On Tuesday we arrived in Beijing. Our flight left 3am from Delhi and picked up… We checked into the Grand Hotel Beijing. We were upgraded to a room with a view of the forbidden city! We danced for joy at the clean linens and modern streets and the possibility of eating some great meals here in this seemingly hip city!
The first day we rested and headed out to Tiananmen Square. Everyone seemed to be waiting for something to happen, the square was mobbed with local tourists and there were police stationed all around. There was even a line of trash picker uppers standing in a neat row ready to move in once the “ceremony” was over. It turned out that at 8 o’clock they take down the flag, and then they clear the square quickly. Within 15 minutes the thousands of spectators were ushered to the sidewalks. There are huge jumbo TV screens in the square showing great video footage of China playing to triumphal music.
China is amazing. It’s clean, mostly, and there are public bathrooms every 200 yards. Perhaps because they don’t have them in their homes. A few major sights are closed like the national museum, but we had a great exploration of the forbidden city. There were thousands of people energetically pushing through every doorway, flashing photos, and chattering. It was quite hard to hear the audio guide over this din but that is all part of the experience.
We wandered south of Tienaman Square looking for this old shopping district. We ate at KFC and got lost in the back streets twice. We finally tried again and found the street we were looking for. The shops were cool and had some great stuff so we bought mao books and buttons, and a chop to stamp kaitlin’s name, and I bought some coins. Bargaining is fun and we took some pictures with the shop keepers. It was a good day of pinching pennies and exploring.. But THEN the laundry fiasco hit when we got back to the hotel.
We wandered south of Tienaman Square looking for this old shopping district. We ate at KFC and got lost in the back streets twice. We finally tried again and found the street we were looking for. The shops were cool and had some great stuff so we bought mao books and buttons, and a chop to stamp kaitlin’s name, and I bought some coins. Bargaining is fun and we took some pictures with the shop keepers. It was a good day of pinching pennies and exploring.. But THEN the laundry fiasco hit when we got back to the hotel.
5 star laundryThe grand hotel Beijing was indeed grand. It has great atmosphere and common spaces and a superb location. We are the closest hotel to the center of the city and we have a mall nearby and a night market where they sell scorpions on a stick. No I haven’t tried one yet. This great hotel comes at a price. The meals aren’t free and they are a bit overpriced. Our first day in town we put in our laundry to be done. (we were in a rush to hit the town so we didn’t really check the prices, and we hadn’t perfected our conversions skills yet so we put in 25 t shirts and 4 shorts, some pants and undies. The bill came back with the laundry at over 3000 Rmb that is a lot of us dollars. Let’s just say it starts with a five and ends with two zeros. I marched down to the front desk to ask them if they were crazy. I told them that they could keep my laundry because the clothes didn’t even cost that much. I told them I could buy five iphones or a plasma tv or 2 laptops!! Or 5 nights in another hotel! They wouldn’t listen to me even though I tossed my laundry out the hotel room door to make a point. So they brought up a security guard/cop with them the next time and a stern little woman and said they would take 15% off the bill. Kaitlin reminded me to not make a scene in a communist country where I have no rights, and the guard kept stepping closer every complaint we made. I really did not want to end up on the street or in a Chinese jail. She’s always level headed. So I decided to let it go for now. We’ll see how they appreciate my trip advisor reviews.
Sleeping on the Great Wall:
We spent a few days on the great wall. Our guide Tony picked us up in a Mercedes white van at 9am. We had run down the block to McDonalds for breakfast as we refuse to patronize our hotel any further. We went to the ming tombs on the wall. They are in excellent shape. Tourists throw money on the ancient thrones (with ming vases in front) as offerings to the ancestors. As we left the tombs it started to rain and we were hoping this would help clear away the fog. It was probably the cloudiest foggiest day ever recorded in great wall history. We could barely see the next tower in front of us but it was like we were floating on a castle… a castle that was falling apart and really hard to climb. Our camping company has a special deal with a farmer at Jinshanling section of the wall. He has the rights to rent two towers. These watch towers have a 2nd floor and a roof in case of rain.
We spent a few days on the great wall. Our guide Tony picked us up in a Mercedes white van at 9am. We had run down the block to McDonalds for breakfast as we refuse to patronize our hotel any further. We went to the ming tombs on the wall. They are in excellent shape. Tourists throw money on the ancient thrones (with ming vases in front) as offerings to the ancestors. As we left the tombs it started to rain and we were hoping this would help clear away the fog. It was probably the cloudiest foggiest day ever recorded in great wall history. We could barely see the next tower in front of us but it was like we were floating on a castle… a castle that was falling apart and really hard to climb. Our camping company has a special deal with a farmer at Jinshanling section of the wall. He has the rights to rent two towers. These watch towers have a 2nd floor and a roof in case of rain.
