Beijing: April 2015

We arrived close to midnight and grabbed a cab. Beijing traffic is like LA. Even at midnight, you’re going to get stuck. 

Night dance gathering by the Beijing Diocese Xuanwumen Catholic Church

Javier had found our hotel, and I have to say, for the price we paid, it was great! Check-in was a breeze and because it was late and therefore understaffed, we loaded up the baggage cart ourselves and hauled our stuff to our room. As we walked down the hall, we could hear someone snoring. We turned the corner, and right in front of our door was a security guard, lying on the floor, sleeping. We had a good laugh, and it wasn’t until we opened the door that he woke up with a start, stared at us briefly (both of us smiling at him) and with head bent low, quickly walked off. 

Beijing Road Shopping District

We didn’t get to bed until around 2am, and therefore took our time in the morning to get up and moving. By the time we did, it was closer to lunch than breakfast. We decided to walk to Wang Fu Jing, a famous pedestrian road, to see what we could find. We were on the lookout for lunch, and both of us were pretty tired of Chinese food, at least the tourist places. We wanted something different, and settled on Pizza Hut. Did you know that PIzza Hut outside of the US is a restaurant? Of course they sell pizza, but also a slew of other Italian-style food as well as American. We had seen these Pizza Hut restaurants everywhere, and finally decided to take the plunge…It was the first, and last. 

The Forbidden City

After a less than fulfilling lunch, we continued our walk to Wang Fu Jing. We stopped in several shops along the way, and to beat the heat, walked inside malls when we could. It was hot. We stopped for green tea soft serve and eventually walked to the Forbidden City. 

The line to enter was incredibly long. As we approached the entrance, we noticed that everyone was holding their ID cards. We took out our passports. As are all lines in China, there is no rhyme or reason. As long as it resembles a line, it will do. So, for most of the wait, there were two, maybe even three lines where there should have been one. People are so impatient and refuse to wait their turn. Instead, they push and shove their way in. So…when in Rome…

Tiananmen Square

Once we were towards the front, we broke off and went to the side, forming yet another line. There were several guards checking IDs. Javier and I had our passports in our hands, and they didn’t even look twice at us, just waved us through. Easy enough. Once inside, we were about to walk into the palace, when we decided to cross the street and check out Tiananmen Square first. We observed the monuments, which of course, make no mention of the massacre that took place there. What we did notice were fire extinguishers all over the place. Tiananmen is a place of protest, and people have set themselves on fire in protest of a number of things. Therefore, there are both uniformed and plain-clothes officers monitoring the area both to eavesdrop on conversations, but also to keep order. 

Tiananmen Square

Standing in the center of Tiananmen is pretty impressive. Flanking you on either side is the Great Hall of the People and the National Museum of China. Behind or in front (depending on which way your facing) is the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong, while opposite and across the street is the Forbidden City. None of which interested us…except for the Forbidden City. 

We walked around speaking in hushed whispers before finally crossing the street to enter the Forbidden City. While Javier was snapping pictures, I acted as guide, reading him information I had found online! We were able to locate the different gates and buildings and learn about each of them. If this nursing thing doesn’t work out, I may have a future as a tour guide!

The Forbidden City

We started by walking through the Meridian Gate, and proceeded to visit the different buildings within. You can’t really enter the buildings, but rather peek in through large doors. The insides have some decoration, but we read that most of the artifacts are in museums. The buildings are truly beautiful and unique. We learned that in the Forbidden City, no one was allowed to enter or leave without permission. 

After walking around for a couple of hours, we exited through the back and started to walk home. On the way, we stopped by a woman selling watermelon on the street. It was so hot out, and the watermelon looked so refreshing, we took the chance. We made it back to our hotel in desperate need of a shower.

Local restaurant. good stuff.

Afterward, we set out to find some dinner. As we crossed the street of our hotel I saw a hole-in-the-wall restaurant and started walking toward it. Javier was less than convinced, but there were a few tables occupied, so we decided to give it a shot. As we sat down, we scoped out the table next to us. There was a guy eating there alone, and everything on his table looked delicious. It was a family owned place and a young woman approached us and started speaking. After realizing that we didn’t speak Chinese, she brought us a handwritten menu that had been translated into English several years ago, maybe even decades. Luckily for us, the guy next to us spoke English and told us what he was eating. We told him we’d like the same, and he ordered for us. The food was delicious. It wasn’t heavy and greasy like most of the food we had been eating. We had steamed dumplings, vinegar cucumbers that were crunchy and fresh, and ordered this stew-type dish. It was all so good, we returned the following days. 🙂

White tourist attraction

The next day, after eating an early lunch, we took a cab to the bus station where we made the journey to the Great Wall. It was another hot day, and we were baking in the sun. We climbed the wall and started walking. While we walked we noticed these two Eastern European girls walking together, one wearing a red dress. She caught everyone’s eye, and since she was white, she was constantly stopped and asked for a photo op. In the beginning, she was happy to oblige, she liked the attention. After about 20 minutes or so, you could see she was getting annoyed. Literally, every 2 minutes or so, she was stopped and posed for pictures. She couldn’t even enjoy her surroundings. At first Javier and I thought it was funny, but then we started to feel a little bad for her. We walked along for maybe 30 minutes or so, and then returned to where we started. We walked in the other direction, and stopped to take many pictures (without the girl in the red dress).

