beijing trip august 2013

7/27/2019 Beijing Trip August 2013

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Beijing Trip 5th

to 9th

August 2013

We arrive in Beijing early morning on 5.8.2013, 2am. Beijing airport is huge and quite well managed.

Much like so many other international airports, we note, blearily. Thats nice though - pictures of the

great wall as we clear immigration. Took some snaps immediately!

No one there to meet us at arrivals, had to hang around till 2.35, then this young Chinese girl rushes

up. Its Alice, our tour guide. A short, spritely young lady, in shirt and trousers, smilingly anxious face,

no make-up, blond bleached hair. She is very pleasant, English is a bit of a struggle, but we get by

fine. She leads us to a van and we pile our luggage in. The driver of our van is called Joe, a strapping

young guy who knows no English, but is friendly and helpful. The strong silent type, mostly.

Alice chats with us all the way to the hotel. She is from Hainan province but has been living and

working in Beijing for the past 16 years. She likes being a tour guide, but tourism hasnt been very

good lately, since the rich western tourist trade has been down for the past few years. So she is

looking for a second job, taking Chinese tourists abroad. She has recently passed the required exam

and is waiting for a job offer. Meanwhile, us poor Indian/Malaysian tourists will have to do!

We check in at 3.30am and are dizzy with tiredness. Still, the room is nice, three beds and a good

bathroom with a lovely hot shower! We all have our bath and drop dead asleep at 4am.

DAY 1: Morning arrives early, and Bapun is up, demanding tea! He makes it, with some help from me.

We drag ourselves to breakfast at 8am. Chinese breakfast is rice porridge, noodles, fresh salads,

steamed veggies and slices ofham and sausages. There is bread and jam, but we dont touch them.

No knives or forks, only soup spoons and chopsticks. Bongshu and I manage with chopsticks, Bapun

copes with two soup-spoons!!! At least the coffee is hot!

Joe arrives at 11am, but Alice is late, finally arriving at 11.40, full of apologies. We set off in ourallotted van, first for lunch. We arrive at a quaint garden restaurant. The place is decorated partly

like an old time royal rest room and partly like an opium den! We eat in a private room with a huge

round table covered with yellow damask, and red chairs (all dining tables in China are round

harmony). Yellow signifies royalty (us?!) and red means good luck. Nice start to our holiday! We

have a sumptuous lunch of chicken roast (served along with the head!), grilled prawns, pork, beef

and steamed veggies, accompanied by jasmine tea and coke as well. Are unable to finish, but Alice

says we must not clear the table, since leaving (wasting?) food implies we will be wealthy!!!


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After lunch, we manage to roll ourselves out, and then starts the sight-seeing. We first go to the

Beijing opera house which is called the egg by the locals, unsurprisingly it is shaped like one!

Next stop: Tiananmen Square. It is HUGE! Mind boggling. We cross the Great Hall of the people, thenenter the square. I am reminded of all the events of June 1989 that took place here, but no sign

remains, it is a celebratory square. The place is quite crowded. The Monument stands in the middle,

there are two HUGE LED screens, screening tourist spots of China, and on one side is the Hall of the

People, while on the other, the National Museum, and on the third side, the Tomb of Chairman Mao

(which lies along the correct north south direction of the holy Imperial Way so much for man of

the people!). The place is spotlessly clean, in-spite of the crowds ... awe-inspiring. It is a really hot

day, and we are tired, but we walk on. This square, we are told, can comfortably hold 1 million

people. The Mayday and October 1st

celebrations are held here every year.

On one side of the square, we enter the pedestrian underpass and come out across the other side at

the entrance to the Forbidden city. This is also built like 3 concentric (is that the right word?) squares,

with 3 layers of gates at either end. The Forbidden city gates and the Tiananmen square were builtinitially in 1420 by the Ming Kings. They have been refurbished and rebuilt many times since. The

Cultural Revolution saw the most damage, when all things royal were ransacked or destroyed. Over

the last 2 decades, al lot of the heritage sites have been rebuilt/repaired. The gates and bridges over

the moat, all run in the northsouth direction, called the Imperial Way. (info thanks to Alice!)

Each gate is guarded by 2 lions (of interest, there are no lions in China, only tigers. But all major

buildings are guarded by the king of beasts the lion!). The female lion is on the right, and she has a

baby lion in her left paw. The male lion sits on the left (as you face away from the building), and he

holds the whole world in his left paw.


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We enter the first gate, walk about 500m, then enter the 2nd

gate, walk another 500m, and finally,

the 3rd

gate. Then we enter the royal palace area of the city. Too many buildings and too many

rooms! Best consult the guide books for details! Most of the side rooms are now the National

Museum, and hold all the remaining artefacts of the Mings which havent been destroyed or stolen

during the peasant revolution.

