We stayed at a Novotel, which is an Asian hotel chain. We were given a very nice and clean room, and although we paid for it quite a while ago and my memory is a little foggy, I don't think it cost us more than $50 CAD a night.
The government and their one child policy even thoughtfully provided some condoms for our room.It was after 10pm by the time we dropped off our bags and we were feeling snacky. The hotel was a 5 minute walk from a huge shopping area, but of course we walked in the opposite direction around some dark residential streets looking for a convenience store, and we never found one. In Korea, Taiwan and Japan convenience stores are on every street corner. They are pretty much the backbone of society: they are where you pay all your bills, re-fill your transit card, buy your alcohol and your groceries. In Beijing we only saw ONE convenience store during our whole trip and that was 3 days into the holiday an hour before leaving. So for a snack on our first night in Beijing we wound up at a small bakery where I got a slice of pizza that was surprisingly stuffed with sweet fish floss. Ack!
The next morning we woke up earlier than expected (probably thanks to the 1 hour time zone difference) so we went down to our hotel's restaurant for the daily free breakfast buffet. It was amazing the amount of food that we had to choose from, and we made a point to go back each morning to fill up on free yumminess. It was kind of rainy when we woke up and since it was the only day of our trip forecasted to be wet, we decided our first sightseeing destination would an indoor sight... a place that really put China on the map in today's economy. Of course I'm talking about...
...Wal-Mart! It had been well over a year since we'd stepped foot into a Wal-Mart and in a strange (sad!) way it felt a bit like being home again. Of course, the products for sale were totally different than you'd find in a store at home, but the brands and signs were all the same- there were still racks and racks of ugly Penmans and 725 Originals clothes, smiley face signs, and bags of Great Value candy and fish floss. Most importantly, this was a chance to see what kind of stuff we could buy in China that we can't buy in Korea. Imported goods are expensive in Korea so we wanted to stock up on some things for our apartment. We got boxes of Crest toothpaste for less than a dollar a piece ($7 in Korea) and bags of Lays chips for 60 cents ($5 in Korea). But the things that are the same as at home aren't nearly as interesting as the things that are different, like...
...a huge dried meat section including full dried duck bodies. Beak jerkey, anyone?
The meat section had a lot more organs on sale than in Korea. Koreans don't really eat organ meat, but we were used to this from Taiwan. Scoop yer own necks in the photo above.
In the seafood section you could catch your choice of fish with the net provided. There were also barrels full of live crabs that you could pick out with a set of tongs, except the tongs are stored IN the barrel with the crabs and it looked like it would be pretty pinchy trying to get ahold of them.
They sold live cookin' turtles too, although at the rate they were bleeding openly into the water it didn't seem like they'd be alive for long.
I mentioned that we bought a bunch of Lays chips, but the flavors were quite different than the ones we're used to. Some of the strangey flavors were: seaweed, red meat, cucumber and blueberry. Blueberry chips! We bought a bag and they were absolutely inedible. At first they tasted like pie but the aftertaste was of a strong menthol mint. At least they cleaned out my sinuses before I threw them in the trash.
The Wal-Mart also had a Dairy Queen, another place that we hadn't been to in a year, so we both got Moolattes and waddled around the store with them just like old times.
By the time we left Wal-Mart and dropped our bags at the hotel the sun had started to come out so we decided to visit the Temple of Heaven for the afternoon. The Temple of Heaven- it just sounds like a pleasant place to visit, doesn't it? It only took about 20 minutes to walk there from our hotel. We first had to pay admission to a huge park (which surrounded the temple) and then we paid a second admission to actually be able to get beyond the walled gate surrounding the temple. This is where Chinese would traditionally make sacrifices and pray for a good harvest. It was brightly colored and beautiful to look at. I wouldn't say that it is a particularly interesting sight, but I've seen a crapload of temples in the last couple of years so I think I'm a bit templed-out. When we left the temple we were barraged by vendors trying to sell us postcards, replica temples make out of matchsticks and offering to take our picture in front of the temple, but we didn't buy anything... though I kind of regret passing on the matchstick temple replica.
Look closely at the ass of the child in the above photo. I took this picture at the park around the temple, but I could have taken it anywhere. Everywhere we went, most children under the age of 2 or 3 walked around with splits in the crotch of their pants and their parents just let them piss and crap anywhere. Can you imagine? Mel said she even saw a kid peeing on the floor inside a women's washroom. Her mother couldn't even be bothered to sit her on a toilet less than a foot away. On a related note, the bathrooms in Beijing were really disgusting. There was almost never any toilet paper provided, usually no running water and never any soap. And they were filthy. Korea is a very clean place, but you really had to watch where you stepped in Beijing.
After we left the temple we went to 85 Degrees, which is a chain of cafes that we used to go to all the time in Taiwan. I wanted to get my old favorite, the juicy peach smoothie, but it wasn't on the menu so I got a "purple treasures" smoothie. It tasted like ice blended with a slice of whole wheat bread. It was no treasure.
