Beijing – The Capital of China

I’m not a big fan of overnight traveling, but taking a new fast overnight sleeping train doesn’t seem bad at all.  And that’s what Phil, Ta, Eug, and I did to get to Beijing from Shanghai.  The sucky thing was that we couldn’t all be in the same cabin but the good thing was that we all got top bunks in the 4 bunk rooms.  And it was Ta’s first time taking the overnight train too!  I was super stoked to be in Beijing because I’ve always wanted to see the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, and Tiananmen Square.  The last image of Tiananmen Square that was embedded in my brain was a line of military tanks driving slowly towards a student protestor who was blocking its way.  That was 1989 before we moved to Canada.  Like a curious but shy kid, I anticipated the visit to Beijing with mixed feelings.  On one hand, I couldn’t wait to see the sites; on the other hand, I wasn’t sure if I’d like what I was going to see.  It turned out that my worries were absolutely unnecessary.  Beijing was far from what I thought it was as a child and the sites we managed to cram in during these short 4 days were incredible, and we had some really good meals too.

We wasted no time to try the yummy Peking duck after checking into our serviced apartment.  Finally, Peking duck in Beijing!  We went to Da Dong Peking Duck and it was really the best Peking duck I’ve ever had.  The skin was crispy and the meat was lean yet full of flavour.  The wrap itself was almost paper thin.  So good!  The squab was probably the best one I’ve had as well and every other dish we ordered was delicious too.  The price wasn’t cheap by China standards but it was definitely worth it for the quality we got.  Having satisfied our appetite, we headed towards the Forbidden City.  We took the subway to the Tiananmen East station and walked to the palace.  The palace was huge and seemed never ending, gate after gate, and each got grander and grander.  There were other exhibits on the sides as well.  By the time we wanted to check out the clock tower and the treasury, they were already closed.  That was a bummer but what we saw was tons already. 

Right across the street in front of the big picture of Mao by the entrance of the Forbidden City is Tiananmen Square.  As we were walking towards it, my heart sank a bit recalling the image of the tank.  Even though it was just across the street from the visitor packed Forbidden City, there seemed to be only a few groups of tourists on the square side.  Tianamen, which is actually the world’s largest public square, was surrounded by big boxy gray and imposing communist style buildings.  It was such a great contrast between the posh, new capitalistic steel and glass buildings in Pudong that I almost forgot we were just in Shanghai the day before.

The next morning we visited the Great Wall.  Eug was here about 6 years ago and he snuck into the Great Wall at 5 in the morning with some friends when it wasn’t opened yet to catch the sunrise. He raved about the experience so we did the same this time.  Our driver picked us up at 4am and we were dropped off at the Mutianyu section of the wall.  Eug previously snuck in at the Badaling section so we thought we’d try another area that many actually consider more beautiful.  We hiked up to the wall in half an hour in the dark and the drizzling rain with flashlights.  It wasn’t exactly clear and sunny but the misty surroundings gave a different feel to the place.  As the sun came up it didn’t take long for us to start appreciating the mysterious and majestic look of the Great Wall, especially wrapped in clouds and with no other tourists in sight.  We couldn’t see the sunrise though, next time!  We also visited the Summer Palace and the Temple of Heaven.  Both were equally extraordinary.  We were told Beijing has a more cultural aura compared to the modern and posh Shanghai, and we did find that to be true.  Our Shanghai friend Heidi told us we must visit the Hohai area so we hung out there one night despite the rain.  It’s a long strip of pubs and bars surrounding a lake.  At night time the outside is well lit by a neat row of red lanterns.  You’ll hear live bands performing different songs from every single bar, Chinese oldies, pop, western hip hop and rock and oldies as well.  All were sung by talented local singers and bands.  We had a really good time there.  We also checked out the famous Wangfujing shopping area.  There’s a night market that has all these weird creatures for you to consume and it’s in almost all the travel shows you see.  Things like star fish, silk worms and scorpions are all on the menu.  NO THANKS!  And even though I love stinky tofu and pig’s blood and other crazy stuff that Taiwanese people like, it was pretty gross to see people actually eating live scorpions.  We double dared Phil to eat the scorpions but he chickened out.  Plus Talica wasn’t going to kiss him afterwards if he ate them.  But mostly it was because he chickened out.

Though we liked it here there were a couple of negatives.  The air isn’t exactly of the best quality as the cities’ constantly covered in thick smog (thicker than in LA).  The traffic is also insane, and we were almost never able to hail taxi in less than half an hour.  The Mandarin spoken here is completely incomprehensible to my Taiwan Mandarin ears.  But there’s something about Beijing that lures you in and you somehow can’t get enough of it.  Being here made me realize that the image I had was from a long time ago and China is definitely a different place now.  Word on the street from those in the know say Beijing is more fun than Shanghai, and we can see why.  Beijing is kind of like Shanghai’s older, cooler, and more confident sibling.  It doesn’t try to shove the “I’m popular and people want to be like me” vibe down your throat like Shanghai does with its brash parties, big lights and flashy architecture.  Beijing knows it’s cool, and it has no problem letting Shanghai take the spotlight.  I wish we had more time here to ride out the rainy days and see more sites as we still missed quite a few.  And if the epic partying in Shanghai didn’t leave us in such a tired state we would have liked to have taken in more of the Beijing nightlife.  Luckily we have a few friends living here, which gives us an excuse to come back to visit soon!