We enter another gate to come to the womens and eunuchs area, and then exit via the royalgardens. The gardens are beautiful and tranquil (but for the crowds!). The vegetation in Beijing is

very different from both India and Malaysia. Most of the trees here are firs (Christmas trees!) and

pines, but really old and huge with interestingly knotted trunks. There are some bamboo groves, and

many large stones brought over from the river. The stones have been weathered by water into

fascinating shapes, and they are used to decorate the parks. In the middle is the prayer temple

typical pagoda style.

We exit the garden from the back gates of the palace (whew, that was a lo-o-ong walk!), and say

goodbye to the last guardian lions, then cross the moat. It is a beautiful moat, and we learn another

interesting fact. One of the Ming kings wanted a mountain to guard his palace, and after the moatwas dug around the palace, the mud was used to create a hill, which now has a beautiful pagoda

built on top (thank God, we didnt have to climb that!). One side of the moat is lined thickly by

weeping willows, reflected in the beautiful still waters.

It has been a really long day (after a sleepless night), so we decide to return to the hotel to rest. It is

now 5.30pm.

We all crash for a couple of hours!

It is 8pm before we feel strong enough to go out again. We explore around the hotel. Everything is

well lighted, the roads are wide, there are really beautifully wide footpaths with maple trees growing

in a neat row right through the middle.

Right next to the hotel, on one side, is a spa. We find a Tesco supermarket right down the road near

the hotel, then a KFC. We are excited to see the bright neon signs claiming Tesco and KFC in

Chinese! Then, a Pizza Hut, with the Chinese lettering made like the pizza hut logo. We take a lot of

snaps.


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Next to the Pizza Hut is an open air Greek style auditorium of sorts, where a karaoke session is

going on. Huge crowds! Nice music too, Chinese of course. We watch for a while, then climb the

steps to the top of the well like auditorium, to find an open air food court. There is a row of food

stalls, and nice picnic type seating areas with thatched roofing on one side. This part of the mall is

made like an Italian town and is called The Vecchio. However, the food is definitely street Chinese!

We stroll down the row to see whats available. Mostly snacks like fried rice, noodles, bite sized

meats and vegetables done up on sticks like kebabs, and then rows of .... kebabed scorpions, beetles,

grasshoppers, silkworms and cockroaches, interspersed with prawns, crabs, and octopus! I take a lot

of pictures, but Avinash is more adventurous, he wants to eat some scorpions. Communication is a

problem, no one speaks English, but sign language works, and the people are gracious and helpful.

Someone directs us to the entrance where we buy some food coupons, then one of the waiters

takes the coupons and guides us back to the shop. Avinash points to what he wants, the lady

sprinkles some spices and salt on the scorpions and roasts them and hands them piping hot to

Avinash. Okay, now the testing bit! I tell Avi to avoid the stinging tail, so he breaks the tails off and

crunches 3 dangerous looking scorpions down in 3 minutes flat. How was it? Like fried shrimp

shells, no taste, just crunch! Okay, a lifetime experience for him!

Then we decide, enough of local fare, lets have a regular dinner. We first enter KFC, but its so

crowded, we give up. Also, the food doesnt look familiar, and everything, including the prices, is

written in Chinese.

Next we walk into Pizza Hut. There is a queue, but they are seating people once a table is available

(staying in Malaysia, one forgets what queues and crowds can be like!). We wait in a pleasant

waiting area for only 10 minutes, then are seated in the restaurant. It is a Monday night, but every

table is occupied. I had read that an average Chinese person earns about 1000 to 1500 Yuan a month(500 750 RM), and the cost of a pizza is about 70 Yuan, so there must be a lot of rich people in


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Beijing! Anyway, at least we can read the menu card and order ordinary pizza and some green tea.

And, they give knives and forks with the pizza! Whew! We have a great meal, and walk back slowly

to the hotel, taking in the still on-going karaoke singing at the corner. We bathe and go to bed by

11pm since tomorrow we have to start early.

DAY 2: Avinash wakes up at 5am! He hogs the loo as usual, while Bapun and I have our morning

coffee. We go for breakfast at 7am. Breakfast is more or less the same as yesterday, and Bapun

struggles through with soup-spoons. (This is a 4 star hotel in one of the more posh areas of town,

with many westerners staying as well, but no spoons, knives or forks. Toast and jam, but no

spoons/knives? Everyone seems to cope with chopsticks!).

We are ready and downstairs at 8.45am, and Joe is there with the van. Alice rushes up at 9, and we

are off to the Great Wall.

Beijing is a spanking, brand new city, at least wherever we go seems to be that way. The roads are

wide, even in the most crowded areas of the city, with 4 to 6 lanes (yes!). The pavements and roaddividers are beautifully maintained with plants, mostly roses (lovely!), lilies and other flowering

plants, and the sides have Maples, Silver oaks, birches, maidenhair and other trees I dont recognise.

