China Trip: Chapter 1 - Beijing

Day 1

Prologue

Time: 1pm

Place: Somewhere above mainland China.

Why this should not be considered an actual chapter in this account of the China-trip: simply put, we aren't going to be doing anything today. As I write this part of the account, I am about 13km above mainland China, flying in an Air China flight to Beijing. I cannot promise that subsequent parts of this account will be written in the present tense - but, unlike the Eurotrip, I will try to keep the integrity of the tense.

I woke up at an ungodly hour, mainly because this flight was an early one, 9.30am, to be exact; so to make up for it, the first 2 hours of this flight were spent sleeping. Lunch on the flight was decent, yet bode ominous signs for the rest of the trip - the air hostess could not speak English very well. Lucky I knew that I wanted duck, mainly because the chicken didn't look too appetising.

But, interestingly, I think this trip is not going to be without excitement. Even before the plane left Changi, there was drama. There was someone sitting in my seat on the plane (43D). Turns out he was supposed to be sitting in 42D. So we pointed him to the right seat.

And he insisted that he was in the right seat. So we called in an arbitrator, the stewards. And turns out one whole group of people got their seats wrong. Strange country, strange omen.

On the plane earlier I passed the time reading the China Daily. I wanted to see how state controlled media is like. Since I don't get The Straits Times at home.

Anyway today there's not much on the agenda except for checking in, and planning, though we have decently planned out the itinerary for Beijing. Shall not spoil the surprise. Also later we might be meeting Chunmin for dinner because she's on duty travel in Beijing. Coincidence. Anyway I'm not too sure if that's confirmed yet because I switched off the phone before checking the reply.

Ok plane landing soon. I shall return later.

*

Time: 11pm

Place: Qianmen Hostel. At last.

As promised, I have returned today to continue my tale of day 1. Unexpectedly this prologue has become long, so now I hesitate to call it that. Doesn't matter. Let's get back to the story.

The plane landed in the tarmac and we had to take the bus to the main terminal. Not too big a deal - we experienced this in Portugal too. What was awesome, though, was the weather. I think the best way to describe it is 'perfect'. Not too hot nor too cold. And just the right amount of wind. It promised to be a good trip.

Chunmin had confirmed dinner plans for tonight - 8pm at the subway station near our hostel. But first on the agenda was finding the hostel. This proved to be a great challenge. We took the airport shuttle to Xinan, the last stop. Then, the instructions suggested that we hail a cab from there. But hailing a cab in Beijing is not that easy so we decided to use the map and walk to the hostel.

After about half an hour of walking and asking directions, we ended up in this posh hotel that looked nothing like the hostel from Hostelworld. If this was indeed that we were paying $10 per night to stay at, I would have had been sure that I had died and was in heaven now.

Unfortunately yet expectedly we were at the wrong place. Like duh. The hotel concierge was nice enough to help us get a cab and explain to its driver to take us to our actual hostel. And the taxi driver was nice enough to take us there even though he, like most other people, had not heard of our hostel. And the fare was only RMB 12.

(Side note: This photo was taken later; by the time we reached, night had fallen). When we finally reach, we dump our bags and rush to Qian Men subway station to meet Chunmin.

I think her gladness to see me was somehow greater than her irritation at waiting and being stared at by local men. Apparently it was obvious that she wasn't local, but I reassured her she looked local enough. Wee Long didn't dare back me up on that one.

Dinner was where I realised that it had taken me a trip to Beijing before I met Chunmin. What a strange globalised world we live in. Dinner was also where we realised that Beijing food was really oily. At the end Wee Long was feeling queasy, and even I was near my threshold.

We had originally intended to eat the famous Peking Duck, but the restaurant closed at 8pm. It was now nearly 9. Another day then.

(Nota Bene + Spoiler Alert!: This photo was also taken at a later date, on the day that we actually DID get to eat the Peking Duck)

We walked a bit aimlessly after dinner and ended up walking through this really dodgy alley. But somehow it wasn't that scary.

After sending Chunmin off in a cab, we tried walking back to the hostel but once again gave up hallway and cabbed back. This time the fare was RMB 10. Think we'll be cabbing from now on.

Day 2

Time: 5pm

Place: My bed in Qianmen Hostel.

We have just returned from a very tiring visit to the Forbidden City. Wee Long is napping from the exertion, that's testament to the tiring nature of the trip. Never mind, plenty of relaxation time in Hangzhou. But still it's 5pm and we can afford about an hour of nap time. Or blog time.

