China - Beijing stopover en route to Europe

We have just spent 4 days in Beijing on a stopover on the way to Europe - our reflections of that busy busy city are:
The Sights - We managed to see most of the tourist sights in Beijing – the Great Wall is amazing, snaking its way across the mountain tops for miles as far as you can see. There are 3 main sections you can reach from Beijing, and we chose the Mutyianu part which is about 60kms away and has a gondola to the top making it easy to get up to the best photo taking areas ( you can walk up but in 35 degree heat its probably not a good idea)

for more photos click here

. The wall itself was originally 6000kms long and was built to keep out the mongol invadors from Beijing. It has recently been restored in several areas and understandably is now one of the world's top tourist attractions.
The day we went there was fine and we could see the Beijing skyline in the distance. You could almost imagine the soldiers keeping guard and fighting off the invading hordes from the wall. Nowadays it is full of tourists and the inevitable pushy vendors trying to sell cheap junk at inflated prices – a bottle of cold water is 4 yuan at the bottom and 30 yuan at the top and you had to physically force your way past the t-shirt guys on the way down – if you paused for a moment or showed any interest in what they had, they pounced. On the day we visited a group of USA singers we there and they did an impromptu performance which made the whole scene quite surreal. The Forbidden City was another unforgetable experience – the way the Emperors must have lived in their own palace, spread over about 50 acres, with countless guards, officials,coutesans and concubines all worshipping the ground they stood on, doing whatever the Emperor decreed would have been amazing – the buildings were large, with the typical Chinese style rooves, surrounded by huge courtyards where the Emperor conducted special events with his people. Everything seemed larger than life – the statues, the urns where they kept water in case of fire, the seats, the stairways, everything – they even had large stone carvings which had been brought to the palace on iced roads in winter ( the only way they could transport such large pieces in those days). The Summer Palace was another must visit – right on the outskirts of Beijing, this is a large garden like area around a magnificent lake – heaps of chinese style temples, statues, bridges, boats and theatres. One of the things that hit home to us was that so many of the main buildings and temples had been burnt to the ground by invading Anglo-French forces in the 1800's yet they had been rebuilt – NZ history doesn't even rate compared with this stuff!

The Crowds – in a city of 20 million, you could expect people to be a bit pushy – but we were startled with the noise ( everyone seems to yell and there is constant microphone chatter going on), the fact that people would just push in front of you in a queue ( there was a real push and shove going on at the queue for the Forbidden City – like an in all brawl to pay your money at the counter for the entrance ticket!) and there were people everywhere we went – every evening there were crowds outside the Railway station just milling about or sitting down playing cards or sleeping. The Underground is always busy but sometimes you were being pushed and shoved to get on and off the train – quite often you had to fight your way off the train as the crowds coming on pushed you back. I guess that its more a main city thing but quite often we would be consulting our map trying to work out where we were or which way to go, but no-one ever stopped and offered to assist. Most of the women dressed up smartly to go shopping and we didn't see too many beggars – a few, but not in your face.We never felt unsafe or vulnerable anywhere, and although there were plenty of touts about ( wanting to take you to the Art gallery or act as a guide to something – the trick was that you would end up in a shop somwhere after the tour where there would be pressure to buy ) we didn't get ripped off. Our Great Wall visit was accessed through a tout, and although we were taken to shops ( Jade factory, Silk warehouse, Tea ceremony ) the only real pressure was applied at a “free” foot massage at an unexpected stop ( next to the Olympic games venue – for some degree of credibility) where I was diagnosed with “thick” blood by a visiting Professor all the way from Tibet and the only cure was a bottle of pills for $400 a month for 3 months – when that was refused , other potions and natural remedies were offered but most of our group ( with the exception of one family's grandma who succumbed) withstood the high pressure selling and escaped with our money. The guides obviously got kickbacks from anything that was bought and I guess we were lucky that Grandma was happy to buy a few things to save face for our group.

The Shopping – we eventually found our way to Silk Street market after looking at a few department stores and being horrified by the prices – Silk Street market was more like what I thought Beijing would have more of – where you could test your bargaining skills!! I Googled the Beijing guide to bargaining before we set out and so knew the rules – a. ask their price b. laugh then say “cheaper” c. They will come down about 20%, d. laugh again, shake your head and say “cheaper”. e. They will try and get you to name a price so offer a ridiculously low price ( about 10% of their original price), they will act stunned, but will drop their price again. f. increase your price by a small amount, then when the gap still seems insurmountable, start to walk away – their price will suddenly drop by a large amount, but keep walking – if they call you back (usualy by yelling) somewhere near your price, then negotiate that last bit, otherwise walk away as you have obviously been too cheap – then you know where to start at the next stall...it works a treat. Carolyn thought I was being far too unreasonable and harsh – but we got what we wanted at very cheap prices. You just have to be firm and keep smiling – and treat it like a game..

The food – we managed 4 days without any tummy bugs so that says something – we used local restaurants and some of it was “point at the picture” stuff but it was all edible, even if a little strange tasting. The breakfast at the hotel was interesting – lots of strange looking stuff and so we stuck with boiled eggs, toast ( the bread tasted a bit like white cardboard), and some vegetables. During the day we would buy water, coke and icypoles whilst walking around in the 35 degree heat, and have a snack at lunchtime – kebabs or noodles.

The Driving – well, what a shambles – I'm glad we weren't trying to ride through Beijing. We'd never have survived. Seems that the most important device is the horn – blast it as long and as loud as you can, and anything goes. Our driver to the Great wall took us on back roads and often passed on blind corners, cut in front of bicycles and ignored any pedestrians – at one stage it was only at the last minute did he slam on the brakes to avoid hitting a motorbike from behind, while we all braced ourselves in the back – the larger you are, the more rights you seem to have in the traffic. Its a place where electric bicycles compete with lorries for right of way – we didn't see too many accidents but enough to know that they occur frequently.

So, in summary, our visit to Beijing was great fun, we saw heaps of interesting stuff, didn't get into any strife and overall experienced a different culture and one which is already one of the world's largest. It already feels like we've been away a long time and its less than a week!! And Europe awaits – bring it on....