Oh, man... I've had absolutely no urge to write this blog recently. I've had quite a few holidays recently, so I haven't spent much time sitting in front of my computer. However, I've got a few hours spare at work today so my plan is to finish writing about China (only 4 months after I got back... that has to be some kind of record). Anyway, here we go.

So, I woke up early on my second day in Beijing and left the hotel. I hadn't eaten breakfast, so I figured I would pick something up as I was walking. My first stop was Tienanmen Square (which I will call T Square from now on because Tienanmen is too hard to spell). It was about 20 mins walk from my hotel and it was a very pleasant walk through some gardens beside a small frozen stream.


Beijing in winter is really not too busy (especially in the morning) and the weather was pretty good. Actually, I don't remember whether or not I mentioned this already, but the weather during my trip was fantastic. I don't think it rained or snowed once during the two and a half weeks I was away. Beijing was cold (around 1 or 2 degrees), but I had come from arctic Hokkaido so it wasn't bad at all. Amazingly, the sky was usually clear too. Beijing has a reputation for having filthy air, but honestly, I hardly noticed it while I was there (although I got a bit of a cough and runny nose towards the end of my trip, which was probably Beijing's fault). I'm sure it would be much worse in the warmer months.

After 20 mins walking, I arrived in front of the Forbidden palace, which is opposite T Square. There were some tourists around, but it was absolutely nothing compared to what it would have been in the high season. A few days ago, I happened to see photos from a trip to China taken by a teacher here in Japan. He went during May sometime, and the number of people visiting the square and palace was amazing. I was glad I went when I did.

I used the pedestrian subway to cross the massive road separating the palace and the square. I know I've mentioned this before, but one of the things I remember most about Beijing was the size of the roads. Massive.

I wasn't really sure what to expect at T Square. I'd seen footage from the massacre, and I'd seen pictures in books and on the internet. So when I got there, it was slightly underwhelming. I was expecting something ridiculously massive (especially considering the size of things in Beijing), something jaw dropping. But really, it's just a big square. There are some impressive buildings surrounding the square, and there's the mausoleum where you can see the embalmed Mao. T Square is an interesting place, but it kind of lacked atmosphere. It felt a bit stale.




After wandering around the square, I crossed back over to the Forbidden Palace. I used the phrase 'ridiculously massive' before, and I think that it is certainly appropriate for the Palace. The place is just huge. The walls are high, the buildings are big and the area of land that the palace takes up is just incredible. It doesn't seem so big when you drive past or when you see it on a map, but it really is huge.

On arrival at the front entrance, I was greeted with the face of Mao, just another small reminder that I was in a very foreign place. I couldn't imagine visiting a tourist sight in Australia that has portraits of the Queen or the PM at every entrance.



Much of the Forbidden Palace is simply a series of tunnels though the walls and courtyards between walls. First there's a tunnel...


Then there's a courtyard...

Then theres another tunnel, another courtyard, another tunnel etc... Probably the most surprising thing about the Palace is that you actually get to see a whole lot of it before you actually have to buy a ticket. After walking through numerous tunnels and courtyards and seeing lots of walls and gatehouses, I arrived in another courtyard where the army was doing a little training exercise.

Take a good look at these two picture. What is going on here? These pictures could possibly be a great example of the valiant troops of a mighty communist nation performing a spectacular drill in front of one of the most spectacular buildings in the world, in an attempt to inspire pride and patriotism among the Chinese spectators.


Or, if we look at this from another angle, it could be a bunch of guys who don't know one end of a rifle from the other, playing soldier on the basketball court in a courtyard of the Forbidden Palace. Yes, welcome to China...


Actually, this was quite an amusing scene. If you look carefully at the guy on the right in each of the photos, you'll notice that he seems a bit out of place. While the others were standing at attention, his concentration seemed to be lacking a little. He actually made a few wrong turns while they were parading around the square. It was like something out of Stripes or Sgt. Bilko.

Finally, after a fair bit of walking, I bought a ticket and entered the inner area of the palace. The inner area is a series of bridges, courtyards, pavilions, guest rooms, open areas, narrow passages and even some gardens. There are some displays of ancient weapons, money, clothes etc., and a lot of the rooms remained untouched (original furniture, paintings, etc.). There is a lot of information available about the things that went on in the the palace. Signs will tell you that 'in 1602, Shu Xi stayed in this room while he composed the Seven Springs poem, then in 1608, while he was having tea with a guy who was cousin to the 2nd constable of Wu Chu province blah, blah, blah...'. The place is definitely worth visiting, but it would take weeks to see everything. I walked pretty much straight through from south to north, with a few minor detours, and it took about an hour and a half. I estimate that I would have seen about 5% of what was there. Again, I have to mention that I was glad that I went during winter because the crowds were comparatively small. The only problem was that a lot of the buildings were undergoing repair, which ruined the atmosphere a little. Here are a selection of photos:








Here's a good example of some Chinglish. Read the sign.







