Beijing - Oct 24th - Oct 26th, 2004
Alright, so Beijing had an aroma about it but I could deal with that. I actually didn't notice it all that much except for the odd times when a breeze would blow out from an alley and we'd get punked by eau d'raw sewage. Anyways, I knew Beijing was big (15 odd million people) but I had no idea how big - the city is absolutely massive, it takes around an hour to get from one side to the other if not more. Our trips to different tourist attractions, some of which were located in the city centre would take upwards of 30-40 minutes to complete despite quick moving traffic. Beijing isn't a very tall city but there are low rises as far as the eye can see; it was a very interesting sight.
Summer Palace : Our first stop was the Summer Palace which was built by one of the Qing Dynasty emperors for his mother. The lake you see is man made and a couple hundred years old. I found it odd that they would place the Summer Palace so close to the regular palace - what's the point?
Tiananmen Square : From the Summer Palace we made a quick stop at Tiananmen Square. Unfortunately the weather had started to turn nasty which the photos here do not show. The wind had picked up and rain was starting to fall when we arrived and several of the people in our group chose not to stick around. The weather in Beijing was actually quite soggy the 2 days that we were there but we knew coming in that the weather in Beijing wasn't going to be optimal since we didn't want to hit Hong Kong and get cooked.
Temple of Heaven : Off to the Temple of Heaven we went, this is where the Emperor prayed and also where the Emperor was apparently saved by a bunch of crows which led the Emperor to hang roasted pigs out to feed the crows as a way to thank them. It was here where it suddenly started rain and then just as quickly a merchant popped up selling cheap umbrellas, isn't Chinese capitalism great? The Temple of Heaven also featured an expansive garden of which I have no decent pictures to show to you.
Beijing - The City : After the Temple of Heaven we marched outside and ended up purchasing some yams from a street vendor, I didn't pay for it but I'm sure it couldn't have cost much. Shit is cheap in China, you can get a good meal for $1 Canadian. Like most of China Beijing is both old and modern though in this case it was mostly old and I have to say that I'm very surprised that they were awarded the Olympics as the city is dirty and lacks many of the amenities that one would expect from a modern city.
The Forbidden City - Hi, I'm the Emperor of China and this is my crib. The Forbidden City is where the Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasty got their rule on. As a government structure and the Emperor's home this place is MASSIVE, you could do a month long episode of CRIBS on MTV of this place. I mean, the part of the crib that was for his concubines (his bitches) was roomy enough for 1000 of them and it wasn't even a fifth of the place. At some points it felt like the place went on as far as the eye could see (not actually as far as you think as it's quite polluted in Beijing). It was really here where I got introduced to some awful translation of Chinese phrases; throughout China this was true though in Shanghai it wasn't as bad.
The best part of this visit was when the tour guide said that some of the concubines turned into lesbians because the Emperor was the only man they got to see and the Emperor visited so rarely that some never saw him throughout their lives. Also, the English guided tour tape was narrated by Roger Moore - how could any English speaking person travelling on their own resist?
The Great Wall : The next day we headed out to the Great Wall, like most of my other stops in Beijing it was a tourist stop and not of the hidden jewels but nonetheless it was interesting. I think the Beijing Tourism office figured that something that was bloody steep would give people a great experience but there were so many out of shape people that most couldn't make it more than a few minutes. I stopped after the first tower while Ernie pounded his way up and ended up with sore legs. It was here that I had myself a fine bag of spicy crab flavoured chips - spicy crab! Spicy crab definitely ranks among the top 5 flavours I've ever had. Later on we stopped by a supermarket and picked up sweet and sour pork flavoured chips and spicy seafood as well, nice stuff.
Leaving Beijing - For a city the size of Beijing we didn't exactly see much as we stuck around only 2 days but part of the purpose of this trip for me was to sample things and see if I liked them enough to go back. Our next destination was Shanghai and instead of taking a plane down there we chose to take a train as it was recommended to us by our travel agent. Our double rooms were pretty tiny but that's what you get when traveling by train.
All in all it was interesting experience titlehough a lot of things weren't working on the train, this is what you get sometimes when travelling in a communist country as the accountability isn't there. There may be a work order out there but that doesn't mean the guy responsible will actually do the work. For example, the train had a water leak and by mid morning (3-4am) there was nearly no water left on our train. In addition the heater was iffy and the built-in TVs never worked. Nevertheless I got to see some of the countryside and we were even able to get cell coverage during the whole train trip which was very impressive.
Parting Thoughts - So would I come back to Beijing? With the list of places I could go in China or in Asia I think I would pass up Beijing next time around and wait for it to become a little more modern. For a capital city of a rapidly modernizing country I was very suprised to see it be so old and decrepit. The tourist attractions were nice though I was also surprised at how little effort had been made to restore them to their original look, most of them would be marvels if they would just put some effort into it.
The level of poverty was also quite shocking even when compared to some of the other cities I visited, there was streetside food stands that acted as homes for people (there was a bed in back) and those were stands that were next to big malls or shopping centres. The aside on this page covers the begging part of the trip, most of which relates to Beijing.
The Beggars
Only a couple week before I left for China I had posted on my site about how I felt no pity for panhandlers. What I should have said was that I felt no pity for VANCOUVER panhandlers. For quality panhandling that gets my respect nothing beats China. Beijing had it the worst but there was poverty everywhere in China. I mean, poor like I've never seen before. The beggars in China have it all over the wimps in Vancouver. The wimps in Vancouver should get a damn job, the panhandlers in China don't have that choice.
We had the guy who was on the pedestrian overpass who had only one leg - I mean, how did he get up there? He had no crutch and he was lying prostrate on the overpass. There was the blind erhu player who I learned was blind because he had NO EYES. There was the woman who was dragging along Kid Thalidomide (he was a deformed burn victim) outside the Forbidden Palace. That was just Beijing!
In Hangzhou there was a guy who had nubs for fingers who was playing the keyboard! Squeegee kids have nothing on these people. Only in Shanghai did it really get lame. These early-20s girls would stop us and in very broken English tell us "I hungy, very hungy" while wearing a decent set of clothes and carrying a decent and apparently full bag. Go to Vancouver and panhandle! We don't want your type in China!
All of this sounds unquestionably cruel but China's a tough country. Really, it was quite shocking to see all of it. Ernie had a very difficult time stomaching it while my parents who had travelled to China many times were quite used to it. My first days I didn't know how to react, it was just so far out there that it was hard to absorb. At first I walked around these problem but eventually got the hang of it and started handing out money to the beggars. It was a sad sight indeed.