Ah, Beijing. What to say here... There are so many things to love about China's political capital and third largest city, and yet there are so many drawbacks. How does one describe a place full of iconographic images, and yet is so vast and empty? So ancient and yet covered in concrete? Like the rest of China that I've visited on this adventure, Beijing is a place full of contrasts and contradictions, and is incredibly hard to categorize. On the surface, Beijing seems perfectly capable of handling millions of visitors from around the globe during the Olympics next year, but just beneath this veneer of organization lies a completely different creature... and it doesn't understand a word of English.
We arrived without event to be greeted at the airport by our driver, Leo, who did thankfully understand English. He whisked us through modern, empty highways towards the city centre, which upon arrival, appeared to be completely closed and dark at only 9pm. Although we were supposed to be in a "great location," there didn't seem to be anything at all going on around our hotel, and with massive city blocks twice the length of a football field, walking was pretty much out of the question.
Our hotel (formerly the Marco Polo, now part of the Grand Mercure chain) was still partially open, and we had to beg to be served dinner at a quarter to ten, as the place was all but shut for the night. After a long travel day, we were glad to settle into our posh-appearing room, which upon further inspection, didn't have air conditioning. Bizarre. Although the weather outside was quite brisk, the room itself was really stuffy; when we called the front desk to explain the situation, their solution was to "open window..." Normally, this would be acceptable (albeit a bit strange for a 4-star hotel), but with 24-hour construction going throughout most of the city (and a massive construction site just below our windows), the noise was almost unbearable... poor Paul had a total of about 5 hours sleep over the course of 3 nights.
Putting the noise and room temperature behind us, we set out the following morning for our first full day of sight seeing. In the lobby, we met the rest of our small tour group: an older couple from Dallas ("Where Y'all from?") and 3 super-cool British kids that we chummed around with for the next few days... Sisters Angela and Eileen came to the UK from Hong Kong when they were babies and grew up in London; they were traveling together around China, visiting some extended family, along with Angela's husband Will. It really added to the experience to have some fun and young-spirited tour companions, and provided for some great conversation!
We started out the day by visiting the world's largest public plaza, Tienanmen Square, which is dominated by the famous portrait of Chairman Mao. The weather was perfect, bright and crisp, as we strolled around... It surprised me when the tour guide warned us to be prepared for stares and being pointed at by locals, as many tourists from outlying areas have never seen a Westerner in person; I found this strange for a major capital city which has been open to tourism for a few decades now.
We slowly wandered through the first gates of the Forbidden City, largely built during the Ming Dynasty and home to generations of Chinese emperors until the year 1911. The palace itself is astonishingly beautiful, well maintained, and has a surreal, movie set quality to it. Dozens of buildings, courtyards, and bridges make up the compound, including a total of 9,999 bedrooms... It was obvious that the many buildings have been given a face lift for the upcoming Olympics; the entire area was spotless and the gardens pristine. We joined the crush of Chinese tourists (many of whom we were told by our guide had spent their entire lives saving for this one opportunity to visit the capital) to view the ornate palaces and gardens of the former Chinese royalty. Absolutely amazing.
After leaving the Forbidden City, we headed north of town for a visit to the Temple of Heaven... This was where the Emperor would come to pray for rain and a good harvest once a year and the massive shrine still has great cultural significance to the Chinese people... I had seen images of this temple throughout my life and have just never associated it with Beijing or even China... one of those icons with which one is familiar but just can't place. Well, now I know.
After being rushed past countless architectural treasures ("only 5 minute for photo... hurry up!") we set off for the Summer Palace, the summer residence of the royal court set high above a gorgeous man-made lake. Although the original palace was built in the 13th century, it was completely burned down by Franco-Anglo troops in the 1700's, and was rebuilt in it's entirety sometime in the early 20th century. So, the official answer to the endless tourist chant of "Is this original?" is, at least for Beijing, a resounding "No."
Back at the hotel, we wasted no time drinking several bottles of wine with our new friends, recounting the day, and then went upstairs for another early night. The following morning's wake up call was for 7:30am... Yikes!
Part 2: the Great Wall and a rather terrible day at the Beijing airport....
More soon! X Jason
