Beijing, China

September 2nd - September 10th 2011

Our first day in Beijing we decided to visit The Forbidden City. We walked through the giant gates by the portrait of Chairman Mao and entered a huge courtyard with an impressive building before us. The size of the 'City' had us in awe. The entrance fee was 60 yuan, about 6 pounds. There are many buildings inside the 'City' but we weren't able to explore them, just peer inside the door. Once we walked through one set of gates there was another huge courtyard to explore with animal statues and lots of people that seemed to be staring at us. The place went on and on until we reached The Imperial Garden at the end, it was more tranquil but still very busy. Everywhere we went people would try to sell us a tour or get us to enter an art gallery with the hope of selling us a painting, I fell for this once and came away with a pretty painting of a 'Summer' scene. The girl said she was an art student and was having trouble selling her work, of course I took sympathy on her as I've been in a similar situation but it was only later that i realised it was probably a scam! Still I ended up with a lovely souvenir that I didn't pay much for and sent it home by boat so it will probably arrive home when I do in eight months time!

Forbidden City

Detail from The Imperial Garden

Day two we decided we would spend at the Great Wall. A tour guide picked us up at 7am and we headed off to pick up the other couple on the tour, two Italians. We stopped off at a factory store where they showed us the ancient art of Cloissone, a technique of decorating metal vases. We got to the Wall (Mutianyu Section) and headed up in a ski lift, it was one of the scariest things I've ever done. Craig managed to get some amazing footage of the scenery as we were going up, suspended over the trees and toboggan slide that people take to go down. I watched the footage later as at the time I had my head buried in my bag with my eyes shut and my hands welded to the metal bar! Once at the top the view was breathtaking. It felt amazing to be walking on something so historic and well known. Some of the steps were ridiculous to climb, about 4 feet tall. Our fitness is pretty poor but we managed to complete one little section until we couldn't walk any further as the wall was too broken up. Shaky legs by the end but absolutely worth it. We took the toboggan slide down which was amazing fun. Craig wanted to go as fast as possible but there was an old lady in front with her hands constantly on the brakes, it was still brilliant. After the Wall we stopped for lunch where some lovely vegetarian food was served as well as chicken for Craig and the Italians and we had our first go at using chopsticks! The Italians didn't speak much English so we used gestures to get by! Once we had finished at the Wall we had to endure more factory stores, silk weaving, tea tasting, massage. All came with good demonstrations but then the people made us feel really awkward as they wanted us to buy everything. We managed to get away with all our money though. We stopped at The Ming Tombs and learned some history of Chinese Emporers and Feng Shui before a quick photo stop at The Birds Nest Stadium.

The Great Wall of China

Me and Craig on The Great Wall

Mutianyu Great Wall

Day three was a bit of a nightmare as we tried to plan how we would get to Hong Kong. We made our way to the train station to book tickets to Xi'an and then to Hong Kong but had to abandon the idea as it was too expensive and all the cheap seats had been booked up well in advance. We settled on paying extra for flights straight to Hong Kong in order to have enough time to enjoy the city before our flight on the 15th to Hanoi. Quite sad that we won't get to see the Terracotta Warriors but some idea's have to be abandoned to fit the budget and time scale that we have.

Day four we spent at Beijing Zoo. It was lovely seeing the panda's but a bit depressing as they didn't seem to have a lot of space and a lot of the Chinese people were banging on the glass and shouting urging the panda's to move, not something a Western Zoo would usually tolerate and something I found upsetting. We managed to find a rare secluded spot in the Zoo where we sat and enjoyed the peace. Beijing is such a fast paced city that it can be hard to find a moment to sit and think.

Peaceful Garden in Beijing Zoo

Day five was spent at The Summer Palace and besides the Great Wall was our favourite place in Beijing. Lots of quiet peaceful gardens full of tree's to sit under and shade ourselves from the intense heat. We saw the Tower of Buddhist Incense, Suzhou Street, Wencheng Gallery and the Gardens of Virtue and Harmony. All were beautiful, full of ancient artefacts and picturesque views.

Flowers in The Summer Palace

Suzhou Street in The Summer Palace

Day five was a day of necessities. Laundry, shopping in 'Wu Mart' and booking accomodation in Hong Kong.

Our last full day in Beijing we wandered back to Tian'anmen Square to take photographs. It felt like we had to be careful what we said politically as the place is so heavily monitored and there are lots of plain clothed policemen as well as soldiers wandering around to stop any protesters. The place made me feel grateful for the freedom of speech that we have in the U.K. The Square is vast, the biggest Square in the world with hundreds of people queuing up to see the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall which houses his embalmbed corpse, we decided to skip it. We spent the afternoon visiting the Lama Temple. Full of alters to worship Buddha, people would give three incense sticks as a gift to the heavens, the place was full of fragrance and incense smoke. It evoked converstaions of religion and faith between Craig and I. We also saw a giant statue of Buddha carved from a single tree from Tibet, it's in the Guiness World Records as it's one of a kind.

Tian'anmen Square

Beijing was an amazing place but one that it so different from the Western world that it was a definate culture shock especially as it was our first stop. Many of the Chinese people are happy to push and shove, spit openly in the street and stare at anyone that is different. We got asked by many Asian people if they could take a photo of us and many did it anyway without asking which became annoying. One great aspect of Beijing was the people we met in the hostel at 9 Dragons House. We got lots of advice and tips from fellow travellers and sharing an eight bedroom dorm felt like a great experience and a lot less scary than we were expecting. Overall, a great start to the adventure.