Alice tells me that 16 years ago, when she first moved to Beijing, it was quite barren, and dust

storms used to blow through the city, most buildings were only 2 or 3 storied, and the traffic was

mainly bicycles. Over the past 15 years, thousands of trees have been planted, and the air has

improved a lot. All the old buildings have been razed to the ground and the place now looks like

Singapore multiplied by 100! Alice is all praises for the new Metro system, and Beijing has a good

bus system as well, for the common man, but she is less enthusiastic about the government. She

candidly lets us know that having a single party rule is a bad idea, and freedom of speech is definitely

greatly curtailed. She is a great advocate of democracy, and when we tell her that multiple parties

can create chaos, she saysat least theres a choice. Okay, she posits, there should be two parties,

at least! There is a lot of unemployment, especially among the educated youth. She smilingly points

out that we seem to have followed the Chinese one-child policy! Having children in China is still

mandated by the government, and only farmers and the very rich are allowed to have two children.

(While we were there, we did see some families with 2 children, but in all of them, the older child

was a girl).

The road is crowded with cars, all foreign, mostly European. We see a lot of Volkswagens, BMWs,

Audis, Mercedes, Buicks, Chevrolets, some Lamborghinis, Toyotas, Hondas, Hyundais and others I

dont recognise. I ask Alice if China produces any cars of its own. I learn something very interesting

from her reply. While the whole world markets are being flooded by made in China goods, the

Chinese prefer goods from Europe or the US!!! Petrol is really expensive in China, but you wouldnt

think so looking at the number of cars on the road! Chinese food (tinned or preserved), cosmetics,

toys and clothes are also looked down upon (Chinese cosmetics are really bad, says Alice. We try to

save up and buy only French!!! LOreal is her favourite).


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The journey to the Great Wall takes us an hour, but all through, the roads are wide, clean and with

beautiful green verges. As we drive out of Beijing, the scenery changes. We are surrounded by misty

hills and the road becomes winding. The sides are thickly wooded, mainly with temperate vegetation.

In Autumn, the hills turn gold and orange, and winter brings snow and ice, with temperatures going

down to minus 10 to 12 degrees C. Now, however, its a really hot 32!

We are heading for the Juyonguang part of the nearly 4000km long wall, built over centuries byvarious Chinese Emperors. The Badaling is supposed to be the most accessible portion of the Great

Wall, but has been heavily renovated, and is supposedly the most crowded. It has cable cars to get

up and is surrounded by shops. Alice tells us that the Juyonguang wall is the best preserved part of

the original wall and has the original Fortress guarding the Juyonguang pass. However, getting up

the wall here involves a rigorous trek, which Alice feels we are totally capable of! Hope shes right!

Our van winds up the scenic landscape, which begins to look more and more like old Chinese

paintings, rounds a bend, and up ahead we see the Gateway to the Juyonguang fortress, with the

typical red walls and pagoda like roof.

We drive through the gates and find that many, many people had the same idea as us! The car parkis FULL of about 20 tourist coaches and more than 30 cars and vans. Joe manages to find some

parking space and Alice goes off to buy the tickets. We gaze at the wall snaking around the

mountains around us. The part we have to climb seems really high and far away, with hundreds of

coloured dots moving up the staircase in the distance .... we have to get up there! We trudge up the

slope towards the base of the wall and find some professional photographers who do a family snap

and put it in a book about the Great Wall. We decide to have one taken, deposit the 100 yuan price,

have a family photograph taken which confirms we have climbed the wall on 13.6.06 (the Chinese

write their dates backwards), even before we have started. However, they tell us we will only get the

photograph after we return from the climb!


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Alice comes up and guides us to the start of the climb. Before we go any further, we must visit thenecessarium (toilets) as there is none on the wall.

(A word about Chinese public toilets: there are many at strategic places, are all of the squatting type

and are only reasonably clean, but not too bad. Although, those with bad knees, beware!)

Alice has no intention of climbing with us (Oh! Ive been here many times!), so we set off. Getting

to the first tower is easy enough, and at this point, one side leads to the fortress gates and is a flat

part of the wall. To the right are steps going up to the second tower, and this is REALLY STEEP!

Bapun is already tired and decides to stay put at tower 1, while Avinash and I brave up for the next

part of the climb. The stone stairs are steep and worn in many places. Iron railings have been

attached to the side of the ramparts to hold on to as we haul ourselves up the treacherous stairs.

In many parts of the rails, people have hung locks and thrown away the keys. These are meant to be

locked secret wishes, which the spirit of the mountains will grant once you have climbed up!

The stairs are full of people of all nationalities, and as we slowly make our way up, we hear snatches

of Malay, Chinese, English (in various accents American, UK, Australian), French, German and some

we dont recognise. Most folks climb 10 15 minutes and pause for a rest by sitting on the stairs. We

do the same, but this does create problems for those who are still climbing. We finally make it up to

the second tower it has taken us 50 minutes, we are puffing and panting and drenched with

sweat ... but so is everyone else! It is an exhilarating feeling.


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We look at the panorama spread out before us, and that takes our breath away as well! It was

definitely worth the effort!

