Běijīng: Wandering around

 

Sunday. 21st April, 2013.

Next morning, we made an early start from our comfortable hotel in Xī’ān.

During our stay, the lift doors had been very well behaved, and we were never in a position to want to “slap” them.

 

We flew from Xī’ān to Běijīng, and had the rest of the day to ourselves.

“Modern Běijīng came of age when, in January 1949, the People’s Liberation Army entered the city.  On 1 October of that year Mao Zedong proclaimed a ‘People’s Republic’ from the Gate of Heavenly Peace to an audience of some 500,000 citizens ……

The past quarter of a century has transformed Běijīng into a modern city, with skyscrapers, slick shopping malls and heaving flyovers. The once flat skyline is now crenellated with vast apartment blocks and office buildings. Recent years have also seen a convincing beautification of Běijīng: from a toneless and unkempt city to a greener, cleaner and more pleasant place.  The year 2008 was Běijīng’s modern coming-of-age with the staging of the Olympic Games” (Lonely Planet).

 

Yes, it was smoggy.

 

The roads were shared by modern cars and cycle transport.

 

 

For when there’s nothing more you need to say.

 

Fish heads?  Maybe not today thank you.

 

“Beautification” of Běijīng in progress.

 

Our hotel was near the Pānjiāyuán Market (also called the Dirt Market or the Sunday Market – weren’t we lucky to be there on Sunday!). “The market sprawls from calligraphy, Cultural Revolution memorabilia and cigarette-ad posters to Buddha heads, ceramics, Tibetan carpets and beyond.  Up to 50,000 visitors scope for treasures here” (Lonely Planet).

 

We resisted buying a Chairman Mao “Little Red Book”.

 

It was easy to find our way around, and there were helpful signs in English for tourists everywhere:

 

 

The youth of Běijīng were very with it.

 

We took a Metro into the downtown area, not far from our hotel, and suddenly, bingo, there we were, right at the Gate of Heavenly Peace on Tiān’ānmén Square, with the famous 1.5 tonne portrait of Mao Zedong right before our eyes (or right behind mine, in this instance).

However, as we were coming here with our tour group the next day, we turned around and went the other way.

 

We walked along Chang An Avenue past the sumptuous Raffles Běijīng Hotel.

Established in the early 1900's as the Grand Hotel de Pekin, Raffles, with it's iconic French-Orient colonnaded façade, has for nearly a century it has been the choice of visiting Royalty and diplomats, VIPs and film stars, and “travellers with a sense of style and occasion”  http://www.raffles.com/beijing/about-hotel/

During the 2008 Olympic Games, the hotel served as the headquarters of the International Olympic Committee.

Feeling we probably didn’t qualify as “travellers with a sense of style and occasion”, we kept on going.

 

Then we found ourselves in the vibrant Wangfujing Dajie shopping district, so wandered around to have a look:

 

 

 

 

Find the warriors (Where’s Wally?)

 

Scorpion kebab, anyone? It’s fast food Běijīng style.                                                                             
There is a Cantonese saying that the Chinese eat everything that flies, except aeroplanes; everything with four legs, except tables; and everything that swims, except submarines.

 

A stroll among the food stalls of Wangfujing Snack Street revealed delicacies of every conceivable kind:

 

 

Keeping cool in the kitchen.

 

Pat mixes with the locals.

 

Somehow (it must have been Pat’s idea) we found ourselves in a glass enclosed bar in the middle of the mall, and settled down to watch the passing parade.  We have become quite fond of the Chinese Tsingtao beer.  It’s light, not bitter, slides down very easily and is cheaper than water.  Well, maybe I made that bit up, but it’s still under a dollar for a large bottle if you buy it in the supermarket.

 

We saw a lot of Chinese girls wearing very high heels, much higher than these.  Then they have to hold each other up.

 

Matching outfits were common.  I don’t know if the trend for men to have toys on their backpacks will catch on in Australia. 

With China’s one-child policy, the younger generation had all the smartest gear.

 

We noticed quite a few Chinese people, mainly middle aged women and little girls, wearing national dress in a lot of the tourist areas we visited.  To my amateur eye, they looked like country people on holiday in their best outfits, but that’s only a guess.  This very proud father was only too happy to hold up his beautiful little daughter for me to photograph.  This two-fingered sign is considered to be a “cute” way to be photographed.

 

The trouble with having a drink when you’re out.

All of our hotels (which cater for Americans) had western style toilets, but when you were out, you just had to take your chances, which included carrying your own toilet paper with you.  Not recommended while wearing a dress.

 

A bit of street theatre on the way home.

 

On our way home in the Metro, Pat holds the rail and his recyclable plastic ticket, mindful of the dire consequences of letting his fingers go too near “The Gaps” between the doors.