*

Today started relatively early - we were awoken by the sounds of our roommates checking out. They sounded like they were speaking an Eastern European language but I can't be sure. Anyway I said bye to them because I was awake and I didn't think to ask where they're from because I hadn't realised that they were checking out. They moved in yesterday after all.

We didn't make the same mistake with our new roommates. They're from the Netherlands. But they're staying quite some time in Beijing so probably we'll get to know them better over the course of the Beijing section of the China Trip. They're quite pretty after all. I shall ensure I get photos of them soon. Must be like the Chinese and shameless to ask for photos. More on this later.

*

We started off with brunch cum lunch and a visit to the supermarket.

After that, we finally we started off the day proper with a visit to the famously controversial Tiananmen Square. You won't find any evidence on the massacre that took place here as recently as 1989 onsite, or on anywhere on the Internet. And, furthermore, I've discovered that you won't be able to read my fabulous blog with all its accounts here either. So there goes 1 billion potential viewers to my awesome account. Perhaps I should think of moving this blog elsewhere. By the way many Wikipedia pages are banned here too, so I think I have already at least tried inadvertently to access at least 4 pages that are banned. Though I think this is a common tourist-with-Wifi error.

Anyway Tiananmen Square is huge. And walking up the square in itself takes quite some time.

Also I think it's more rectangular than square.

At the very other end of the rectangular square is the famous Forbidden Palace.

In the square itself, an interesting event happens. Now, readers, I must alert you to a certain fact, this blog accounts mainly for the unexpected and unplanned events of the trip. Similar to the Eurotrip Account earlier.

So when a random Chinese girl comes up to me with her camera speaking Chinese I assume that it's because she wants me to help take a picture for her. So I smile and reach out to take the camera. Then things happened in a blur. She is happy that I said okay, so she passes the camera to her friend, poses with me and takes a picture. Then she says xie xie and leaves. I ask Wee Long what just happened, but he's equally blur.

Then I remember the story of Henrik Larsson (you remember him) of how, when he went to China, he was randomly mobbed by girls who wanted to take photos with him. So I reckon that's what just happened to me. Strangely I felt honoured. Ben 1, Lase 1.

*

Now we have to leave. Its already 6pm. Wee Long is awake and I am afraid the supermarket will close. Will be back soon. We probably will be going to the supermarket again (to buy water and breakfast for tomorrow) followed by dinner nearby, and followed by a visit to the Xi Hai lake which according to the hostel staff, is beautiful at night.

*

Time: 11.30pm

Place: Again, my bed in Qianmen Hostel. Recovering from shock of what happened 5 min ago.

I'm back and something very interesting has just happened. But to keep with the flow of the story I have to refrain from telling that story for now. And so we continue with the story of today where we left off - at the Forbidden Palace.

*

The Forbidden City (now known as The Palace Museum) is just north of Tiananmen Square. It's probably the most famous attraction in Beijing proper, being the largest palace complex in the world. And this we found out first hand once inside. Luckily I had read the tips so we bought the map and guide at the entrance which was very useful for it's price.

The palace reminded me of the Grand Palace in Bangkok except much much larger. The maze we had to navigate was insane, but fortunately we were guided by the horde of tourists and the all knowing map. I think the rest of the story of the Palace Museum, I will tell by the following set of pictures, arranged chronologically, and, in general, starting from the South and ending in the North.

Inside the palace I had another girl taking photos of me. Except this time she tried to do so surreptitiously. Only problem was that I knew, because I Eurotripped with the master of surreptitious photo taking, Eugene Wong. Was quite funny.

Finally after eons of walking we finally exited the imperial palace. There is a taxi stand outside the imperial palace but the taxi drivers there take advantage of foreigners so they don't go by the meter but instead charge exorbitant prices. So we went to a nearby smallish road and, with some difficulty found a nice enough taxi driver to take us back to our hostel.

*

You might have noticed that this was where I started off writing this account. So I apologise for the messiness because I am trying to maintain the integrity of this account which I so blatantly neglected during the Eurotrip. So anyway you probably know that we left the hostel once more to go to the supermarket and grab dinner before going down to Xi Hai lake. But turns out dinner takes a bit too long and we decide to skip the lake altogether. After all we'll be seeing an even more beautiful lake in Hangzhou.

Dinner was quite fabulous. We chose a place bustling with activity, never mind the price. The logic was that it would definitely be worth the money or it wouldn't be bustling with activity. We were not disappointed. In fact the cost came up to less than yesterday's dinner. So perhaps we'll bring Chunmin there.

As I mention dinner takes a bit too long, even if, to quote Wee Long, we finally have had a decent meal in Beijing. So we decided just to walk down the street and see where it took us.

