Beijing In A Nutshell

China 2 weeks in... I can safely say my opinion of China has improved drastically since I last wrote. It took a while to get used to the differences in attitude and culture but now I feel much more at home. I find myself not wincing every time someone deposits a large lugie on the sidewalk or getting defensive when people bark orders at me. We have been in Beijing for almost 9 nights, plenty of time for sightseeing and resting. I would definitely recommend a long stay in this city because there is so much to see and the city is enormous!

On the second day in the city we visited the Lama Temple, sadly we saw no llamas or lamas there. The temple is huge and the architecture beautiful but, as with many sites in China, is not really well kept. I have been constantly surprised at how poorly kept the important cultural sites are, and how many things are under construction (I assume this is because of the upcoming Olympics). We've seen many temples, slightly different structures but the same general idea. The Temple of Heaven brochure grandly states that it is "the most popular temple in the world"... I'm sure many Japanese citizens would disagree emphatically with that! The temple in Jingshan Park had a 360 degree view of Beijing which was pretty impressive. What every temple does have is legions of tourists armed with the latest photographic equipment, many taking videos of the temple walls. I feel really sorry for the people who end up having to watch Bob and Midge's 3 hour video of Beijing temples. I can't think of anything more mind numbing than watching a shaky video of stationary objects.

We also did the obligatory tour of Tiananmen square; The Great Hall of The People, Gate of Heavenly Peace, Monument to the People's Hero's and Mao's Mausoleum. In general the guidebook wasn't kidding when it called the area "a giant Maoist tourist trap" as the buildings are HUGE and very Soviet looking. What they lacked in credibility they made up for in size, kind of like the boys with pimped out cars that drive around the streets of major North American cities. The highlight of this area was definitely the Mausoleum. We waited in line for about 45 minutes to file past the body of the great Helmsmen, or a very convincing wax replica. What I found so interesting was the huge line of Chinese people, both young and old, who waited far longer than we did for a glimpse at the man. Some even laid flowers at the foot of a imposing statue of Mao in his prime. I found this funny, given all the information we now have about the havoc his regime unleashed on everyday Chinese people. But I guess everyone still believes the party line that he was 70% right and 30% wrong. I wonder if they'll have such a rating of Bush when he finally exits the Whitehouse?!

The next important tourist attraction we crossed off the list was The Forbidden City. I found out that it is not so forbidden after all as there were many tourists and even a Starbucks! Can't say that I was too unhappy about the latter. The grounds of The Forbidden City are colossal and it took about 4 hours to cover them on foot. The buildings are decorated with intricate paintings and wood carvings in deep orange, blue and green. Two of the main buildings were under construction so that was a bit disappointing but there were plenty more buildings for us to look at.

After walking the city for many days the four of us decided to take a break and rented bikes for one day. This was a great experience that I highly recommend in a city as huge and lively as Beijing. Although it is not for the faint hearted, commuting in the crazy bike lanes with ordinary Beijingers was exciting. I quickly learned that I could try to run over pedestrians but should stop for anything bigger or faster than me. By the end we were all ducking and weaving in and out of traffic like pros. Amy and Jas were a little more brave than Emily or I and a couple of times narrowly missed getting creamed by city buses. We ended up back at the hostel intact so I guess it was a successful day!

Finally, yesterday we set out in search of a Great Wall experience. We managed to have the experience of a lifetime, hiking along a virtually unrestored part of the wall devoid of other tourists. For me, this was one of the most exciting things I've done so far! We arrived at a less popular section of the wall called Jinshanling and walked along the wall to a more touristy part called Simatai. Seeing the wall for the first time almost took my breath away, I've seen pictures but nothing compares to seeing it snaking along the tops of the mountains for miles. Once we got on the wall we walked up and down along the mountain tops for 3 hours. In some places the wall was barely there and we had to clamber over loose rocks. I found it hard to believe that I was walking on something that was built by so many people, so long ago. It was even harder to believe we had found a place in China without any tourists. Usually people go to sections of the wall closer to Beijing that are fully restored and filled with tourist shops and other amenities. For us to have walked for 3 hours encountering only a couple of people was a feat!

That's about all for Beijing. We'll spend one more night here and then head on a 14 hour night train to the city of Xian in central China. I soaked up modern history in Beijing and now we go back in time to when the first emperor Qin Shi Huangdi ruled (of course I remember his long and complicated name from reading and did NOT look it up on the internet haha). Here I look forward to seeing his tomb with the Terracotta Warriors and the surrounding area that is supposedly filled with cool archaeological finds.