A Week in Beijing!

Here's the entire description of my week in Beijing, in one very long entry.

Thursday, October 1. I take a taxi from school to the airport in Changsha with my "friend", Qi Shang
Our flight from changsha is delayed 40 minutes - after we are all on the plane. The weirdest thing happens - while we are waiting, they serve us lunch - while we are still on the tarmac! The chinese do love to have their meals on time.

Arrive Beijing about 2:40 - nice new airport. collect luggage. follow signs for exit. there are the usual signs overhead directing one to the various transportation options but I also see giant arrows on the floor - each arrow divided into four different colored sections - one section/color takes you to the place to get a bus, one section takes you to the airport express etc, so you just keep following "your" color. It's quite a nice system.

I take the airport express (subway) into town (25 yuan). very fast and easy. sit across from and talk to two young Americans from Atlanta - Elizabeth and Harry Crocker. Elizabeth has been in China for awhile and her brother Harry came over to join her and is now in school here, studying chinese. They live in shanghai but were in beijing to meet their parents who had flown into beijing.

I get off at the last stop on the airport express line, buy a 2 yuan ticket for the regular subway, and ride 3 stops to the one nearest my hotel. There actually is a sign in the subway station directing one to use Exit B for the Bamboo Garden Hotel. However, that would be the very last sign that i would see for the hotel! So once i'm outside, I see two security guards, show them the brochure for the hotel, and they point the way down the street. I'm assuming that maybe i'll see another sign for the hotel - but nooooo, that would be too easy. So i keep walking and about the time I'm starting to worry a little, I see a sign for Da Shi Qiao Hutong (which means BIG Stone Bridge Hutong) and since I'm looking for Xiao (SMALL) Shi Qiao Hutong, I figure it can't be far behind. and in fact, it's the next little alleyway (that's basically what a hutong is: the alley between courtyard houses). so I walk down the hutong, and walk and walk and finally show the brochure to someone on the street who points me further down the street and eventually I come upon it. I'm actually quite proud of myself! There was a time when I would have paid 100 yuan for a taxi to drive me all the way into Beijing and up to the door of my hotel.

Bamboo Garden - old courtyard house. very peaceful, pleasant surroundings. lovely room and bath. all very nice, even computer in room.

I come in, clean up, call Nick, Karen calls. I walk to the subway station to meet Nick - it's about 6 p.m. now. we come back to hotel. I call Karen back - she decides to come and meet us to go to dinner. so we wait (and watch the morning's National Day festivities on the TV in my room), and then go out to meet Karen at the end of my alley. we then walk in the general direction of the Drum Tower and after a few false turns and meanderings, we find NanGuoLu Hutong, which is filled with lots of cute little shops and restaurants. We have dinner in a nice Indian restaurant: yogurt with smoked eggplant, palek paneer (spinach with homemade cheese), tandoori chicken, garlic naan, and rice, which we all share. we then walk through a park with some small lakes, essentially get turned around trying to make our way back to the Drum Tower, finally give up and take taxis home. Nick comes with me and insists on walking me all the way back to the hotel even though I tell him over and over it's not necessary. It's almost 11 by the time I get back, much too late to be out my first night in beijing - and the migraine I've been fighting off all day seems to have taken up residence. I take another Imitrex and go to bed.

Friday, October 2.

Up at about 8 (unfortunately, the imitrex last night didn't work, so it looks like i'm going to spend the first three days in beijing with a headache) , shower, call Nick, then go out for breakfast in the hotel. it's actually quite good - scrambled eggs, yogurt, uncooked oatmeal, fruit, orange juice, toast etc. I will probably do this every morning since it gives me a good start for what i imagine are going to be very long days. i hear two couples at another table speaking french but resist the temptation to talk to them. however, as i'm leaving the restaurant, they are right behind me, so i'm "forced" to ask them where they are from - so we proceed to have a lovely conversation mostly in French but with a little English thrown in (one of the women speaks English quite well). So that's a good start to my day!

