Having checked in and dropped off our bags in our room we set our sights for the Panjiayuan Antiques Market in the South-West of Beijing. Having examined numerous maps we were sure that it didn't look too far and we started on our journey. Around 3 hours later we arrived at market, just as the majority of stall-holders were making their way home for the day. This left us with an empty market area to walk round, with the only items left to look at being the huge stone statues that they sell at the market that they clearly expect people not to even try to steal. These were not just your usual garden ornaments, instead they were selling, 16 foot replicas of the Great Wall or a pair of mythical creatures who looked very menacing and stood about as tall as I was. Having decided that these statues wouldn't be withi our 23kg luggage allowance we deicded to head to the Temple of Heaven, which is also in this area of Beijing. However, rather than risking walking their we jumped in a cab instead.
After having heard a number of horror stories about Beijing cab drivers I was pleased to say that we had no problems on this occasion. I decided to follow where he was taking us on the map I had, and I am pleased to say that the driver took us the most direct route possible to our destination and was able to take us right to the main entrance to the Temple Park. This 15 minute cab journey cost us the grand total of 95p, so it was fair to say that we would be using a great deal more of the cabs whilst we were in Beijing.
Having taken us so long to reach the market, we arrived at the temple to find that the main attraction was also closed for the night and that we would only be allowed to walk around the park area. This however, turned out to be one of the quietest areas in Beijijng and Daisy and I took this oppurtunity to sit and relax in the park for a while before heading off to find some food. The park was beautifully maintained, and in the cooler evening air it was very pleasant just to stroll the paths around the Temple of Heaven.
After sitting in the park for a while we headed back towards our hotel via Qianmen Street, which is a pedestrianised (apart from the tourist tram) street which has been regenerated in the style of old Beijing. The street is full of modern shops as well as some of your typical souvenir shops which litter cities like Beijing. Having decided that we should try some authentic Peking (Beijing) Duck we headed for the Qianmen Roast Duck Restaurant. After our afternoon ramblings we were both famished and thought that we would get the chance to try some duck amongst a few othe speciality dishes of Beijing. However, in thinking this we were much mistaken and after having waited 15 minutes for a seat we were rushed in and given aroud 30 seconds to decide what we wanted to eat. This however, was plenty of time as it appeared that this restaurant ONLY did peking duck and there was no other dishes available on the menu. Snce we were already sat down we decided to go with the flow and plumped unsuprisingly for the duck. This came with an 'authentic' duck soup with looked a bit like a cupfull of melted butter, and tasted, I imagine much the same. Well it was not the worst peking duck I have ever tasted, but unfortnately also nowhere near the best. After dinner we headed back to the hotel, which was only about 15 minutes walk we were pleased to find out.
On Saturday, through our hotel reception we had booked a private tour to see the Ming Tombs and Great Wall. Our tour guide and taxi driver picked us up at 0900 and we headed out of the city into the surrounding countryside of North-West Beijing province. It was in this jounrey out of the city that we first got a real feel of the sheer size of the city and the number of people/cars/roads/building it contains.
After about an hour we reached the Ming Tombs at Ding Ling, which is home to the only orginal Temple that peole are still able to enter. The tomb that we visited was that of Zhu Xianjun, and was the 10th of 13 tombs to be build in this area of the Yanshan Mountain region.
The main framework of the building was constructed of single cedar trees fom Southern China and the entire building still stands without the support of a single nail or supporting bracket. The inside of the temple has now been turned into an exhibition, showing a tiny proportion of all of th gold that they excavted from the tomb itself when it was first discovered. Within the collection are some exqusitie examples of chinese arts and crafts, including a gold head dress worn by the Emperor made of gold so thin that it looks moe like lace than strands of gold. Here you are also able to walk around the base of the vast hill which was place over the tomb in order to incraese its Feng Shui. The location was first chosen because of its good Feng Shui, the mountains behind it to the North and supposed to protect it from the evil spirits carried on the North Wind, whilst the river to the South is also desgined to protect it from unwanted spiritual visitors.
