The train into China was fairly uneventful. I made sure that I stopped drinking about 5 hours before the border crossing to save the desperation caused at the last border crossing. It was a fun day and a half, travelling with the same folks we had met along the way. We were in the same compartment so it did tend to get a bit noisy. I continued to take abuse for the Mongolian herdsman but I did get my real prize of chocolate from Margaret after I "won" the ankle bone game.
The scenery into Beijing was very pretty - lots of pretty mountains, great excitement at seeing the Great Wall from the train and we looked like a bunch of Japanese tourists standing at the carriage windows. It got more and more foggy as we got nearer Beijing and by the time we were at the train station, we could only see a few feet in front of us and it was cold.... we had been hoping for some warmer weather. Lots of fond farewells at the train station and Ants, Kala, Lauren, Nick and myself headed to find cash and a taxi. Walking out from the train station was unbelievable, there were so many people outside and we had to fight our way through the hordes, decline offers of accommodation and offers of taxis.
And so begins the dramatic turn of events for Nick. (We met Nick in Moscow and have travelled with him to Beijing). We found an ATM, which swallowed one of Nick's bank cards. To be fair, he was calmer about it that I would have been. Anyway, we convinced Nick that he should come and stay in the hostel where we were as at least he would have people around and cash should be need.
We then thought that it would be cheaper to take a minibus back to the hostel. Now, we all have read the guide books and the advice they give on not being taken for a ride but this didn't stop us. A Chinese man approached us and asked if we were looking for a taxi, after using hands to show 5 people, the driver nodded happily, phoned our hostel for directions and lead us away from the normal taxis into a small street off the station entrance. We started getting a bit nervous and then he pointed out his minibus, it was a station wagon, in really bad condition, smoked really badly. Lauren was relegated to the back where she just about choked to death on exhaust fumes and I was told to sit next to the driver.... taking some more abuse from the peanut gallery about asian men, men with means of transport who took a shine to me .... I am sure you get the drift of what I had to endure. And we were ripped off with the price. But we didn't learn our lesson...
Once we were at the hostel, did some washing, which we left outside to air dry. The half an hour cycle turned into about an hour and a half so it was late by the time we finally headed out to a restaurant recommended by the Lonely Planet to meet Ants and Kala. We made a slight error in directions and landed up in a very dodgy alley. We did wonder why the locals kept looking at us, wondering what we were doing down the alley. I absolve myself of all fault for this one and blame Nick. It was loaded with street vendors and very dirty, something which is consistent about Beijing.
The restaurant included a show of the classical Chinese masked dance and fire breathing. The performer dances and is able to change his mask as he moves and leaves you wondering how he did it. Dinner was interesting. It started off with ordering the drinks. I wanted a watermelon juice, was a bit thirsty so asked for a large juice, however it turned out to be a jug of watermelon juice and even the waitress was laughing. It was a godsend in the end. We ordered Peking Duck (which was very nice) and then to be safe, we all went for the chicken with peanuts.... bad move, it was so spicy that it really did burn the taste buds off my tongue which still felt tender the next day. Needless to say, the watermelon was flattened in no time, primarily by Nick and myself who really took some strain with the meal. Dinner was over quite early, there isn't much of a Chinese night life and we were the last to leave the restaurant.
We headed off the next day to the Forbidden City and this day turned out to be a comedy of errors. It started off with breakfast at McDonalds - sorry Tania.... but really, it was a popular choice and the coffee was good. We then wandered down a street market where all sorts of food was on offer, scorpions, bugs, snake and that was all I could tell. Next was the curio market and making the mistake of stopping to pick up a deck of cards with Iraq's most wanted, we were then haggled into buying Chairman Mao cards. We bargained quite well I think, though at one stage Nick got dragged of by Chinese women to another stall as his continual "lower, lower" wasn't very popular. The ladies were very strong and were quite a force to be reckoned with. Three sets of chopsticks later and two decks of cards, we were back on track to the Forbidden City.
We then wandered through a park, and not being able to blend in with the crowds were noticed by two young Chinese guys who had studied english ect ect. Wanting to embrace being in China, we all happily started talking to them (this - the same group who had read the Lonely Planet and had been warned about talking to Chinese "students"). We landed up at some gallery where they showed us their art, it was pretty, pretty expensive to but I don't they were brave enough to take on a group of 5 so we left unscathed and wallets in tact.
We finally got to the Forbidden City, along with three quarters of the population of China. We elbowed our way through the crowds and made it to the ticket office and the audio guide stall as we had read that Roger Moore had done the reading. There was no Roger Moore and clearly no proof listening which was quite evident after we were told use the stairs after "after cunting the lions" or "look at the stone which is a rock". The Forbidden City is big and impossible to take it all in in one go. We wandered around for a few hours, had a really bad fast food Chinese meal, dry Choco pies and were ready to leave. While we waited for Ants and Kala, Nick managed to spot the Smiths..... Bloody Hell.....
