Beijing was a blur. Of course part of that was likely due to the smog. Seriously though, when I was on the train to Shanghai I had to rack my brain to recall the day of the week... The kicker? I had no idea! I had to look it up.
Getting to Beijing was very easy. There was a stopover in Yuantan in which everyone had to disembark and pass through customs. All customs was there, however, was checking my visa and stamping my passport. There were a total of four non-Asians on the flight from Japan to China: a middle-aged Mexican couple, an Englishman about my age, and myself. We were all seated in the same two rows. We worked together to get through Yuantan and to the luggage carrousel in Beijing. The Englishman, Lee, was not staying at the same hostel as I was, but he was headed in the same direction, so we navigated the Beijing subway as a team. Really though, the Beijing subway is so simple I didn't need any help. The company was nice. Lee had been traveling and working for two years. He met a Japanese girl and after being on the road with her for a while they got married in Las Vegas. He was spending one night in Beijing and then flying home to the UK to search for work and then his Japanese bride would join him soon. Cool story, huh?
The hostel, Peking Yard, was very easy to find as well. It was about 19:00 or 20:00 when I arrived at the hostel. I wasn't particularly tired, so I checked in with family back home and I set out to make friends. There was only wifi available in the common room, so it was full of people sitting alone on their computers and phones. Then I saw some English speakers come in laughing and having a good time; so I bought a beer and followed them outside to the rooftop terrace.
On the terrace I met some new friends: Dennis and Nicolas (brothers from Belgium), Jenny, Daniel, Holger, and J (Germany), Nora (China), Lucas (Netherlands), Beau (UK), and Li (China). There may have been some other people there that I didn't meet. The Germans, aside from J who lives in Beijing, were moving on to Japan the next day and Nora was leaving soon, too, so I didn't get to know them very well; and the Belgian brothers stuck to themselves mostly, but I spent quite a lot of time with Beau, Lucas, and Li.
The next day I went to the Forbidden Ciy with Beau and Li. Lucas went to the Great Wall. First we went to a bakery around the corner from the hostel for breakfast. The way Beau played it up, I was a bit disappointed. I did take a risk with some mystery bread, so I guess I that's what I get. The Forbidden City is very near Tiananmen Square (a big city square wtih a building in which Mau's body is now on display). However, when we tried to go to the square guards were posted at all entrances and everyone was exiting the square. Beau and I asked Li why it was closed because he had talked to a guard and he said, "I don't know. Maybe boss." Beau and I were thinking maybe there was a bomb. It's not really a joking matter, bombs, but we were joking about it anyway. I think there may have been a political leader of some sort coming to Tiananmen Square.
We went to the Forbidden City and Beau and I kept asking Li to be our tour guide. It was funny because although Li is Chinese, he is not from Beijing and was just making stuff up. And he doesn't care about Chinese culture. Like, at all. Also he speaks about forty English words, half of which are dirty and inappropriate. I know he was making stuff up because he would point to a building and say "That where king's wife live..." and the sign immediately in front of the building would read: "King's Sitting Room. This is where the king would rest before battle." No mention of the queen at all. The Forbidden City was really cool, but my advice would be to read some history books beforehand to get a proper appreciation for the place. Beijing was very hot this day and the Forbidden City was very crowded. Although, there are more than a BILLION people living in China and about 21 million living in Beijing, so of course it's crowded.
As we did with the population of Tokyo, let's use Google and take a moment to try to wrap our heads around how many one billion really is. Written numericaly, it is 1,000,000,000. One billion seconds is approximately 31 and a half years. One billion pennies stacked on top of each other would make a tower nearly 870 miles tall; and be worth ten million dollars. One billion children standing on one another's shoulders would reach past the moon... and be very dangerous. There are more people living in China than all of Europe and North America combined. China is huge. And so is India, but I haven't gone there yet.
However, even with all that math and comparisons I know it's difficult to grasp the massive quantity that is the population of China, so we'll just carry on, shall we? After the Forbidden City we exited on the opposite side and Li was hungry. Much like my friend GGG, Li is always hungry. But probably more so. There was one time- yeah, I'm getting ahead of myself- that we had a very filling dinner and not five minutes afer leaving the restaurant Li was at a deli buying food. We had literally just eaten and he was buying more food to consume right away. OK, so after the Forbidden City we had some really spicy noodles, then went to a drum tower, in Jingshan Park, across the street from the Forbidden City.
There's a temple at the top of the hill in Jingshan Park overlooking the entire Forbidden City and much of Beijing as well. This photo doesn't do the view justice. Although isn't that the case with most photographs?
Similar to Japan foreigners are stared at in China. In China at least they will look away or smile or act embarrassed if caught staring- Japan, gawkers will not break eye contact. Also similar to Japan, teenagers like to "practice" their English when they see westerners (regardless of if that westerner is a native English speaker). I say "practice" because usually all it entails is "Hello!" or maybe "Where are you from?" then loads of giggling. At the Jingshan there was a group of teenagers hollering to us and one guy had taken off his shirt and was flexing for us. It was quite humorous, really. Li got a photo. My camera battery was dead or else I would have taken one as well. It was really hot and we were all getting tired from being in the sun, so we headed back to the hostel.
