4 - Beijing - All the other things to see...

We had a free day, so off I trotted on my own to a place far away - the Summer Palace. It was about an hours travel from the centre of Beijing by Subway & taxi. And it was incredible impressive. This is where the Emperors came to live out the warm balmy summers, & the grounds were certainly suited to royalty. Lots of temples, gardens, a lovely lake, & mini city shopping mall (old style) - something for every Emperor really. Nowadays, there are enormous amounts of everyday Chinese flocking to the palace to enjoy the surrounds.

The next morning, I headed off on my own to see the Lama Temple. I considered myself quite adept now at using Beijing’s magnificent Subway system, so it was easy to jump on board & head out. The Lama Temple is the biggest Tibetan Buddhist temple outside Tibet & holds one of the largest Buddha statues in the world carved out of one piece of Sandalwood trunk - must have been a bloody giant tree. I was a tad embarrassed at first to say my version of a Buddhist prayer with all the Chinese approaching theirs with such pomp & ceremony. But in the end, I did manage to arouse enough courage to have my one-on-one with Gautama. After giving my thanks, I then wandered around the local hutongs of the area which were very traditional.

Our first stop on the group tour that afternoon was the Huilin Arts Centre. Sponsored by Intrepid, they are a learning facility for intellectually handicapped individuals. They welcomed us with open arms & gave us a great performance, showing off their skills at dance, acting & singing. We even had a cup of jasmine tea offered to us. During the performance, we were asked to dance with them , which we all did with vigour & merriment.

After the performance, we were off to the Forbidden City. The size of it astounded me. So much space in the middle of the city for Emperors gone by, as well as the occasional Empress. I was amused to learn that an Emperor had up to 3000 concubines living within the city walls. Each male servant had to be a eunuch in order to work for the Emperor, just in case he was inclined to dip himself into one of the concubines - heaven forbid! Seemingly, there was once a plot to kill the Emperor crafted by several of his concubines. One of the concubines in on the plot became too scared & decided to tell the Empress. Well, wasn’t she pissed! The punishment dished out was meant to thwart any further thoughts about Emperor slaying that may be harboured amongst the mistresses. The flesh of the guilty concubines was carved slowly from their bodies over days until they died an agonising death. Lovely!

The Forbidden City flows down towards Tiananmen Square, our next stop on the tour. There were army people everywhere, & seemingly lots of bugs & spies planted about. Oh, so scary Big Brother. The square is pretty huge - I think it can fit a million people in it, or so they say. There are red & Chinese flags everywhere, a picture of Chairman Mao, & one of Sun Yat Sen too. We didn’t get to view Mao’s fortified body as it’s back in the fridge after 1pm. Shame really.

3 - Beijing - And what a bloody Great Wall it is!

The tour group left at 6:30am the next day for what I thought was a nice leisurely stroll along the Great Wall. I’d been nervous about the 10 km stroll. Frank did not warn us about the type of walk we were facing. 10kms yes. Up & down really difficult terrain - no. When people think of the Great Wall, they usually (or, rather, I usually) think of well paved surfaces easy to walk along with no steep gradients. Right? Perhaps even with cuddly panda bears along the way.

What we had was 4 hours of gruelling, & I mean tortuous, hiking - up & down over often rocky crumbling surfaces, often needing to climb in sections. I quickly came to think of it as a survival measure. I simply had to get to the other end or I may very well be left behind. Inevitably I made it to the end. But I did wonder what would have happened if I wasn’t able to. I won’t deny it, visions of a helicopter flying in to winch me out had fluttered through my mind on the odd occasion through my walk. I'm certain I wasn't the only one who had similar visions.

2 - Beijing - Temple of Heaven

The Intrepid tour group was to meet at the hotel at 6pm so I had a whole day to get my travelling act together & explore a bit of the city. My first tourism choice was the Temple of Heaven. Looking at the Beijing map provided by the hotel, I figured that it couldn’t be too long a walk, & it would be good to mingle with the natives.

The short walk turned out to be nearly an hour. Crossing the street was similar to playing Russian roulette - see the blog on 'Traffic in China'.

