tuck yourself up in bed under the thick duvet and lie there feeling semi ridiculous been driven through the streets at 7:30pm in bed in full view of everyone.

I was right at the front so when we picked up some more passengers there I was in bed mumbling hello as the locals grinned down at me.

Beijing didn’t disappoint. We found ourselves in Tiananmen Square at 6 in the morning watching the PLA go through their morning drill. It was almost devoid of tourists at that time and we wandered around enjoying the morning stillness in

Summer Palace

what is at all other times a seething mass of ‘my-party-this-way.’ We wandered through backstreets and enjoyed the other-worldliness of Beiing with it’s lanterns, calligraphy, early-morning hawkers and impressive number of bike based vehicles.

My favourite sight in Beijing was the Summer Palace. We scrambled over rockeries, walked though courtyards and outside passageways, with temples, halls and pagodas at every turn. I overheard a tourist saying that she found the Summer Palace ‘far more interesting’ than the Forbidden City.

I think she actually meant to say that she found it ‘far more fun.’ The Forbidden City was impressive in size but it does start to look all the same after a while. I wouldn’t suggest that the ancient Emperors and Imperials lacked imagination but every building is pretty much identical.

Forbidden City

Somewhat predictably the best sight of all was the Great Wall. We went to a quiet unrestored part which the hostel questionably labled the ‘Secret Wall.’ We trekked from a small village where we picked up our elderly guide.

Just one look at the 70-something year old with her tiny height and stature, ‘inappropriate’ clothing and shoes and broad smile and we just knew there would be more than a small bit of humiliation involved in the 2-3hour walk. The walk and wall were stunning. We had perfect weather and could see the wall stretching on for miles.

We walked for a mile or so and got to climb up on the ramparts and pretend to be Mongols and generally enjoy having the place to ourselves.

We finally made it to the last rampart before heading back to the village and as we scrambled up.

China Flag

That night we got drinking with some lovely people in the bar of ultra-sociable Leo’s Hostel and what started as a few beers progressed to shots of snake and rice wine and ended in searching the streets for an open bar or club when the hostel chucked us out of the bar at two in the morning.

We ended up desperately banging on the doors of a closed bar and asking them very nicely if they would be so kind as to reopen their establishment to business. They seemed to find this reasonable and on went the lights and music and the drinking continued with new vigour.

All in all it’s an excellent start to travel in Beijing.

I arrived Beijing, much to my surprise to glorious sunny weather and crystal clear blue skies. I managed to a locate a hostel just south of Tiananmen Square and right in the middle of one of the cities historical ‘Hutongs’ which quite literally means ‘narrow alley’ They are a trademark feature of the city and a home to many of Beijing’s fifteen million inhabitants. The Hutongs are the best place to witness Beijingers up close.

The street I stayed on was awash with life, bustling restaurants, barbers, snack stands and souvenir shops all blended in with local housing. The houses are a fascinating sight, often just consisting of one storey and at times a ramshackle like appearance. However recent attempts to modernise Beijing in the run up to the Olympics have seen many of these historical neighbourhoods levelled and replaced by ultra modern skyscrapers perhaps in an attempt to make the city more pleasing on the eye.

Prior to arriving in Beijing I’d drawn up a tick list of things to do. Having already seen the Great Wall and the Forbidden City I decided to miss these out this time around. The list was as follows; Tiananmen, Hutongs, The Summer Palace and the Olympic Stadium. I headed out on the first day to see the largest square in the world, Tiananmen Square. It’s one of those places which is great just to wander around.

I was a little disappointed that the Mausoleum which houses the body of China’s most famous leader was closed. To get an idea for anyone who hasn’t been to the square before just how big it is, after Mao’s death in 1976 one million mourners poured into the square to pay their respects.

Jingshan Park is situated just north of the Forbidden City and the main reason for heading there are the great panoramic views you can get of the Forbidden City. Once again I couldn’t believe my luck with the weather and I did just begin to wonder whether the rumours I’d heard about the air being sprayed blue in preparation for the Olympics were actually true!

The park itself makes for a nice place to just simply meander around and, for anyone with a historical interest in all things Chinese you can actually find the tree where the last Ming emperor, Chongzhen hung himself from!

From Jingshan Park it’s possible to look across to another park, that of Beihai (Beihai Gongyuan) The park itself is more or less made up entirely of water and perhaps the most famous site in its grounds is that of the Jade Islet (pinyin: Qiongdao) on which stands a 36m high White Dagoda (pingyin: Baita)

I was up bright and early on the second day for a trip to the Summer Palace (pinyin: Yihe Yuan) The place is so vast that in all honesty you could probably spend a couple of days there taking in all the things to see. Unfortunately my timetable didn’t spread to two days and instead I spent the best part of five hours walking around. The Palace was built primarily as a summer retreat for the royalty who wanted to escape from the stifling summer heat of the Forbidden City. In a similar fashion to that of Behai Park much of the park consists of water, around three thirds to be exact, is taken up by Kunming Lake

The ticket I purchased enabled you go into all the extra parts of the park such as museums and temples. It soon became apparent to me though that the Summer Palace was also on the tick list of others. I suppose it’s one of the three major things that most people do when visiting Beijing.

After five hours of being on my feet and some extensive sightseeing I was beginning to fade and even though there were more parts of it to see I didn’t think I would be doing them justice by just going inside and taking a few pictures so I made my way back to the hostel. That evening was rounded of by some delicious local cuisine but not as you might expect some of the legendary Beijing Duck (AKA Peiking Duck.

By the third day in Beijing my mind was beginning to roam to thoughts of returning to Xi’an that very evening but there was still one more thing I needed to see before leaving. I doubt I will get the opportunity to go up to Beijing to see any of the events. So with this in mind I made my way to the newly built Olympic stadium. I love stadiums whatever shape or size they might be but this most definitely has to be one of the most impressive I’ve ever seen.

