Ohhhhhhhh buddy! What a rush! My seventh week of teaching in China began on Monday and was done on Wednesday. On Wednesday night we headed into Shanghai and boarded an overnight train to Beijing. The train itself was pretty neat. I had never been on a train with bunks before. We ended up assigned to different cabins but shuffled so that we ended up sharing a room with a really nice Italian man. The beds were comfy enough that I had a decent, if not hot, sleep and was ready to go in the morning!
Day 1 – Arrival, Hostel, Temple of Heaven, Forbidden City, Kung Fu Show
We landed at nine in the morning on our first of three days. We grabbed a cab right away and headed to the Temple of Heaven as it was very close to the train station. The Temple of Heaven (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Heaven) is a World UNESCO Heritage Site located right in Beijing. It was used by both the Qing and Ming dynasties to make sacrifices to the god of heaven for good harvests. This confuses me slightly as the Chinese are predominately atheists but I have not looked into it much. Nevertheless, the grounds were beautiful and spacious. It was extremely relaxing and was a nice change of pace from some of our other weekends. We had no set schedule for the three days so we took our time. On the grounds we listened to some lovely Chinese group singing (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=764613448084&l=9149016121745319849), watched some older people who were MASTERS of the feathered hacky-sacks and saw some really neat architecture.
From the Temple of Heaven, we made our way by subway to our hostel; The Happy Dragon Hostel. Alyssa had never stayed at a hostel before and it took some convincing from me before she agreed to making a reservation so I was a little wary when we noticed the old, rusted hostel sign down a narrow, unmarked street. To support the sketchiness of this alley, people were doing DENTAL WORK on the street. Like, implanting fake teeth at a folding table. No joke. My wariness was not comforted by the fact that when we arrived at the check-in desk, we were informed that our room was “unsafe” due to electrical problems and we were moved into separate rooms. We asked to see the rooms before we agreed to staying; they were typical hostel rooms but the room one of us would have to stay in had a family (I think a baby) and was really smelly. The other room was much cleaner. The bunks were wider than we expected so we ended up just getting two beds in one room instead of the three which I think is hilarious as the beds only cost $13/night as it was! You know you’re students when….
The hostel we picked was within walking distance of several tourist sites so we ventured, to The Forbidden City, also called the Palace Museum, for the afternoon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbidden_City). The walk was a little longer than we thought it was and we arrived around 2:30. The hostel staff told us we would need around 3 hours to go through the whole thing and the gates closed at 4:30 so we were a little leery but bought tickets anyway. While I am glad I went, it was by no means the highlight of my visit; there were probably more people on those grounds than in the whole HRM and the buildings were very similar to the Temple of Heaven. That said, I knew I was standing within the walls of over 700 years of history. China was ruled from those walls for over 500 years by 34 emperors (if I remember correctly). Also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the grounds are massive and contain almost 1000 buildings within the walls. The highlight of the visit, however, was when we found a building that shot this video (enjoy!!): http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=764173325094&l=482642892794896848
We met up with Susan and Fraser at the Forbidden City and we brought them along with us for the rest of the evening. We went back to the hostel and asked for directions to the nearest place to get Peking Duck – a Chinese national dish that originates in Beijing. We arrived down a little curtained shop in a back alley (the sketchiest place we’ve been to date) and were saddened to find out that they didn’t serve duck until 6. We had signed up for a Kung Fu show with the hostel and the departure time was 6:30 so had had to skip out on the duck. Instead, we ate at the hostel bar and enjoyed a mix of Chinese food, pizza and chicken burgers…..and really really cheap drinks. The King Fu show was great, if not a little too theatrical. It did have a mix of acrobatic-style martial arts and the hard core breaking-things-over-your-head/back stuff which was neat and the show told a full story. The Circus show in Shanghai was much cheaper and, in my opinion, way way cooler and authentic (the music was live there, for instance) BUT I am certainly glad I went!
After the show we trekked back to the subway station in the rain and huddled in the hostel bar for some drinks. At the bar we met a couple from Calgary who are on their SEVEN MONTH tour-of-the-world honeymoon (a girl can dream) and Paul, a 26-year old from Britain who is on his way to Australia to find an architecture job. After a few drinks we went to sleep only to be woken twice by a party in our room – our two young German male roommates really wanted us to party with them. In the morning, just to add salt to the wound, our room key was gone but after much pressure from us to get it back they later “found it on the floor by our bed”….where we CERTAINLY looked before we left. Boys…
Day 2 – THE GREAT WALL!!!! (oh, and Peking Duck and Olympic Park)
Prior to leaving Shanghai, Susan, Fraser, Sara, Alyssa and I arranged for a private van to pick us up at 8am to take us to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. There are many sections of the wall open to tourists and after some research we decided this would be the best one for hiking, views and lower volumes of people. It also had access to both a restored section and, what I was most excited for, unrestored sections.
We had hoped to get breakfast at the hostel but apparently we needed to order the night before so we went for Egg McMuffins instead. Don’t judge us. It was what was close by and, I have to admit, they were pretty awesome. Paul, our new friend from Britain came with us as we had an 8 seater van and there were only 5 of us. Not only are new friends great but an extra body meant we got to pay even less each J
The van picked us up around 8:30 and we arrived at the base of the wall around 10:30. Because I had a valid student ID, my ticket to the wall only cost $4.17!! Can you imagine ANY historic site costing less than $5 in Canada! The walking street leading up the wall was COMPLETELY lined with cheap souvenir vendors trying their best to lure you in. There were even some camels that you could pay to sit on and get a picture (not even ride haha).
