Beijing Cultural Hub or Rip Off Market!

Matt, Sarah, Mandy and Tony in their room!

On October 1st, which was a terribly rainy Changsha day we packed up our bags and met at the Changsha HuoCheZhan (Train Station).  Mandy, Mariah, Sarah, Matt and I met, gave our tickets and walked in.  We walked to the appropriate waiting room and a half an hour later we were on the train in our rooms.  Mandy, Sarah and Matt were sharing one room with a young man named Tony.  Who turned out to be an alumnus from the school where I teach.  He is now going to university and studying mechanical engineering.  He is very good at speaking English and I am looking forward to getting to know him.  Mariah and I were in another room, for a while we were hoping that it would just be the two of us.  But then we got a roommate, a silent Chinese man who snored really loudly!  We played some Egyptian Rat Slap, Slap Jack and some speed.  But soon it was time to crash.  They give you a pillow and blanket, and small beds that weren't that bad.  Trains (at least sleepers) are a very civilized way to travel.  We left at 6pm, fell asleep around 10pm woke up at around 7:00am and we were arriving in Beijing.  The sun was coming up, and the sky was blue, a deep enjoyable blue.  The air was a crispy 40 degrees.  We walked around and found the place to buy everyone's return tickets.  The one counter that spoke English.  Ate some baozi and then followed the crowds onto bus 22, got off at the subway stop.  We hopped on the subway 2 yuan from the Military Museum to BeiXinQi our stop.  We climbed the stairs and arrived in a cute neighborhood.  It was so much quieter than the average street in Changsha.  There were no scooters on the sidewalk!  We walked along looking for our hostel and we ran into a wedding procession, which was beautiful.  Eventually we found the Ming Courtyard.  It was down a cutesy little Hutong, the people there were very nice.  There was a huge courtyard that had people lounging and sun bathing.  There was a restaurant and bar where they served western food, and had fairly cheap imported beer.  I was staying in a four room girls only room, my friends were in a four person room together.  We checked in, dropped off our stuff and went in search of food.  (We of course made a quick stop across from our hostel and got Xiaobing (fried bread).  Then we went to the main road and looked for a restaurant.  Ordering is always a bit stressful in China, especially if there are no pictures.  We managed to find a Zhege (a restaurant with pictures that you can point at and go "Zhege" that one) restaurant, and they over charged us.  A quick recommendation if you go to Beijing never eat at restaurants that do not have their prices listed and write down the prices of the dishes you order.  That way you won't be surprised.  But they charged us 5 yuan for the plates, cups and bowls.  Yeah really.

Then we walked to the Forbidden City, using my incredibly useful map I brought from the US!  There were thousands of people and we arrived around 2:30.  We paused to snap some pictures and were surrounded by Chinese people who wanted to take our picture, this became a game for us.  Spotting people who were taking our picture.  Some people were outright filming us!!  But the best thing we came across was a family who gave their baby to Mariah so they could take a picture.

This baby was so cute, other parents tried to do this later but the children would freak out.  We might be the first non-Chinese people they have ever met.  Crazy to think about.  We bought our tickets and went into the Forbidden City.  It was huge!  Words cannot describe how huge it was, it was full of people from all over!  Mandy, Mariah and I strolled through, not really bothering to go inside of any of the buildings.  We enjoyed the walk and the gardens.  Sarah and Matt wandered off to take their time walking around, really seeing the Forbidden City.  Mandy, Mariah and I left the Forbidden City and I practiced my bargaining skills.  I was offered several charms, the original price was 1 for 35yuan.  I managed to get 4 for 10.  Mandy managed to get 5 for 10.  Then she was addicted to Bargaining.  She became the bad cop when I bargained.  We walked around and eventually met up with Matt and Sarah.  We tried to cut in front of the Forbidden City to get back to our hostel, but police were pushing people back.  Then we went under the road to Tiananmen square, but we were unable to cut through that.  Lines of police officers were making a no pass zone in the middle.

