Trip to Beijing

After weeks of planning the trip to Beijing things did not start out the way I hoped. Veleta and I got up Friday morning to meet the driver at 8:00 am to take us to the airport in Wuxi. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 10:45 AM so, the flight was delayed. It was delayed until 1:20 PM. This instantly reminded me of sitting on the runway for close to four hours before my fourteen hour flight to Tokyo when I came here. Well, so we boarded the plane at 1:20 and sat there for about an hour then we stepped back off the plane to sit in the airport until about 5:00 pm. Then they finally called us back on and we finally took off at 6:00PM. With our trip being a short two day excursion we had lost a whole day due to mechanical problems and the weather in Beijing. After all of that after we landed we caught an express train from the airport to get us closer to the hotel and the fun began. It was raining cats and dogs and we were instantly approached by vultures wanting to give us a ride. One guy said 100 rmb when I already knew that it should only cost 15 at the most. So we blew him off and went on a 45 minute search for a taxi driver that knew how to take us to our hotel. “Toto we’re not in Suzhou”. The same guy that said 100 rmb earlier approached me again and said 70, I asked to see his car and he said “I don’t have one” well he learned some new English words that night as Veleta pulled me away from him. I have not wanted to punch anybody since I’ve been in China but that was close. Finally we found a guy who would take us for 50 rmb with “no Meter” we were tired of getting soaked so we agreed. Once we were driving he had to call the hotel and get directions. Once we got to the hotel I knew why, it was on a little back alley which made me and Veleta wonder what have we gotten ourselves into. Once we entered the hotel I felt a lot better as the staff was very courteous and instantly upgraded our room. The hotel is actually a house from the late 1800’s and unlike any hotel I’ve ever seen. Our room was great and we had a huge roof top deck all to ourselves. I’ve put some pictures here so you can see for yourself. As a bonus my boss gave me the following Monday off since we missed our Friday so “life is good”. The hotel had no problem giving us a room for an extra night and we planned our trip to The Great Wall for Sunday instead of Saturday hoping for better weather.

Saturday we visited Tian’an Men Square and the Forbidden City. Although it was raining off and on the Forbidden City was very impressive, it seemed to go on for miles. The crowds were typical of the Chinese culture, force your way thru and keep moving, so we could only take so much before we left to try and find our way back to the hotel. We missed a few more buildings in the Forbidden City but, I can say, we got the idea. You could probably spend a whole day there if you wanted to see everything. Lots of massive temple like buildings with elaborate art work now infected with souvenir stores and people putting Chinese flags in your hand, which I paid five rmb for. Sometimes it’s hard to turn people down, especially when they just won’t take no for an answer.

Saturday night we went to a very popular restaurant called Da Dong which is famous for Beijing duck. So of course we had some duck, they cook them in wood burning ovens and bring the whole duck to your table, head and all just like in the movie “A Christmas Story”, and carve it into thin slices. They also cut the head in half and put it on a special plate. Being a once in a lifetime experience I tried a little duck brain. It was sort of mushy, not very tasty but now I can say I’ve tried it. The rest of the duck was delicious, they showed us three different ways to eat it. One was to rub it in sugar or you could put in a tortilla type thing with some sweet sauce, onion and radish and roll it up like a burrito. The other way was to put it in a little hollow biscuit type thing and kind of eat it like a small hamburger. We also had some asparagus and shrimp that were fantastic. Then they brought out two plums on a tray of dry ice followed by a champagne flute of sorbet. We were stuffed. After dinner we went to the local bar street where there are small bars lined up beside each other all with Chinese bands playing, of course, Chinese music. It’s a lot different in Suzhou where they cater more to the westerners, in Beijing it’s all for the locals. It was strange because all of the bars had people standing outside begging you to come in their bar, much like walking down a shopping street. We ended up sitting outside of one place that just had a guy playing acoustic guitar, he actually did one song in English “Knocking On Heaven’s Door”. I had a Cuban cigar and we just relaxed and did some people watching for a while.

Now on to Sunday, we hired a driver for the whole day to take us to The Great Wall and Summer Palace. We started out at 8:30 in the morning and drove about an hour and half to the wall. The sights along the way were great, this was more like the China that used to be, small towns with restaurants advertising donkey meat. Once we arrived at the wall our driver told us where he would be and set us free. The part of the wall we went to is called Mutianyu, the people at the hotel recommended it because it would be less crowded than the closer area Badaling. The bad thing was that it was very foggy from all of the rain we have had. We were not able to see very far like you see in pictures. You would really have to be lucky to catch a clear day and we didn’t have much choice on which day we went. At least it didn’t rain on us, there was a slight drizzle at first but it went away after a few minutes. The cool thing was that we have actually walked on The Great Wall. It really is amazing, at times the “steps” are scary and there are hardly any level areas. We saw several people that looked like they might have a heart attack and believe me, that would not be good because there is no way you would get any kind of help. You are completely on your on at the wall. I did find it funny that at most of the towers there were people with water and beer for sale, as much as I like beer this is a hike not a leisurely walk. Beer would be the last thing you should have unless you want to break your neck. We rode the cable car up to the wall, this was a good decision because after walking on the wall and then walking down the mountain we were exhausted. Then what do you know, souvenir shops with all of the regular Chinese negotiating. I will say they all seemed surprised by the little bit of Chinese I have learned, I figure here at the wall they usually only get true tourist that aren’t in China long enough to learn any Chinese. This also happened in Beijing when I started bargaining for some tee shirts, these girls were surprised I could some ramble out some numbers and said “you are so cute but you bargain so hard” so I stood my ground and got the price down 60% which was still a little more than I’ve paid in Shanghai but, what is an extra fifty cents in the long run. I have to say that these are the only times my little bit of Chinese language helped at all. After all of that we went to The Summer Palace, which is a very cool area where Empress Dowager Cixi used to spend her downtime in the late 1800’s. We climbed to the top of the Hill Of Longevity to The Sumeru Temple and the Tower Of Buddhist Incense which was many more steps than we would have liked after climbing all over The Great Wall all day. In the center of the area lies a large lake called Kunming Lake that was manmade and all of the dirt that was dug up to make the lake is what makes the Hill Of Longevity. So after climbing back down we decided to ride back across the lake on a dragon boat, or at least a boat with a dragon on it. This was a nice little ride back across the lake and gave us a little rest. Then we finally made it back out to the parking lot to find our driver sleeping in his car, but he jumped right up and said “Summer Palace gooda?” He was really a nice guy and it was entertaining to watch him talk with people working at toll booths and parking lots.

So the last night in Beijing I was ready for a steak. There was an Outback Steakhouse not far from the hotel and it was great. Not quite exactly like home but the first steak I’ve had in over two months, the bloomin onion was perfect. It actually ended up costing as much as the duck dinner but, it was worth it. I know that sounds funny but, you get tired of Chinese food even if it is good after a couple of months.

Monday morning we get up to go to the airport and fly back to “home sweet home Suzhou” and of course our flight is delayed an hour. I’m starting to think this is a trend. One hour is not so bad though, we wondered around the terminal for a while looking at the very fancy overpriced shops, not buying anything. The Beijing airport is massive and easy on the eyes. We also noticed that it is designed to use natural light in the terminals, only the shops had lights on and it was not even a sunny day. Go figure, China is going green.

I’v e tried to put as many pictures of the things I’ve wrote about so enjoy the haze.
Sorry that they are scattered around, I'm having trouble with the new blog editor.