Beijing

The bullet train dropped us off at the South Beijing Railway station to find our way through another Chinese subway system. The subway in Beijing was essentially the same as Shanghai, but the A/C wasn't quite as good. We arrived in half an hour to our new home base subway station and followed the Google Maps screenshot to the hotel. Google took us by a very small alley through a residential area called a "hutong" where we saw kids playing in the streets and adults chatting. We thought that we were going the wrong direction and were coming up with Plan B when a guy on a bicycle came up and asked which hotel we were looking for. He ended up being the operator of our hotel, and led us to the front door. Good timing!

This was a traditional Chinese courtyard hotel and there were only 6 rooms. Each had a sitting/ sleeping room and a bathroom. The shower was in the same part of the bathroom as the sink, which was a new experience for me. Looking out on the small courtyard, there were chairs and tables, along with a refrigerator full of drinks for purchase. I would recommend this hotel to people traveling on a budget, but looking for something a little more traditional.

That first night we decided to explore the local area a bit. We were about a block from the intersection of two busy streets, and they were lined with small shops and restaurants. My friend Andy had recommended the Houhai district, which is known as the hipster part of Beijing. So in addition to the many restaurants and bars, there were also a ton of guitar shops- maybe 10 in the three blocks near our hotel. The streets were always full of people, whether it was 4 a.m. in the morning or 1 a.m. after the bars. We noticed that people in Beijing dressed much closer to what we were used to in the western world, while people in Shanghai tended to be very conservative. That night, Chad and I walked along the streets checking out our perimeter and looking for somewhere to eat. We eventually found a place that looked like they had plenty of pictures on the menu and some English. We ordered tolerably well with the exception of one dish- tiny pieces of fish filled with bones that we couldn't really find a way to eat. They had been labeled as octopus in the menu... Google Translate strikes again. After eating, we went back to settle in and get ready for a big day of sightseeing.

The next day, June 9th, was our first real day in Beijing. We started by going out in search of breakfast. We weren't out until 8:30, and most of the places were closed. However, we did spot someone cooking what looked to be fried dough, so we went to give it a shot.

Completely through hand gestures, we were able to order two large pieces of fried dough and two bowls of a corn meal porridge for 7 Yuen- just over $1. After that little adventure, we headed out to tourist stop #1- the Forbidden City. After a 30 minute subway ride, we stepped out of the Tiananmen Square East station and approached the outermost wall of the outer court. You can visit the outer court without a ticket, and even on a Tuesday it was teeming with Chinese and international tourists. You walk in to a giant courtyard, maybe 2X1 football fields. The gate to the inner court, which requires a ticket, is immediately in front, to the north, and there are various benches and trees scattered throughout. While we were taking a breather, the Chinese military on guard went through a very unimpressive drill practice. We had decided the ticket line was too long, so we explored a garden to the west of the outer courtyard instead. It was a very beautiful garden, full of little gazebos with

traditional Chinese roofs and little lakes. We climbed a little stone path to a deserted picnic table, which was the first privacy we had seen outdoors in China. The very best part of the garden were the covered pathways connected each building. They were covered with a pointy roof about 8 feet up in the traditional Chinese style. Under the roof, the beams and ceiling were painted with all kinds of scenes. We walked for 15 minutes and never saw a repeated picture, even though there was a new set of 4-5 paintings every 10 feet or so.

After a couple of hours in the garden, we reentered the outer courtyard and bought our tickets for the inner courtyard of the Forbidden City. We were blown away by the first inner courtyard. It was a football field in each direction, with rectangular gates and buildings on the south, east, and west. On the north was a large building up a number of flights of stairs from the courtyard. Everything was ornately painted and decorated, and even the

shingles on the roof were ornate! They had one window open to look through into this large building, set up as a sort of throne room. We soon found that this was the first of many successive courtyards as we continued northward. There were maybe 6-8 in a row, each serving a more intimate purpose in the royal family's life. In the end, we came to the living quarters of the Emperor and Empress. An opening to the east of this courtyard led to the living quarters of the more important concubines. At the northernmost point of the Forbidden City were the gardens, a very small piece of which is open to the public. We soon exited out the north gate and walked around the city back to the subway station. This led us down an interesting street full of shops, including a candy shop where two teenage girls used sign language to

help us pick out a bagful of Chinese candy. Eventually, we got back on the subway and returned to the hotel for a rest. We had walked a lot that day. The Fitbit read over 30,000 steps by the end of that Tuesday!

