June 15, 2007 - Beijing
Yesterday I wasn't able to post due to a sinus congestion that gave me the headache from the afternoon till the evening. It went away later that night after I did some visualizations and, of course, rested.
We went to the Forbidden City yesterday. Left a little bit late so we were with a huge crowd of visitors both local and foreign. There were just so many people in the city that even the vast expanse looked smaller with the sea of people walking all over.
We entered through Tian'anmen gate and walked the wide expanse to the first gate to the city. The ticket cost about 60 yuan per person.
The entire city is enormous and walking from the south gate to the north, with some detours along the way, took the entire morning. We didn't realize how huge the place was until after.
The main building, the Hall of Preserving Harmony (I think) and another one, were both under construction. We think that this renovation is for next year's olympic event. The buildings were somewhat identical in architecture and design except for their functions. There is an outer court where the emperor receives his guests and military personnel and others. The inner court is where he receives the few important leaders and does official business. The empress has her own palace and hall where to receive her visitors and to change her dress.
As we exited the north gate, we can see the temple sitting on top a hill on Jing shan or Bei Hai park. Instead of going straight to the park we decided to go back south to the nearest mall, The Oriental Plaza, for some chow.
Walking parallel to the Forbidden city, the tree covered road gave us the much needed shade to walk back south. We saw some interesting streets and courtyards rebuilt for special officials and also a few hutongs (alleyways).
To sightsee here in Beijing you will need to have strong legs and lots of energy. The blocks are long and far. Not quite easy to get to especially without any subway connection, although buses run along these streets it's just too difficult to understand because there are no route maps nor pinyin translations for the chinese scripts. So we walked about more than 3 miles down to the mall. (Before that we walked from our hostel to the Forbidden City which was about 4 miles).
At the mall we found a nice Thai restaurant where we could relax and eat some much deserved lunch. (We tried the food court but it was just to crowded, noisy, and hot from the steam coming from the stoves all over the place). I was already feeling the congestion right before our lunch so after we just decided to return back to the hostel to rest.
~~~
We woke up early this morning to walk to Tian Tan (The Temple of Heaven complex). It is just south of our hostel and was quite a walk but not as long as going to the Forbidden city. We entered via the north gate, paid 35 yuan per person for the temples and the park.
As you enter the gate you will be greeted with an enormous park full of trees and local folk doing their exercises, playing and singing. The chinese (young and old) like to play here, sit down and talk story or play cards, for groups and sing songs, and others. Their parks are very much utilised in every way.
Peter and I went to see the Temple of Heaven complex with is temples and altar. The architecture is very interesting and the altar just amazing. We had to beat the crowds to see these places or else all we'd remember are the crowds shoving to see the interiors of the temples.
We lingered a bit in the long corridor in the park outside the complex where we could people watch. The chinese love to just sit there and stay for long hours - it was not easy to find places to sit because there's usually one chinese there.
There were a few times we witnessed a person fall to the ground or got hit by a vehicle or something. The injured person lays there on the ground while the local people (and some foreigners like us) would just surround the person and look. No one seems to be calling or doing something to help. At this park, an elderly man fell from the bench he was sitting on and was lying there on the ground in the hot sun while the people looked on. Someone called for the gate check person and it seemed like no one was doing anything to help. It took about 10-15 minutes before the security guards came in their small vehicle to check the man. Then another 20-30 minutes before the man was taken by ambulance. We realized that they do not have staff trained for contingencies and emergencies like this. It would really be helpful if they did especially in time for next year's olympic event when so many visitors will be coming to visit the city.
Anyway, after sitting there (watching what was happening to the old man) and resting we left the Tian Tan park through the East gate. We walked north from there. Took us about an hour to walk - crossing 3 main intersections - to get to the Oriental Plaza mall next to Wangfujing jie.
At Wangfujing jie, we looked for the famous Quanjude Restaurant that served peking duck. We were fortunate that a Chinese-American guy with his girlfriend were ahead of us. We were told to go up to the 4th floor and they were told to go to the 3rd. The difference in the floors is the higher the floor the higher the surcharge fee. The Chinese-American guy said to check the 2nd floor, and Peter asked if we could go with them. It was a good thing that the guy could speak Chinese so he managed to explain to the lady that we wanted to eat there (only 10% surcharge compared to 40% on the 4th floor). We were led to a separate table which was pretty good.
We ordered a half peking duck, a vegetable dish and a pot of chrysanthemum tea (all for 193 yuan, about $25). The chef came out and carved the duck right in front of us. There were condiments set on the table: hoisin sauce, scallions, flat pancakes, cucumber, and others more. The lade showed us how to prepare and eat the duck. It was pretty good, but we thought Hawaii still serves a more tasty and crispy peking duck with kau yuk (thicker and slightly sweet steamed bread). We left sated after the long walk we had.
Just before we returned to the hostel we got some cold dessert at the mall. It was slightly hot outside and Peter wasn't feeling too good with the colds he caught (he thinks from the trip to Mutianyu, one person in our van was sneezing). After our dessert we caught the subway back to Qian Men and walked back to the hostel.
As I mentioned above, if you plan to visit Beijing, it would be wise to do it after they have already constructed the other subway lines which will connect most of the sights allowing for ease in the sightseeing. Right now these lines are in construction so to get to most of the sights one would have to brave the bus system and crowds or to walk the entire way - which is actually not too bad because it is flat all the way.
Well, I better sign off now and get some rest too. Will post again tomorrow.