Walk down to the subway stop to meet Nick and his friend, Wang Xiao Wai (a girl). She is very very cute and stylish. She is carrying the cutest bag - striped with a stuffed rabbit hanging from it and two appliqued strawberries. We go back down into the subway and over to the East Gate of the Temple of Heaven park (TianTanDongMen). buy ticket for park (15 yuan) - they tell us that the "through" ticket is for sale inside.

so here are the advantages of being in Temple of Heaven park during the National Day week:
1. lots of people (but not oppressive) which creates a lot of energy
2. many people performing in the park: folk dancing, singing, playing traditional instruments etc
3. the weather is gorgeous

here is the disadvantage:
The Temple of Good Harvests (the highlight of the park) is CLOSED today to ordinary people (only VSP with tickets can go into the temple today). of course, it will be open tomorrow, but unlikely that I will find the time to come back. fortunately the rest of the sights are open - so the "through" (all-inclusive) ticket costs only 10 yuan today instead of 25 yuan. Damn straight.

At the Circular Altar, there are a few guards around the small circular disc in the very center, organizing the photo process. You have to stand in a line and, when you reach the head of the line, you have your opportunity to stand on the disc and have your picture taken. Much better than what would otherwise be a mob scene. Very orderly.

We are tired (the park is HUGE - and we have walked completely around it), it is after 1 p.m. so we decide to take a taxi to the Museum of Ancient Architecture and then find a place to eat. The first taxi we approach - which is right outside the south gate to the park - tells us that the Museum is closed today but that he can take us somewhere else - like the Summer Palace! R-I-G-H-T. I'm not falling for that one! Needless to say, the Summer Palace is a long ways away and the Museum is virtually right around the corner. So we walk out to the street, find an honest taxi driver who takes us to the Museum, which is NOT closed today.

Once we reach the MAA, we find a small noodle shop and I have a bowl of excellent noodles with greens. just perfect.

The MAA is in another temple complex that dates from the same time as the Temple of Heaven but this complex is far less ornate and elaborate. And definitely not as popular - we are almost the only visitors here. The MAA is interesting but definitely needs updating - some exhibits are kind of dusty, very few English explanations of things but some interesting maquettes - and one which shows the 5-step process of painting the pagodas. And we see the interior of one building where the painting is well-preserved (from 600 years ago) and has not been "restored."

Now we are DEAD tired ((lei si le), so take a taxi back to the TianTanDongMen subway station, then ride the subway for 11 stops, then transfer to another line for 2 stops, then get off and take a taxi to the Central Academy of Art (where Nick hopes to go to school). There is an interesting museum on campus designed by Arata Isozaki, a Japanese architect, but unfortunately it is closed for the day (it's now 5:15 or so). So i have to content myself with walking around the building - i'm disappointed not to see the gallery spaces and the collection.

We walk to Nick's little "apartment" (basically a smallish room in a sub-divided apartment) where we rest for awhile then take a cab to Wal-Mart (!) so I can try to find some nail polish remover and something like Tylenol. Well, let me tell you, this is not a Wal-Mart with much in the way of Western products - it's completely Chinese! No nail polish remover, but there is a Nail Salon where they let me use their nail polish remover to attack my toes! i was getting desperate! No Tylenol either but there is a Chinese "pharmacy" outside the entrance to the Wal-Mart and lo and behold, they have Tylenol. In a box with 18 caplets. I buy two. I figure I'm going to need them for muscle fatigue this week - to say nothing of my headache.

At Nick's, I snag an old New Yorker - from 2007 - to borrow for the week since I left the charger for my Kindle at home - this is the downside of electronic devices. The battery is still about half-charged but having the New Yorker will help! I also forgot the charger for the lithium battery in my new camera, as I am so used to using regular AA batteries in my old camera. well, we will hope for the best. I have turned off the "display" feature of the camera so hopefully i will make it through most of the week. (Note later: I do.)

