My wife and I had a wonderful, eye-opening and sometimes tiresome two-week trip to China. It’s truly a beautiful country and if ever you have the opportunity to hitch a plane ride to the East then I advise you take it straight to Beijing or Shanghai. China has a lot to offer the active mind. I imagine that a dozen trips wouldn’t be enough to capture ‘what is China’. With that point in mind we’ve experienced a lot that I can’t really relate, but will try.
Walking into Beijing felt like walking into a labor camp. I would later regret this feeling. Stepping off the train we took into Beijing (Shanghai to Beijing) the air was suffocatingly thick with the smell of coal. The people around us looked sick, people were sick and I could feel myself getting sick. I did not want to be there. (There is a reason people wear the surgical masks, get one).
We immediately experienced the Beijing smog while commuting to our hotel and we could not see two feet (.6 m) in front of us. Apparently this happens more frequently in the winters. It was cold and dry.
We booked a hotel in a nice area called Dungsi (pronounciation: dung-suh). It was fairly close to all the tourist attractions, without being in the middle of all the chaos. One important thing is that it was one block from a Beijing metro stop which is very easy to navigate once you get going. (*Note: Beijing and Shanghai probably have the best public transportation systems in the world.) No one at our hotel spoke English, but people were amazingly nice and it was awesome. Do your research before you go! We got lucky that our hotel had great Wifi, and that we purchased a good VPN service before going. (*Note: Get a Yahoo! email account before traveling to China, your Gmail and AOL will be blocked.) These are musts when you are a budget traveler. We didn’t want to really rely solely on help across the language barrier.
In general, people did not speak English wherever we ventured in China. And, this is FINE! The Chinese were very patient with both my wife and I. It was not their fault we did not understand Chinese when traveling in a country that uses Cantonese and Mandarin as it national languages. On our end we did not become frustrated and blame our hosts for not speaking English. One time my wife and I were arguing with a cab driver for 10 minutes before we realized what one another was saying. Which in any city in the States an interaction like that would have probably ended badly after just a minute – (“Get the f**k out of my cab, now!”).
We enjoyed a tour of the Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden palace and the Great Wall of China. We purchased a package online through a phenomenal tour company. It included an all-English tour to all three sites with a lunch at Subway (worst part of the trip) for about $115/person. The driver and tour guide picked us up and dropped us off directly at our hotel. We recommend you doing this to bypass all the insane tourism to these places. You get in and get out with very little hassle. And, it’s cheap for you anyway.
The Great Wall of China was absolutely amazing. It’s engineering and its magnitude will leave you speechless. We only walked 2 miles of it and it was so physically demanding which puts one in an even higher state of awe. The Great Wall defeated immigration. When you think of that impossibility you get a sense of the wall’s significance. There is an estimated number of one million people that died building the wall over the solid 200 consistent years of its construction – which was still being added to until more recently when it was being torn down by scavengers using it for materials – but this number is likely deflated. We’ve heard other stories that may put this number closer to 10 – 20 million, but who really knows. Go see it! It is unlike any other “wall” you will ever see in your life time! A true wonder!
Our guide did not walk the wall with us. She was so tired after one mile that she couldn’t go further. She told us to go ahead on our own. We did. We hit one of the steepest areas of the wall and then we were finished. (Literally and figuratively). Our bodies were beat to crap. It is a wonder unfit for those out of shape. I don’t really know, and in any case, I wouldn’t be involved with that sort of pomposity.
We found great food in Beijing. Our favorite being a Uyghur restaurant called Crescent Moon. Nice lamb dishes with good bread and soothing tea. It’s the Chinese way. We also found strange food. The things you hear about China and food are true. Find the right places to eat and don’t be afraid to try new things – unless it’s dog or rat, please do not eat anything that can be named Toby – because there is plenty to make the taste buds happy. We were paying roughly $20/pp per meal. Which is a little steep when it comes to China. I blame my wife, she has expensive tastes. You can do with nice $3-10 meals (which include 2-5 multiple dishes). These are common “deals” so don’t think you have to look too far to get them.
I would never get used to a Chinese breakfast – sauteed veggies and noodles and bread – because it felt too much like eating dinner. So I always went out of my way to find a more Western breakfast, if available. You have plenty of options available to you. I couldn’t compromise being American in regards to breakfast, but otherwise, we did very well sticking to Chinese traditional meals and relaxation techniques – tea and massage.
There was a heightened alert in Beijing for terrorist activity against foreigners (which terrorism is only in question in the north and northwest part of China, at the moment). If you are any kind of Caucasian be aware of these things. Me on the other hand would be perfectly fine and probably never be in danger, but then I remembered that I was traveling with my wife. The Chinese military is top notch when it comes to protecting foreigners, though. They will go out of their way to ensure your safety. (*Note: For foreign ladies that like to travel alone China may be a great place. Statistically there are very little incidents that involve mugging, rape, or violence against foreign women. By law the penalties for crimes against foreigners are harsh and more often than not involve the death penalty.)
Only being in Beijing for four days and it being our first city experience in China we really didn’t give ourselves enough time to explore. If going to Beijing a good 7 days would do some good. There is much to see around Beijing and it is a hub to other nature sights in the north of China. There are plenty of day trips to involve one’s self.
To be continued…
M A D 