Remember how I said the Beijing subway system is really easy to navigate? Well that's because it is actually quite small and simple. So when we left the drum tower, the nearest subway stop was about a mile away (we exited the Forbidden City opposite from where we entered), and we needed to take a bus. Beau and I could have figured out the bus on our own probably, but we were very grateful to have our Chinese friend with us. There was a nice older woman on the bus who spoke English really well. She chatted with Beau for most of our ride. I think she fancied him.
Getting to Beijing was very easy. There was a stopover in Yuantan in which everyone had to disembark and pass through customs. All customs was there, however, was checking my visa and stamping my passport. There were a total of four non-Asians on the flight from Japan to China: a middle-aged Mexican couple, an Englishman about my age, and myself. We were all seated in the same two rows. We worked together to get through Yuantan and to the luggage carrousel in Beijing. The Englishman, Lee, was not staying at the same hostel as I was, but he was headed in the same direction, so we navigated the Beijing subway as a team. Really though, the Beijing subway is so simple I didn't need any help. The company was nice. Lee had been traveling and working for two years. He met a Japanese girl and after being on the road with her for a while they got married in Las Vegas. He was spending one night in Beijing and then flying home to the UK to search for work and then his Japanese bride would join him soon. Cool story, huh?
The hostel, Peking Yard, was very easy to find as well. It was about 19:00 or 20:00 when I arrived at the hostel. I wasn't particularly tired, so I checked in with family back home and I set out to make friends. There was only wifi available in the common room, so it was full of people sitting alone on their computers and phones. Then I saw some English speakers come in laughing and having a good time; so I bought a beer and followed them outside to the rooftop terrace.
On the terrace I met some new friends: Dennis and Nicolas (brothers from Belgium), Jenny, Daniel, Holger, and J (Germany), Nora (China), Lucas (Netherlands), Beau (UK), and Li (China). There may have been some other people there that I didn't meet. The Germans, aside from J who lives in Beijing, were moving on to Japan the next day and Nora was leaving soon, too, so I didn't get to know them very well; and the Belgian brothers stuck to themselves mostly, but I spent quite a lot of time with Beau, Lucas, and Li.
The next day I went to the Forbidden Ciy with Beau and Li. Lucas went to the Great Wall. First we went to a bakery around the corner from the hostel for breakfast. The way Beau played it up, I was a bit disappointed. I did take a risk with some mystery bread, so I guess I that's what I get. The Forbidden City is very near Tiananmen Square (a big city square wtih a building in which Mau's body is now on display). However, when we tried to go to the square guards were posted at all entrances and everyone was exiting the square. Beau and I asked Li why it was closed because he had talked to a guard and he said, "I don't know. Maybe boss." Beau and I were thinking maybe there was a bomb. It's not really a joking matter, bombs, but we were joking about it anyway. I think there may have been a political leader of some sort coming to Tiananmen Square.
We went to the Forbidden City and Beau and I kept asking Li to be our tour guide. It was funny because although Li is Chinese, he is not from Beijing and was just making stuff up. And he doesn't care about Chinese culture. Like, at all. Also he speaks about forty English words, half of which are dirty and inappropriate. I know he was making stuff up because he would point to a building and say "That where king's wife live..." and the sign immediately in front of the building would read: "King's Sitting Room. This is where the king would rest before battle." No mention of the queen at all. The Forbidden City was really cool, but my advice would be to read some history books beforehand to get a proper appreciation for the place. Beijing was very hot this day and the Forbidden City was very crowded. Although, there are more than a BILLION people living in China and about 21 million living in Beijing, so of course it's crowded.
As we did with the population of Tokyo, let's use Google and take a moment to try to wrap our heads around how many one billion really is. Written numericaly, it is 1,000,000,000. One billion seconds is approximately 31 and a half years. One billion pennies stacked on top of each other would make a tower nearly 870 miles tall; and be worth ten million dollars. One billion children standing on one another's shoulders would reach past the moon... and be very dangerous. There are more people living in China than all of Europe and North America combined. China is huge. And so is India, but I haven't gone there yet.
However, even with all that math and comparisons I know it's difficult to grasp the massive quantity that is the population of China, so we'll just carry on, shall we? After the Forbidden City we exited on the opposite side and Li was hungry. Much like my friend GGG, Li is always hungry. But probably more so. There was one time- yeah, I'm getting ahead of myself- that we had a very filling dinner and not five minutes afer leaving the restaurant Li was at a deli buying food. We had literally just eaten and he was buying more food to consume right away. OK, so after the Forbidden City we had some really spicy noodles, then went to a drum tower, in Jingshan Park, across the street from the Forbidden City.
There's a temple at the top of the hill in Jingshan Park overlooking the entire Forbidden City and much of Beijing as well. This photo doesn't do the view justice. Although isn't that the case with most photographs?
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| View of Forbidden City from Jingshan Park Beijing, China |
Remember how I said the Beijing subway system is really easy to navigate? Well that's because it is actually quite small and simple. So when we left the drum tower, the nearest subway stop was about a mile away (we exited the Forbidden City opposite from where we entered), and we needed to take a bus. Beau and I could have figured out the bus on our own probably, but we were very grateful to have our Chinese friend with us. There was a nice older woman on the bus who spoke English really well. She chatted with Beau for most of our ride. I think she fancied him.
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