By the end of this little expedition, I am too tired to eat dinner so Nick puts me in a cab with directions to the driver to take me to the nearest subway station, which he does (12 yuan). I then get on the subway, have to make TWO transfers and walk up and down many flights of stairs, get off at my stop, and then walk back to my hotel. I'm completely beat. Take Tylenol. Eat a banana and have a Nutri-Express. Room phone rings. That's odd, I don't know anyone who would be calling me on the house phone. Answer it - and someone starts speaking French with a Chinese accent. I immediately figure out that he must be looking for the two French couples, so begin speaking to him in French. Explain that I am an American and that he is looking for the French people, that he has dialed the wrong room. He is stunned, I think, to be speaking to an American who speaks French (probably thinks Americans don't speak anything but English). Anyway, a little diversion for me. Take a bath. Write blog. Go to bed.

Saturday, October 3. Up at 8. Still feeling somewhat muscle-fatigued. When I go out for breakfast, there is a French tour group standing in the courtyard. (I know this because I hear the Chinese guide saying "on y va"!) Breakfast is good. I sit at one of the tables next to the windows at the back, overlooking a small pond, then realize that the pond comes right under the glass floor of the section where I'm sitting.

Meet Nick at the sculpture at the Gulou DaJie subway station at 10. Decide to go to The Forbidden City. take the subway, which becomes very crowded as we get closer. for some strange reason, a lot of people get off at the stop BEFORE Tian'anmen West, which is where we are planning to get off. but then there is a l-o-n-g ride until the next stop which turns out to be Dong Dan, on the EAST side of Tian'anmen Square - three stops beyond where we wanted to be. Turns out the Tian'anmen West and East subway stops as well as Wangfujing are CLOSED today and are simply being used as an underground passageway for people to get from one side of the road to the other.

To say that there are a lot of people trying to get to Tian'anmen Square would be the understatement of the century. There is a sea of people, an ocean of people, a river of people, all flowing in the same direction. It is unbelieveably crowded, but everyone seems in good spirits - no pushing, impatience. There is just no way to describe the multitude. Photos will have to do.

Tian'anmen Guang Chong. We finally make it to Tian'anmen Square - us and what seems like the entire population of China. In the course of our "wandering" around this area today, I see only two other Westerners (apparently everyone else has been tipped off!) But it is quite a "happening" and I'm glad to have seen it (I think!). Eventually we make it on to the main part of the square where the floats from the parade on National Day are displayed. The entire square is surrounded by giant red columns, each one representing one of the minority groups of China. Most of the photos I take are with my camera held above my head, trying to aim at something! There is virtually no way to get a direct shot.

National Grand Theatre. After swimming through the crowd for awhile, we manage to cross to the other (west) side of the square. I want to see the National Grand Theatre, or the National Center for the Performing Arts, designed by the French architect Paul Andreu, which is just on the other side of the Great Hall of the People. Locally described as The Egg, it is an ellipsoid dome of titanium and glass surrounded by an artificial lake. It contains three performing venues: an opera house, a concert hall and a theatre. According to what I've read, construction started in December 2001 and the inaugural concert was held in December 2007, so it hasn't been open long. We pay 30 yuan to get in to see the building - wondering if it will be worth it since only one of the venues is open for viewing. Trust me, it is worth it! An absolutely amazing place. Again, photos will have to do the job here, but I am so happy that I got to see it. We end up having lunch in the cafe there (25 yuan for a turkey sandwich!) but it was nice just to be able to sit there and enjoy the surroundings.

It is almost 3:30 p.m. by the time we leave the NCPA. We've completely bagged the idea of trying to see the Forbidden City today - far too many people. It would take an hour probably just to get across the street and to the entrance. So we continue walking west until we reach the XiDan subway station (the one where all the people in the know got off this morning!) and take the subway around to YongHeGong station (along the way passing Gulou DaJie, the stop for my hotel).

Confucius Temple and Imperial College. We alight from the subway at YongHeGong and with a little question asking (thank you, Nick!) manage to find the Confucius Temple (KongZi Miao) and Imperial College complex on GuoZiJian Jie. Entrance fee 20 yuan. The Imperial College was the highest ranking educational institution during the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. Built by the grandson of Kublai Khan in 1306, it is the place where the emperor expounded the Confucian classics to an audience of thousands of kneeling students, professors and court officials. Beautiful decorative archway - glazed tile, three gates, single eave. GuoZiJian Jie is definitely a street worth walking down. Very picturesque.