Tired and hungry we wandered back up next to the Forbidden City and found a Jiaozi, Baozi, and Mian place.  (Pot stickers, steamed buns, and noodles)  We got pork jiaozi, veggie and egg Baozi, beef noodle soup, egg noodle soup, and Chaomian (fried noodles). This was the a wonderful meal, it was warm, filling and it gave us what we wanted.  They made fun of us because we all added Lajiao (hot peppers) to our food.  Living in Hunan had made me addicted to spicy food.  I am going to have to start cooking with my own peppers.  I need to learn how to cook Hunan food so when I return I can keep eating it!  But the Chaomian was wonderful, I am going to have to see if I can find a noodle place near me that does this.  Refueled we returned to our hostel, taking the subway to our hostel's road that was covered in red lanterns.  Being in Beijing for GuoQingJie (National Holiday) was awesome, there were lanterns everywhere and flags everywhere.  There were also people everywhere!  Tons of people, just crowds everywhere.  So we made it back to the hostel, did some walking.  Matt and I went to the bar at the hostel and drank some booze and spoke to people from all over the world.  We met a German who was heading to North Korea. (Sidebar, did anyone else know Kim Jon Il's son and grandson were on facebook?  I just saw that on BBC).  We also met an American who was planning on traveling around SE Asia and by an odd twist of fate ended up in Beijing!  It was nice and relaxing.  The hostel had western toilets and mattresses, it is weird to think that the hostel was "nicer" by western standards but all I wanted to do was sleep in my bed!  So we woke up early to go on a tour that our hostel offered:  The Summer Palace and the Great Wall, shopping time and lunch included.  180RMB.  Amazing price, but uh when a tour says it has shopping time that means it has a deal with a store.  There were 13 of us.  5 World Teachers, 5 Teachers with another program, a couple the man was German the woman was Chinese, and a German Backpacker who is living in Bangladesh.   The 5 teachers from the other program were so young.  One was our age, the others were all just out of high school.  I felt so old and responsible in comparison.  Our tour guide Judy, was from Hunan!!  It was such a pleasant surprise!  She got very excited and asked us what we thought.  She laughed when we told her we missed the Lajiao.  She said she missed it as well.  We loaded up in the bus and  went to the summer palace, it was too crowded to get into the actual palace, so we took a boat ride on the artificial lake.  The summer palace was gorgeous!

The Empress' Marble Party Boat

  The summer palace was burned down during the Opium wars.  The Empress Dowager Cixi, the dragon lady rebuilt it.  She ascended to the throne when her husband died and she was the only wife with a son.  Her son was 6 or something, so she ruled behind him.  He died at 19, and she picked her nephew to rule.  Who was 4 years old, so guess who got to rule behind the scenes!  Yup Dragon Lady.  She would use the pearls from the man-made lake to grind into her makeup.  The summer palace was beautiful.  I wish we had gotten a chance to walk into it.  So after an hour of walking around the outside, we boarded the bus again.  I managed to sneak some bargaining in before we boarded the bus, and got a hat for 10yuan, when the original price was 35.  The traffic was so bad it took us 2 and a half hours to get from the Summer Palace to the Jade Factory, we were given a tour by a woman whose name tag said "Sweety Ass."  Then we were given a half an hour to shop around.  I don't think anything was under 300RMB.  It was beautiful but honestly we were ready to go in about 10 minutes!  But lunch was served in a restaurant next to the shop.  We were given "Chinese Food", no lajiao, and there were french fries.  Nothing had any flavor.  It was so boring and there were forks.  My fellow Worldteachers and I were eating with our chopsticks in true Chinese fashion.  The others were using their forks to scoop food onto their plates.  Judy ate with the workers and probably had a better meal than we did!

 We pressed on to the Great Wall.  The traffic was so bad we couldn't even make it to Badaling (the main tourist area) we went to a different area, that was pretty crowded anyways.  We were given an hour here, and it was impossible to get up high enough to get a good view.  But it was amazing to walk on the stairs, they were high, and worn down there were tons of foot grooves.  People were everywhere.  The further parts of the wall there was no one but we didn't have time to make it there.  It was a bit disappointing, if I end up in Beijing again I will go to a further site and hike it.

Mandy, me, Sarah, Matt and Mariah

After the wall, we waited for forever for the others who were extremely late.  I built some Guanxi and bought the driver a pack of cigarettes.  I am sure he was confused, but was grateful.  We tried to buy another hat but they would not bargain down past 25yuan.  It wasn't worth it.  So back on the bus, and back to traffic. We drove past the Birds Nest Olympic Stadium and to a pearl factory.  By this time we were starving.  The German couple bounced.  The younger teachers were buying stuff at the pearl factory, at the jade factory and at the wall.  The tour let everyone off to go to the Birds nest and took us back.  We tipped both the driver and Judy, thanked them and told Judy we would have to meet up if she came to Hunan again.