Once we feel more rested, we make our way down. The descent is even more treacherous than the

ascent, I cling on to the railing with both hands as I make my way down. Avinash is more daring, but

he is holding his camera so Im really worried. We see a couple of people slip, but the crowds are so

thick, someone is always there to help!

We finally make it down to the first tower, and Bapun is waiting patiently. There are costumes

available here, so Bapun and Avinash dress up like a couple of marauding Mongolians and many

pictures are taken! We shuffle down to the base of the wall, where Alice is waiting in a restaurant, in

cool comfort. My thighs feel like jelly, so I sit, while Bapun and Avinash go and buy a couple of T-

shirts with I have climbed the Great Wall of China emblazoned across. Alice has been good enough

to pick up the picture book about the Great Wall, with our photographs on the first page.

We head back to the van and drive away from the most iconic part of China. We are now headed for

the handicraft factory and shop where the typical Chinese vases are made with the Cloisonn

method. This is essentially Chinese lacquer work done on copper.


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After a drive of 20 minutes, we are at the factory cum - restaurant of lacquer work. Another

example of Chinese enterprise, the factory, exhibition and shops are made on the ground floor, and

a huge restaurant is on the first floor, so people can shop and eat after their sojourn at the Great

Wall. As we enter, a pretty young (and tall!) Chinese girl comes up and escorts us into the main

factory. We are just 3, but there are also large groups, so while this pretty young thing is whispering

the details of Cloisonn work to us, there are many guides with loudspeakers explaining to other

groups, so its quite a messy and noisy process! Basically, the vases, etc are first shaped in copper,

then a design is engraved on painstakingly, by hand, on the surface. Next, the grooves are filled with

different colours of lacquer by droppers. Then, the vase is fired, varnished and polished. Apart from

the usual vases and plates, of course, many beautiful animals and plants are also created by these

wonderful artists.

We roam around the exhibition hall cum shops for an hour, utterly enthralled! We wish we could

buy everything, but finally accept that our funds dont permit more than one small vase, a plate and

a fish!

Next stop, lunch. We climb the grand curving marble staircase, decorated at each landing with

magnificent lacquer-work, and come up to the first floor, which is a large open dining area, already

busy with diners. Large round tables are filled with delectable food, and suddenly we are really

hungry. We are led to a separate enclosure and sit around a round table big enough to seat 10

people. We unload our gear and relax. Plates of food start to arrive, and Alice comes with a small

bottle of rice wine and tiny china wine glasses. This is a traditional wine, reserved for special

occasions, and is the strongest wine in China. At 56% alcohol, it is probably the strongest in the

world! We pour the wine and click cheers. After all, we have climbed the Great Wall, a childhood

dream fulfilled! The wine burns down my throat like very strong whiskey ... got to sip it slo-o-owly.

A word about the food in China. There is no separate type of food for different times of the day.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner are all the same. It starts with a large bowl of soup (today we have

tomato and mushroom), followed by plates of different meats and steamed or fried vegetables in

bite sized pieces. There are always at least 3 types of meat, a fish or two and some sea food. (Alice

lets us know that vegetarian Chinese are really rare and pork meat is the most common non-veg

food, all Chinese love their pork!) The meal is always followed by fruit platters, filled with thinly

sliced melons of different types, and sometimes grapes. Today we have watermelon, honeydew and

black grapes to finish the meal. No desserts are offered, usually, but Avinash cannot resist finishing

with an ice-cream!


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{I remember reading in Medscape that the incidence of Hypertension and CVD(cardiovascular

disease) has increased about 100-fold among urban Chinese in the past 25 years. However, in the

five days we were in Beijing, I did not see anyone really obese (apart from some foreign tourists!),

and most of the locals, of all age groups, seem really healthy. Their diet, in spite of all the pork, is

healthy and balanced as well, so Im not sure why the poor CV health is it stress?}

After a sumptuous lunch, we are on the road again, towards the royal tombs. Alice tells us that all

the royal tombs have been sealed for centuries by the emperors, but during the cultural revolution,

this particular tomb had been opened up, and was ransacked of all its jewels and riches, including

priceless Ming artefacts and old royal silk robes. Some have been traced and now kept in the

National museum, but many are lost forever, so the Chinese Government has mandated that no

other tomb be opened to the public, they can only be viewed from the outside. We are going to visit

this one and only opened tomb.

I ask Alice if all Chinese bury their dead and she tells me that this was so in the past, but now most

people choose cremation, except the very rich, since land is in short supply. This leads me to ask herwhat her religion is. Alice smiles and tells me that she has no religion (like most Chinese in China

today!) but if she feels the need to pray, she prays to The Buddha. I am curious about her Christian

name. She tells me that all Chinese who work with foreigners adopt a western name for convenience.

Her real name is Tian Shi, meaning angel ( all Chinese names have meanings, thats nice, just like

Indian names). When she first came to Beijing she adopted the name Helen but on joining her

present Travel Agency, there were too many Helens already, so she changed her western name to

Alice!