The whole street was very interesting, as you might see, and in fact ultimately it led us back to the street we were on yesterday with Chunmin. It's still a bit early so we sit awhile at starbucks drinking chocolate drink. It's about two thirds the Singapore price, just like just about everything else in this city.

And then the day got interesting. As promised, I said I would chat with our two Dutch room mates. And then I got myself a culture shock. The first girl, she just changed into her shorts with me in the room facing her. Change here involves stripping down to the undergarments and putting on the shorts. I think it took all my effort keeping a straight face and wait till I managed to drag Wee Long outside the room to tell him what just happened (he was facing me so he didn't see anything).

Then it got worse. Her friend, as it turns out, sleeps in her underwear. How we know, is because I asked her a question after she got into bed, and she just got out and answered. Shorts less. This time, Wee Long saw too. But the guy has a huge poker face. He really managed to act as if he saw nothing. I only hope I was nearly as good.

Anyway that's the end of today's account. Tomorrow we'll be going up to the great wall, something which I actually came to Beijing solely for. So today I'll just sign off saying there's a half dressed girl sleeping about a metre below me.

Interesting. Goodnight!

Day 3

Time: 11.30am

Place: Stuck in Beijing traffic; on a bus travelling towards the Great Wall at Badaling.

Good morning! Now we're on the bus towards the Great Wall at Badaling. The story was that originally we wanted to go to the less touristy part, Mutianyu, but by the time we got out of bed - quite late, about 10.30 - the trip to the more popular part, Badaling, was all that was offered.

The girls got up early, at around 6.30am, and left soon after. It was bright and sunny by then so I was technically awake when they left but I just lay in bed. After what I saw last night I still think it would be awkward to talk to them. When I next woke up it was already 10am and quite late. So we kind of rushed out to the hostel desk to ask how to go to Mutianyu. But since we also expressed an interest to visit the Ming Tombs he directed us to the tourist office at Qianmen.

A mad rush of events ensued that involved us finding out that the last tour to Badaling or Mutianyu and the Ming Tombs had left, and then being approached by a lady (in uniform) who offered that same tour, and culminated in us being on this tour bus where the tour guide doesn't speak English apart from 'I don't know'. So basically her English is as good as my Mandarin ("Wo pu shi tao"). So Wee Long is tasked with translating.

I'll probably not write any more till we're on the way back, assuming we make it that far. If that trip is anywhere near as long as this one (as common sense might suggest) I think I will be able to finish this account by today and then I can sleep early.

*

Time: 2pm

Place: On the bus, heading towards lunch.

We have just returned to the bus after visiting the Great Wall at Badaling. The bus has just left promptly at 1.45pm and we're on our way to lunch and the Ming Tombs. Do note that if ever I were to eat do(d)gy food it would be today. Will update later. I have no idea where lunch is except that it's provided for us.

I don't know how much time I have now. Anyway the Great Wall really is a sight. And it's more than I'd expected to be honest. When they say the wall stretches endlessly, they were not lying. True story. The wall goes on forever into the distance, so running the whole length of it is probably out of the question. That much I expected from hearsay.

What hearsay didn't say was that this wall is very steep. And the steps are quite uneven (not to mention spit infested). So Wee Long, who's a little afraid of heights, is hesitant to climb - he stops after about 50 steps. But the admission fee doesn't cover 50 steps so I persuade him to climb a little higher, at least will we reach a turret.

Again, there, we encounter the picture-crazy Chinese girl stereotype. Only this time, I'm not the attraction. Why I say crazy? In total Wee Long took about 25 photos of her in three different places. All in different poses. I wish I had those photos; I would definitely paste up all 25.

But by the 25th shot I think it's quite cute, to be honest.

Wee Long stopped at the next turret and this time I didn't push him further. After all, we had already covered the entrance fee approximately, I think. The view from up there was already quite beautiful, with the undulating hills and the snaking wall.

But I had to fulfill my promise to Gobi and run on the wall. So I had to go on. The stairs onward from there were very steep, and I had to stop halfway up to rest. Of course when I reached the top it was worth it.

Separated from Wee Long also leaves me vulnerable to the ubiquitous souvenir vendors. I try saying Bu Yao to them but that just encouraged them to speak to me in more Mandarin. Ultimately I gave up and started speaking Malay to them. I think had they persisted, it would have been quite comical.

The trip down was harder, but we expected as much. We had to resort to various measures such as walking backwards or sideways to get down, but we got down in the end.

Ah I managed to finish the account on time. We're still on the way to lunch. It's 2.15 and I'm starving.

*

Time: 6.45pm

Place: Finally on the way back to Beijing.