Yesterday I wasn't able to post due to a sinus congestion that gave me the headache from the afternoon till the evening. It went away later that night after I did some visualizations and, of course, rested.
We went to the Forbidden City yesterday. Left a little bit late so we were with a huge crowd of visitors both local and foreign. There were just so many people in the city that even the vast expanse looked smaller with the sea of people walking all over.
We entered through Tian'anmen gate and walked the wide expanse to the first gate to the city. The ticket cost about 60 yuan per person.
The entire city is enormous and walking from the south gate to the north, with some detours along the way, took the entire morning. We didn't realize how huge the place was until after.
The main building, the Hall of Preserving Harmony (I think) and another one, were both under construction. We think that this renovation is for next year's olympic event. The buildings were somewhat identical in architecture and design except for their functions. There is an outer court where the emperor receives his guests and military personnel and others. The inner court is where he receives the few important leaders and does official business. The empress has her own palace and hall where to receive her visitors and to change her dress.
As we exited the north gate, we can see the temple sitting on top a hill on Jing shan or Bei Hai park. Instead of going straight to the park we decided to go back south to the nearest mall, The Oriental Plaza, for some chow.
Walking parallel to the Forbidden city, the tree covered road gave us the much needed shade to walk back south. We saw some interesting streets and courtyards rebuilt for special officials and also a few hutongs (alleyways).
To sightsee here in Beijing you will need to have strong legs and lots of energy. The blocks are long and far. Not quite easy to get to especially without any subway connection, although buses run along these streets it's just too difficult to understand because there are no route maps nor pinyin translations for the chinese scripts. So we walked about more than 3 miles down to the mall. (Before that we walked from our hostel to the Forbidden City which was about 4 miles).
At the mall we found a nice Thai restaurant where we could relax and eat some much deserved lunch. (We tried the food court but it was just to crowded, noisy, and hot from the steam coming from the stoves all over the place). I was already feeling the congestion right before our lunch so after we just decided to return back to the hostel to rest.
~~~
We woke up early this morning to walk to Tian Tan (The Temple of Heaven complex). It is just south of our hostel and was quite a walk but not as long as going to the Forbidden city. We entered via the north gate, paid 35 yuan per person for the temples and the park.
As you enter the gate you will be greeted with an enormous park full of trees and local folk doing their exercises, playing and singing. The chinese (young and old) like to play here, sit down and talk story or play cards, for groups and sing songs, and others. Their parks are very much utilised in every way.
Peter and I went to see the Temple of Heaven complex with is temples and altar. The architecture is very interesting and the altar just amazing. We had to beat the crowds to see these places or else all we'd remember are the crowds shoving to see the interiors of the temples.
We lingered a bit in the long corridor in the park outside the complex where we could people watch. The chinese love to just sit there and stay for long hours - it was not easy to find places to sit because there's usually one chinese there.
There were a few times we witnessed a person fall to the ground or got hit by a vehicle or something. The injured person lays there on the ground while the local people (and some foreigners like us) would just surround the person and look. No one seems to be calling or doing something to help. At this park, an elderly man fell from the bench he was sitting on and was lying there on the ground in the hot sun while the people looked on. Someone called for the gate check person and it seemed like no one was doing anything to help. It took about 10-15 minutes before the security guards came in their small vehicle to check the man. Then another 20-30 minutes before the man was taken by ambulance. We realized that they do not have staff trained for contingencies and emergencies like this. It would really be helpful if they did especially in time for next year's olympic event when so many visitors will be coming to visit the city.
Anyway, after sitting there (watching what was happening to the old man) and resting we left the Tian Tan park through the East gate. We walked north from there. Took us about an hour to walk - crossing 3 main intersections - to get to the Oriental Plaza mall next to Wangfujing jie.
At Wangfujing jie, we looked for the famous Quanjude Restaurant that served peking duck. We were fortunate that a Chinese-American guy with his girlfriend were ahead of us. We were told to go up to the 4th floor and they were told to go to the 3rd. The difference in the floors is the higher the floor the higher the surcharge fee. The Chinese-American guy said to check the 2nd floor, and Peter asked if we could go with them. It was a good thing that the guy could speak Chinese so he managed to explain to the lady that we wanted to eat there (only 10% surcharge compared to 40% on the 4th floor). We were led to a separate table which was pretty good.
We ordered a half peking duck, a vegetable dish and a pot of chrysanthemum tea (all for 193 yuan, about $25). The chef came out and carved the duck right in front of us. There were condiments set on the table: hoisin sauce, scallions, flat pancakes, cucumber, and others more. The lade showed us how to prepare and eat the duck. It was pretty good, but we thought Hawaii still serves a more tasty and crispy peking duck with kau yuk (thicker and slightly sweet steamed bread). We left sated after the long walk we had.
Just before we returned to the hostel we got some cold dessert at the mall. It was slightly hot outside and Peter wasn't feeling too good with the colds he caught (he thinks from the trip to Mutianyu, one person in our van was sneezing). After our dessert we caught the subway back to Qian Men and walked back to the hostel.
As I mentioned above, if you plan to visit Beijing, it would be wise to do it after they have already constructed the other subway lines which will connect most of the sights allowing for ease in the sightseeing. Right now these lines are in construction so to get to most of the sights one would have to brave the bus system and crowds or to walk the entire way - which is actually not too bad because it is flat all the way.
Well, I better sign off now and get some rest too. Will post again tomorrow.
posted by Mimi | 9:08 PM
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