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| View over the Forbidden City from Jingshan Park |
Rach says:
On 30th August 2013, 26 hours, 2 flights and a hair raising taxi ride after leaving our house, we arrived at our hostel, the
Beijing Downtown Backpackers Accommodation.
On our first night, we explored the lively local 'hutongs' and found that it was real 'old Peking' with narrow alleyways to wander, bikes and rickshaws to dodge, and elderly people gathered outside playing cards and mahjong.
We decided it would be a good idea that evening to stay up until 9pm "so we didn't wake up in the middle of the night"... Well. We didn't wake up the next day until 4pm!! Just in time for a walk to the nearby Jingshan Park and up to a pavillion for amazing views over the Forbidden City at nightfall. The Chinese love their photography and it was like the paps were out in force at the top of that hill! A Chinese couple, amusingly called Ching and Ching Mini (even more so since Ching Mini towered above Ching) started chatting to Pete and he discovered that children are not allowed to go to school in Beijing unless both of their parents were born there!
I was really interested to see the huge Mao portrait in Tiananmen Square, as this cult of personality is so alien to our political culture at home. 37 years after his death, his image still appears everywhere in homes, shops, bars and restaurants; he is still idolised, a tyrant who caused the torture and deaths of millions with his Great Leap Forward. The gate, with Mao, the red flags and the guards, was a lasting image of Beijing and China for me.
The Imperial Palace was very impressive and on such a huge scale - we were there for about 3-4 hours and saw less than half of it. The palace was home to 24 emperors between 1420 and 1924 and gets its unofficial title the 'Forbidden City' from the fact that any commoners who tried to enter the complex uninvited were executed. The parts of the palace all had names like the 'Hall of Supreme Harmony', the palaces of 'Heavenly Purity' and 'Earthly Tranquility'. I think there was even one to do with Embroidery! Everything is symbolic here.
We arrived at the Olympic Park just before dusk. The Water Cube is not much to look at, but the Bird's Nest Stadium is amazing and quite imposing, especially as it lights up at night. We stayed for a bit and had a few beers and just took in the sights. There was a fantastic food hall there with 52 stalls, where we tried some dumplings and noodles for 1.50 each and marvelled at all of the fried insects on sticks including scorpions and tarantulas!!! Unfortunately I then had a massive nosebleed and we were soaked to the bone in a torrential downpour on the way home. Why we only purchased (for a pound!) a single umbrella between us, I do not know.
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The Water Cube (above)
and the Bird's Nest Stadium (right) |
On our last day, we went back to Tiananmen Square to try and see the embalmed and frozen body of Chairman Mao (very strange I know!). Unfortunately the place shut at midday and we never arrive anywhere until the afternoon so we missed it. Not sure why it shuts so early, but perhaps so that he doesn't start to melt in the heat of the day! Whilst we passed by a government building, a woman strolled up and threw a load of papers over the gate apparently in protest, disappearing swiftly and leaving only Pete at the scene of the crime when a guard ran up shouting and gathering the papers asking who had done it. Luckily we weren't under suspicion.
A few more thoughts...
- Beijing is vast. Very, very vast. It felt like the biggest city I had ever been to, but I know that's not the case. All of the buildings and roads are huge.
- It is the darkest city I have ever been to, as if light is a luxury (Tokyo was the brightest - like daylight from all the streetlights and neon, even in the middle of the night)
- The Chinese drive like loons!! More on that later.
- I expected the style of dress to be conservative (more than the UK), but that's not the case at all.
- Older people will correct us if we say "Beijing" - it's "Peking"!! It is really just a change in the Pinyin, not a new name for the city.
- They have 'Cigarette Girls' here who go about in twos, dressed in short shiny branded outfits, dishing out free cigarettes! No health warnings here!
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| The Escher-like CCTV Building |
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| Nat. Centre of Performing Arts... |
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| ...like a huge UFO |
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| The Hutong District |
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| Lots of bikes! |
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| Red Army Monument in Tiananmen Square |
We decided it would be a good idea that evening to stay up until 9pm "so we didn't wake up in the middle of the night"... Well. We didn't wake up the next day until 4pm!! Just in time for a walk to the nearby Jingshan Park and up to a pavillion for amazing views over the Forbidden City at nightfall. The Chinese love their photography and it was like the paps were out in force at the top of that hill! A Chinese couple, amusingly called Ching and Ching Mini (even more so since Ching Mini towered above Ching) started chatting to Pete and he discovered that children are not allowed to go to school in Beijing unless both of their parents were born there!
I was really interested to see the huge Mao portrait in Tiananmen Square, as this cult of personality is so alien to our political culture at home. 37 years after his death, his image still appears everywhere in homes, shops, bars and restaurants; he is still idolised, a tyrant who caused the torture and deaths of millions with his Great Leap Forward. The gate, with Mao, the red flags and the guards, was a lasting image of Beijing and China for me.
The Imperial Palace was very impressive and on such a huge scale - we were there for about 3-4 hours and saw less than half of it. The palace was home to 24 emperors between 1420 and 1924 and gets its unofficial title the 'Forbidden City' from the fact that any commoners who tried to enter the complex uninvited were executed. The parts of the palace all had names like the 'Hall of Supreme Harmony', the palaces of 'Heavenly Purity' and 'Earthly Tranquility'. I think there was even one to do with Embroidery! Everything is symbolic here.
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