Before reaching the temple, I found a restaurant packed with people and with a queue outside the door. Feeling hungry, I lined up, & on reaching the front of the queue, was constantly ignored by the attendant. So, with everyone overtaking me, I finally tapped him on the shoulder & asked for a table for one. He laughed at me. I think the Chinese find people eating by themselves a very strange thing to do as it’s considered a social occasion. So I asked again & he smiled nicely - I knew then I’d get my table. And I did - a table for 4 for 1. Two waiters came & cleaned away the table. Whatever was too big or difficult to take away, they just pushed over the edge towards the window. I sat down & had my first real Beijing food - stir fried beef with cumin - yummy!

The Temple of Heaven was a treat. Even more than the temples themselves were the fascinating gatherings of people within the grounds. Thousands of people lined the pathways, socialising together. People waltzed in the gardens, played cards all over the parks & benches, & sang to their hearts content. Walking back from the temples, I found one group of about 70 older people singing with all seriousness the songs being played on an accordion. There was even a conductor to navigate them through the tricky changes. I found out later that they were singing communist songs & that’s the reason why they sang with such pride & honour. Most of the people in the temple grounds were of a retirement age, & the reason many come to the temple is to contribute their value back to the community. The Chinese are remarkable for their community spirit!

1 - First Steps in China

Compared to Hong Kong Airport, Beijing International Airport, while not as impressive as HK, has a grandeur that's more governmental in character. Some very officious airport people walked about with serious and suspicious looks.

Walking staunchly towards the customs gate, I carried that look about me that said, “don’t even think of messing with me”. My 5 foot 2 inch stature may delude some people into thinking I’m a pushover, but the 'back off’ written on my forehead warned the undesirables that they’d be getting more than they bargained for by picking on me. At least, I hoped so. Walking confidently, I readied myself to explain (read debate) the necessity of bringing my western herbal medicine into the country. But all that worry for no purpose - nothing happened. Customs was closed, perhaps because it was too late, & I sailed right through the empty customs area to the taxi rank outside.

After being delegated a taxi by the taxi rank official, I showed the address details provided by my tour operator, neatly summarised in Chinese characters, to my driver. At the point where he frowned with an “I’m not quite sure where that is” look, I should have instantly asked the official guy for help. Instead, I used English to ask the Chinese speaking driver if he was absolutely positive how to get there. A few nods of the head & I jumped in - sleep deprevation had obviously got the better of me.

Soon we were racing down the highway in the overtaking lane &, realising fully operational seatbelts must only be a western thing, I held on for dear life to the back of the front seat, with visions of the car flipping over & me dying in a horrific accident on my first day of travel.
But, that’s not what happened. He began to slow down, while he was in the outside overtaking lane, & signalled in the international code of body language that he had no idea where he was going. Incredulous, I once again showed him the Chinese character directions, insisting that he must understand. A few shakes of the head from the driver & I dived into my daypack in search of my ipod mandarin phrasebook. Meanwhile, cars were streaming by us, horns beeping incessantly, as we continued to slow down to about 40 kms per hour in the overtaking lane on the highway. I flicked through the ipod, not sure what I wanted to find.

Then he asked, putting his hand to his ear, if I had a phone. Yes, I did. But I wasn’t about to let him have my phone. So I asked him for his phone - demanded is a more accurate description - in between muttering the word for police just as a warning. A few naughty swear words a slipped out around this time, until I remembered that the People’s Republic of China didn’t like you using swear words & I shut up in fear of being thrown into some ghastly prison & left to rot.

After lots of pointing & arguing, I finally got a hold of his phone and called the Harmony Hotel. After briefly explaining the situation, the receptionist asked to speak with the driver who finally got the clarification he required in order to deliver me safely. It was just after midnight (after 2pm in Sydney) and I was bloody exhausted. Following a quick check-in, I found my way to my room, grateful for having a place to rest on my own for the night. After cleaning myself up & gaining a very small sense of normality back into my world, I was ready to jump into bed for a long-awaiting snooze.

I then sat on the hardest bed I have ever sat on before. This was not possible, it’s a nice western type hotel, it must have soft comfy beds for weak westerners like me. I tried the other single bed - also rock hard - the carpeted floor would have been softer to sleep on. I wondered about the reasoning behind this. Perhaps the communists think the westerners are too soft and need to experience a part of the real hard life here in China. I was left wondering as I bounced into bed, finding the best possible position that wouldn’t leave my arms numb or neck sore. Hardly able to keep my eyes open, I was so ready for sleep, aching for it. But with all the turmoil & bed discomfort, I managed only a few sweet hours before the dawn welcomed me with open arms to China.