The “Birds Nest” as it’s commonly known is a bizarre yet incredible creation which, as the name suggest looks rather like a bird’s nest, albeit a steel one. In fact the stadium is made up of 36km of unwrapped steel. Unfortunately it wasn’t possible to get right up close to it as construction work is still continuing on both the stadium and the surrounding area which includes the equally impressive National Aquatics Centre.

Once completed the stadium will hold 91,000 people although the capacity will be reduced to 80,000 after the Games. Having seen it I only wish I was going to be one of those lucky people there to witness some of the events.

I was planning on going to visit the Temple of Heaven but to be quite frank there really is only so much sightseeing a person can do in one day and with that in mind I headed back to the hostel to pack up my backpack. It was a little strange as I left the hostel and made my way to Beijing train station that I had reached the end of my journey.

Perhaps I will find the time to sum up my trip in the coming weeks but that really is all there is for now. As for now, well it’s back to Xi’an and preparing for my move to Shanghai. Hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my trip.

We visited specific sites like the Forbidden City (which until recently had a Starbucks in side it) and Tiananmen Square. One of my favorite parts was the Peking Duck, definitely an AMAZING meal!

Most parts of the Forbidden City is under construction because of all the renovation for the Olympics. However that did not really discredit the incredible vastness where the emperor used to live. In much of Chinese architecture there are high thresholds in doorways due to an ancient belief that ghosts could only move in straight lines. You can see the remainder but many of these thresholds were taken down because one emperor wanted to ride his bike through the city. The day we visited was REALLY cold.

Everything is being revamped including subways. The government is doing an overhaul to the city. This, however, is making it harder to get my hands on counterfeit products. But there are still a variety of markets selling factory backdoor prices including the Silk Market.

Early Sunday morning we went to the Temple of Heaven. On weekends many people come there to do dance, Tai’qi, sing, play cards and all sorts of random activities.

Another day we spent touring downtown Beijing. We visited the Hutong. The Hutong were the old wealthy homes before the communist revolution throughout the centuries. After the Cultural Revolution and resultant of the economic push and growth the Hutong are being destroyed. These are homes which

NOTHING like what most of us are used to. Additionally the correct way to drink tea even here is rarely followed, which is something we learned from the bell tower.

We are now sitting in Beijing’s major train station at a computer that costs 5 RMB per hour after two days of hard foot exercise.

Yesterday we tried to get into Chairman Mao’s Mausoleum and look at his corpse. Unfortunately it was closed so we went back to hotel to get our cameras. Back on the street again we decided to get some lunch before heading out to the Forbidden City.

The Forbidden City was very big…huge. The experience seems much better today when we’re warm and rested. There were so many palaces that we actually got tired of them. One of the things you really have to see if people come to Beijing. The major buildings in the Forbidden City were restoring.

Directly following the Forbidden City we went to The Temple of Heaven. The park around the Temple was as huge as the Forbidden City. The Temple of Heaven itself was cool but quite a bit smaller than expected.

Today we tried again to get into the Maosoleum but were once again disappointed. We caught a cab to the North Beijing Train Station looking for tickets to Xi’an. Unfortunately it was small and very worn down so we didn’t even try to find tickets. We ate lunch at KFC and then took a taxi to The Summer Palace. The park was a playground dream for any kid. No one would ever win if they played hide-and-seek around the hilly, stony garden palaces and temples. There were, in comparison to the Forbidden City, actually quite a few buildings with a genuine look.

After uselessly trying to find the right bus home, we took a taxi to the real Beijing Train station.

We fly home tomorrow. In the last 2 weeks, we have been to Beijing, the Great Wall, Shanghai, Tianammen Square, Hong Kong and now today, slightly beat up. Lot’s of travelling and we’ve covered a lot of distance. The past 2 weeks have been great, literally, starting in Beijing as we visited the Forbidden City and took a tour that took us on a 3 hour hike up a mountain to an unrestored section of the Great Wall.

We then walked up and down and along the crumbling wall for 4 or 5km (about 2 or 3 mountain peaks). It felt very real and we had an overwhelming sense of the effort it took to build a huge brick wall traversing a mountain ridge for 6000 km.Beijing itself was very cold and also somehow, unforgiving. It had a very communist feel to it, but we met a number of travellers in our hostel that made our 3 days there more hospitable. Beijing is also mad with preparations for this summers Olympic Games. We have come across a number of humourous “educational programs” that the government is providing to citizens as they prepare for the millions of visitors this summer. A few examples - Teaching people how to wait in line to get on the subway instead of just pushing their way in (much needed). The Establishment of a “Chinese Patriotism and Hygiene Commission”. I read about a program encouraging people not to spit on the sidewalk! Citizens are also becoming upset that they will not be able to smoke in restaurants during the Olympics. I read that of the 30,000 restaurants in Beijing, only one has a no smoking policy…and it is usually empty!

After Beijing, we then made our way down south to Shanghai and spent 3 nights there. Shanghai was suprisingly fun, lots of huge buildings, grand skyscrapers and great architecture. There weren’t a lot of tourist sights to see but we did a lot of walking and ended up spending a few educational if not slightly unremarkable hours at the Shanghai museum. If you want to know anything about Ming Dynasty Pottery and Ceramics, just ask! Or even better yet, don’t!

Eventually, we arrive in Xi’an at 3:20pm on Monday afternoon. We are excited to come home, see our friends and family.

Thank you all for following our blog, we loved all your comments and emails and it made it really fun for us to be able to write about our experiences. The blog really helped us feel connected. Take care and we will see you soon!

Jing & Wei