After dinner of local food, Kaitlin wasn’t sure about sleeping on the wall due to possible rain, lighting, bugs, cold and lack of bathroom facilities. So we were given a room in the hotel down the path from the great wall. The hotel didn’t seem to have running water in the morning, but it was nice to not have to worry about bugs. The local food is now catching up with our bellies, and Abe who takes more risks and eats more food is fighting the Chinese version of Delhi Belly or Beijing Belly?
At 530 am we met the farmer mr. wong outside the hotel. He walked us up to the tower where the our travel companions the Australian couple were sleeping. After some musili and a few bananas and some chewy bread we hit the trail.
So we didn’t really sleep ON the great wall as planned, but we did get up there just after sunrise to see the views. It was also nice to hike without anyone else on the wall. We had the place to ourselves.
Tony was a great guide and knew a lot about all of Chinese history. I had lots of questions. Most of the wall we see today was rebuilt in the Ming Dynasty. It seems that they also built the forbidden city so their legacy is what we see a lot of today. The Ming were in the 1500’s.
After hiking up and down the undulating wall, my knee started acting up and Kaitlin said her legs felt like jello and she was using a lot of energy to overcome her fear of heights so we are lucky that the hike was cut short. Half of this section of wall was closed to tourists for renovations. Some tourist company bought the rights to run the Simatai section of the wall. It will be done in three years. The national museum will also be done in three years. It seems like 3 years is a common date for things to get shut down and fixed up. I think the water cube is being turned into a water park and that will take three years.
Things we’ve noticed. People spit a lot here… big lungies… is that how you spell it? Men and a few women too. People pee in public a lot here… usually kids, and certainly not as much public urination as India. We did see one girl pee on the fence of Mao’s tomb. Which is quite a feat considering there are hundreds of police and security cameras all around. There is also this sweet and very social side to people here. Dozens of people have tried to start up conversations with us, by saying hello, or getting pictures taken with us, or asking us about our lives. We have figured out that a couple of them were from tour companies, and a few were students from “art galleries” trying to sell work nearby. The rest seem to be normal young people trying to practice English or something. That must be how a celebrity must feel, being asked questions from random people on the street with smiles on their faces.
Today is our last day in Beijing. We plan on going to Mao’s tomb and the military museum and the summer palace or the zoo. Tonight we have a night train to Xian. There we plan to do things like bike on top of the city walls, and see the tomb of the terracotta warriors. I don’t think we’ll have access to our blog in Xian so we’ll have to write again from Hanoi. Hopefully Vietnam will have less stringent censorship policies. Imagine that.
We miss you all. Our prayers are with Grampy Mills in hopes that he gets better soon. Love Kaitlin and Abe
At 530 am we met the farmer mr. wong outside the hotel. He walked us up to the tower where the our travel companions the Australian couple were sleeping. After some musili and a few bananas and some chewy bread we hit the trail.
So we didn’t really sleep ON the great wall as planned, but we did get up there just after sunrise to see the views. It was also nice to hike without anyone else on the wall. We had the place to ourselves.
Tony was a great guide and knew a lot about all of Chinese history. I had lots of questions. Most of the wall we see today was rebuilt in the Ming Dynasty. It seems that they also built the forbidden city so their legacy is what we see a lot of today. The Ming were in the 1500’s.After hiking up and down the undulating wall, my knee started acting up and Kaitlin said her legs felt like jello and she was using a lot of energy to overcome her fear of heights so we are lucky that the hike was cut short. Half of this section of wall was closed to tourists for renovations. Some tourist company bought the rights to run the Simatai section of the wall. It will be done in three years. The national museum will also be done in three years. It seems like 3 years is a common date for things to get shut down and fixed up. I think the water cube is being turned into a water park and that will take three years.
Things we’ve noticed. People spit a lot here… big lungies… is that how you spell it? Men and a few women too. People pee in public a lot here… usually kids, and certainly not as much public urination as India. We did see one girl pee on the fence of Mao’s tomb. Which is quite a feat considering there are hundreds of police and security cameras all around. There is also this sweet and very social side to people here. Dozens of people have tried to start up conversations with us, by saying hello, or getting pictures taken with us, or asking us about our lives. We have figured out that a couple of them were from tour companies, and a few were students from “art galleries” trying to sell work nearby. The rest seem to be normal young people trying to practice English or something. That must be how a celebrity must feel, being asked questions from random people on the street with smiles on their faces.
Today is our last day in Beijing. We plan on going to Mao’s tomb and the military museum and the summer palace or the zoo. Tonight we have a night train to Xian. There we plan to do things like bike on top of the city walls, and see the tomb of the terracotta warriors. I don’t think we’ll have access to our blog in Xian so we’ll have to write again from Hanoi. Hopefully Vietnam will have less stringent censorship policies. Imagine that.
We miss you all. Our prayers are with Grampy Mills in hopes that he gets better soon. Love Kaitlin and Abe
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