10 Days in Beijing

After an overnight train from Ulan-Baatar, which included a 5-hour stop at the border to check passports and hoist up the entire train to change the wheels to fit the Chinese tracks, we arrived to Beijing on Aug 3. Beijing is a bustling city with SO much to see and do, but after 10 days, we are eager to see more of what China has to offer and hit the road once again.

Having so much downtime here - with one tour ending and waiting for the next one to begin - this is also the first place we've experienced a bit of travel weariness and homesickness. We had such a fabulous time with our Vodka Train group across Russia and Mongolia that it was kinda melancholy to see it end. It has also been extremely hot on many days, which makes it easy to feel grouchy and tired cramming onto Chinese public transport and sight seeing in unbearable heat. But don't get us wrong, despite transitioning to the new culture and dealing with heat, we have thoroughly enjoyed our first Chinese city.

Since we've spent so much time here, we thought we'd condense our blog entry into our "Top Ten" experiences. In no particular order...

1. Hiking 10km on The Great Wall of China - Luckily the day we undertook this feat, it was overcast and actually quite cool. The hike started at a restored section of the wall, but soon moved to the more genuine sections. The wall climbs up and over many hills, so it was quite strenuous at times climbing up and down all the stairs between towers. The views were incredible and the engineering of this wall is truly phenomenal considering it goes on for 6,000 km (I think) over some very rough terrain. We also found that each person in our group acquired a farmer "friend" about a quarter of the way into the hike. They pair up with tourists to "help" you over the most difficult section to the halfway point and chat with you using their limited vocabulary (e.g., "Where you from?," "This side wall Mongolia, this side China," "How old are you?," and so on). While we knew that they were going to sucker us into buying a souvenir from them (we bought 2 cheesy t-shirts), I actually found it nice to have someone there to help me up and down some of the steep bits and to fan me at the top of long flights of stairs. You must check out the photos to get a better sense of our hike!

2. Staying with a Chinese family - Since we had about 5 days in between tours, we decided to arrange a home stay through Couchsurfing and found a lovely family to stay with for two nights. Changliang and Hong welcomed us into their home located about 30 mins from the city center. Changliang is an English professor at the Communication University and Hong works as a nurse in the clinic there (and she is a phenomenal cook). They have one daughter who we also met that is 20 years old and studying in Chengdu. We had many nice conversations with them about Chinese culture and they spoiled us with several traditional, home cooked meals (dumplings, noodles, and an assortment of Chinese dishes)...it was by far the best food we've had since arriving. We hope one day they will come visit us in the Bay Area so we can return their gracious hospitality.

3. The Night Market - We visited this market on our first night in town with some of the others from our Vodka Train group. Eric and Ali braved a number of local delicacies including sheep testicles, scorpion, cocoon, and centipede. I only managed the cocoon before I gave up. Again, you must check out the photos to get feel for the night market and its offerings!

4. The Summer Palace - So, let it be said that we visited here on what turned out to be the hottest day of the summer in Beijing (well over 100 degrees F), so we might have enjoyed it even more had we not been sweating buckets. Nonetheless, this assortment of temples and palace buildings located on many hectares of lush land with an array of flowers, trees and a lake was very beautiful. We took a boat ride, strolled around a bit (and rested a good deal in the shade), and peeked into a few of the main temples and buildings. We were thankful for the air conditioned bus ride back with a sweet pea popsicle - even if it did take us 1.5 hours to get back to the city center in the traffic (not uncommon in Beijing).

5. Acrobatic and Kung Fu shows (and the Peking Opera) - While in Beijing, we had plenty of opportunities to take in a few of the recommended shows. China is known for its talented acrobats, and we were quite impressed at the twisting, twirling, stretching, jumping and balancing of the child show we went to - all the acrobats being under age 17. Most impressive was the bike stunt where 12 + Chinese girls balanced on one bicycle and rode in perfect formation around the stage. We also went to a Kung Fu show, which we found to be targeted to Western tourists. I'm not sure how much "Kung Fu" actually took place, but the bright costumes, elaborate set, lighting/smoke/sound, dancing, singing, and some martial arts was fun to take in. Though 1.5 hours was enough. Our least favorite of the shows (where we were the only Westerners) was staged in the Forbidden City theater and was a Peking opera of sorts. There were a number of short skits with dialogue, singing and again elaborate costumes. However, everything was in Chinese with no translation. So after we took in enough of the "feel" of the show, we got tired of understanding nothing and snuck out at intermission.