After this, we try to find a China Mobile place where I can recharge my phone. After trying two separate places on the street, we finally take a cab to another place (where we've been directed by one of the other places) and I manage to get it done. I probably could have made it through the week (had almost 20 yuan left on my account) but didn't want to risk it as without phone no way to contact Nick. It's annoying trying to get things done in Beijing because it's so vast. I haven't seen a single Bank of China or CCB since i've been here - and eventually I will need to get some cash.

Taxi back to hotel. Quiet evening. Take a nap, wake up with zit on chin. What's with that? Banana, Nutri-express, yogurt. Blog, email. Plan day tomorrow.

Sunday, October 4. Up before 8, despite not falling asleep until late (due to nap). Breakfast - I've settled into a routine here: orange juice, uncooked oatmeal with yogurt, scrambled egg, 2 pieces of whole wheat toast, and coffee. It keeps me going for a long time - no getting faint with hunger around noon!

Meet Nick at the sculpture at Gulou DaJie subway stop at 9:30. Then back on the subway to the Summer Palace. The weather continues to be completely and utterly gorgeous. I've been neither hot nor cold for one minute since i've been here!

Summer Palace. We get off at the Bagou subway station and a cab driver says she will drive us the rest of the way to the Summer Palace for 10 yuan (the 74 and 374 buses just pulled away as we walked up!) Pay 30 yuan entrance fee (there's an all-inclusive 60 yuan fee but David and Tiffany have suggested that is not necessary). Walk down the lake to the 17-arch bridge. Cross the bridge to South Island. Wander around. Take dragon boat to the north shore. It's actually a little chilly on the island with the wind coming off the lake, but the sun is warm. See the Dowager Empress Cixi's folly, the marble boat. Wander around to Suzhou Street but don't pay the extra 10 yuan to go down into it (lots of shops). Then we climb all the way up to the top of Longevity Hill to the Temple of the Sea of Wisdom, scrambling over lots of rocks to get there.

Back down and stop for lunch of (1) a steamed hot dog with mustard (tasted pretty authentic), (2) a few small pieces of spicy chicken, (3) a nutri-express (my stand-by), and 2 moonpies (the Chinese version thereof - not to be confused with moon cakes). It's all "fast food" but tasty nonetheless.

Then around to the Long Corridor which is beautiful - and very long! Almost half a mile, a hand-painted wooden covered walkway.

Leave by the east gate. Have a little difficulty finding cab (they want too much money) back to subway but eventually succeed. Take subway from Bagou to Line 10 which goes up to the Olympic Park. See the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube. Pay 30 yuan to go in the Water Cube - not worth it. It has the feel of something built to be temporary.

Subway back to hotel. banana. yogurt. nutri-express. bath. rest.

Monday, October 5. Up at 7:30. Breakfast. Meet Nick at Dongzhimen Subway Station at 9:00 for our trip to the Great Wall (Mutianyu). Taxi over to the long-distance bus station. After fighting off a few drivers trying to sell us on going with them (for 350 yuan - both ways and they wait for you), we finally make it inside the vast bus terminal and to the correct kiosk for bus 916 to Hairou (sp?). Cost: 12 yuan one-way.

The Great Wall. The traffic on the highway is very slow - it takes us almost two hours to reach Hairou. Then we spy a woman in a minibus - the next step in getting to Mutianyu. I'm much happier to go with a woman so we hop off the bus and make a deal with her - 25 yuan one way. Cool. We make our way up into the mountains, which is amazing since until now the land has been perfectly flat. Beijing is at the northern end of a vast plain - but now we are north of Beijing city. I can catch glimpses of the Great Wall as we approach.