As we drive towards the tombs (called Ding Ling), we notice the surrounding high mountains. Alice

has a story about these: when the first Ming emperor was looking for a place for the royal burialchambers, he specially chose this area for its Feng shui properties, it being a valley in the north south

direction, close to a water body (the river) and surrounded by two high mountains which he named

Dragon mountain and Tiger Mountain, which would protect the dead on their journey to the after-

world.

We arrive at the tombs and enter a large clearing, with brick flooring and modern roads and an ATM

machine on one side. The gate to the tombs leads to a lovely ancient garden, full of trees and stone

seating areas. The walls have gargoyle-like dragon heads to act as water drains these, we are told,

are sons of the dragon which likes water!


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On entering the sacred walls of the tomb, we walk down 7 flights of stairs (! Well have to climb back

up!). The place gets colder and damper, and as we go deeper, the walls (all made of marble) become

like waterfalls, seeping underground water. We finally reach the actual tombs, where there are

marble thrones and peace offerings to the dead, which include rice wine, incense-sticks and paper

money to be used by the dead in heaven. In the next room, the Emperors tomb is in the middle,

with his first wife and favourite concubine on either side. These are surrounded by many boxes

which had held treasures, but now lie empty.

On our way back up, we see a sign stating that pregnant women, those with heart disease and

hypertension should refrain from going down to the tombs!!! Wish I had known that! After the tiring

climb up, we make our way back through the gate (by the way, entering a graveyard must be from

the side-entrance, only the dead can ENTER from the front gate, but we can exit from this gate, and

this means we are back to the land of the living!). Thank you Alice, for saying the correct mantra

that brought us back, as we step over the gate!

We now drive back to Beijing, another long drive. This time we all take a little nap! Back in Beijing,

we enter during the evening rush time, and it takes us more than an hour to get to the restaurant fordinner. Today is special, we are being treated to a proper Peking Duck dinner! This is a ritual

developed by Chinese royalty many centuries ago, but now of course, there are many restaurants

catering to a typical Peking Duck meal. This meal involves many rituals. First we must wash our

hands (this is one of the few Chinese meals that involves eating with hands), then seat ourselves

around the round table. Refreshing jasmine tea is served in tiny bowls, really welcome! Then comes

the soup, and various snacks meats and vegetables. We eat slowly, the main dish is yet to come ...

Finally, the duck and its accompaniments: thinly sliced crisp duck, with fine sticks of cucumber and

spring onion, special Peking Duck sauce, and the wraps, made of flour, but looking more like small,

very thin pancakes. Alice shows us how it should be eaten. We first take a pancake on our plate, pick

up a slice of roast duck dipped in the sauce, some slivers of cucumber and spring onion and place

them on the pancake, wrap them up and eat. Yum! This is a treat! We gobble these up pretty quick!

Then comes rice and more meats: pork, vegetables in gravy, prawns.... we are already full! But we do

taste these, too. Alice attacks the pork, slices of crispy meat and sauce, they are delicious, wish I had

a bigger stomach! Finally, the fruit tray .... a fresh melon slice is a perfect end to this rich repast.

We roll ourselves back to the van, and Joe tells us we will be driving around Tiananmen Square and

Changan street (where the big and modern Beijing buildings are), to see the lights. The roads are

brilliantly lit and the square looks magnificent at night. The monument, Chairman Maos tomb, even

the plants are lit up by fairy lights. We drive along the road and see the big buildings of Beijing,including the CCTV building, called undersocks by the locals, because it looks like a pair of giant


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underpants! All the buildings are lit up in different ways, and some even have psychedelic light

shows on their surface; truly impressive! We ask Alice what is the electricity source for Beijing.

Apparently, all of Beijings electric supply comes from Hydroelectric power sourced outside the city.

Our next treat for the night is the famous Beijing Acrobatic show. We drive up to the Theatre, and

Alice leads us to our seats. The place is choc-a-bloc full, and there are vendors selling popcorn and

LED light sticks! The show is awesome, no wonder Chinese acrobats set the yardstick for the world!

The grand finale is FIVE motorcyclists driving in unison within a metal net globe!

We drive back to the hotel, still recovering from a truly eventful day! So many dreams have come

true ....

DAY 3: We start early again. After a hurried breakfast, we head for the Antique Merchant street, on

the other side of the forbidden city. This is also an old part of town, but has been rebuilt to impress

the tourist. It is fully pedestrianised and lined on both sides by small shops selling both real and fake

antiques, jade, pearls, silk and tea. Many roadside statues have been made to give a historical feel.There are statues showing tea making, a statue of Cixi, the Dragon Queen, and cobblers with giant

shoes.

We then walk to the Zengiangmen watch tower, which was once part of the city gates, past the

railway museum (built by the French, this was the old Beijing railway station), and come upon the

picturesque Schichahai Lake. This is a beautiful lake in the middle of the old city, now surrounded by

bars and restaurants. It is lined by weeping willows and birches, and there are many boats in the

water. It is a really pretty place, but we dont linger because it has suddenly started to rain heavily.