That evening we went to Wangfujing, and I got scammed!  Majorly scammed, this could have been a huge downer if Mariah wasn't there to make everything better!  We laughed about it and looked on the bright side.  Watch out when you are in Beijing.  People there are really good at scamming tourists, and every time they offer you a price you should pay at least 1/5th of what they are offering.  Check the prices in restaurants and keep in mind how much you paid.  You should never have to pay for plates in a restaurant.  Most important, never follow nice people!  They are lies!  There are nice people who will give you directions or help you buy a subway ticket.  But if someone says "hey there is a cool place near here..." don't go!!!

Mandy, Sarah, Matt, Mariah and I

The temple of grain!

The next day was one of the best!  Temple of Heaven, which is a huge park with gardens.  Local people dance and play with their children.  We walked into the temples and made idiots of ourselves posing in pyramids, to give the people something to look at.  The temple was beautiful and not as crowded as the other places we had been.  It was a nice reprieve, the buildings were ornately carved and painted.  There were people posing for wedding photos, and people from all over the world.  It was weird to hear different languages.  I ended up speaking french to the gentleman who took this picture.  He thought we were bizarre, but eh who cares.  I love this picture though.  Mariah was the instigator of this particular pyramid scheme.  But it ended so well who could complain!  We definitely got some looks!  But it was so much fun.  We walked around the rose gardens and caught some live music in the park.  We decided to pass on the other temples and split up to do some shopping.  Mandy, Mariah and I stayed together and went to Qianmen, the tourist shopping district.  We walked up to Tianamen and spent a bit more time there looking at everything.  It was a little odd to be smiling in pictures on Tiananmen square.  To think about all the history in that place.  All the Communist propaganda, and the giant group of police vehicles.  Then it was back to the hostel and off to Sunlitun, the giant western street in the Embassy district.  We met Tommy, a friend of my brothers.  We went to Biteapita (a fantastic Mediterranean restaurant)  My dinner of Eggplant Moussaka and humice was delicious!  Tommy told us about Beijing, as we left the Sunlitun district the girls and I reflected that it was too western.  It wasn't China.

We took the subway back, I tried desperately to meet up with some other WTers, but the subway was closing.  As I was running to catch the last train, I got a call from Mandy saying they had changed my room at the hostel.  She wanted permission to move my stuff.  Almost in tears I gave it, she moved my stuff into her room.  I luckily caught the last train that got me 2 blocks from the hostel.  Someone gave me directions and I walked the rest of the way back to the hostel.  Matt, Mandy, Sarah and Mariah listened to my rant about Beijing, Matt bought me a beer.  We sat and talked about things that were going on, good and bad at our sites.  And bonded.  At midnight we threw balloons at Matt and wished him a happy birthday.  I gave him a map of Changsha, and we sat and realized all together that although the trip was fun.  We missed Hunan, and our sites!

My last morning, Sarah left before I woke up to do a hike on the great wall.  I went to the Lama temple.  I waited outside for it to open with a crowd of Chinese people all carrying giant packages of incense.  I asked one of them what it is was.  They told me the word and told me it was a holiday today.  I couldn't figure out which one.  So when the doors open, people rushed in and lit their incense praying for whatever it was they prayed for.  The lama temple was smaller, more intricate, and full of relics.  It was amazing.  Just beautiful, there were monks walking around.  I really liked the Lama temple and I recommend it highly.
Then I returned to the hostel.  Mandy, Mariah and I took Matt to a birthday breakfast at the hostel restaurant!  Then we went to Wangfujing, and finally met up with Andy, Emily and Nora just as Andy was leaving.  We went to Snack Street again, which has live scorpions on sticks.  They deep fry them for you and then you eat them off a stick.  I didn't go for it, I should have.  I was looking at some stuff with no intention of buying and this woman started bugging me.  We started bargaining, she wanted to sell me a fan.  I really didn't want it (which is an amazing bargaining tool).  She started at 85, I got her down to 20. Then gave up, and bought a fan I didn't want.  That was the end of my beijing experience.  I will keep the fan as a reminder that I might get ripped off, and need to be more careful.  I left the others and headed to the train station.  I was helped by some kind people.  My roommates were very kind.  I played some solitare and one woman got really into it and kept telling me where to move!  Then I taught the other woman how to play speed.  She got pretty good.  I wonder if she will play it again.  But I fell asleep and when I awoke I was back in Changsha.  Sweet Changsha!

Overall thoughts, Beijing is something you need to do.  But I wouldn't ever want to live there, and get really used to saying "Bu yao"  I don't want!  But Beijing is an ancient cultural hub and a rip off market so watch your pockets!