Beijing:

April 11th, 2005 - April 16th, 2005

Greetings from Beijing, China's massive capital city.

We arrived here on Monday following a hellish flight from Lhasa. Just before landing we were thanked for "choosing China Airlines." Well, there was no F***ing choice. We HAD to fly China Airlines to leave Lhasa! The flight started badly as we got tossed around as if we were in a blender. That lasted for the first 15 minutes.

At one point the wings were flexing as if they were going to break off the rickety old Boeing 757 that we were on! Finally, we got above the clouds and everything was normal, for the most part anyway.

Landing provided more challenges. The massive aircraft bumped and banged off the tarmac a few times before finally straightening out and coming to "a complete stop." Of course, most Chinese passengers were already taking their bags out and making calls on their cell phone before we were "safely on the ground."

We figured the worst was over, but then our bags arrived covered in what appeared to be human shit and they possessed a urine stench. We went over to the China Airlines counter to inquire what was up! Like most places in China 10-15 people were behind the desk, but none of them were actually working.

We asked for the manager and they sent forth the youngest looking boy in the group. That's when I decided to give them a closer look at the shit on our bags by placing them on the counter. We finally got some service as one of the fearsome 15 called the supervisor.

After numerous "discussions" with the supervisor we received 500 Yuan compensation (about $75 CDN) for our soiled bags!

Our first full day in Beijing was a busy one. We took a local bus to Tiananmen Square to check out the various sights in the area. First on the list was a viewing of Chairman Mao. The lineup was massive so while Jess checked our bag I cut the line and joined in somewhere at the midway mark with a group of locals. No one seemed to mind since everyone kept cutting the line saying they had a friend, uncle, or 12th cousin holding a spot for them!

The viewing of Mao was much more chaotic than our viewing of Ho Chi Minh. Here, people were pushing and shoving and even answering cell phones. Once we had viewed the body we were swarmed by sellers of anything and everything that was Mao. From lighters to incense holders, they had it.

After taking a stroll around the concrete wasteland known as Tiananmen Square we went to a local joint to try Beijing (Peking) Duck. We thought we needed to order one duck each, but once they sliced it up and served it we had four massive plates of duck in front of us and we hardly put a dent into it. The taste was fantastic and we have added it to our informal list of "must try" foods.

In the afternoon we went to the Forbidden City. Most of it was under construction... it seems that in China they can't do construction on just part of something, they have to do the whole thing at once. So that made for a miserable couple of hours. Sadly, the highlight was buying two coffee frappuccinos in the new Starbucks located INSIDE the Forbidden City. I wonder what the Ming and Qing Dynasties would say about that...

Feeding off the consumerism of Starbucks we wandered down Wangfujing Street for some designer shopping, before taking the subway over to "Silk Street" which used to be an array of outdoor shops selling knock-off products. Now it has moved indoors and is set up like a department store, but it still sells the same knock-offs.

The fake sunglasses and watches were good but the clothes were crap - stick to Bangkok for the best rip-off clothes!

At one point, we were bargaining for wallets and the girl wanted 360 Yuan for two. I got her down to about 120, but I was only willing to pay 80 Yuan. The trick to bargaining her is to have fun and smile, so I started to 'Moon Walk' away from the store telling her that 80 Yuan was my final offer. She chased me and we settled at 80 Yuan - and we both left smiling!

On Wednesday we took another bus - this one to the Temple of Heaven. It was more exciting than the Forbidden City, but still all the "ancient" monuments were modernized and thus very boring. They are just massive concrete structures resembling former grand sights.

Nearby was another "local market" which was really just a secret name for tourist trap. All the markets appear to have been moved inside and are just giant department stores, except that you get grabbed and literally attacked by the sales people while walking down the aisles as they try and hawk their fake goods.

The evening provided a diversion from the drab sights of Beijing as we checked out a Chinese Acrobatics show. We paid for the cheapest seats in the house but somehow ended up sitting dead centre in the second row (with a totally empty first row). Must have been because we bought last second, but it worked out great. The show was amazing and the performers were super-talented as you can see in the attached photos.

On Thursday we took a break from sight-seeing and started the day out with a well needed double-tall non-fat latte from Starbucks (hey, it has been a while). We had lunch with a high-school friend of mine, Laura, who lives in Beijing now. She just had a baby, who is now 6-weeks old. She explained that in Beijing it is custom for mothers not to go out with new born babies until they are 100-days old. Thus, tons of locals were staring at us and talking about us as we walked down the street.

Laura lives in a hutong, which is a local community situated in what we would consider back lanes. There are very few left in Beijing as the government is demolishing them and making massive roadways so that they can move people during the Olympics.

Her hutong is actually on an official "Hutong Tour" and will be showcased during the Olympics. Of course, we got a private tour from Laura and learned that not all the houses have toilets; that many people have to use the shared public toilets located on various streets in the hutong. Also, they have a blackboard outside one house and a local guy writes down the daily hutong news (read: gossip). It is quite funny.

From there we hit a few more of the indoor local markets for some shopping but found nothing really exciting.

On Friday we made a 3 hour trek (drive) to the Great Wall - we chose a point of the wall that was further away so we could avoid the circus-like atmosphere that exists at some of the nearer sights. We walked from the Jinshanling section to the Simaotai section, which is about 10km, over some very steep and treacherous terrain. However, the views are stunning, making for an all-around better experience and a great deal of leg pain afterwards.

On our final full day in Beijing we splurged on a cab ride to the Summer Palace. Like all the other Beijing attractions, it was jam packed with tourists wearing bright coloured hats and following their leader's flag. And sadly, just like the other attractions in Beijing, the interior of most buildings were closed to the public except where a souvenir or food shop had replaced a room of historical significance. The only redeeming quality to the Summer Palace was a nice hike up a hill through some trees that revealed some good views of the lake.

On the way home, we were hustled towards various waiting taxis all with skeptical rates. Finally, a smaller car was willing to take us "on the meter." However, his meter seemed to be rigged because at the start of the ride it stated 1.20 RMB / kilometre which is quite good. But, once we got going the meter magically changed to 1.80 RMB / kilometre which is a rip-off. When the car would stop the meter would show 1.20 again!

When we got to our destination the price was nearly double what we had paid on the way to the Summer Palace so I called the guy on his scam. I told him I would pay the same that we paid on the way up. After a few minutes of negotiation he finally agreed to the "honest" price and drove off in a huff. I also took a photo of his license plate as a souvenir and a present to the Beijing authorities.

We wrapped the day up with a Beijing Opera show. Unfortunately, it is not like the opera as we know it. It is more like a musical; however, this one was boring. In fact, you could see many of the local people in the audience typing away text messages on their cell phones and many of them got up and left during the performance. We lasted about 1 hour and 30 minutes. With no sign of an intermission in sight, we joined the masses and left as well!

We have half a day left in Beijing tomorrow and then we will take an overnight train on Sunday evening to Shanghai where we will spend the next 4 days before wrapping our trip up with 3 days in Hong Kong. From there it is back to Vancouver on the 25th of April and finally to Toronto on April 28th.

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