We do take some pictures though.

We walk past the big Drum tower, which used to be used for announcements and timekeeping.

Right next to that is the large Bell Tower, which chimed the hour in ancient times to let the

Beijingers keep track of time as well. It is silent now (we all have our own time pieces these days,


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says Alice). We go to a pretty little restaurant for lunch. This time we eat light, there is still a lot of

walking to be done!

After lunch, we take cycle rickshaws (China is the inventor of these very useful contraptions which

are ubiquitous in so many Indian small towns, and of course in Kolkata!), and drive around the

Hutongs. This is an area of old Beijing, now a WHO heritage site. These ancient buildings housed the

common people of Beijing, and are therefore made of grey bricks (this is the colour for the common

man! Red and yellow are reserved for royalty or high ranking officials). The basic housing structure

are small rooms built around a central courtyard. There is no plumbing and cooking is done outdoors.

There are public toilets built at the corner of every block. In between are some Ming generals

houses with red wooden doors and four wooden beams with blue stars to signify his rank. We also

cross an old rice-wine making factory with large clay jars in which the wine is fermented.

There is an open square, and we see people practicing yoga, in the afternoon heat! The pace of life

seems pleasant here, though, since we pass many people sitting on porches, riding along slowly on

bicycles or just lazing around on sidewalks.

We also go past the old Buddhist temple where the Chinese Lamas reside today.

Next stop: Temple of Heaven. This temple was used by the ancient emperors to pray for a good

harvest, China being an agrarian society mainly. It is surrounded by a huge park full of ancient fir

trees, in fantastic shapes and sizes, with old, huge twisted trunks. One can spend a whole day, just

walking through these parks! There is also a lo-o-ong passageway (half a kilometre, no less!) leading

up to the temple. This corridor is really interesting because it is used by the locals as a club/park, and

we cross a lot of elderly folk spending the afternoon playing cards, dominoes, a funny game where

people are kicking a shuttlecock between themselves without letting it touch the floor (good

exercise!), or just sitting in groups and smoking and chatting.

We reach the end of the corridor, and ascend the steps to the temple. It is a large temple with amagnificent roof and large red decorated pillars. In olden times there were animal sacrifices here,

and statues of cattle are made to mark the place. The temple is created in 3 levels to signify heaven,

the royal floor, where the son of God stays (royalty) and the ordinary world for us mortals.


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When we are full with the heavenly world, we descend back to the lowlands and get back to the

van. We will go shopping next, says Alice. Most tourists love to visit the Hongqiao market. You

get fantastic bargains there! A quick look at the guide book tells me that this is the place for fake

branded goods too!

We get to this huge mall, the front of which is decorated with a huge pearl-in-a-shell. Bapun gets

down on his knees in front of me. Im not sure whether this means hes feeling romantic and will buy

me some pearls or that hes begging me not to! We go in. The first floor is filled with, well everything!

Avinash is fascinated by some antique pocket watches; hes always wanted to own one. He finally

buys a brass engraved watch. It looks quite authentic, and it even ticks, although it is actually an

electronic watch. There are a lot of silks. Bapun wants a shirt. He finally chooses a beautiful silk

mandarin jacket with golden dragons embroidered in front. Avinash prefers a simple jade coloured

mandarin shirt, and I buy a silk cheongsam dress. The second floor is full of fake designer goods, all

the top brands! We decide to bypass these. The third floor has electronic goods. Avinash is

fascinated by some remote controlled gadgets and mobiles. Im not sure theyll work once we get

home, so we just window shop. The third floor has the goodspearls and jade! I dont bother with

the pearls, have already bought enough in India, but we look seriously at the jade. There are a lot of

beautiful objects, and also very expensive. We finally buy a pair of jade lions and Avinash goes for a

small horse, his Chinese zodiac sign.

Okay, now that our pockets are considerably lighter, we head for our next destination

Donghuamen snack street. A whole street for snacking? No kidding!

The sky begins to look ominous as we head for the snack street. Hopefully the weather will hold out.

We get off the van and walk down a large pedesdrianised square. We enter one of the side streets

and it is a cauldron of humanity ... much like an Indian railway station during the summer vacations!

This area is mostly filled with the locals and the street is lined with open dhaba style shops selling

lots and lots of food we dont recognise. After a few minutes of being jostled around, Alice tells us

we should try the section of the square meant for foreign tourists. We comply, shes our guide after

all! We go back to the open square, where there are a lot of foreigners, of course, and walk to the

stalls on the opposite side. There must be a hundred stalls at least, and this place is still crowded,

but more spacious. We gaze at the amazing array ofjiaozi dumplings and baozi pancakes, and of

course the kaorou, pieces of various meats on a stick chicken, pork, octopus, liver, kidney, prawns,

crab, silkworms, scorpions, spiders, grasshoppers and cockroaches (yes, its true!). I am willing to try

something new, so I buy some silkworms on a stick ugh! Definitely not worth it! After this I stick to

what I know, chicken, octopus and kidney. Bapun plays safe right from the beginning and only tries

the known kebabs. Avinash is still feeling adventurous, even after the silkworm fiasco, and goes for a

huge grilled spider! The head is not edible, we are told, so the shopkeeper breaks it off, and then

Avinash bites into it. I can tell its no good, but he scrunches through the whole thing, bravely. One

more YOLO experience he tell me. And that is? You only live once!


