Due to popular demand, the fact that this post is already a month late, and my sneaky suspicion that it’s probably an offence not to report on the capital, I'm publishing my Beijing escapades a tad prematurely. To be updated as and when my dear brother finally gives me his photos to feature...
So it was the last week of April that saw the arrival of my brother Fof, who graced the mighty city of Pingxiang for a couple of days before we headed up north. I showed him the sights of Pingxiang, which took the best part of an hour, and he was received with glee by my students, who were extremely excited about meeting a third member of the Tan family and had some very pertinent questions to ask him.
“Have you ever been told that you look like Harry Potter?”
Fof had turned up just before Labour Week, a Chinese national holiday, and whilst this timing was useful in that it allowed me to take some leave from college, it was truly tragic timing for obtaining train tickets. After several attempts and fails we decided to fly up with his friends Dan and Beth, with whom he’d been travelling the previous week. Of course this plan involved Changsha, which I try to avoid at all costs, but miraculously nothing went wrong.
Until we got off the plane in Beijing and I discovered my bag had been attacked by some kind of toxic pickle that refused to be removed. Changsha is clearly becoming more cunning in its efforts to annoy me. I spent the first night in Beijing washing my bag tenderly in the bath and wrapping all my clothes in plastic bags.
Dan’s mum’s friend had some sort of tie to a hotel in Beijing so we spent a very comfortable first night in the capital.
The next day we headed to the summer palace.
The weather was a little hazy but it was still an attractive place to be. First we got a little lost. Then we climbed a big hill. Then we walked down through the grounds. Then we got ice cream. Then I dropped my ice cream on the floor.
Here are Dan and Beth.
On Dan’s insistence we took a pedal boat out on the lake for some exhausting views of the palace, identical, in fact, to the ones available from the lake side. Where we later walked.
Here we are in a totally spontaneous and natural photo.
Here’s a marble ship (the Shifang) that a wise empress once supposedly spent an entire military budget on restoring.
After visiting the palace Fof and I headed to our hostel whilst Dan and Beth went to stay with friends. I had booked the hostel about a month before so was pretty certain nothing could go wrong. When will I learn... We got to the hostel to find that they’d cancelled our whole reservation because we were late. It being a national holiday, all the hostels in the area were fully booked. It was an incredibly fun dilemma.
In the end we were sent to the hostel’s sister hostel, in Qianmen, where the owner put us up in the hotel section for a greatly reduced rate. So that was nice. It turned out to be a really nice place with a good bar with views out over the city. We met a couple of Scottish girls, Fiona and Emma, and went out to Sanlitun for the evening, which would not have been particularly noteworthy if it wasn’t for the fish and chips that I sourced which made me happier than I ever thought possible.
The next day we all piled into a van and set off bound for the Great Wall.
When we arrived it was raining, but by the time we had cablecar-ed up to the top the sun was out and it was beautiful. Here we all are.
We visited a section called Mutianyu which was relatively uncrowded, well-maintained…
...and you can get a toboggan slide down.
Great Wall, yes very spectacular, very impressive, very nice to look at. Tobogganing down? Now that’s an attraction.
It started raining a little so they tried to kick us off and make us take an alternative route down but we were having none of it.
That evening Dan and Beth came round to the hostel and dragged Fof off to KTV (kareoke) while I spent a much more relaxing evening in the bar with Fiona and my new dorm mate Andrew. KTV continues to defy temptation.
We kicked off the following day by eating an entire Beijing roast duck. I have to say I have not craved duck since. It was very good though. Dan, Fof and I then hit Tian’anmen Square.
Though it was less hitting and more lightly tapping, since we spent quite a while walking round and round it until we eventually worked out how to get across the roads and through the heavy security.
Here's the Great Hall of the People, famous for being on the 100yuan note.
From there we walked on through the Forbidden City. It was hot, and took a while to get through. By the last gate it was all starting to look the same.
So when we finally got out we decided to climb up a big hill. Just to look at it again.
We then met Beth and her friends in Houhai (after walking for another hour or so thanks to a taxi driver dropping us nowhere near where we wanted to go).
Houhai is a lake in the centre of Beijing; the surrounding district is famous for nightlife and the remnants of 'hutongs', narrow streets or alleys that once formed neighbourhoods and are now under threat of urbanisation. Unfortunately I don't have a picture. Clearly doing my bit for preservation here.
Beth's friends took us to a great ‘chuanr’ place (BBQed meat and other stuff on sticks) and afterwards we went to a bar for homemade shots of something resembling orange and brandy. I then met up with my friend Joerg, who walked me back to the hostel, where we climbed up onto the roof (after they refused to let us in the bar) and sat watching the lights of the city. Beijing is a cool place to be.
On the Monday, the official ‘Labour’ day, it was time to fly home. Fof and I metro-ed to the Olympic village. A lot of Chinese people wanted photos with us. Standard, of course, but you’d think they’d at least aim for a stadium backdrop. They did not. My own photo of said stadium remains pending...
I had to leave Fof in the afternoon for Beijing airport, which is possibly my favourite airport ever. I couldn’t see a single cancelled or delayed flight on the board (a previously unsighted phenomenon in China) and it was very peaceful.
Peace is, assuredly, a luxury. I landed in Changsha, got caught in the rain, couldn’t get a train ticket, couldn’t find a taxi, got soaked waiting for a bus and spent the night in a hostel room with 2 Chinese men who turned all the lights on at 2am to throw their stuff around and spit. Big love for Changsha.
The long weekend was a success overall though – I got to see the capital, I got to see Fof and I got to travel with a fluent Chinese speaker which made everything so much easier (thanks Dan). So that was Beijing. In a nutshell.
I’m feeling sad to say goodbye to my first Chinese home and all the people I’ve met here but I’m also feeling ready to move on. Next year, if all goes to plan, I will be returning to China to study Mandarin on a scholarship from the Chinese government. Of course, since it’s China, I won’t know where it is, when I start or if I’ve even been awarded the scholarship until next month, a few precious weeks before the new term begins. But if China has taught me one thing, it’s how to deal with the unexpected. Perhaps preparation is overrated.