The Great Wall Of China

We asked each other if we had the desire to keep walking…we didn’t. So, we hopped off the wall, and took the much quicker short cut back to the bus stop. I wish I could gush on how amazing the Wall is. I had been several years earlier, and even then, I wasn’t overly impressed. I think it’s the crowds that really detract from the experience. It truly is amazing to see the wall and follow it for as long as the eye can see, and to know the history of the wall. I remember some of the information from last time, which I passed onto Javier while we walked. We saw the old, original stones, as well as those more recent, and talked about the countless people who died while building the wall, and were simply buried within. 

Overpopulated China

We made our way back down through the countless stalls of people hawking their trinkets before coming to the road that led to the bus stop. When we arrived, the line to the bus was so long. So much so, that it actually extended past the bus stop area and into the open. I told Javier, get ready for mayhem. Sure enough, people were trying to cut and form several lines, until at one point, it was just a massive mob trying to funnel into the actual line. Here’s how annoying it was. Once we were close enough to actually enter the covered area of the line, the people started pushing…hard. As soon as the people in the front of the line started entering the bus, the people in the back would push. They have no concept that the line progresses in a wave, and just because the front people move, doesn’t mean the back is going to move at the same time. We were squished. People were yelling, the guy in front of me was young and turned to tell me to stop pushing, but once he looked at my face, he could tell I was moving against my will, and started yelling over my head at the people behind me. If someone had fallen, they could have been trampled. At one point, this woman next to me was holding her tiny baby and looking worried. She was being crushed by the crowd. We were in finally the covered area and since there was a rail on one side and a wall on the other, I grabbed on to the rail to keep people behind, and started yelling, “She has a baby!!” I’m sure they didn’t understand what I was saying, but they got the jist that I was not happy, not going to budge and definitely not going to move my elbow from stabbing this woman’s chest as she kept yelling and trying to move forward. Javier and I took up as much space as possible, and since we were past the bottleneck, could push back with some effectiveness. The lady with the baby was grateful, but it was truly horrible. 

Preparing our Peking Duck

We finally made it on the bus and headed back home. We opted to walk home from the station. It was a long walk, but allowed us to see more of the city. Once we were back home, we asked around and did our own research as to the best Peking duck in the area. We finally settled on one and walked there. Again, a little far. The restaurant was inside of a commercial building, on one of the upper floors. When the doors of the elevator opened, I was a little surprised. It looked nice. Like…too nice for us. Either way, we were there and hungry, so we put our names in, had a drink at the bar, and waited. This was probably the fanciest Peking duck I’ve ever had.

Wangfujing

I looked around at the other people eating and decided that it was upscale duck. Everyone was local, or local tourist, but they were all dressed very nicely in suits and dresses, and there we were in hiking pants and boots. 🙂 The food was good. Not what we expected by any means, but still quite tasty and an overall nice experience. On the walk home, we stopped by for more soft serve and walked the night market. Javier had been saying that he was going to try the scorpions on a stick. However, once he saw them, he changed his mind. They skewer three mini scorpions per stick.

Snacks

The scorpions are still alive and wiggling. If you order the scorpion, they flash-fry them and hand it over. Some of the scorpions are still alive and moving. Aside from scorpions, there are all sorts of bugs, tarantulas, huge scorpions, snakes, and other interesting creatures. We looked in awe and disgust. We had a few non-bug snacks, walked into a few of the little shops, and once we had our fill, walked back home. 

The next morning, we checked out of the hotel, stored our stuff and went straight for more soft serve. This time, we tried a different place and had one green tea and one jasmine tea. I have to say, I liked the jasmine tea better. I forgot to mention that I was on a bubble tea kick at this time, and drank different bubble tea every single day-at least once a day. It was delicious, and I was on a caffeine/sugar high the entire time. 

Beijing

We stopped at some shops one the way home, had one last lunch at our hole-in-the-wall, and were off to the airport. Talk about a whirlwind stop! Again, at the airport, we were stopped and had to go through our bags. China made us open our bags at Every. Single. Airport. I cannot lie, we were happy to be leaving and moving on to Korea, where we would have unlimited access to the Internet, and not have to search for everything using China Bing. Did I mention Google is blocked in China? No gmail, no Google search, nothing. Before we entered the country, I uploaded the Chinese language into my phone for communication. Good thing, because once we were there, that wouldn’t have been possible. We weren’t able to access our blog, Facebook, or any other social media. We were ready for a country that values freedom. Bye-bye China. Hello South Korea!!!

To See more pictures of Beijing, click HERE.