Finally, I came out the other side of the palace.
I was pretty tired, so I sat down for a rest. As usual, I was approached by a whole lot of people trying to sell various souvenirs and other junk. While I was politely ignoring them, a strange thing happened. Suddenly, there was a murmur, then some shouting, then some screaming, then people started running in every direction. It was if someone had shouted 'Bomb! Bomb!' or something like that. I wish I had had my camera ready, but it was in my bag at the time. I took a shot after everyone had disappeared, so you can compare it with the previous shot. Notice the difference in the number of people. Hmm.
Anyway, as I sat munching on a chocolate bar, the reason for the mass panic became apparent as the police rolled up in their golf cart. I guess all those people selling stuff really shouldn't have been selling stuff.

While I was having a break, I checked the map. I discovered that the Hutongs (the traditional back alley district of Beijing) were only a couple of kms away, so I decided to make them my next stop. While I was walking I got to see more of Bejing's 'real' areas, the places where tourists don't usually go. I got to see shops, schoools, houses, people having a haircut on the street, kids going home from school (even though it was only midday - lucky kids...), people fishing in a lake, people going through other people's trash and lots of other interesting things. As I was walking, I also discovered that I was pretty hungry. I had skipped breakfast planning to pick something up while I was walking, but amazingly I hadn't seen anywhere to get something that actually looked edible. Having walked a very long way without having anything to eat, I was starting to feel pretty tired and lethargic. Consequently, I didn't really feel like taking my camera out of my bag, so I missed out on a lot of great shots of the Hutongs. Basically, the Hutongs are just a series of narrow walled alleys and old houses. The area is dirty and drab, but it is also a very interesting place to visit. Some of the alleys are amazing, and it gives you a glimpse of what life has been like in China over the past few centuries.




After a while, I really started to struggle. I needed something to eat, and I needed it badly. A few days before I had been reading through my Beijing guide book. One of the restaurants mentioned in the book was a place called Hutong Pizza. The guidebook said it was the best pizza in China (whatever that means). While I was walking I started thinking about how good a pizza would be at that moment. I pulled out the guidebook and checked the entry. There was an address, but the location wasn't shown on the map. An address was useless to me as there were no street signs and the streets weren't named on the map. I knew I had almost no chance of finding the pizza restaurant by just wandering around. The Hutongs are a very big place (many sq. kms.) and the alleys twist and turn. It's like a rabbit warren.

So, I but my guidebook back in my bag and started wandering. As I passed the next side alley (literally the next alley - about 5 seconds after I started walking) I noticed a faded red sign sticking out the side of another alley in the distance. The sign could have been for anything (I couldn't read it at that distance), but I decided to go look anyway. Amazingly, it was a sign for the Hutong Pizza restaurant. I can't explain how much of a minor miracle this was. I was starving, wandering around in a maze in the middle of Beijing, thinking about pizza, when all of a sudden I found a pizza restaurant. It was like finding a needle in a stack of haystacks.




I went in to the restaurant just as another group of tourists was entering (a couple of Chinese and a foreign guy). Apart from us, the small restaurant was empty. I ordered a large pizza and a coke, and after an agonizingly long wait my meal arrived. My god... it was one of the best pizzas I've ever had. It was big, hot and delicious. There was absolutely nothing Chinese about it. It was a real pizza. It was so good that my mouth is watering just thinking about it...

After the absolutely awesome meal, I started walking again. After about 20 mins of walking through the maze, I popped out the side of the Hutong and found myself in front of the Bell and Drum Towers. They are two very old towers, one with bells and one with drums. I picked the drum tower (because it was closest), bought a ticket and made my way up the very narrow and steep staircase. The drum tower was only mildly interesting, but it offered a great view of the area that I had just been wandering through.










It was early afternoon, and usually at this time of the day I would head back to my hotel for a break. But, fuelled with a whole pizza, I was full of energy and decided to press on. I pulled out my map and guidebook again. Hmm... what to do next... As I was reading, I had a great idea. I'm in China - why not go see some pandas. The Beijing Zoo was too far to walk, so I decided to take a cab instead. I scribbled down the Chinese characters for 'Beijing Zoo' (yes, learning Japanese can be useful sometimes) and hailed a cab. There was some broken Chinese and nodding and pointing and smiling and about 20 mins later (and at the huge cost of about $2) I was at the Beijing Zoo. I only really wanted to see the pandas, so I bought an entry ticket for the zoo and the panda enclosure and went in.

