For five kind of lazy people, who like to sleep in we really surprised ourselves with how much sightseeing and recreation we managed to fit into just under one week in Beijing.
First things first - Beijing is awesome...Shanghai was fun, but Beijing took fun to a whole new level - and we actually felt like we were in China! There is so much to see and do in Beijing, you'd need a life-time to do it all. We can't be bothered writing detailed descriptions of everything we did, and we're sure you can't be bothered reading them, so here, in dot-point form, are some highlights;
- Summer Palace (stunning - must see!)
- Forbidden City (big and forbidden)
- Exploring some of Beijing's Hutongs (old, narrow alleys)
- Lazy Sunday on a cozy Hutong rooftop bar ($10 for all you can drink in 3 hours!)
- Food glorious food (Peking duck and hot pot!!)
- Olympic Park (an eerie ghost town)
- Factory 798 (lots of cool artist spaces with graffiti and sculptures)
No visit to Beijing would be complete without a trip to the Great Wall... so obviously we went there. We opted to take the road less travelled and walked the 10km largely un-restored Jinshaling to Simatai section. It was pretty tough walk that sometimes required us to climb steep stairs on all fours - but the views were amazing and it was definitely worth the hard work.
While the boys were left to climb the wall without assistance, we were 'fortunate' enough to be 'adopted' by two local farmers who offered us their leathery old hands to hold up and down every step and ramp. We knew this help wouldn't come for free but they were so cute and old and told us lots of interesting things about the area...so we accepted their help thinking they'd accompany us to the end... but alas, half-way through the walk, after a particularly trying set of stairs, our old friends pounced on us with books and t-shirts insisting we buy. Five dollars later, we parted ways. After scaling the wall we felt we could do anything, so at the end of the walk, we took a super scary, yet fun, zip-line across a river!! A great way to end our Great Wall experience.
Another highlight was the "crazy food night market" (it's actual name escapes us now). Here you could sample an array of, erm, interesting and different foods such as; sheep penis, snake, scorpion, silk worn larvae, snake skin...and there were just the things we tried! There was also sea horse, star fish, centipedes, beetles of every kind and the guts and gizzards of just about every farm animal you can think of. Fair to say, no one's stomach felt 100% at the end of the night, but we had a great time and a lot of laughs (particularly at the man who yelled out "you try penis! you eat penis!").
You may (or may not) know that June 4th marked the 20th anniversary of the pro-democracy student protest at Tinanmen Square. Given that we were in Beijing for this important anniversary, we were curious to check out the square on the day. Having been there a few days earlier, the beefed up security was noticeable - even if they did try and hide this by using plain clothed police (p.s - China, drop the matching badges, hats and sunnies if you want them to blend in). There were more soldiers and police (uniformed and plain clothes) than regular people - but this was the only indication of the anniversary that was evident. It would've been good to see the 1989 events remembered and acknowledged in some way, but the ominous presence of 'the law' made it a little scary for anyone to do anything about it.
The end of our stay in Beijing also marked the end of our travel time with the boys from the boat...sadly, we said our goodbyes and they headed south while we made our way south west on another night train to Xi'an..to stay in the Hyatt. Fact!
you have covered both the eastern and northern capitols, what next? and what has become of our mustached friend?
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