After the Forbidden City, we went to Tianbamen Square, impressive and I had a "I am in China" moment. It appears that for some Chinese, westerners are somewhat of a novelty. I was asked to be in a fair number of photos with random Chinese people. Enduring some more jibes as you can well imagine.
We then tried to find Behai Park, which we somehow missed but landed up seeing a very serious taking down of the flag. Still looking for this park in the dark, we decided enough was enough, lets find a tea house or somewhere to have a beer. At this stage it is just Nick, Lauren and myself and we walk past a restaurant which had teapots on a table, so we all just assumed that it was a tea room and excitedly opened the door to go in. Causing quite a stir, not sure how many foreigners they see in the restaurant, all the staff hovered around with their english menu. It wasn't quite early enough for dinner yet and we were hoping to find a Peking Duck restaurant recommended by the Smiths earlier in the day, being too embarrassed to leave, we ordered some Chrysanthemum tea which tasted like flower pot water and chugged it back quite quickly and left.
So on went the hunt for this restaurant. The distances on a map are disconcerting, you think everything looks so close but it isn't. Hungry, tired we found a tea room and it was closed. On to find the restaurant, Nick now in charge of the map, after a swift correction by myself, we wandered down Culture Street, which became very badly lit dodgy alley (Nick will be reading this). Nick and I quickened the pace past Chinese in pyjamas, little street shops, games rooms, with Lauren jogging behind to keep up. Relieved to find a main road we saw a restaurant that sold Peking duck, ignoring the "Amuseful, happy, easy meal" offered opposite the road.
Feeling much better after duck and beer, we decided to head home by taxi. Not so easy, after two attempts at pointing at our location on the hostel provided map we decided to walk, then it started to rain. It poured down and there were no taxi's in sight. We got drenched and bear in mind, our washing was hanging outside to air dry, we worried about having dry clothes. I wasn't listening to Nick when he asked if this was our road, which turned into a 30 minute detour. We were wet but Nick attempted to keep our spirits with renditions of singing in the rain and always look on the bright side of life - did this help - not really - I needed the bathroom and the sounds of water was not helping. Back at the hostel. I used my hair dryer to dry Lauren's and Nick's shoes and my denims - the hair dryer has been one of my most useful travel items so far. I paid my penance for the bad directions.
Next day was an early start as we wanted to go too the Great Wall. Not being able to book anything at the hostel, we used an outdated guide book which told us to take but 2 or 5 to the Wall. We paced the streets looking for the bus stop, and eventually found a Chinese lady who was trying to help us. We really should have learnt our lesson by now - she made us follow her to a tour bus office which we declined and went back to look for the bus stop. Finding the official Beijing tour office, another Chinese man, pointed for us to follow him to the number 2 of 5 bus that leaves every half an hour. You would have thought we had learnt our lesson the first time round, but alas, we were taken to another tour bus. Declining this, we went back to the official bus tour office and found out that the number 2 and 5 buses have been discontinued about two years ago - a very old guide book. Ants and Kala needed to go too Xian the next day, Nick to Japan, so they opted for the Badaling tour and Lauren and I said we would go the next day and include the Ming Tombs. In between this, some random Chinese man declared his love for me..... more abuse followed.
Lauren and I decided that we needed a plan of action so we found a Tea Room quite close to the coach park. After being asked if we spoke Chinese, we were led upstairs into a private room. It was really lovely inside, grass, flowers, canaries in cages, goldfish in bowls. It looked like a secret garden. Lauren had the snacks menu and I had the tea menu. I asked the server what she suggested and she pointed out an Oolong tea which would have cost us about 1,580 Yuan (over 100 pounds). I opted for black tea and got a "why aren't you being more adventurous look" from Lauren. Black tea was the cheapest on the menu - still 280 Yuan was really expensive before the hire of the room and I was worried about costs. What I didn't realise was that we actually got to keep the pot with the left over tea we didn't drink.
We suffered through chewing on tea leaves until the server pointed out that we needed to drink the tea with the lids on the little cups. We really enjoyed our experience there, it was peaceful and gave us some time to plan the next steps which included buying an updated Lonely Planet guide to China. We booked our tour for the great wall, organised our washing, found a Pizza Hut for lunch (thank goodness for American chain restaurants) and went back to the scary street market to look for a birthday present for Nick who was supposed to leave the next day. We bargained much better and managed to get him a Chairman Mao watch and book for a very good price and threw in some clean socks.
We caught a taxi to Behai Park, very pretty and with lovely views over the Forbidden City and Beijing. It was a very quick visit as the park was closing soon and we were meeting a friend of mine, Lucy, for dinner.
Lucy and her husband Charles fetched us and took us to a lovely restaurant. Lucy ordered loads of different foods, radish soaked in soya sauce, barbeque pork, bean paste, seafood soup, chinese dates and it was all delicious. I was given a knife and fork as I have embarrassed myself enough with chopsticks. The restaurant had a show too and we were entertained with chinese mask dancing, chinese opera, acrobatics, music on different chinese instruments. We delighted Lucy and Charles with our tales of what we had been doing wrong, Lucy confirmed our Great Wall tour and time, difficult to do in english. Lucy, Charles - thanks once again for a lovely dinner. Back at the hostel, we wished Nick an early happy birthday, said our fond farewells...... or so we thought.