Eventually we went out in search of food and found a Beijing duck place near the hotel. Here we ordered really well for the first time on the trip. We ordered duck pancakes, steamed broccoli, and a sizzling tofu and squid dish that was excellent. We were really pleased with ourselves. After dinner, we walked around, exploring the immediate area some more. This time we found a side street that was jam packed with people, shops, and bars. There were barely any cars or mopeds, turning it into a little shopping street. We liked it enough to return later that night, slightly better dressed, in search of a bar. We found a place, ordered some Chinese beers, and soon were joined by

a German around our age. He worked in finance for Audi and traveled frequently for work to places like Brazil, Mexico, and China. We exchanged stories with him for a good 2-3 hours before Chad said that he was going to fall asleep in his seat. We said goodbye and headed back to the hotel. It was the first time we had managed to stay up past midnight!

The next day dawned gloomy and a little rainy. We got a light snack in the morning, then decided to stay in until lunchtime. We had tired ourselves out the day before, and the weather wasn't particularly inviting. We each got out our tablets and read. At lunch, we went to a dumpling place recommended by our hotel host. We had finally found a good place! There were friendly waitresses, the menu was pretty well translated to English, and it wasn't too expensive. After lunch I felt like I had eaten enough dumplings to turn into one, so we went back to the hotel. It rained the rest of the day, and we just

vegged. I felt a little guilty sitting around reading all day in China, but I think we needed a break. I read 2.5 books that day. We eventually went out in search of food around 9, then returned and were asleep with plans to be way more active the next day.

The next day was June 11th, a Thursday, and we started out by visiting Tiananmen Square. It was pretty underwhelming after the Forbidden City. Mao's Mausoleum also stands in the square... Chad and I called it the Maosoleum- I'm sure not an original joke. The only interesting part of the square was the ancient gate standing at the southern end. It is open for tourists and has four floors of galleries showing the history of the centuries-old gate, which was the entrance to Beijing City when it was still walled. Finishing up with this part of town, we strolled up to the site of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. It had the feel of a ghost town. There was the capacity for thousands upon thousands of people, but there were only a few strolling up and down the main

avenue or around the giant Olympic park. After that, we went back to our hotel and set out in search of Houhai Lake, for which the region is named. The lake and the afternoon were absolutely beautiful. It is a very large lake, and from what I could see it looked that there was a pathway running the whole way around. We only walked around the southern tip with most of the bars and restaurants, but there were people that had rented paddle boats and were out on the water. If it weren't for the rickshaws and bar hosts continually heckling us to buy something, it would have been an incredibly pleasant place to spend time. As we made our round of the lake, we saw that the bars and restaurants were grouped by their audience- young and ready to party vs. older and willing to spend more. A common theme was live music. There were songs- almost all Chinese, but some English- coming out of nearly every bar. After our walk, we picked out a bar and sat to watch the people go by. We picked poorly- choosing a place

with poor service and an even worse smell. After that, we explored the small alleys surrounding the lake, which were filled with street food and shops.

Around nightfall, we headed back to our hotel to look for dinner. We ended up with our most adventurous meal that evening. We found a place that had lots of people, but no English or pictures. When the waitress handed us the menu, it was all characters except for a star to show the most popular dishes. We picked two of these at random, the waitress pointed to one other thing, and we waited to see what would happen. The first thing that came out looked like giant sliced water chestnuts in a very spicy sauce. We liked them, but our tongues started to go numb, so we stopped with that. Next came a whole fish, skewered and seasoned, which we were able to pick at with our chopsticks. Finally, the waitress delivered one bowl of lamb soup. Overall, we were happy with our efforts! And glad that we hadn't been hungrier. That night we went to bed early. We had some big plans for the next day that required us to get out of bed early.

The alarm went off at 6:00 a.m. and we woke up at 6:12 in a frenzy. We were getting picked up at 6:20 by Great Wall Tours! We had purchased a tour for 350 Yuen each (under $60) to go to a very scenic part of the wall (Jingshanling) that was a 3 hour drive from Beijing. The perk of going so far away is that there are fewer tourist and better mountains. We took a tour bus with approximately 15 other people, mainly from the US, Germany, and Spain, all of which spoke English. The tour guide was a friendly Chinese girl around my age, and she introduced us to the many sites in Beijing that we should try to see. Based on her advice, we decided to head to the Summer Palace the next day. 2.5 hours later, during which I was fighting my eyelids to stay awake and see the scenery, we arrived at the Jinghshanling north gate. We would have another 2.5 hours to meet the bus at the east gate, at which time we would head to lunch as a group.

Thus began the highlight of our travels so far. The Great Wall is beyond magnificent. The mountains around are jagged, covered in green vegetation, and stretch as a far as the eye can see in every direction. The only signs of humans are the highway we came in on, a far off reservoir, and the Great Wall of China. You couldn't have designed a crazier, or more impressive, place to build a long stone structure. The mountains are scenic in the summer, but they would be imposing in the snow, and it seems nuts to try to build anything at the top of one, much less a structure over 6000 km in length, going up and down the jagged peaks. It seems completely impossible.