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We pack up some baozi fish dumplings, a couple of potato omelettes and a local sweet delicacy

(dont remember the name) to have for later. It has started to rain and we have to run back to the

van.

We are really tired after our snacks, but the evening is not over yet. We have tickets to a Kung Fu

ballet at the local opera house. The opera house is quite grand, and the Kung Fu show hoardings

look impressive. Alice gets the tickets and shows us in, then leaves. The lounge in front of thetheatre has a large shopping cum exhibition area. In the centre is a boxed-in place with a large

throne on which sits a young boy dressed in monks robes, one of the actors in the show. We can

take pictures, which we do. No photo or videography is allowed inside, but we can buy the DVD of

the show. Bapun buys one, and we also pick up a copy of the show synopsis in English (it is also

available in Chinese, French and German!). Most of the spectators are western tourists and the

chatter around us is in as many languages!

The show is truly amazing, beautifully portrayed on a grand stage with many special effects. The play

is in English, though the songs are Chinese, with English translations scrolling on an LED screen at the

top of the stage. A lot of the Kung Fu dances are done with chants of om mane padme hum theTibetan Buddhist incantation! Kung Fu is an ancient Chinese art, developed over many centuries, and

the chant makes one realise how much Buddhist culture has influenced mainland China throughout

history.

The wondrous show comes to a close, and we can take pictures with the actors on stage. Avinash

manages to push his way up, and we take as many pictures as possible.


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DAY 4: Today we are going to the Zoo! It has been another dream of ours to see the Pandas. We had

seen a Panda in the London Zoo, long ago, but Avinash had been too young to remember much, so

hes especially excited. We arrive at the Zoo at 9.30am, but already the crowds are thick. Before we

enter, Alice takes us aside and warns us to be careful with our valuables, pickpockets are common

here, apparently. This is news, we have always read and heard that crime is really rare in Beijing

( which is true, weve been here 3 days, in really crowded areas, and would have been definitely

pick-pocketed by now in Kolkata!). Anyway, we shift our wallets and passports to secure pockets and

dive into the surging crowds. There are two Panda enclosures, called the Asiad enclosure and the

Olympic enclosure. The pandas are behind glass windows, but we are the ones enclosed, they are

in the open. We really need to push through to catch a glimpse of the reclusive animals. We split up,

jostled by the crowds ( it is school holiday time in Beijing, we learn!) and finally manage to see these

two cute black eyed giants, calmly munching some bamboo leaves, completely oblivious of the

hundreds of spectators. Avinash actually managed to get some videos too! We crawl our way out,

then see the rest of the Panda enclosure. There is the hollowed out tree where the Mom Panda

retires when she is ready to give birth. We see the Panda breeding sites and pictures of panda cubsborn in this zoo. We go out and see some more Pandas outside. It is hot, and they are deep in the

shade, so these views are not clear.

There are many more animals in this zoo, but we decide not to spend any more time here, there are

lots more to see in Beijing. We walk back in the hot sun to the van. It is a long ride to the Summer

Palace.

While we sit in the cool comfort of the van, Alice tells us about our next site. The Summer Palace

was built by the Ming kings to escape the summer heat of Beijing. It is on a mountain resort a few

miles from the city, next to a large lake called Kunming Lake, which keeps the place cool. The Palace

was a particular favourite of the Dragon Lady Cixi (or Xixi). The story is quite interesting. Alice says,

Empress Xixi ruled China for 48 years, but we Chinese dont like her. She was powerful but cruel,

and really ruined the country in the 19thcentury. She was the ruling Emperors favourite concubine

and the mother of his only child. Apparently, she spent large amounts of the taxpayers money to

make a direct water route from Beijing to the summer palace so she could go there by boat, and

refurbished the whole palace for her exclusive enjoyment. She eventually shifted all royal operations

from the Forbidden city to the Palace. She is also credited with killing the King so that her 3 year old

son could ascend to the throne. She also had the real Empress killed, and later, and her own son,when he went against her wishes, putting her pliable nephew on the throne!


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After this blood-curdling story, as we drive along the beautiful waterway leading from Beijing to the

Summer Palace, we reach the palace. We enter the Royal gates and walk through a beautiful old

garden, through many gorgeous little buildings, garden statues and amazing rock formations, to the

Long Corridor. This is another corridor made along the shores of Kunming lake, where the empress

used to take her daily constitutional. It extends about 750m, and is truly picturesque. It is made of

wood, with beautifully painted rafters and surrounded by trees and bushes; the lake glints in the

sunlight and there is a cool breeze blowing from it. A royal experience! We pass the temple which

served the royalty in summer and head to the pier for a dragon boat ride.

