Beijing, China

In September, 2005, I (I'm Glenn, in case you just dropped in via a search engine) took a trip to China. It was my second trip to Beijing, as I had been there for a couple days with my wife in 1990. To tell the truth, we thought the place was a filthy and pretty disgusting place back then, but believe me, it has really matured since then.

This time I was traveling with my buddy Scott. We flew into Shanghai, took the night train up to Beijing, and then flew home to Tokyo from Beijing.

If you're looking for expert commentary in English on the history and back alleys of Beijing, you won't find that here, as I only spent a couple of days in the city. However, if you would like to read the impressions of a casual visitor and see a few pictures of the city and Great Wall, you've come to the right place.

We left a hot and sticky Shanghai at about 7:00 at night and arrived in a cool and overcast Beijing at about 7:00 am the next day. The station has a huge plaza in front of it that had its fair share of vendors and people lying on cardboard pallets, apparently where they had spent the night. Out at the street were long lines of people waiting for too-infrequent taxis. By all appearances, we were going to spend a good long time there in line if we didn't do something. Touts kept approaching us with offers of personal taxi service, but since we didn't know how far away our room reservation was, we didn't know how much we should pay. In the end, we decided to just take the pedestrian bridge across the street and keep walking until we got far enough to just hail a metered cab.

Not long after we got over the bridge, a lady taxi driver parked on the sidewalk looked at our reservation and offered to take us to the hotel for much less than the touts across the street. No meter but we went for it.

As it turned out, we were an honest 90-second cab ride away, shorter had it not been for the one-way streets! At least we had gotten to first base - standing at a check-in counter.

Let me trot out a little Google Earth map here to help us get our bearings. This is the heart of Beijing and where we did most of our walking. Our hotel was just a block north of the large east-west boulevard that separates Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Also within walking distance was the Temple of Heaven.

We stayed at a place called the Oriental Peace Hotel. I can't give it raves, but it was clean, in an OK location, and it worked for us. Click to enlarge.

We started out by taking a walk down to the Forbidden City. It was still overcast and less than ideal for picture taking, but we didn't know what the future would bring. So here are the overcast pics.

I didn't learn until after I was back in Tokyo that Mao is embalmed and on display a la Lenin in Red Square. They say he's somewhere her in front in this entrance gate. That will give me an excuse to go back some day.

Scott and I refer to this day as "The day we peeled the onion." This is because the Forbidden City is a series of buildings, all looking like variations on a theme, that go back, and back, and back, and back. To illustrate what I mean, here are two more. As you can see, they are all quite similar in appearance.

Finally, rather than finding another courtyard and pagoda roofed building, we were greeted by the Emperor's garden. We were wondering what the Emperor had for lunch, as we had been walking all morning. In the corner of the garden we found a little restaurant, or rather a small shop with a few tables selling instant noodles with hot water available.

While we were slurping our noodles, we started talking to a young American guy who told us about a tour of the Great Wall that takes you to a section of unrestored wall, drops you off, and picks you up 10 kilometers away. At the end, you can slide down off the wall on a cable. He got our interest piqued (more about that later...)

If you persist, you will eventually come out the other end of the Forbidden City. Across the street is Jingshan Park with its imposing hill and temple. Somehow I had missed this on my first trip to Beijing, so this time I walked to the top of it to get a view from perhaps the highest point in the city.

Looking back across the street at the Forbiddden City's rear entrance, you get an appreciation for how many buildings you have just walked through.

We kind of followed our noses to the Temple of Heaven. After we had paid our money and entered the grounds, we were shocked to find that it was undergoing renovations and it had scaffolding enclosing it like a cocoon! Of course there are a million pictures of it all over the Web, but to print one of it here I'll dig back into my photo albums and scan the one that I took on my first visit in 1990.

There is another round building on the grounds whch is smaller and less impressive, yet it has a circular wall build around it that is known for its great acoustic properties. In 1990, the tourists all had their ears to the wall and were trying to throw their voices around it, but now there are barriers that keep the public at a distance.

I probably had the most fun at a place near our hotel that had a big sign that read, "Traditional Culture and Custom Alley" On one side were the souvenir shops, pictured here, and on the other side, beyond those red hanging lanterns, were the eateries. If you wanted a Chairman Mao hat, wind chimes, cigarette lighter, etc., this was the place. Aim for 1/3 third of the first price given.

I especially enjoyed coming here at night when the banners, barkers, and smells of food made it an exciting rush to the senses. The green lights you see down at the end are the stage where Chinese opera singers serenaded the tourists nightly. This was a totally manufactured environment only one notch closer to reality than Disneyland, but a good place to bring a camera and appetite nonetheless.