6. The Forbidden City - Known as one of the most famous tourist sites in China, the Forbidden City was not as impressive as we had hoped. The history of emperors that lived here is quite interesting, but since the historical site is undergoing major reconstruction efforts until 2020, many of the main buildings are covered in scaffolding and not accessible to the public. That aside, there is much beautiful Chinese architecture and a lovely garden towards the back gate. It is said you could spend an entire week seeing every room in this palace (there are 9,999 and half), but for us, 2.5 hours was sufficient.

7. Chinese Massage - After our Mongolian massage experience, we decided it would be interesting to try a massage in every country we visit - one must try the local styles! We found ourselves a little massage place near our hotel and had a one-hour full body massage for around $8US. The massage therapists had no trouble finding our sore spots from loads of walking (and our new daily regime of sit-ups, push-ups, lunges and squats we've started to stay in shape). They twisted, pulled, pushed and rubbed us until we could feel no more. It was fabulous!

8. The Pearl and Silk Markets - Over the course of the week, we replenished our clothing supply (throwing out some of the worn pieces of our wardrobe) by going to the Pearl and Silk markets. These places are floors filled with clothes, bags, shoes, jewelry, silk, souvenirs and electronics. You have to bargain - and I don't mean that lightly. To get the prices we wanted, we endured hard bargaining consisting of arguing, hollering, walking away, getting chased, having our wrists held and slapped, getting guilty spiels, and much more. We got some pretty good deals, but it was exhausting and we could only handle so much before we wanted to scream. At that point, we had to call it a day. The little Chinese shop girls said to me today, "Lady, your boyfriend bargain so hard - he is so tough, you should leave him." But thanks to Eric's resilience and incredible bargaining skills, we got what we wanted without getting ripped off - unlike some of the other tourists paying way too much. It was fun, but I think I prefer shopping at places where the price is set and it's already a good bargain.

9. Peking Duck - This is the famous local "must-have" meal. We indulged on the first night and I loved it! Eric is not as big of a duck fan, so he's had to talk me out of ordering it again, but it certainly was something you have to try at least once while in the city.

10. Night out on the town - To commemorate our last night out with our Vodka Train tour group, the lot of us found a local Beijing night club to party it up. After drinking a few over-priced beers, we ventured onto the dance floor - complete with laser lights, stage smoke, and incredibly loud house and pop music (and some good ole' favorites like "YMCA" - though the locals don't know the hand motions). By the end of the evening, we had blended completely with the locals, sharing drinks, dancing together (even on stage for a bit), laughing, singing, and shouting. It was amazing to us how it didn't feel much different than a big night out in California - or anywhere in the world for that matter.

More and more, especially with our generation and below, popular culture is spreading like wild fire and providing a uniting common experience for young people across the globe. Whether it's watching "Die Hard" on the big screen in Sweden, stumbling upon the 3AM opening of the new "Harry Potter" book in Moscow, or dancing the night away to familiar music and atmosphere at the club in Beijing, young people around the world are growing up with similar exposure to music, media, brand name shopping, information via the Internet, fast food chains and more. We have been astonished again and again at the globalization that is taking place and the role of big business in this process. The question remains, can this be a positive, unifying influence for our global community...or will this have a negative, consumerist impact that results in an "all out for myself" mentality? Our hope is that it will be the first, and that we can use these common experiences and exposure to our advantage in creating understanding and commonality as we grow into leadership positions and work together in business, government and humanitarian efforts. What do you think? - We'd like to know and hear from you!

Towards the end of our Beijing stay, we met up with our new tour group through Intrepid (to read about our trip itinerary click here: http://www.intrepidtravel.com/trips/CSE). This tour is much more a mix of ages - from 14 to 50-something. There are 12 of us in total including a family of four from Britain, an Aussie couple, and a few solo travelers. It's a much different feel from our 20-something tour through Russia and Mongolia, but we think it will be a very nice group of people to travel with through China. Our tour leaders (who are with us throughout the trip) are two Chinese girls in their mid-twenties, Eugenie and Yolanda. We've already started picking their brains on a variety of topics including the one child policy, Mao, Chinese culture and traditions, religion and more. They have been very willing to speak candidly about their experiences and opinions, so we'll be sure to write a future entry to share our Chinese learnings once we finish our stay here - so stayed tuned.

In the meantime, if you're interested in reading a bit more about the growing influence of China on the world stage, check out this article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070814/ap_on_el_pr/us_china2008_campaign

For now, we better sign off so we can continue enjoying the best part of travel - experiencing as much as possible!

Please feel free to continue writing to us on email or by posting comments on the blog with your thoughts and questions - we do enjoy hearing from you.

-Mariah and Eric