The Empress Xixi had a two storey marble dragon-boat for her personal use, but we get on a wooden

smaller replica for our ride. In the distance we see the rolling hills surrounding the lake, and the

modern recreation of the original wooden Marco Polo bridge made in honour of the famous

explorer from Italy who was graciously hosted here by the Emperor in the 13th

century. The boat

goes out into the huge lake and then takes us back to the entrance of the Palace (we dont have to

walk back!).

Back on the van again and we ride back to Beijing for lunch. This time we eat at the Olympic

restaurant, one of the places which served the many Olympic athletes during the games! This is now

a popular retreat for Beijingers. After another scrumptious Chinese lunch (Im really going to miss

this!) we head for the world famous Olympic village, built for the amazing 2008 Olympics.

The afternoon is hazy with heat, and we stop the van near the Olympic village Metro station. From

here it is a full 1 km walk to the Birds Nest stadium. This was the route taken by the Olympic Torch

holders. In August! And in this blazing heat, too!! We stroll, and that is hard enough. We cross the

Olympic park with its ice sculptures under glass boxes, amazing art works and many shops selling

soft drinks, ice cream and souvenirs.

We walk up to the Stadium and then the Water cube which was the venue for the water sports, and

then the Beijing Olympic mascots. We cannot enter the stadium but take many pictures. The

buildings to house the athletes is a group of five skyscrapers in a row, made to look like a dragon

from a distance. And the first building seen in isolation, looks like an Olympic torch! We marvel at

the architecture. Another lifetime experience!


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The sun is setting and we drive back to the centre of Beijing to one of their largest malls, fittingly

called The Place. It has a huge LED screen (supposedly the biggest in China), which screens

advertisements. It is off right now (good!). It is surrounded by shops and restaurants of all the well

known international brands. It is supposed to be favourite haunt of the rich and famous of Beijing,

but we are not in the mood for a high end shopping experience (besides not being able to afford

more than window shopping!), so after roaming around for a mere 30 minutes or so, we decide to

head back to the van, much to Alices disappointment.

Next we go to another shopping mall (Ya Xiu market) which sells Chinese heritage stuff and locally

made artefacts. This is more interesting. At the entrance is a huge greyish green stone, the biggest

jade ever found. It must weigh a ton! We roam around, buy a few Chinese masks, screens, some

terra-cotta warrior replicas and some gifts for friends and relatives. Back in the van, dinner and back

to the hotel.

Bath and bed sounds good! An end to another eventful day.

DAY 5: Our last day in Beijing! We get up late, though, catching up on much needed sleep. We pack

up all our stuff, we have to check out by noon. We leave our luggage with the hotel concierge and

head out. Today we explore around the hotel area. This whole place is owned by the OCT group,

including our hotel, the Vecchio mall and the Happy Valley amusement park across the road. This is

a HUGE Disney style park with massive roller-coasters, a mountain train and water parks. Not for us!

Avinash shows some interest, but we dissuade him, we dont want a broken bone on the last day.

There is a high-end housing complex on the other side of the hotel with beautiful parks around it,

behind high walls and bristling guards. Behind this are the western shopping complexes replete with

MacD, Pizza Hut, Subway, etc. Sprinkled in between are some Chinese restaurants, where we have

lunch. A huge bowl of noodles and a side salad costs just 20 yuan; we cannot finish it, wow!

In the afternoon, we have tickets to another amazing show, the famous Beijing Mask Opera. This

one is called Golden Mask Dynasty. We are escorted there by a friend of Alices, and we seat

ourselves in a darkened theatre. The show is the most amazing we have ever seen! This one is in

Chinese but there are English and Korean subtitles on a screen on the side. No photography is

allowed again, and story is simple, but the stage effects are magnificent! The stage is split into many

parts which open or close, divide or come together when needed, and there are rivers, pools,

electric storms and a real flood (the spectators on the sides and front got splashed! Fortunately, we

were in the middle) along with moving palaces, trees, gardens and hills .... not to be missed!


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After this dizzying show, we come out, dazed. The centre of the theatre downstairs is selling

memorabilia; we buy a replica doll of one of the masked-dynasty characters and head back to the

hotel.

Alice and Joe are waiting to take us to the Airport. We pick up our luggage and pile into the van. We

reach the Airport soon enough, the amazing architecture and lights of Beijing flashing past us for the

last time. We settle our final payments to Alice and Joe, and walk into the Airport departure lounge.

Alice comes with us, she hugs each of us, me twice; she is a little tearful. I feel embarrassed, did we

do anything to make her so attached to us, or is this the usual for her? We promise to keep in touch

and she tells me she will definitely contact us if she ever comes to Malaysia. We shake hands again

and she is off.

We walk into the departure area. It is the end of our holiday and back to our everyday lives.

beijing trip august 2013

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