I woke up pretty early this morning. Our flight to Beijing was scheduled to leave at 8:45AM from the Hongqiao airport. Chris was supposed to accompany me there. Chris is a very light sleeper and heard me when I got up. After I got ready at around 6AM I told him it was time to get up. He told me I was going to have to leave and let him sleep. I went up to Mark’s room to see if he was up. Mark didn’t answer when I lightly knocked on the door.
I sat around and wrote in my travel log. After a while I went down to my room which Chris had locked. After a several minutes I went up to Mark’s room. Mark was up this time. At around 7AM Chris called Mark’s room and said he was ready.
We took a cab to the airport which was about a 20 minute ride. We got in line to check out luggage. After everything was checked, Chris went to look for a ATM machine.
After finding an ATM machine we went to the departing flight area. There was a long line to it. Chris noticed there was a airport tax of 50 YUAN for domestic flights. He got 2 receipts for us.
We got on a tram to get on the flight. We boarded the plane with about 10 minutes to spare. On the flight I had a window seat and took some pictures from the plane. They served a full breakfast on the plane – a slice of ham on a roll, some fruit, and cookies.
We landed in Beijing at approximately 2 hours after we left. After Chris got his luggage we set about finding a ride to the heart of Beijing. Chris was consulting the Lonely Planet Travel Guide to China. He had wanted to stay at an international youth hostel mentioned in the book. Chris asked around and found a bus going to near the youth hostel.
We ended up in a huge traffic jam in Beijing. For some reason I didn’t see any wrecks or anything…just a massive flow of cars backed up. After what seemed like forever we finally got to our stop – which was the last stop on the bus. Chris consulted the guide to find out where the hostel was at. We began walking several blocks. After several minutes we found the hostel – Lu Song Yuan Hotel.
The hostel was decorated in traditional Chinese style. We got to our room which had 3 beds in it. We were sharing a room with another person. From the initial look at this person’s stuff, they looked American.
After getting settled in, we took off for Tiananmen’s Square. We had a good long walk ahead of us.
We walked past the Forbidden City which seemed extraordinary. I paused to take a few pictures.
As we were walking we got closer to Tiananmen’s Square. We were walking through pagodas. After walking through several pagodas, I turned around and saw the large portrait of Mao. It was one of those serial moments. I had always seen this spot in encyclopedias and books, but now I was actually here. We took several pictures.
In front of the the building where the portrait of Mao was hung was a busy intersection. Then there was Tiananmen’s Square – large open area with a few monuments.Forbidden City
We walked through a tunnel underneath which took us under the busy intersection. We walked past Tiananmen’s Square seeing a few governmental buildings. Throughout our way, there were plenty of people selling water bottles. At some point in our conversation Chris said that just because it is bottled water doesn’t mean it is pure water…commenting that this water could just be tap water.
We walked in a tunnel underneath another busy intersection. We saw a McDonald’s and a KFC. We decided to eat at a KFC. Chris tried to ask if the chicken sandwich he was getting was spicy. The KFC workers didn’t know what he was talking about. I got what I thought was chicken nuggets for 21.50 Yuan. There wasn’t much chicken meat on the chicken pieces. It had some bones in it.
We ate lunch and then took off to walk by the Square. We saw a couple of large buildings. I imagine one of those buildings contained the body of Mao on display.
We took several pictures and moved on. We purchased tickets to the Forbidden City.
The Forbidden City was where the Emperors held court. If a common citizen entered the city during the time of the Emperors, he was killed. After the revolution, the city was opened up the common people. Within the city each different building contained a throne room. There was a description of the buildings, then it said “Sponsored by American Express.” I found this amusing. AMEX is here even in the heart of China.
At one of the buildings I paused to get a T-shirt. After a while in the Forbidden City, everything seemed to get dull. It was the same pagoda buildings after a while. At the end of the tour we got to a Garden area.
When we exited the Forbidden City we were harassed by a bunch of people trying to sell us junk. I told them “no.” Those sellers were everywhere throwing stuff into your face. I was expecting someone to steal my money belt.
We could see a temple on the top of a hill. I later found that this was the Jing Shan Park. We bought tickets to the temple. While we were getting tickets a man asked if he could take us on a ride around the city on his rickshaw. Chris said we might and we would see after we got done seeing the temple. He said he would be waiting for us. We had a short, but tiring walk up the hill to the temple.
At the top we had a great view of the Forbidden City. We paused to take a few pictures. We sat down and rested. Inside the temple there was a big Buddha. People were praying down to the Buddha and putting money inside a collection cabinet. I wanted to take a picture of this, but I didn’t think it was appropriate. It probably wouldn’t have mattered since there was a gift shop inside of the temple.
We walked down and found the guy waiting to give a ride. We talked him down to about 175 Yuan.
While we were walking to the rickshaw, I asked Chris if he thought he was going to rob us. Chris laughed and said “I don’t know, what do you think?”
We got on the bike and rode around the city. Our biker’s name was “Lu.” He showed us houses where poor people lived – nine family. Then he showed us a place where rich people lived – which looked like middle-class America.
We rode past a place where people were giving haircuts to children….outdoors. We also rode past a lake. Throughout our tour there were old men playing a game like dominoes. I found that younger men aren’t allowed to play this game, but old men who have paid their dues to society are allowed to play.
At the end of the tour we found that he was going to charge us 175 Yuan per hour. We had a 2 hour tour, which was 350 Yuan total. It was a little more than what we expected.
We then got a cab to our hostel. We met the person sharing our room with us – Francis a German. He had been on the Moscow – Beijing train (trans-Siberian railroad). Chris wanted to go to a restaurant mentioned in the Lonely Planet guide. We got a cab to a different part of the city. After walking several blocks we found that we had past the restaurant. It was the Beijing Duck Restaurant.
Inside the restaurant we picked out our vegetables and decided on half a duck.
We were seated and our vegetables were brought to us. I had a Coke. We also had some tea with flowers in it. There was a guy with a pitcher with a long spout. He would fill our tea glass when it got low. We had cabbage, onions with chocolate sauce, and bean sprouts.
Our cook brought out a half a duck and cut several pieces off of it. The duck tasted like a mix between chicken and turkey.
We paid the bill and left. We walked by a shopping area. I saw a shop selling silk robes. I saw one my dad would like. I asked the girl how much and she said 325 Yuan. I was able to talk her down to 115 Yuan…paid with a 100 Yuan and 2 dollar bills. She was very anxious to sell the robe to me. For the barter system, the trick is to act like you are not interested. This is how I acted with her. You can talk them down to a reasonable price by acting uninterested.
At some point we were asked by a Chinese student to come up to an art shop. He said his teacher was a good artist and that we needed to come up to see. At the shop we saw lots of paintings….all very good. Chris pondered whether he wanted to buy a certain painting which was of 3 people…a father, son, and grandfather at harvest time. He said he had never seen such a painting in his travels. They were askiing $100 for it. Chris didn’t have that much money on him, but he said he would think about it and come back tomorrow. While we were talking we were served hot green tea. We stayed quite a while at the artist’s shop.
We got out of the shop and a couple of children ran up to us and where begging. Chris said these children probably had bosses which sent them out to beg tourists for money.
We took a cab back to the hostel. We talked with the German who were were sharing our room with. He had been to the Great Wall that day. Tomorrow we had plans to go to the Great Wall.