The time is 6.45pm and we're finally on the way back to Beijing; and not without a few (hundred) surprises along the way. The first of which was the fact that we were not actually going for lunch just yet. In fact, we would not be having lunch till about a whole two and a half hours later, at about 4pm. Later on I realized that that's probably because this tour was very impromptu, even for the organizers.

But the first stop was still quite fun - Old Beijing. It was culturally homogenous and there were no white people and only one Indian guy - me. And the whole tour was given in Mandarin so that was relatively hard to follow. I mean, Conversational Mandarin Book 1 can only get you so far. But to be honest it was rather interesting, much like Gamla Linkoping from a previous account.

There is some further cultural appeal to this place as it was the home of some princess but this does not apply to me. Nevertheless the buildings are quite nice and it was interesting to see a preserved Beijing village.

In fact there was this performance at the end of the tour in the Old Beijing District.

The guy started off by lifting a cement block with his teeth. Not too impressive? Then he moved on to lying on a bed of nails and getting some guy to step on him. Still not too impressive considering the O level syllabus on pressure is supposed to cover the reason why that isn't that mean a feat. But then, he swallowed a pearl and regurgitated it through his nose. Disgusting, but awesome.

He deserved the one yuan tip I gave him at the very least.

Surprise number two awaited as we boarded the bus towards either the Ming Tombs or the food place. But it was first to a jewelry shop, where they were selling jade stuff to the customers.

I told Wee Long this is just the 'advertisement' portion of our trip, because it probably helped reduce the price of the tour. So we just had to sit through quietly and not buy anything. It was good that lunch was up next in the restaurant next to the jade outlet, because I was really hungry by then. But apparently we only had 10mins to eat and I ended up throwing most of my rice away because I really don't get how people can eat rice with chopsticks so quickly. Yesterday we took an hour and a half, remember... Besides, it wasn't much of a waste because the food was quite bad anyway. At least compared to yesterday's dinner.

As it turns out, the Ming Tombs is not really a place on the itinerary, rather, the name of the region that we were in. Scam. But never mind, learning experience.

The next 'commercial' was at this supermarket like place which sold just about everything. Supposedly it was selling Beijing-specific items, which actually includes roasted duck, packaged. And a whole assortment of sweets, which were arranged in quite an aesthetic fashion.

As we walked through the supermarket, however, things started getting stranger.

In case you can't read the label, that is 'ants' and 'cockroaches'. Er xing (disgusting).

Anyway, after that we still had one more commercial at another jade outlet where the shop supervisor taught us how to distinguish grade A, B and C jade products. For Singaporeans jade isn't a big deal so there is not much that we find interesting about this place.

And now, as it turns out, Chunmin is free to meet for dinner tonight, but the problem is us getting back to Qianmen on time. I think the Beijing traffic is going to make us really late, though...

*

Time: 12mn

Place: In bed.

My entry tonight will be short because I'm very tired already.

Chunmin wanted to take us to eat dim sum at some place that was quite famous, but after walking around and around for quite some time, we couldn't find the place.

After about a half hour of walking we gave up and decided to go to the famous duck place. The problem was that that place closed at 8pm and our walking around looking for dim sum meant we were late. So Wee Long and I took her to the place where we had dinner yesterday.

We ordered slightly differently today of course, but had just as fantastic a meal. Chunmin treated us in the end. So thankful, considering I think this trip to this country where credit card is foreign is one that we are running on a tight budget.

After dinner Wee Long goes up to the room (to watch a repeat telecast of yesterday's show) and I wait with Chunmin for a cab. This time we wait quite some time because idiots keep snatching our cab from ahead of us. It's amazing how I can so rapidly switch from loving this country to hating it.

Ultimately the show's over when I get back. But honestly it's more fun when you don't wait for it. Ok I'm falling sick thanks to this pollution and erratic weather so I think I better sleep soon, else I'll be sick tomorrow.

Goodnight!

Day 4

Time: 4.10pm

Place: Beijing subway between Summer palace and Qianmen

The time now is 4.10pm and we're on the subway back to Qianmen. Sooner or later the train is going to get unbearably crowded and it would not be feasible to continue this account. But, make hay while the sun shines.

The spirit of adventure took over us today and we decided to abandon our usual tactic to take cab to our destination. Besides, considering Beijing traffic it actually makes more sense to take the subway that shouldn't ever be stuck in traffic.

I woke up early actually, as always woken by the sun peeking into our room. But I was feeling terrible, worse than yesterday, in fact. So I went back to sleep. For the first time Wee Long tried to wake me up, but this was me feeling sick day so I didn't want to wake up.