After our visit to the tombs it was time for the usual trip to a Jade Museum/Factory Outlet, I understand that this is so that the tourists can see how one of China's biggest industries work, but also get annoyed at how you are harrased and harranged into making purchases, just so that the tour guide can make a bit more comission from the sellers. However, this was also the location of our lunch stop so D and I politely refused any attemps to extract money from our wallets and instead just used the stop as a chnace to cool down and have a bite to eat, whic was actaully quite tasty.
We then made our way though yet more of the stunning country to the north of Beijing with our final destination of the day being the Mutianyu Great Wall. This is the 2nd or 3rd area of the Great Wall of China to be redeveloped and was set amongst some of the most amazing scenery that both of us had ever seen. After a short (rather dodgy) looking chair lift ride, we were stood on the Great Wall itself. I don't quite think either of us had prepared ourselves for what we were goung to see and we were both struck by the sheer enorimty and scale of the Wall. It was a crystal clear and extremely hot day and on either side of us you could see the wall snaking its way along the ridges of the mountians, which a small watch tower every 200 metres or so along its length. After taking lots of photos and just trying to take in as much of the scenery as possible, it was time to head back down to the waiting car.
This gave us 2 option 1) take the rather dilapidated chair lift back down or 2) take the much more fun, but potentially life-threatening tobogaan ride. After deciding that if we were going to die, we would want to die whilst having some fun we chose to take the toboggan. This was a great idea, and we both had a good ride down. Although this would have been more fun if the person in front of D and I had decided to try and go more than 10mph all the way down. However, with some tactical hanging back both of us were able to get up some good speed on some of the steeper sections of the descent.
On our second full day in Beijing, we decided to visit The Forbidden City anf Tian-an Men Square, both of which were located quite close to where we were staying. Perhaps Sunday was not the best day to do this as when we reached Tian'an Men Square we realized quite how popular these two destinantions were with Chinese tourists. Unperturbed, we headed into The Forbidden City and had a long wonder amongst the temples, gardens and courtyards that it contains. I must be honest that it wasn't quite as amazing as what I had imagined, but it was still great to see for myself the splendour in which the previous Chinese used to live.
On our way to visit the National Museum of the Chinese People's Republic, we were to see another side of China which is not often seen. Whilst walking along (rather ironically) Tian'an Men Square we found ourselves in the middle of a fountain of leaflets, as from all around us a group of older people started to throw leaflets in the air. As you can imagine this sent the nearby police and 'secuirty' officials into over-drive and as soon as it had happened there were uniformed officials appearing from all directions around us. I didnt manage to get much on camera but I did manage so serrupticiously get a few candid photos of the immediate aftermath. We do not know what this small demonstration was about, but we were both left with the idea that it is probably not that uncommon in a country that it so tightly restricted when it comes to freedom of politcal expression. It seemed all the more ironic to us as politcial freedom and it's suppression was the main reason that had brought us to Tian'an Men Square in the first place.
After this we headed for the Chinese National Museum , which paints a very 'interesting' picture of the country's history and pays quite a lot of attention unsuprsingly to Chairman Mao and the growth of modern Chinese political philosophy.
On our last morning in Beijing we headed back to the Temple of Heaven to have a look around the temple itself. It was one of the hottest days we have had since we had been in Asia and the temple looked stunning in the sun, with its coloured tiled roof and multicoloured laquered paintwork exterior. We also took the oppurtunity to have another walk around the gardens, but unfortunately they weren't half as relaxing as they had been on Friday as now they were filled with an assortment of groups practcing everything from ballroom dance to Tai Chi.
On our way back to the airport we paid a visit to the Olympic Park from the 2008 olympics and most impressively the Bird's Nest Stadium which stands as a hallmark to the work and money that was put into staging the games in China. It is simply a stunning stadium, with its huge metallic bird's nest structure freestanding around the bowl of the staium. We were also able to see the Water Cube, home to the swimming events as well as see the Olympic Wall, onto which they have engraved the names of EVERY gold, silver and bronze medal winer from the Olympics and Paralympic games. All I can say is that the London Olympic park is going to have a lot to live up to after seeing the development that has, and STILL IS taking place in Beijing because ofthe Olympics.
I will leave it at that for now. Hope you are all well and that you are enjoying the lovely British 'Summer' along with Wimbledon and all of the preparation for London 2012.
Catch up again soon!
J
No comments:
Post a Comment