In the evening we took the subway to the Olympic Park, where the 2008 Olympics were held. The subways are very secure in Beijing, and everyone's bags are x-rayed before they can go on the train.
Olympic Park. As we walked through the main pathway we were constantly stopped by vendors offering to take our picture or sell us some glowing spinny toy, but we weren't really interested in what they were selling. Eventually we came across a guy that was selling a toy army guy that crawled around while holding a Chinese flag. It was kind of cool. We made a deal to buy it for a dollar and then suddenly he looked up, said "just a moment" and ran off with all his merchandise. For a second we were confused but then we saw a police vehicle drive by and realized it must be illegal for him to be selling his goods there. This was something that happened a lot at the markets in Taiwan too. One thing about Beijing is that you really notice what a police state it is. There are cops everywhere. We never saw the vendor again, and I still wish I'd gotten that toy!
The Water Cube, where all the Olympic swimming events took place.
It was probably one of the coolest buildings I've ever seen. I just wanted to poke at the walls but there was a moat and a chain link fence around it. Damn.
The Birds Nest building, where most of the important ceremonies took place. It's cool that the people of Beijing now have this beautiful open space to enjoy, because it really is a nice area to hang out.
On the way back to the hotel we got a quick meal at KFC and they had mashed potatoes and gravy! I can't even remember the last time I had mashed potatoes and gravy, and although it was served in a cup the size of a thimble, it tasted really good.
We'd planned to do most of our sightseeing on our own, but we thought we'd take an organized tour to see the Great Wall. Unfortunately when we looked into it our hotel only offered one kind of tour which cost almost $100, didn't include lunch and we'd have to spend a lot of time at a factory and some tea house which the tour company earns commission on. We decided we'd try to do it on our own and it could have gone horribly wrong but it was fine and I'm so glad we did it our way. We just took a city bus there and it only cost $6 each way. The hardest part was finding the bus station but even that was pretty easy. We knew we were going the right way because the closer we got the more vendors there were telling us we were going the wrong way and suggesting that we take their overpriced tour instead. Thanks, guys!
When we arrived (we went to the Mutianyu section of the wall) I'd no sooner said "I'd really like to get a coffee" than I turned my head and -voila- there was a coffee shop. An Italian coffee shop no less, at the Great Wall of China. When we saw the price was $6 for a thimble-sized (what's with the sizing in China!?) cappuccino we decided to just share one thimble and then be on our way. I hate being gouged.
We took a cable car up to reach the wall. The view from the cable car was really cool with the Great Wall twisting and turning scenically along the terrain and lush green mountains everywhere. I mean, what an amazing thing to see with your own eyes. It was really great.
We got let off at tower 14 and hiked up to tower 20. Then we turned around and hiked back to tower 4, where we planned to tobaggan back down the wall. The whole hike probably took us about 2-3 hours. The picture above is the view from one of the towers.
When I thought about visiting the Great Wall I didn't really think about the fact that I would have to hike or exert any kind of energy to get around. This was not the case. Our trip was a workout! To get to that 20th tower we had to climb up the stairs from hell. They got so steep at the top that it was more like climbing a ladder than stairs. On the day that we were there there was some kind of Australian K-Mart convention also visiting the wall. They were easily identified by their blue and green K-Mart polos and there were thousands of them waddling up the stairs with us.
Incredible view from the top of the stairs. The whole time I just kept thinking about how lucky I was to be there. And also I was thinking "don't fall". "It's very steep, don't fall."
Every so often there'd be a vendor on the wall who was happy to sell you a $3 water or $5 beer. "Hello cold water cold beer," they all said. This guy brought his donkey with him.
The best part of the trip was that at the end of our hike, instead of taking the cable car back down, we tobogganed down the mountain. If we'd taken the organized tour we wouldn't have been able to do this, which is the #1 reason why we did it ourselves. It was really fun! At times the ride was actually really fast, and even though there were loads of signs and employees along the way warning us to slow down, we just went faster :P
When we got off the toboggan we set out to buy some souvenirs. There are a bunch of vendors spread out around the entrance and we'd seen some stuff earlier that we liked. Of course all the prices had to be negotiated and I was surprised at how fun it was to bargain. There are still a few markets in Korea where you have to bargain for your price and Koreans are no fun to make deals with, but the Chinese were very friendly and lowered their prices easily. I saw a hat that I liked and the vendor gave me a starting price of over $80 but I got it down to around $12 in the end. She wouldn't have sold it to me if she wasn't making some money, so we both left happy.
We really lucked out because after we were done shopping we noticed that the bus we'd used to get there was loading up again. We'd been worried about how the return schedule would work but we managed to get right on the bus and drive off a few minutes later.
My super cool new hat that was totally worth $12.
