"And now for something completely different"...(insert Monty Python theme song)...a travel blog entry!
I'm now sat on the fastest train in the world, the newly launched China Highspeed Rail, having just departed Beijing on my way to Shanghai. The past 3 days in Beijing passed like a whirlwind.
The sights, the sounds, the smells, the traditions, busy buzzy Beijing felt like information overload to me as I was soaking it all in and savouring every moment.
When I first arrived in Beijing, I was greeted by intense 36C humid heat and smog so thick you would have to use a samurai sword to slice your way through to get from point A to point B. I always thought the air quality in LA was exceptionally bad, but nothing quite compared to what I experienced in Beijing.
Luckily, the smog factor was completely overshadowed by all the other interesting sights and cultural elements of Beijing. To start with, the Great Wall. Seeing it in real life rather than on the Discovery Channel, was a moment I'll never forget. I spent a total of 3 hours scaling the wall to the highest point in sweltering humid heat and completely jet lagged, yet that did not seem to slow me down nor dampen my enthusiasm. I was fulfilling a childhood dream walking across one of the Wonders of the World!
On my descent, I had no idea that there was an option to take a tobogan down to the bottom. How fun! And that's exactly what we did. I highly recommend it.
Following the Great Wall we packed in so much sight seeing, I can't begin to go into detail. But I will highlight my favourite stops, in order of preference:
1) The Summer Palace
This was the emperors' summer home during the Ming and Qing dynasties. The palace grounds seem never ending, situated on the cliffs overlooking the Kunming Lake. The Summer Palace, in my opinion, is by far the most picturesque sight to see in all of Beijing. The gardens, the pagodas, the views of the lake, the waterside walkways, and bridges decorated with weeping willows all look like something out of a Chinese fairy tale book or a kung fu film.
2) Laoshe Tea House
This is one of the most distinguished tea houses in all of Beijing, foreign dignitaries and aristocrats typically go there. It's the equivalent of having afternoon tea at the Ritz in London. Again, this was such a picturesque setting like something out of a Chinese film. It was such a treat to go there, my friends and I got our own private tea room. We were served intricately brewed superior dragon green tea accompanied with red bean cake sweets. The bill came to 150 Yuan ($22/person), which is quite expensive for Chinese standards, but it was well worth the experience. When in China, visiting a tea house is a must.
A bronze sculpture of Mr Lao She shaking hands with George W Bush
musicians playing traditional Chinese music
3) Tiananmen Square & Forbidden City
I was surprised by how immense the square was and how many people were there! Tiananmen Square is the largest city square in the world, yet it almost felt claustrophobic as it was packed with what seemed like millions of Chinese tourists. A bird's eye view would've shown little ants moving in clusters around each building and monument. I was amazed by the blatant CPC (Communist Party China) propaganda, like a blast from the past. There was a lot of that all throughout my trip across China.
The Beijing National Museum
The Main Entrance to the Forbidden City
The Forbidden City is the emperor's palace and scale-wise was a city in itself. It seemed that the emperor had a separate mini castle for each daily function, from meeting foreign dignitaries, to where he slept, to where he read, to where he kept his 3,000 concubines. Each little decorative detail had some kind of meaning. For example, the number 9 pertains to the emperor, so there would be 9 pillars in one room, 39 steps, etc. Each animal statue had a special significance.The dragon represents the emperor, the turtle is for longevity, and the crane is meant to protect the emperor.
4) Night Markets in Beijing
The moment you enter the close proximity of any night market, you have aggressive vendors shouting at you to buy their noodle soup, fried scorpions, fruits on a squewer, boba tea. How they have the energy to chase after customers whilst working near the hot stoves in the Beijing humidity is beyond me. The variety of flavours, smells, and exotic foods was non-stop entertainment for me, and I could happily sample every dish every night for dinner. Yep, I was brave enough to sample out the fried scorpions, which tasted and felt just like buttered popcorn in the cinema -yum!
trying out the fried scorpions
So that's Beijing in a nutshell. Next stop, Shanghai.