Unless you were in China half a millennium ago, I guess. The great wall itself rivals the mountains in impressiveness. Parts of our 10 km route had been restored, and parts had not. Where they were restored, you could see that the walkway of the wall follows the lay of the land usually about 10-15 feet above ground level. The sidewalls raise up 4-5 feet, with openings every few feet to shoot out arrows. The width of the walkway varies greatly along the course of the wall, but was generally wide enough for 3-6 people to walk abreast. There were guard towers placed at the top of each ridge. We saw somewhere between 15-20 on our walk. They varied in size and layout, but were generally two stories tall, with a bedroom on the top level and larger room on the bottom, maybe 20 feet square. The staircases connecting the two floors were NOT up to code. They were treacherous with very little headroom- a reminder that at 5'7" I would have been a pretty tall soldier.

If you're following along with my description, you will have realized the necessity for stairs...a lot of stairs. The wall followed the curvature of the ridge top and went down and up steeply, very steeply at times. Chad and I, blessed with what I consider an excess of leg muscle, were both hurting by the end of the 10 km walk. Up and down and up and down we went. Some of the stairs had been nicely restored, but others were left in a degraded condition, with many bricks missing. It was fun in these parts to scramble up the best you could. There was one staircase in particular, after going up two immediately before it, which was so steep I resorted to using my arms to help for the last 10-15 steps. Chad laughed at me when I reached the top, panting like a winded rhinoceros. I think it speaks to the impressiveness of the view that I didn't want to slow down or cut our journey short. Each climb was rewarded with a spectacular view. You could see the wall winding off in both directions, eventually disappearing over a ridge. It was impossible to look at that and not

want to follow it until it ended, wherever that was.

All that said, I was dragging by the time we reached the last tower and made our descent to the east gate. We were picked up by the bus and shuttled to lunch, where it was such a relief to have someone else order from the restaurant. Another great thing about this meal was having someone new to talk to. Chad and I get along, but we hadn't talked to many other people in the past week. We were sitting with four Germans and four Americans. Over lunch, the table talked about travel plans, trouble with chopsticks, and communication difficulties. I dozed for most of the ride back to Beijing, and we arrive back at the hotel after 5:00 p.m. After resting a good 3 hours, we went out to see the Beijing Night Market. This is where you can eat the crickets and tarantulas that you see on TV. We eventually found a couple of streets full of food and shops, picking unsuccessfully from the selection. We had had two lukewarm dumplings apiece, a tortilla full of cabbage, and a rock hard ball of dough that we later decided should have been cooked before attempting to eat. Le sigh.

We did not rise early the next morning, June 13th, our last in Beijing. Around 10 we headed out to the Summer Palace, which is where the Emperor's family spent their summers to escape the heat. After a long subway ride, we found ourselves on the northern edge of the city. The Summer Palace is a rectangular walled enclosure,

about 2 miles wide by many more long. It is 75% water, filled with a giant lake. There is a path running around the lake, with several important buildings stretched along it. Most were very similar to what we had seen in the Forbidden City, but there were a couple that were unique. Along the lake away from the main living quarters was an intricate and impressive Buddhist temple on a hill. You had to climb many steps up to it (Chad and I were excited after the previous day) and from the top you could see all of the grounds, with Beijing away to the south and mountains to the north. The temple itself was adorned in the same fashion as the other buildings, but was round, making it different in shape. It also held to very large Buddha, which many people prayed to when they visited the temple. After climbing

back down the hill, we took a ferry across the lake to an island with more buildings. On its dock, we saw a large Chinese man singing Phantom of the Opera to the lake. This was very out of place and I thought a nice change of pace. In a nearby gallery, we saw many ancient artifacts of jade, porcelain, ivory, and bronze. Chad was most impressed with the bronze pieces, many dating back to the 11th century BC. The US is truly an infant.

After finishing our tour, we came back to the hotel to rest, still worn out from the Great Wall the day before. We finally took advantage of the beers available in the courtyard for 5 Yuen (about 80 cents) apiece. They were only 3.6% alcohol, but multiply that by a liter apiece and you get two chatty Redmans going to dinner around 8:00 p.m. We went back to the duck place from earlier in the week and repeated our successful order. Coming back to the room that night,

we packed up for our 4:00 a.m. departure to the airport. The night went very quickly and we took our one and only cab in China to the airport. We loaded up on Thai Airways and headed to Bangkok, where we spent a 6 hour layover in the Thai executive lounge (thank you United status!) and eventually boarded a flight to Hanoi. On to the next adventure!