We were up early for our tour to the Great Wall, stopping at the Ming Tombs along the way. The tour also included a visit to the Jade Factory and Silk Store - tourist traps and we didn't buy anything. We had the most annoying American on the trip who spent the most of our tour bus organising his travel plans and involving the guide in the process which managed to put her into a bad mood and she hated our group and kept disappearing. The Ming Tombs, what we saw of them in the 10 minute whip around was nothing special. Then on to the Great Wall where we had to fight more tourists to walk on the Wall, oh and we bumped into the Smith's again.... Bloody Hell. Thanks to their advice though, we took little cars to the tops and walked down. An interesting ride, you fall into the cars and then at the top you are literally yanked out to keep the flow of tourists going. It was an amazing experience, one I will never forget. It was much quieter further down the wall but tedious walking. Very large steps that took me up to my knee and parts so steep that I had to hold onto the railing. I did manage to get asked to be in some more random photos again. It was a lovely day and one t-shirt - I climbed the Great Wall of China later we headed back towards Beijing.
So imagine our surprise when we bumped into Nick again. Just a little background on Nick. He also left London by train a month ago and thinking that Russia and China weren't going to be that cold, he was travelling very lightly. Two pairs of thin trousers meant that he had to wear both pairs during most of Russia. He was supposed to have been up at 5 am that morning to catch the train to get to the ferry to Japan. He overslept.... not a problem as his ferry booking was wrong anyway, he decided that he would wash some clothes and I think he chose the horse smelling ones which held in their pockets, his passport, amongst other things. One laundered passport later.... we still can't get rid of him. He has had an interesting time visiting the British embassy who see wet passports quite often and trying to sort out a new Chinese visa.
To cheer Nick up, we decided to go for dinner and a walk down the street market. We sampled some of the safer eats on offer, dumplings, fried ice cream and banana fritters (in error - mine really - I was trying to buy fried ice-cream). We found a restaurant the sold Chinese food like the take aways back in London and very full we headed back to the hostel.
Next day was off to the Lama Monastery - the largest buddhist monastery outside of Tibet. It was beautiful. It is still a practicing buddhist temple and there was incense burning and people worshipping the different Buddhas. There were very many different temples with different buddha's and I wish I knew more to understand\d it all. At one point I was in a temple where a monk started chanting which really made me feel like I was in a Buddhist temple.
A quick walk to the Confucius temple though, by now we are feeling a little ADT (another damn temple) so we made it a short visit, walked through the Hutongs and caught a taxi to the Temple of Heaven. Another quick experience, we were in a hurry to get back to the hostel for the acrobatic show. Nick and I couldn't get the Echo Walls to work so we felt cheated.
We waited for our transport for the acrobatic show at the hostel which would have given any of the scary Disneyworld rides a run for their money. It was a death trap and the driver was madly darting in between traffic to get to the theatre quickly in a minibus that was barely holding it together. The show was amazing though, contortionists which excited Nick, acrobatics, hat dances, ballet on shoulders - all really impressive. One more ride in the scary minibus we were back at the hostel to change before dinner and the bar area to celebrate Nick's birthday. By this time he has already broken the classy and expensive Chairman Mao watch.
The bar area was very pretty, and the bar we found had chinese entertainment/rock though the drinks were expensive so we headed back to the hostel to finish up the evening. Many drinks later, many more incriminating photos later it was Nick' birthday and we staggered to bed.... all alone....get your minds out of the gutter.
Next day, we sorted out our excess junk to send back to London. Finding potentially the poshest and most expensive branch of DHL in the Chinese World trade Centre, we have shipped 6kg's back to London. A taxi ride later, we were at the Summer Palace. It was an interesting taxi ride, I pointed out a building to Lauren and the taxi driver jumped onto the band wagon, explaining the building in Chinese, me having no idea what he was saying but doing my heartfelt best with impressive and wow. He then spent the next 45minutes pointing out building but we did get to see the Birds Nest Stadium that they are building for the Olympics and it was really impressive.
The Summer Palace was very pretty, windy though so we didn't see as much as we could have. Definitely a place I would want to sit and spend time there not racing around but just enjoying. It was huge with all the temples and lake and the sunset in the evening was beautiful. We managed to bump into Ursula from the train and she took a taxi back to the hostel with us.
We still haven't learnt our lesson though and were found by a man advertising meter taxi. Lo and behold 10 minutes into the trip his meter didn't work. He then wanted to negotiate a far. Nick in the front seat kept his calm and his stance on the meter. We were then let out of the cab to catch another one and strangely enough, the taxi sign had mysteriously disappeared.
Back at the hostel, we organised ourselves and got ready for the train to Xian. Nick is still with us now, I wasn't joking about not being able to get rid of him but his South African accent and ja is coming along quite nicely now.
