Headed to the Mainland

This one is long. Feel free to take bathroom breaks.

Our flight to Beijing took 3 hours and we were served a meal. What a great airline. After a nice flying experience, we attempted a taxi. We went through 3 taxis (that did not speak any English, so thank goodness we had the Chinese hostel name), but they all refused to take us. We got in, they shook their head, we got out.  Finally one of the guards forced the driver to take us. We then found out why. We were quite a ways from the airport and when our driver dropped us off he pointed down a creepy dark alley and nodded. Not sure if he was right, we looked around the main street for a few minutes before trekking down the spooky alley. Turns out he knew what he was talking about and he walked into a gorgeous, wonderful place called the Peking Yard Hostel. We spent the first evening enjoying “sensory perfection” (as Andrew says) which included cocktails, journaling, calm music, dark lighting, the works.

Peking Yard

Day 1 – Today we just kind of explored, mainly because we had no map and could not find a single place to buy one.  We eventually made our way to Tian’anmen Square and explored there. People kept taking pictures of us as we walked by and I felt like we should be smiling the whole time. Also, people kept asking us if we wanted tours of places since we looked like we spoke English. To solve this problem what did we do? Act like we didn’t speak English.  The idea seemed great until a guy started talking to Andrew. He said we didn’t speak English and that he was from Chili, Debbie and I from Canada (where they usually speak English).  The man started speaking SO slowly and trying to gesture. Eventually we gave in and actually went up in the gate protecting the city.  Here we met two art students that had their work on display on one whole floor of the gate and Debbie bought a piece of art. She told us the story of one of her paintings of a horse and a wise man.  She said even if the horse were the most talented he would need someone to recognize his talent.  She also had four paintings of the seasons which represent someone’s life.  After this we went to see Mao’s Mausoleum where you literally walk inside the building, pass the flowers they would have at a funeral, and walk past the embalmed Chairman Mao. Kind of neat, but not all it was cracked up to be.  We stumbled upon a neat shopping street with a metropolitan looking, nice shopping street parallel to an authentic street market in the alley behind.  From there we walked pretty far to the Temple of Heaven.  We decided not to go in because it was getting late so we headed back to the hostel for another relaxing evening with our pals, Leo, Casey, Sunny, and Zoey (Peking Yard staff).

Day 2 – The previous night ended up being very eventful.  In the middle of the night Debbie and I had to change rooms because the creepy old man in the zebra print thong underwear was snoring so loud that I literally could not hear Debbie speaking in a normal voice.  Leo was very concerned for us and found us an empty bed so we could get back to sleep! We had our first real day of exploring when we started out to the Forbidden City.  Debbie had her first experience with a squatting toilet (bring your own TP because none have it here) and then we headed in.  We ended up doing an audio tour for the city so we knew what we were looking at.  The city was very big with many ornate roofs and little side streets to other parts of the area. The Imperial Gardens were my favorite part with neat little trees, stones, and gazebos throughout for the concubines to be entertained.  Next stop was Jingshan Park at the end of the Forbidden City.  We hiked up to three different levels of pagodas that over looked the Forbidden City.  One emperor actually hung himself in the park after he found out there would be a peasant uprising and he didn’t want civilians to get injured.  Here is also where we saw a mom stand in front of her little girl and let her pee on the very public sidewalk in a really touristy area. Interesting.  We ventured to yet another shopping street, but accidentally gave up before we got to the good part.

Inside the city

The little girl, the puddle

Overlooking the Forbidden City

Day 3 – The Great Wall of China.  After a scrumptious bacon and egg with organic vegetable sandwich, we set out to meet our tour for the wall.  Our guide, Vivie, took us to the Mutianyu part of the wall which is slightly less touristy. Only parts of the wall remain, as some were actually made of wood, so the portion we were on was only about 2.5 miles.  We took a cable car up to tower 14 and started hiking down.  The view was amazing.  It is really hard to actually describe the Great Wall except amazing.  Each tower we came across was different, each stone and each step had its own character.  My biggest confusion was on how the guards were able to move quickly along the wall when needed due to the crooked ground.  It seemed like we walked much further than we did with the up hill portions and taking our time walking down the steps so I didn’t trip!  We took LOTS of photos and hiked rather quickly to make sure we could get back in time.  That was the only downfall about the tour was you could literally spend hours up there.  The way to get down from the wall was by toboggan. Each of us sat in our own little toboggan sled and got to go down a massive slide through the trees and mountainside to the bottom. It was so cool!!  We then had a Chinese lunch with a lazy susan containing about 8 different delicious dishes.  The next part of the tour was to the Ming Tombs. Not too much to say about these. Lonely Planet was right when they said not to go out of the way to get there.  The idea and history was neat, but the place itself was not very exciting.  After our wonderful day on the wall we asked the hostel staff for a good place for dinner and the first thing they asked was, peking duck? This is a must in Beijing.  We went to a very nice restaurant where we got signature peking duck, pan fried duck rolls, spring rolls, green tea tiramisu, and a blueberry rice pudding. It was one of the most amazing meats I have ever eaten! We were also lucky to pick that night because they had live performances of a lady ribbon dancing with dough, a unicyclist, a traditional costumed dancer, and a plate spinner.  The dinner was spectacular and one of the best we’ve had in Asia. When we were leaving we passed a guy selling what I thought were baby apples, but were really grapes, that are covered in caramelized sugar and are also a “Beijing thing”. I was so excited to finally get some!

The Great Wall of China

Peking Duck Dinner

Day 4 – I started the day off like every other with a cappuccino. Illy coffee actually. (Taylor, remember all those Illy shops?) Today we started at the Olympic Stadium.  The facility was huge and it was crazy to think they had constructed this entire area including bathrooms and benches, just for the Olympics.  We did not go inside the buildings, but wandered around the Water Cube and the Bird’s Nest.  We took the subway across the city to the Emperor’s Summer Palace.  This was very pretty and basically a large wooded area with neat trails surrounding the main palace.  It was nice to stroll along in the shade and enjoy nature. Again, we ended up doing a bit of shopping in our first Asian department store. It was completely insane with people everywhere! Eventually we became a bit overwhelmed so settled down with a snack.  Here is where I will explain one of my facebook photo albums for those who have seen the “coming please” one.  The doorbell at the hostel would ring and the hostel staff would say “coming please” which made no sense to me until I finally voiced this to Andrew and he explained that they were saying “come in please”. Who knew?

In front of the Olympic Water Cube

Garden of Harmonious Pleasures at the Summer Palace

Day 5 – Our last day we spent in 798 Art District, which all of the tourist books said is an up and coming area and a must see. Of course we went on Monday, which is when most art galleries are closed; however we were still able to go into a few galleries, boutiques, and a delicious coffee and sandwich place.  The area was really neat with a great artsy vibe.  Taylor would have fit in perfectly and could have stayed there for hours wandering around.  We had to get to the airport for our flight, so we only looked around 798 for a bit, but we were still able to see some good stuff! 

The Art District. Pretty neat. 

“Bye bye Beijing, Hello Hong Kong.”