I wrote this post two weeks ago, but have only just gotten around to posting it.
My second to last day in Beijing I decided to visit the Forbidden City. I’m really glad I went, as it holds an important place in history, but some of it did strike me as annoyingly over-touristy—especially the hawkers, who were mainly confined to just outside the walls but made their way in as well. The architecture reminded me a lot of Lama Temple—perhaps because they were both originally built as imperial residences. But I liked the atmosphere at Lama better—it was mostly people worshipping, burning incense and praying. . I have to say I was really surprised that there were so many active worshippers at Lama given the government’s persecution of religion in the past. I did notice an interesting retelling of history (re the Dalai Lama) inside one of the galleries in Lama Temple…The Forbidden City was expensive, too, since I sprang for an audioguide (as my guidebook suggested). And like most tourist attractions, basic things like bottles of water were really overpriced. The Forbidden City is huge, and while I enjoyed walking the length of it because it really gives you a sense of the vastness and imperial grandeur (and the further away from the entrance you get, the sparser the crowds), eventually I decided I couldn’t see *everything* and needed to save my feet for the Great Wall the next day. However, I got lost on the way out and ended up walking far longer and further than I intended.
One of my favourite parts of the Forbidden City was the cute little animal statues on the roofs.
Not sure if they were doing some renovation or some reconstruction of the Forbidden City.
Partially destroyed (or partially rebuilt?) arches in the Forbidden City's wall.
My favourite structure in the Forbidden City--a never completed fanciful building referred to as the Hall of Water or Crystal Palace. Begun in 1909, they envisioned a glass building with fish swimming in the walls! They ran out of money and then the dynasty fell. Now, the building remains partly completed and filled with rainwater. They got part of their wish.
After seeing the Forbidden City, I thought I’d try out a vegetarian restaurant that was somewhat nearby and which I hadn’t sampled yet, but I couldn’t find it. I thought I’d keep looking and just walk all the way down the street towards another subway station since some online reviews mentioned another veggie place nearby and I figured “how far apart could two subway stations be?” The answer: in Beijing, far! I walked for nearly and hour; it was over 4km between the two. So much for saving my feet. In the end I went back to the same restaurant I ate at every day in Beijing bar one—Tianchu Miaoxiang.
Great Wall (partly obscured by fog)
On my last full day in Beijing I went to the Great Wall. Even though I hate tours, I gave in and booked a “tour” through my hostel because public transport to the Great Wall sounded like a nightmare (one site said take the 936 bus, the other said take the 916. Both said that there are multiple 916 and 936 buses and it can be difficult making sure you got on the right one, especially since the bus maps don’t cover the Great Wall, and the bus driver will probably just laugh at you when you say that you’re headed there by by public bus.). This tour wasn’t so bad, which is why I agreed to it. The main reason I hate tours is they often don’t give you enough time at the place you’re mainly interested in seeing and instead ferry you around to different shopping sites and try to make you buy crap. In this “tour” a driver drove us to the wall, then left us there for about three hours. We went to the Mutianyu section, which is supposed to be much less crowded (and less Disneyworld-like) than the Badaling section, which sounds horrific to me. I met a group of four women who were also on the tour. They work in the travel industry and were in Beijing at a conference but decided to see Beijing on their own after the conference. We hung out for most of the day, and they shared their travel stories with me. So I learned what happens to backpackers when they grow up—they go on to work in the travel industry!
Unfortunately it was cloudy when we were at the Great Wall so it was hard to see much of it; we were hoping it might give it a romantic, misty look, but mainly it was just hard to view. Though it did look kind of cool. Apparently it’s often foggy there. I’m glad I went to the Great Wall, but like a lot of really famous sites, there’s no way it could live up to the expectations—it certainly didn’t look like the postcard-esque pictures I’d seen in books and online (probably because the fog prevented viewing), and they’ve done quite a lot of reconstruction so it doesn’t look that “authentic” (not that that’s a real thing anyway!). It’s sometimes hard to tell in China what’s authentic and what’s rebuilt/redone. I kind of like ruins so I would have liked it if it had been crumbling apart a bit. Apparently you can go to some of the more crumbling bits (well, semi-legally) but only if you hire a car. We got there really early (thanks to some seriously crazy and frightening driving on the way there) and we had the wall to ourselves for the first ten or fifteen minutes, which was nice. Later it was swamped with crowds—I can’t even imagine what Badaling looks like, which is much busier. The drive back to Beijing was equally frightening, but I think I understand driving rules in Beijing better: don’t use turn signals, don’t drive in your lane (best to drive in the middle, straddling the lane lines), and if you’re on a two-lane highway drive in the lane until oncoming traffic is just about to hit you, then dart back into your lane. Oh, and don’t install seatbelts in your car—you wouldn’t want your passengers to feel safe!
Cute dog on the Great Wall
My friends from the Great Wall in front of the hostel
After we got back from the Wall, we explored the neighbourhood a bit and went to a locl market before I had to go b ack to rest (I had to leave at 4:50am the following morning for my flight!).
My hostel, Red Lantern House
My street--a really well preserved hutong/traditional neighbourhood.
A few blocks from mine, but a world away, some of the homes in this hutong didn't even have roofs.
There were always lots of people selling fruits and veg in the hutong--off of carts or out of the backs of vans.
Local market stall
At the market: biggest bunch of bananas I've ever seen!
Nut and seed (and rock candy) stand at the market
I had my final dinner in Beijing at Tianchu, of course (I ate there every day in Beijing bar one). I think because I’d been there so many times, they gave me a cucumber starter and some fried rice on the house, which was lovely! After dinner I was determined to get back to the hostel and get to bed before my early flight, but I got distracted when I left the subway station and saw a group of about one hundred middle aged and senior citizen women dancing ballroom and Chinese hip hop in a bank car park. It looked interesting and so I tried to record some of it on video but it didn’t turn out well. So I figured the only sensible thing to do at that point would be to join them! No reason to have any sense of shame when I was leaving the country the next day anyway. I’m sure I looked funny—people actually stopped and stared at me, but it was fun!! And I made a new friend—the woman dancing next to me—who said I was good. 🙂
So that ended my two weeks in China. I’m really glad I went—China is rapidly changing and I’m sure it will look completely different in ten years. I’m glad I got to see it now, and I’m glad I got to stay in a hutong (traditional neighbourhood) before they disappear. It was really a fascinating experience. At the same time, it was incredibly challenging and very difficult at times. One of my friends commented to me before I started my trip that I was really just “jumping right in”, starting in China. I foolishly thought it would be relatively easy since I speak Mandarin, but China is so different culturally from what I am used to and it was really challenging. Though the hardest part to me wasn’t the squat toilets (I actually have come to prefer those to sit-down toilets), the spitting in the streets, or the pushing and shoving and “I come first” attitude on the subway, it was the political atmosphere (and maybe the atmosphere as well—my lungs had a hard time with the smog!). I felt like I had to watch my step the whole time, and I found it really hard. I got really frustrated with the number of blocked websites (such as Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and most blogs) as well. I’d estimate that every time I googled something I couldn’t access 50% of the links that popped up. I could access some WordPress blogs but not my own site, which was also really irritating. But I can’t even begin to imagine what it’s like for citizens who have to watch what they say, what they do, and what sites they visit all the time, and who will suffer much graver consequences if they make any missteps.
Caitlin Gu 