Leaving Mongolia was a bit of a wrench. If I hadn't had non-refundable accommodation booked in Beijing I could easily have stayed for longer, but at the appointed hour me and a large contingent from the hostel boarded the train for China. It was quite a slow but uneventful journey as we trundled along and eventually we the border. We had all the now customary paperwork and searches and progressed to the Chinese side where the fun began. We had the usual immigration and customs form to complete but the search of our baggage was a bit more rigourous this time. Almost everything had to be emptied from our packs and all books were closely examined - presumably to ensure there was nothing offensive in them, but my guidebook was given close scrutiny. Finally a sniffer dog was paraded through the train and as we waited for our passports to be returned the train was shunted back down the line and into a big shed. Trains in Mongolia and Russia run on a 1.5m guage which is slightly larger than most of the rest of the world so the bogies all had to be changed before we'd be able to progress through China. In the shed the carriages were all uncoupled from each other before we were raised on huge hydraulic jacks and the "old" bogies removed and shunted down the line collecting the others behind as they went on their way. At the head of the procession the new narrower ones were rolled in and stopped below each carriage as appropriate before the wagons were lowered and the connections to the new undercarriages secured. Once the cars were whole again we were hauled out of the sheds and back to the station where the immigration officials marched out solemnly to board and hand back our passports - until they appeared to realise "their" carriage was heading past them and they broke into childlike sprints to keep up! Once we had our passports and they'd disembarked again, there began a bizarre series of shunting backwards and forwards noisily clattering and clunking and ,I presume, collecting more wagons but we went back and forth at least 7 or 8 times before we eventually stopped and then carried on our way through China, eventually arriving right on time into Beijing.
In Beijing I headed out to see the Olympic stadia. The Birds Nest really did look impressive and there was a real nice buzz to the place with so many people milling around. Without a competition ticket I couldn't get too close but the atmosphere was great - definitely encouraging me to try for tickets for 2012 once it comes round. I met up with Naomi and Matt the next day and after dinner I suggested heading back out to at least see the closing ceremony fireworks from the avenue leading to the stadium. Arriving at the subway station though everyone without tickets was shepherded out in the opposite direction and we were allowed nowhere near the approach road. We couldn't even loiter near the station, could barely see the sky from the dip we were in and certainly there weren't big screens for the crowds gathered and so, as the soldiers arrived in force to add a bit of weight to the marshalling, we gave up and went home. Back at the hostel a crowd of us gathered and watched it on the big screen there! As the fireworks went off we were allowed onto the roof of the hostel, and although we could only see a distant glow from the main display my friends the Russians did us proud. They had commandeered a section round the lakes behind us and set off a secondary display to start their after games party. It was a great show and a fantastic end to the day. Despite what was universally agreed as a cringing display at the ceremony from the London 2012 contingent many of us will be keen to attend and enjoy the fantastic atmosphere which the games bring - I'll certainly be applying for tickets (and Fraser if by that time you think you want to go, then I'll take you too).
With the games over I enjoyed spending time wandering the hutong around the local area. The hutong are the narrow alleyways which criss-cross the city and which are home to many Chinese people. The homes are small, crowded and basic - mostly with no bathrooms or running water - but each alley has public toilets (which by the end of the day and in the heat of the summer you can often smell before you see!) and a watershed where fresh water can be dispensed for those that need. Its a fascinating sight as people congregate in the street outside their homes chatting, playing games or apparently just contemplating life in general. The alleys are busy aswell, with bikes, scooters, trikes and rickshaws racing back and fro in all directions loaded with any manner of goods from rubbish to shopping to seemingly all someones worldly possessions. To top it all cars and taxis will try to squeeze up and down the twisty streets too so there's never a dull moment for the people and world watchers! Its also, believe it or not, around these streets that you get some of the best street food. Its all freshly prepared on little stoves in small outlets or even from the back of carts, using fresh ingredients and virtually always cooked to order. It was certainly tastier than the food I got from the night-market. The stalls there were too ordered and regimented by Chinese standards and were obviously catering purely for the tourist market displaying all sorts of wierd, wonderful and revolting ingredients: there was everything from the standard dumplings and kebabs to scorpion, starfish, silkworms, and odd bits of goodness knows what - you really wouldn't want to know!
One day, though, I met up with Chin, a friend of Maureen's and had the most fantastic lunch: we had Beijing Duck at the Quanjude Roast Duck restaurant. Mmmm ... Delicious!! (Jill and Lesley, I may have enjoyed our crispy duck at the Emperor before I left but it had nothing on this) The skin was so crispy and sweet and the meat so juicy and tender ... I'm drooling again thinking about it. Traditionally every part of the duck is used but the two of us couldn't quite manage that -even with my apetite- so we just had soup and duck! I was even given our duck's commemorative certificate of origin when we left!