I wish we counted the number of steps there were that led to the actual wall. It was comfortably several hundred but an actual number would be interesting. We had all worn several layers as we heard it would be cold but our top layers were pulled off within the first few minutes and were carried for the majority of the day. Poor Alyssa had been struggling with a head cold and had a really hard time breathing will climbing the steps. Alyssa, Sara, Paul and I ended up reaching Tower 10 of the wall (Susan and Fraser took a gondola up to another tower further to the east) and we headed west as there was a far off tower I read about online that was supposed to be worth hiking to. Alyssa managed to hike most of the resorted section with us but because of her cold, eventually held back (happily, we found out she met up with some English speaking Chinese tourists and tagged along with them for the rest of the day). Sara, Paul and I trudged on, meeting fewer and fewer people, and after a while came to the unrestored section. We hiked this until we reached the Ox Horn tower; the highest point of this section of the wall and the tower I read about. At this tower, we had an incredible 360 degree view of the mountains, wall, rice terraces and a village below. The climb to this tower was worth noting as it was probable at a 60 degree incline and was all slippery, smoothed, weathered stone. It was slightly unnerving at times! It is also worth noting that there was snow at this point due to the altitude.
On the way back, we stopped and enjoyed a very very refreshing, ice-cold beer from a man who had lugged them all the way to the end of the restored section. The most commendable part of this, though, is he keeps them on ice - something no one else in China does. Needless to say, we didn't heckle the price too much with him. It was the best $2.75 I've ever spent. I should also note that it was only the second beer I have ever had in my life.
I wish I could put into words everything I experienced that day on the wall. It was one of the most incredible things I think I will ever see and do. At times, in the crumbled ruins of the towers, I felt like I was in Jerusalem or in the Bible. At others, I imagined what it would be like to be a watch guard alone in one of those towers in a blinding snow storm, hundreds of meters and dangerous climbs away from the next human. I constantly thought about the insane feats the Chinese accomplished by building the wall on the already treacherous ridges of those mountains. There is a saying in China that you are not a man until you see the great wall (which my co-hikers teased me about because my voice was growing more and more hoarse (I had lost it a few days before) and I drank my second beer with them). I think it is something anyone who can should experience. It certainly must be one of the greatest accomplishments of mankind.
Once back in Beijing, we paid our van driver (which was less than $20 each and he picked us up from our hostels, waited all day and dropped us back off), said goodbye to Paul and headed for some Peking Duck at the back alley we had visited the night before. The place was packed which supported the stance that back alley places can be much better than the ones on main streets. From our table we could see the ducks hanging in the fired oven. The duck, although greasy, was a really really nice meat and was served with “thin pancakes” (tortillas, essentially), scallions (like onions), cucumber and a sauce. I personally liked the meat by itself as it was the best way to get the flavour.
Susan and Fraser headed back to their hotel after the looooooooong day and the three of us remaining went to the Beijing Olympic Park to see the Bird’s Nest and Water Cube lit up. It was FREEZING cold but we were very glad we went. There was a newly erected monument showing the names of all the medal winners from 2008 so we had fun trying to find the Canadians.
Day 3 – EARLY morning, Hutongs, Local Art and the World’s Fastest Commercial Train!
At 4:45 we regretted setting alarms. We had decided the night before to go to Tiananmen Square for the famous Flag Raising Ceremony. The catch to this is that the ceremony takes place at sunrise. Wasn’t I on vacation?! We grunted our way into our warmest clothes and trudged about a half hour to the square. Considering it’s the biggest square in the world, I expected more people but there was little room to squeeze in and see. Considering the number of people, you’d think there would be at least SOME other westerners there….nope. People were taking more pictures of us than of the ceremony!
We took a few minutes after the ceremony to think about the hundreds to thousands of students and civilians (the number is unknown because it was so taboo and secretive) who died or were brutally injured in the square in 1989. Sadly, this event is VERY hush hush in China and the square carries a no such meaning to the locals. In fact, they go to honor their former leader who is frozen and embalmed in a building on the square. To me, it was mind boggling to think about the events that have taken place there and the lack of acknowledgement. It was like going to Vimy Ridge to simply admire the view. There was not a single monument to honor those who died fighting for their freedom. It was a somber few minutes for us for sure.
We went back to bed for a few hours, ate some delicious hostel breakfast (I had an omelette!! Mmmmm), checked out and wandered around for our remaining hours. The highlight of this wandering was seeing hutongs (ancient, narrow alleyways) and meeting a local painter whose wife lives in Montreal. Alyssa bought one of his beautiful paintings of the wall. I loved his work but had just shipped a bunch off to New York and Chinatown in Vancouver. Instead, he quickly painted our names and good wishes on red tissue paper for us. Keepers for sure!
We took the high speed train back to Shanghai; it clocked 308km/h at one point! I’m 99% sure it’s the fastest passenger train in the world. It took us approx. 12 hours to get to Beijing and we were home in 5 and had double the number of stops!!
The train station and the airport share a taxi stand. When we got to the stand the line was several hundred people and meters long. It was overwhelming. Miraculously, the line moved quicker than any line I have ever been in and we nabbed a cab home. Once in the cab, we weren’t quite sure we would get home, though. The cabby spoke no English and indicated he didn’t know where to go but drove off anyway. Alyssa called a English-Chinese translator service and after a terrifyingly fast highway drive with the meter increasing at an equally alarming rate, we made it home at midnight in one piece! My 5:40 alarm came much earlier than I would have liked but WHAT a weekend! Our Chinese friends said Beijing can’t be done in three days! Well, I guess they don’t know these ambitious Canadians as well as they thought! It was one for the record books!