Even though Beijing Zoo is apparently one of the better zoos in China, some of the enclosures are still pretty bad. The Panda house was ok, but I don't really envy the pandas living there. It was fairly cramped, and the five pandas there were separated into different enclosures (three inside and two outside). Inside, there was a mummy panda, a daddy panda and a baby panda. The mummy and daddy spent my whole visit asleep, but the baby panda did a great job of playing up for the crowd (a busload of Japanese tourists just happened to arrive as I did). It walked around, sat on its rocking chair, sat on its rocking chair upside-down (oh, man... the crowd went bananas when it did that - 'Eeee! Look! It's upside-down! It's so cute!') and played on its own little playground. I went outside just as one of the pandas was having feeding time. The keeper tossed a whole lot of stuff at the panda (yes, 'AT the panda' not 'TO the panda') and it sat around munching on a bamboo root. It was actually quite interesting to watch.

Mummy panda.
Baby panda eating its own foot.
Baby panda playing on the rocking chair.
Baby panda falling off the rocking chair.
Daddy panda taking a nap (or possibly dead).
Hey, that's not a panda.
Outside panda relaxing on the playground.
'Uhh, don't make me get up for lunch...'
'Oh, ok, if I have to.'
Lunch.

That's good bamboo root.Beware! We don't want any suddenness happening!

After the pandas I wandered around the zoo for a little while. It was just your typical zoo. There were lots of animals including ducks...

and monkeys with afros. I like monkeys.

After the zoo caught a taxi back to the hotel for a break. While I was looking through one of the brochures left in my hotel I came across a great idea for the evening, the Beijing Acrobatic Troupe. So, at about 6 o'clock I went off to an old western style theater that is the home of the Beijing acrobats. I bought a ticket and some snacks and joined about 300 other people (about half were foreigners) in the theater. The show was about an hour and a half long and it was great. I'd definitely recommend it for people visiting Beijing. I took a lot of photos, and though I can't remember all the acts, I'll do my best to describe some of the pictures.


If you look carefully, there's a guy flying through the air.
Four people standing on shoulders.
Bendy ladies. Some of this was hard to watch...
More bendy.
I have no idea.
Balancing on rollers.
Umm...
Umm...
Jumping through hoops.
Lots of people on a bike.
Riding a bike.
Outisde the theater.
After this I probably got something to eat and then went back to my hotel. Actually, I can't remember, so we'll just pretend that I did. Overall, this was the best day of my trip - T Square, Forbidden City, Hutong, Pizza, Pandas and a great night show.

---

Beijing Day 3. I woke up early again, skipped breakfast again and headed out to a bus station on the other side of the city. My goal was to find a bus to take me to the Great Wall. Unfortunately, as it was low season there were few buses (and I think they all left very early in the morning anyway - I was too late). As I arrived at the bus station I was accosted by this private driver who wanted to drive me to the wall. I ignored him and continued searching for the Great Wall bus. After I couldn't find one, I was standing around wondering what to do when the same guy approached me.

"Come on! I take you to wall! Cheap, cheap!"

This time I decided to hear him out. He offered to drive me there in his private car, wait for me while I climbed the wall, then drive me back, all expenses paid. He quoted a price, and we bargained a little. After a little while I gave up, agreed to a price and we left. There are three areas of the wall that are accessible from Beijing. I chose to visit Mutianyu, a section of the wall about 70km north of Beijing. Mutianyu was advertised as being a less touristy, more rugged part of the wall, which appealed to me.

It was great having my own personal chauffeur. I just sat in the back of the car and enjoyed the scenery while the diver concentrated on getting us there. The Beijing suburbs are pretty much the same as any big city, but once you get on the freeway and get out of the city it becomes very rural very quickly. Actually, rural is probably not the best word. Desolate is a better word. We drove on wide concrete roads which were almost empty. We passed barren field after barren field. There were farmhouses and factories scattered here and there, but mostly it was quiet. It was such an amazing change from Beijing.

We passed through a few small towns which were very much like the other small towns I had seen in China - dirty and drab, but functional. Occasionally we passed something completely out of place, like a brand new colorful jungle gym in a small park in the middle of nowhere. All the people I saw seemed to be content going about their daily business. Some people were obviously working, doing things like pulling around a cart filled with fruit or tending flowers in a small garden, while others just seemed to be passing time.