There hadn't been anywhere to eat at the wall so we were pretty hungry when we got back into the city. We went to a Pizza Hut near our hotel and the service was so ridiculous that I'm sorry, but I have to post about it. The restaurant offered a set menu where you could choose 1 of 4 pizzas, plus 1 of 3 appetizers, 2 drinks and 1 dessert. From the looks of the waitresses' glazed-over eyes I had a feeling she didn't understand my order, but what could I do besides hope for the best? The app arrived wrong so we sent it back. Then Mel's drink arrived and it was fine, but my drink was wrong so we sent it back. Then the pizza arrived and it was wrong so we sent it back, but the waitress felt bad and let us keep the incorrect pizza but promised our real pizza would be out in 5 minutes. Then our dessert unexpectedly arrived, which is just what you want to eat in the middle of a pizza dinner, but since it was ice cream we had to eat it before it melted. Our appetizer arrived last, but the second pizza never came. It had been over a half hour since the waitress promised it would be "5 minutes" so we flagged a waiter down and asked about the pizza. "5 minutes" he said, and we quickly realized that the phrase "5 minutes" must have been taught to them in training. When the pizza finally arrived we said in unison "can we get that to go?" before it ever hit the table. We'd been there for about 2 hours. It was awesome.
We went to Wangfujing market in the evening. It's pretty famous for its street food, but after you see my pictures of the food you'll understand why I was glad that I'd already eaten.
Proof that you can put anything on a stick and call it food: seahorses, starfish and live scorpions.
Yummy.
Centipedes.
I'm so hungry I could eat a horse!
Dried snakes and lizards.
We wound up eating none of the above. Instead, we got a bowl of fruit, which wasn't really that good. The guy who sold it to us also pointed to one price when we asked how much and then to another, higher, price when it was time to pay. It was very Chinesey of him, something we were used to after working for Chinesey bosses in Taiwan but still something I dislike very much.
On our last day we checked our luggage at the hotel and headed to the Forbidden City. We chose a flight that didn't leave until 9pm so we could do as much as possible on our last day. The Forbidden City was the busiest tourist site I've ever been to! There were thousands upon thousand of people there. It was like the LA Riots or the Apple Blossom Festival.
This is one of the most famous ex-royal residences in the world, but like the Temple of Heaven, I've seen a lot of these kinds of places lately and was simultaneously happy to be there but also a little bored at the same time. Probably the same way anyone currently reading this long blog post feels.
The layout of this place was massive- absolutely huge- and I found that once we were off the central walking path the crowds were a lot smaller.
Pinchy pinchy, Mao 씨.
The view from Tiananmen Square, which is really just a big, open square. I was expecting more tanks. We moved on pretty quickly.
We'd been able to do just about everything we wanted to do in Beijing so we decided to spend our last couple of hours doing something that we love very dearly: shop. We hadn't spent hardly any money the whole time were in China, so it was time to pick up some souvenirs. At Wangfujing Market the stores had been so outrageously expensive (and isn't China supposed to be cheap?) that we didn't buy a thing. I'd read that Xiden market was where the locals really shop so we decided to go there, but once again everything was so expensive. More expensive than Tokyo! Then we wandered around enough that we figured out where the locals are really shopping. They're in markets in the alleyways behind these big tourist trap department stores! The shopping was great! Neither of us spent much but we bargained with vendors and got lots of cool clothes. It was fun!
We took the subway back to the hotel for our bags. One last note about the subway- I hated it. It's cheap and efficient but it's too busy. People are just sandwiched into every car. We almost never got to sit, and after a long day of sightseeing, you really want to sit down. Also, the people on the train seemed shadier than normal. I didn't like it one bit.
We went to a grocery store by the hotel to stock up on cheap chips and cookies and then filled our suitcases with them before heading to the airport. We also went to 85 Degrees one more time and it was much better. I'm glad that we were able to end our relationship with the cafe on a good note.The Beijing Airport was so quiet and boring and there was only one (completely empty) restaurant open in the whole building. We were starving so we got some crappy food there before our flight. We got to Korea a few minutes after midnight, and since I had to work the next morning, we whipped out of the airport in record speed.
It's a little-known secret that after 11pm you don't have to take an expensive taxi to get from the airport to Seoul. There are late night buses offered, and we got out of immigration so quickly that we were able to get on the 12:40 bus (the next one was at 2am, and we thought for sure we'd be on that one). The only people on the bus were the two of us and our flight's stewardesses :P We got home by 1:30 and I actually wasn't too tired for work the next day.I've probably read a dozen books about China. I find the people, the customs and the economy fascinating, and I've wanted to visit the country for years. We didn't have nearly enough time to explore all of its strange nooks and crannies- I could spend a year there sightseeing- but I only had 3 1/2 days. Still, I think we made the most of the time we had and it was a very cool vacation for us. In the past we have considered working in China and if I recall correctly, we've even applied for some jobs there, but now I know I could never really live there. Why? Take a look at www.facebook.com in China:
and our blog:
Can you imagine? I'd go crazy...
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