When I finally woke up, it was already 10.30am and I wasn't feeling that much better. But I'd have to wake up at some point and it wasn't getting any better.

Then came our first real disappointment of the trip. We had waited a little too long to book the Hangzhou hostel that we wanted - it was now only available for Saturday. That was the top rated hostel in Hangzhou. The second rated one was also not really available - it was only available on Friday. So we decided to book both. That would ultimately involve shifting hostel halfway through. What a hassle. But we'll see how it goes, don't really have much better options. Lesson learnt, book early if you want the top rated hostel.

Back to the present, the train is getting a little more crowded but there's a guy who just did a pull-up on the train bar, so I think I can carry on writing.

Anyway our plan for today involved visiting the summer palace which is relatively far from the city centre. So that involved a long subway ride. Turned out it was about half hour. But the good news is that Beijing subway system is really advanced - comparable to Singapore, even, and its price is only 2 yuan. Which is about S$0.40.

Makes you wonder why it's 4 times more expensive in Singapore. At least.

The summer palace is vast, not as vast as the Imperial Palace, but big enough for us not to be able to finish seeing completely. We ended up stoning by the lakeside because I was too tired to walk too much.

The lake is really beautiful which means that there were a lot of people posing there. Which also meant that there was plenty of opportunity to catch people posing. This time, we had to take a picture.

Turns out there weren't that many, such a disappointment. No person taking 20 different shots. Maybe that one at the great wall was a special case.

Back to the present and the train never got too crowded. There is a crying baby on the train and pull up guy went to try to calm it down. Hmm..

Anyway I shall continue the story later because we have to change trains at the next stop.

*

Time: 11pm

Place: Qianmen Hostel for the last time.

We're back in the hostel after finally having our Peking Duck, and finally using the credit card, so now we're back on track with the cash flow issue.

By the time we left the summer palace it was already 3pm and we hadn't had lunch. We had, already, by then, decided that we had to go down to the Peking Duck place that Chunmin had recommended yesterday, which meant a light lunch was in order since that Peking Duck place closes at 8pm.

So we have our light lunch at McDonald's near the subway station. The variety is about the same as Singapore but the prices are comparable to the NUS prices. About $5 for a Big Mac. So that's why the Big Mac price is used as a nearly universal indicator of the cost of living in a city.

After that we took the subway back towards home (where the first half of the account was written). One more thing I should add to that. The platform on the subway station actually had a toilet available. A good idea to bring back to Singapore. We reached home with ample time to spare before 8pm so we rested awhile in the room before going out again.

Anyway, as I mentioned, we went to the famous Peking Duck place, and there was actually a waiting room for customers to wait to be seated.. Hence the half hour long wait was quite bearable.

The food was quite good, but considering that it actually cost S$20 and still had a long queue outside, it probably had to. Granted, it's probably the best place to have Peking Duck, so when our Dutch roommates ask us for suggestions on where to eat Peking Duck, we recommend that place. They actually said that they had wanted to ask us to go with them but they forgot, and we were leaving tomorrow. Such a shame, for that would have been a strange sight, and it would have driven Eugene crazy with jealousy when we related the story to him.

A major plus point for that Duck place was that it was very high class, and so it actually accepted credit card payment. So I signed for the food, and that's the story of how our cash supply's rapid depletion was stifled.

Anyway after dinner we went souvenir shopping at the shop near our hostel. Looking back, I think its probably more expensive that those unlicensed vendors on the street, but I managed to get some souvenirs after bargaining.

After we left the shop, Weelong related how the shopkeeper said that she understands that we are cheapskate because China people are too. I think Wee Long might have taken that slightly as an insult but hey, I'm cheapskate and proud of it. Plus I'm generous if need to be.

*

And so closes the night on our last day in Beijing. It's been truly enlightening. In many ways, Beijing reminds me of Singapore. High class infrastructure, low class people. I mean, I really don't know how they can generate so much spittle to cover the whole of the pavement. I can assure you, there probably isn't a pavement in Beijing that hasn't, at some point in time, been spat on.

But one stereotype that has not been proven right is that China people are ungracious. From my experience on the train, I think they're on par with Singaporeans, at least. Granted, I may not be looking at a representative sample. But so far, most people we bumped into on the street to ask for directions actually went out of the way to help us, sometimes even following us to make sure we didn't get lost. Probably what would have helped give them the ungracious appearance is the fact that they shout a lot, so it looks like they're very short tempered and impatient.

Anyway, Hangzhou is a smaller city, so we'll compare soon enough.

Goodnight!

Next: Chapter 2 - Hangzhou