As we got nearer the wall the terrain changed. It suddenly got very rugged and mountainous. When I started seeing some more restaurants and souvenir shops than I would expect to see on a mountain, I assumed we were getting close. Finally, at around 11 o'clock we arrived. The driver explained where he would park, then he took me off to get a ticket. As it was low season, there were very few people there. Actually, there were more people running souvenir stalls than there were tourists. The ticket booth was closed, which confused my driver a little, but finally we found a place to get a ticket. The ticket was actually a little DVD which you swipe on the turnstile for entry, then take home as a souvenir.

After going through the gate I jumped on a chairlift to take me up the mountain. The first thing that surprised me was how high up the mountain the wall is built. This section of the wall is literally built right across the top of a very steep mountain. The second thing that surprised me was the steepness of the wall. Some sections are so steep that you can climb up using your hands and feet. I'd been doing plenty of walking during my trip, but walking just a few hundred meters along the wall was an absolute killer. It was so steep that other people were stopping every couple of minutes for a break.

However, I pushed on. I passed through gatehouses and turrets and walked for a good half an hour before I came to one end of this section of the wall (you can only walk on certain sections). I sat down and had a snack while I enjoyed the awesome scenery. It was a surreal moment. Not only was I in China on the Great Wall, but I pretty much had the whole wall to myself. There were very few tourists, and many gave up when the wall got too steep.

I'd always wondered what it would be like to see the Great Wall. I always fascinated by how something as simple as a wall could be considered such an amazing achievement. I guess I went there planning to be underwhelmed (hey, it's just a wall!), so I was pleasantly surprised by my experience.

It is, in fact, just a wall. It's not even that high in most places. You could probably climb over it without too much trouble. The trouble comes when you see where the wall is. It is on top of a mountain. On each side of the wall is a steep drop and more rugged terrain. There is no way an army could get within 10kms of the wall without being seen. And even if they did, they would expend so much energy getting up the mountain that by the time they reached the wall they could be turned back with very little effort. It really is an incredible construction, especially when you consider the length of it. It must have taken so much effort to build. Just thinking about it makes me tired.

After a while I headed back to the chairlift. Along the way I met a guy who was selling drinks and snack. He gave me a sob story about how he has to walk from his home in Inner Mongolia every day just to climb the wall and sell stuff to tourists.

'Inner Mongolia?', I asked.
'Yeah', he said. He pointed over one side of the wall. 'China.' He pointed over the other side of the wall. 'Inner Mongolia.'
'Okay...'

So, I bought an overpriced chocolate bar and an overpriced drink, and in return the guy took a picture of me.

After that, I decided to head back to the car. I had taken a chairlift up the mountain, but there was a much better way to get down - a toboggan ride! Just like Gumbuya Park, where the city meets the country... The toboggan course was a couple of kms long. There were a few other tourists waiting in line when I arrived. The lady running the toboggans was pissed off about something and she was screaming at her assistant. Nobody really knew what was going on. After a while the assistant left and the lady started sending us down one at a time. She explained how to drive the toboggan ('Push this! No slow! You go now!') and sent us on our way. She got angry at a few people who were going too slowly, then it was my turn. I let the person in front of me get a good couple of hundred meters ahead, then I pushed hard on the stick and rolled away. It was a fun ride and I was able to pick up a fair amount of speed, until about 1/3 of the way down when I ran into a massive traffic jam. Somebody either wasn't using there stick properly or had a faulty toboggan. Either way, they were going way too slowly. The rest of the ride was done at a snails pace, which gave me time to have a chat with the people in front and behind. As we reached the terminus, the lady there was even more pissed than the lady at the top. 'You push hard! No go slow! Slow bad!!', she shouted at the guy who was holding everyone up.

I wandered back down to the car park, found my driver and headed back to town. When we arrived back, I payed the driver and he tried to make me pay for the road tolls too. I politely told him to get stuffed, but he was happy and didn't try more than once. This suggests to me that I probably paid too much in the first place, but I'm not too worried. I think it cost about $35 all up, which is dirt cheap for a private chauffeur for half a day. If I'd gone in a group it would have worked out even cheaper. Maybe next time.

Here are some of the photos I took:
















After that, I had a meal, did some shopping, got a train ticket for the next day and then headed back to the hotel. It was uneventful, but I still had a good time. And I took a picture of one of the strangest stations I've ever seen when I bought a train ticket. It was like a castle:



Overall, this was a great day and I would certainly recommend getting a private car and visiting the wall if you're ever in Beijing.