But when we arrived we found we had been booked into a room with two single beds and a crap view across some rooftops, not really what we had in mind. We asked about a change but no other rooms were available for that night. I was looking forward to spending time chilling out in our room Skyping some family, getting my blogs up and checking out my facebook but then we found out that internet in the room was going to cost the equivalent of .30c/min so we ended up spending the night in the bar downstairs using the free wi-fi. I got to Skype but then found out that the Chinese government blocked both facebook and blogspot! It was so frustrating. That bar though ended up being our local hangout at the end of each day, it was so nice to chill out there and they made great cocktails.
The next day things changed for the better. After a ridiculously massive breakfast we were picked up by a driver and a guide named Angel and taken to see the sights in Beijing including Tienanmen Square, the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven. It was an amazing day!
We found out that we had arrived just before National Day so the whole city was being decorated for the celebrations. Tienanmen Square was naturally the center point for the day and looked stunning with it’s temporary fountains and gardens. The line to see Chairman Mao was around 2hrs long so we didn’t get to go see his body in the mausoleum, but Angel gave us a great run down of the key features and history of the square. (The massacre was quickly mentioned but then never spoken of again!)
Then we crossed the road and entered the Forbidden City. We were told it had been raining during the week before we arrived so the sky was free of its usual smog layer and was stunningly blue really bringing out the yellow roofs of the buildings. It was incredible walking around the city, hearing the stories of how the emperor lived. I mean, can you imagine having a meal where 100 dishes are made for you to look at, 100 made for you to smell and 100 made for you to taste, every day! But at the same time Angel described their lives as being like living in a golden prison, I found that very interesting as the vast majority of people would never picture someone so rich and powerful as living in a prison.
And then, maybe because we were on a private tour, we were taken to a quiet section of the Forbidden City, where we met the Last Emperor’s nephew who was working there doing calligraphy in preparation for National Day. We had the opportunity for him to write a personalised scroll for us! So we had a scroll made up saying ‘Love’ and ‘Longevity’ and then it was signed with the year, season, artist, place of writing and his personal seal on the left and our last name and the royal seal on the right. I had wanted to buy a scroll with calligraphy on it in China but never expected to have one made personally and by a master who, if the dynasty had continued, could have become the next emperor (no exaggeration as the previous three emperors were nephews and Puyi didn’t have a son!)
Then, after a quick tour of the Temple of Heaven, we headed back to our hotel where we found that a room with a king sized bed had become available. So we changed rooms and found to our delight that now we had an incredible view over the main street of Beijing!
The very next day and the first thing we noticed was the smog; all of a sudden we couldn’t see any blue in the sky, it was all brown. It made us realise just how lucky we were to have had a blue sky the day before.
Fortunately we headed out of town to the Huanghuacheng section of the Great Wall of China; the steepest, best-built and least touristy part that is open to the public. It was absolutely breathtaking! We arrived in a valley and climbed up, taking around an hour to reach the top of the mountain. Incredibly we only ran into one small group of tourists so we basically had the wall to ourselves. The wall was ridiculously steep, mostly full of stairs but, after the Mongolian mountains, I found the climb to be fairly easy.
The view and the feeling of being on that wall just can’t be described, the whole time we were there we just kept saying ‘WOW’! The wall itself is ridiculously amazing; it is just so big and goes on and on into the distance, up and down the mountain ridges for as far as you can see. We spent hours there; climbing, gazing at the view and taking a thousand photos, it was just so beautiful.
The only thing about being taken around on tours is that you always somehow end up visiting the ‘museums’. Over the two days we went to a silk museum, two jade museums and an ‘antique teahouse’. Of course it’s a set up, they really are shops that have made deals with the tour guides, but at the same time it was kind off interesting to see how the silk is taken from the cocoon and turned into fabrics and the tea ceremony was kind of fun and delicious. To be fair though, our guide did take us past the Olympic village, at our request, to see the Birds Nest and the seven star Dragon Boat Hotel.
So we had an amazing touristy experience in Beijing. For our first ever foray into Asia it was great to be led around by the hand; I would highly recommend it to anyone.
The final day we were picked up and taken to the airport to catch the plane to Shanghai. They say if you want to see the China of the past, go to Beijing; if you want to see the China of the future, go to Shanghai. So with our glimpse into the past complete we headed off to see the future.
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