Other sights to catch my attention included Tiananmen Square and "The Forbidden City", Jingshan Park, The Lakes, and of course the Great Wall. Tiananmen square is huge but not as impressive as the smaller Red Square of Moscow, certainly by day anyway. Maybe because the surrounding buildings are lower and not so imposing or maybe because there were still lots of olympic and paralympis stands, displays and hoardings around which kind of segmented it, or maybe just cause its virtually all just a greyish mass, I don't know. By night when the floodlights were on it was nicer. It certainly draws the Chinese though and there were streams of them queuing to photograph and get into Mao's mausoleum. Its a strange world.
The Forbidden City on the other hand is amazing. The size of the complex, the colours on the buildings, the intricacy and detail in the decorations are incredible. There are huge areas that the public aren't allowed to visit but I spent hours there and still probably didn't see the half of it. You can imagine it being a real safe area of seclusion for the emperors of the time. Its just a pity that for some of the furnished pavilions the public are kept back at a cordon a little distance from the entrances so you can't really see in to the beautiful interiors. There are some temporary exhibitions aswell which cover such things as costumes, weddings, gifts and treasures and are interesting but somehow they seem a bit remote from the palace buildings in which they are housed. The garden made a nice shady resting spot with lots of trees and rock ans was a nice stopping off point before going to Jingshan park which was created from the earth excavated from the moats surrounding the palace and in its day was stocked with deer, rabbit, hares and songbirds. Today it provides a viewpoint over the city and a place for chinese kids to be taken by their patents to meet westeners and practise their English!
The lakes - Qianhai and Houhai - were not far from my hostel and a lovely tree lined area to walk round, listening to the birds and peoplewatching. The area is well used as a playground by the locals. You can hire boats to enjoy the water- you just have to dodge the many swimmers. Despite the colour of the water and the signs advising to the contrary it is well used for fishing and swimming by the locals as part of their daily exercise regimes. There are also little gym parks around the shores -like our playparks but filled with larger sized equipment which the adults can gather to talk, play chess and to exercise gently. A bit different to Moray Leisure Centre!
A real highlight though was the day trip to The Great Wall. We were taken to Jinshanglin about 2.5hrs from Beijing then hiked the 10k to Simatai before returning to the city. Arriving at Jinshanglin we had two options to get up the hill: an 18 minute cable-car ride or an additional half hour walk. I opted for the cable-car and almost instantly regretted my decision! I hadn't really given any consideration to my hatred of cable-cars, the height and gradient of our climb, or chinese attitudes to general maintenance! When the couple in front of me left and someone picked up a big plank of wood to whack some plug or other back into the car as they moved I thought "oh sh*t"! As I set off I remembered the shuddering sounds and slight swinging sensation which makes me so nervous. I ended up sitting stock still, holding onto the rusty shelf in front of me, counting the minutes to the top and trying to decide if it was better or worse with your eyes closed!! My suffering wasn't in vain however. As soon as I got out the car the views were stunning. Green mountains as far as the eye could see with wall and watch-towers perched atop and heading off in both directions. Setting off on the hike some parts were so steep it was a struggle to clamber up the steps, other sections were quite crumbly and the terrain was quite difficult. other bits were a good mix of slab stone and gravel and was relatively straightforward walking. The watch-towers too did indeed provide great vantage points to look out on the surrounding countryside for marrauding Mongols. Every so often -usually as I paused to draw breath after a particularly steep section I marvelled at the work it would have taken to build, the fact that so much remains intact all these hundreds of years later and the sheer beauty of the whole area. It was nice that it hadn't been too "touristified" and that it wasn't particularly busy or crowded. There were a few hawkers trying to sell postcards, t-shirts, books water and cold drinks, but you had to admire their tenacity to carry their wares up the hills in the first place! Arriving at Simitai there was a gorge where the wall had crumbled away and a wooden suspension bridge crossed the river below us. It was a steep descent down an old iron ladder staircase to reach the rickety looking bridge. The rattling of the planks, the gaps between them, the swinging of the bridge and the drop below ensured I didn't linger long on hte crossing. Once across there were three choices for the descent to the bus waiting in the village below: a zip-slide; another cable-car; a walk. No prized for guessing which method I took. It was a thoroughly enjoyable walk on a smooth paved path to the bottom. All in all it was a fantastic experience and one not to be missed, but strong footwear, a nerve for heights and a good sense of balance were fefinitely necessary. Lou, it may suit you and your bobble-hatted ramblers, but I don't think it'd be suitable for some of the Glenrothes Strollers for instance!
I have enjoyed my visit to Beijing. The city has obviously undergone a lot of construction and redevelopment in the lead up to the olympics to make it easier for English speakers to get around, yet, to my eyes anyway, it seems to have retained the feel of a being a distictly Chinese city. I just hope the big multinationals which are springing up all over the city don't dilute that over time and leave just another capital city like so many other round the world.