She lets us out in the midst of little food stands and restaurants. Nick, of course, is starving (he doesn't eat much for breakfast), so we stop at a small restaurant so he can get some beef noodles. I have some vegetable dumplings (mei you rou!) After that, our driver leads us to the ticket office where we can get both admission tickets to the Wall and to the cable car. I wondered whether I would want to take the cable car - but after hiking up TO the cable car, there is NO doubt in my mind! It is unbelieveably steep - and we still have lots of ups and downs and climbing once we get onto the Wall.

On the way to the cable car, there are lots of people hawking every conceivable tacky souvenir. We hang a left to make a pit stop at the toilets and on the way back pass a man selling bamboo hats. The sun is incredibly bright (and no cover on the wall) so I buy one. His starting offer - 80 yuan. I offer 20, then 25. He keeps says that 25 will make him cry (but he is laughing) so I end up giving him 30 but I have Nick tell him that he is stealing my eyes from my head. He thinks this is very funny.

The cable car is very cool and very fast. We have our own individual car. Great views of the Wall as we approach the top. There is a large platform above the cable car stop and you can see the Wall spreading out on either side. There is really no way to describe it. (NB: Nick and I met at the Dongzhimen station at 9:00 a.m. - by the time we are actually on the Wall, it is 1:00 p.m.!)

We walk for awhile in one direction, then turn around and go the other way. Nick finds a good place to sketch, and I hang out having my own personal communion with the wall. It's interesting to take the time to look around because you can see (unrestored) remnants of the wall everywhere you look. The mountain range is ragged and vast. We spend almost 3 hours up there.

Cable car back down. More hawkers along the way. Stop and take a photo with the man who sold me my hat. Buy some postcards for 5 yuan. Back down to minibus and our nice driver. Bus 916 back into town - fortunately I get a seat (thanks to the nice bus driver) but Nick has to stand the whole way.

Peking Duck. We then take a taxi to the Beijing DaDong (Roast Duck) Restaurant, which is near the ChangHong Qiao subway station. Fabulous restaurant. We have to wait for an hour to get a table but the restaurant has little tables lined up along the front windows of the restaurant as well as free wine, sprite, coke, bottled water etc so you can quench your thirst and watch the world go by while you wait. We are finally seated at 7:30 p.m. - continental dining. Great roast duck with all the condiments, amazing broccoli, duck soup, a sweet porridge-like dessert, and fruit - all for $45 for the two of us.

Take the subway back to Gulou DaJie and walk back to the hotel.

Tuesday, October 6. Walk to Gulou DaJie subway station to meet Nick. Get text message from him that he will be late. So decide to take subway to QianMen and walk through Tian'anmen Square to the Forbidden City. Hoping to see the Square without so many people. Bad Move! First, the QianMen subway stop is closed - but this time, I figure it out before the stop, because as we're approaching it, I hear an announcement by a man in Chinese (as opposed to the automated female voice that announces all the station stops), so I ask someone near me whether he said the QianMen station is closed. So at least I know to get off at the station before QianMen. But of course then I have a long walk just to get to Tian'anmen Square - and there are still LOTS of people. Nowhere near as crowded as before - at least one can walk at a relatively normal pace - but still hordes of people. So I see QianMen gate and get to walk the full length of Tian'anmen Square but by the time I meet Nick (under the giant portrait of Mao), I've already had a very long walk!

The Forbidden City. Vast. Crowded. Entry fee 60 yuan. Beautiful sunny day but with a few cloudy moments. It defies understanding that such a structure was essentially built for one human being - like Versailles. Walk up the middle to the Hall of Clocks - pay an extra 10 yuan to go in there. Then pay another 10 yuan to see the Treasures, which include the Nine Dragon Screen. But at least the crowds are not oppressive in here. Buy some postcards - the nicest ones I've seen in China - not hyper-colored. At the end of the Treasures walk, go back through the Imperial Garden to Palace of Heavenly Purity, then over to the Western side. Very crowded now. Make our way back through the western side to the exit at the North Gate.

Side note: art exhibition by students and professors from Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts? was this a sham? I think so. (also, we have lunch in small restaurant inside GuGong: chicken curry and rice. not as overpriced as one might expect. 28 yuan. diet coke: 4 yuan.)