With the reality of Mc Donald's only a block away from where this picture was taken, I preferred Disneyland.

The place that brought us back every night to eat, however, was the East Family restaruant, just a block from our hotel.

The dumplings were delicious, the Tsing Tao beer was cold, and the servers were friendly and cuter than bugs' ears. We found all we needed at the East Family.

I don't want to just print a bunch of postcard shots, so let's add a typical street scene. One day I rented a bicycle from the local youth hostel and rode it all over the city. I found some pretty good shopping south of Tiananmen Square in stores such as these. You've got to bargain for everything in Beijing, as far as I can tell, even in places such as electronics shops that have price tags in front of their MP3 players, etc. I mean, you wouldn't dream of walkng into the electronics section of a Kmart and offering them 1/3 of the marked price of a Sony Memory Stick, but that's exactly what I did and it worked. Give it a try. Of course, there's no way that was a real Memory Stick, either, but it did hold these pictures.

OK, let's get to the mandatory Great Wall pics already. We booked a trip up to the Wall through the Eastern Morning Sun Youth Hostel. You can contact Fu Wen Jie there in advance, if you like, at fu@easytour.com.cn. We had to be on this van by 7:00 am with this group of twentysomethings. By the time we went around to several hotels and then made a 45-minute stop in front of the Hard Rock Cafe for no apparent reason, we finally made the 3-hour journey to the wall.

Now when we visited the Wall in 1990, our driver let us off in the parking lot, we went up past the "Great Wall Souvenirs Store," and we fought with the crowds until we took a few shots of each other and went back to the car. This time was a bit different.

We had a good, long hike from the bus just to get to the Wall, and once there, we had no idea whether to start walking left or right. We were immediately engaged by some local people selling picture books and postcards, and they told us that we should walk to the left. We looked out over the countryside, and this is what we saw. Yes, that was where we were going. There were 6 miles of broken steps awaiting us, and little else.

Word to the wise - if you try this hike, have a good breakfast, bring lots of water, and be in shape!

Before too long at all, reality began to set in. Half of the people my age that I work with take the elevator to the second floor.

What the HELL was I thinking?

At least it was a beautiful day, with the temperature around 70 F. And when it was over, no matter how badly my legs were quivering, I would have great pictures and a better story to tell.

So we spent the next 6 hours on a Stairmaster, in a manner of speaking, and by the time we got to the finish line, the sun was getting pretty low. We looked back with a feelings of pride and satisfaction and thought, "We did it!" Then we looked forward and saw Chinese men in uniform asking for our "exit fee." "They've got you coming and going" is not just a hollow cliché in China. Hey, we weren't going to turn around and go back, that's for sure. And beyond the men was a sign that read, "Parking lot 1.5 km." Another 1.5 km? I don't think so.. I was bushed.

We remembered the story that young American had told us over instant noodles about the cable ride down off the Wall. It was time to reach into the back pocket one more time.

OK, here's the first time I've done this. I've always just chosen some pictures and scanned them for this web site, and the also-rans have sat in my photo album. Since they're all taken in digital now anyway, I've put Scott's and my pictures of the Great Wall together and used Picasa to make a web page of them. So click this link if you would like to see a lot more pictures of the Great Wall.

Scott went first. For these things, you need a video, not a snapshot, and I was the one carrying the video camera. So here's a frame grab off my video. When you get to the bottom on the opposite bank of the river, a motor boat putts out to get you and takes you on a tranquil little ride to the vans for the 3-hour ride back to Beijing. Still no hint of food, but you can sit and relax.

In short, it's a great hike, but be in shape and be prepared. Take plenty of sun block, too.

Well, that's about as deep as we got into Beijing. In 2005, I found Beijing vastly cleaner and more modern than I did in 1990. Beijing is easy and cheap to get around in, and has lots of things to see. Some people went out of their way to help us, while others grated on my nerves. So what else is new?

In 1990, the airport was a wooden building. Our taxi had a fender bender accident on the way to the airport and finally got us there at departure time for our international flight. Far from having to wait for the next flight, the check-in counter hadn't even opened yet!

In 2005, my cab driver yelled at me for getting the wheels of my suitcase on his clean back seat and took me to an airport as beautiful and modern as any in the world. In short, if you want to see your mind's eye of China, you've got to go somewhere other than the big cities, or be satisfied with the little artificial tourist area I showed you. Otherwise, I hear western China is quite an adventure. Enjoy your trip!