Behai Park. After leaving Gu Gong, we walk to Behai Park. I would have liked to climb up to the pavilion at the top of JingShan Park (from which apparently there is a great view of the Forbidden City) but just don't have the energy. We pay 20 yuan to get into Behai Park and walk around for awhile but double back to leave via the same gate we came in because the guards had confiscated Nick's scissors.

Find a taxi. Back to hotel. Collapse! Decide to have a foot massage. Banana and Nutri-express. Soak my weary body in the bath. To bed very early.

Wednesday, October 7. Sleep until 8. Breakfast. When I return from breakfast, my room is being cleaned, so sit on the railing outside my room with Nick's two-year-old New Yorker, which I have almost finished reading. English couple comes by, sits down to talk, then two other women (from Canada) stop to chat for a minute, then Nick arrives, then women from Canada come back to ask whether they can tag along with Nick and me on our walking tour of the Hutongs and Prince Gong's Mansion. Mais oui! So when I get back into my room, I brush my teeth and we're off with Dennise and Fanny (both here as representatives from Children's Hospital of Ottawa for some sort of conference).
Head down JiuGuLou DaJie to the corner where we can see the Drum Tower. Then turn right, cross the street, then left down one of the hutongs. Wind around back lakes and hutongs. Cute little shops. "Oba Mao" shop!

Prince Gong's Mansion: fabulous. One of my two favorite places in Beijing (the other being the National Grand Theatre).

Continue wandering. Looking for place for lunch. Finally Nick chooses a place called something like "Nine Snack Street." We go in and it's a little chaotic but it works like this: you pay money to the cashier (e.g. 50 or 100 yuan) and she "charges" a card (like a credit card) for you. You then wander up and down the "snack streets" inside the restaurant, choosing what you want. When you take something, the seller holds your card up to a machine which subtracts the amount of what you have chosen. It's a hoot. I choose something like a fritata, with scallions and egg. Dennise and Fanny go for some shrimp things. Nick chooses a million things which we then watch him eat!

After "lunch" (it's now about 3:30 pm), I want to find our way back to the hotel on foot. I have a map and head us in the right direction. We come to GuLou Xi DaJie, walk down it for awhile, then turn left down a hutong that seems like it is going in the right direction. It winds around a little then we turn right (which seems like the right direction to me) and Nick asks someone in the street if we are going the right way. She takes us back a few steps and directs us to the NEXT right, which turns out to be Da Shi Qiao Hutong (Big Stone Bridge Alley)!! As our hotel is on Xiao Shi Qiao Hutong (Small Stone Bridge Alley), I now know exactly where we are! So we continue down DA until we can cut over to XIAO and enter it from the end opposite from the one we usually use (which is off of JiuGuLou DaJie). Our hotel is just a short walk from there. Dennise and Fanny are amazed - and frankly I am too! I wouldn't have felt so confident about the whole thing if Nick hadn't been with us. :)

Nick and I had been hoping to go to Factory 798 (an adaptive reuse of an old factory into art space) but it seems too late. Galleries probably close at 5. So I walk Nick back to the subway station and say good-bye to him. I'm tired anyway and want to rest so I don't go back to Zhuzhou completely beat. Dennise, Fanny and I exchange contact info. Having them along today was a lot of fun.

Banana, Nutri-Express. Read. Pack. Shower. Bed.

Thursday, October 8. Breakfast. Check-out of hotel. Walk to subway station. Take subway three stops to connection for express subway to airport. Today is the first real cloudy/overcast day since arriving in Beijing. Apparently, the powers that be seeded the clouds before National Day so it would rain - and then clear up for the celebration on National Day. It worked! A beautiful week, weather-wise.

Take photos of interior of airport. It's a nice space, organized well. The hall where the airport express lets you off is stunning. Uneventful flight. Nice view of Hunan farmland as we are coming into Changsha. Take the airport bus back to Zhuzhou, get off at the stop nearest my school and taxi home.