Wednesday, May 13, 2009

All things Beijing

The afternoon of May 5th, Lauren and I touched down in Beijing for the final and longest leg of our journey. We were greeted at the airport by my Uncle Tim and Mr. Gao. Uncle Tim had arranged for a car to pick us up and take us to the apartment where we would be staying. Because Lauren has fabulous friends all over the world, we didn't have to shell out for a hotel in Beijing. Instead we stayed with her friend Jimmy at his three bedroom place in Wudaokou, near Beijing University (BEIDA). There are 18 million people in Beijing, so traffic while getting from one place to another is a given. It was a nice ride from the airport, but once we got to Wudaokou, Lauren and I were beat. I made plans with Uncle Tim to have dinner that Friday and then said our goodbyes.

It also happens that the day we arrived was Jimmy's Birthday/Cinco de Mayo. Lauren and I rested up that afternoon and in the evening we went with Jimmy to celebrate the big day. Naturally we went to a Mexican restaurant called La Bamba - and I must say that the Chinese do Mexican so much better than the Japanese, but no one does it like they do at home. Anyway...At La Bamba Lauren and I were introduced to some of Jimmy's wonderful friends from all over the world. First I should mention that Jimmy is French. We met Carlos from Chile, Marie from France, Ehe from Turkey, Helaine from Holland, and Jamie from the USofA. After being in Japan for so long, the diversity at our dinner table was so refreshing! The food and drinks were overflowing (literally, the waitress proceeded to spill tequila shots all over me!) and the party was just beginning. After our meal, we moved to a "beer garden" that is a seasonal fixture across from Jimmy's apartment. Every summer they set up this beer garden with tables and chairs and it turns into a huge out door party. After some more drinks and discussion there, we again moved to a pizzeria/bar/club called Pyro. The music was great and the place was celebrating Cinco de Mayo in full swing, so the margaritas were a plenty. There was even a little slide show of famous Mexicans looping! We were at Pyro for about an hour and then decided to call it a night.

The next day Jimmy had to go to class (he is doing intensive study of Chinese), so Lauren and I set out with our map and an big agenda for the day. First thing is first, and we grabbed some breakfast at a little diner called Lush. It is a great little place with cheap food that is delicious! After a veggie bagel, we caught a taxi to Jingshan Park. It is almost in the center of Beijing and lies on the Dragon Line. This is an imaginary line that stretches all the way through Beijing in which all the most historical points are located including the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. Jingshan Park is the site where the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty hung himself. The best part is that from the top of the highest hill, you can look out over the whole Forbidden city (and if it weren't for the smog you could see all the way to the Olympic Stadium along the Dragon Line).

After our hike through the park, we kept walking south to the Forbidden City. This place is a total maze. Jimmy had given us some advice to enter the city and just walk due south. However Lauren and I were easily distracted by the architecture and a mini art show, so we got lost inside the city for a bit. Once we found the correct path again, we marched along through temple after temple and watched each grow larger than the last. The Forbidden City is so named because until 1925, no one aside from royalty and their servants could enter the walls of the city. Since then it has been open to the public for tourism. Just to the south of the Forbidden City is a gate whose literal translation means Gate of Heavenly Peace. This is the thresh hold into Tiananmen Square. We were able to get a good look at the portrait of Mao Tse-tung and walk down the length of the square. Surprisingly it wasn't very crowded. However to get into the square, each person much go through security and metal detectors.

After the square (and a very long day of walking) we hopped in a cab to a section of Beijing called Hou Hai. This is a place situated nicely on a river jam-packed with restaurants and bars. Lauren and I stopped off at a jewelry store to check out their jade items and then we sat on an out door patio and enjoyed some pumpkin soup. The restaurant with the soup was a little sketch, so we finished and then quickly moved to another restaurant with a perfect menu and perfect atmosphere called Buffalo. In the Hou Hai area there were three restaurants all called Buffalo right in a row - each served a different type of cuisine (Chinese, Western, Asian fusion). We chose the Chinese section and had a fantastic open window seat overlooking the river. We ended up sitting in our window perch for nearly 3 hours enjoying course after course of delicious food including some more Peking Duck.

Tangent story: At the airport in Shanghai trying to get to Beijing, we were in line in front of a couple from Canada also on their way to Beijing. We spoke to them for a few minutes while waiting to check-in and then did the obligatory, "Well, maybe we'll see you in Beijing." *laugh, laugh* So funny story, while Lauren and I are enjoying our Peking Duck sitting in Hou Hai, we spot the Canadian couple walking down the little road! Since we are sitting there in the open, we call out to them and strike up a nice conversation! Of 18 million people in Beijing, we in fact do happen to run into the random couple we met at the airport in a different city! I like stories like that.

We did a little more exploring down the streets of Hou Hai after our dinner and discovered that every bar up and down the road had live music and bad karaoke! Each new place was competing for the sound waves and Lauren and I just wished the singing would find the right key! After a short saunter, we grabbed a cab and went back to Jimmy's apartment to call it a night.

The next morning we woke up to quite a surprise. Jimmy had already headed off to school for an exam, but Lauren and I had no running water of any kind. The faucets wouldn't work, no toilet, no shower. This is the day we decided to pull back our hair and rough it a bit. Leaving early than expected, not having to take the time to shower, we went to the northern part of the city to check out the Olympic sports center. We started by walking through the Water Cube. The architecture of this thing is really cool and you feel like you're in a bubble when you're inside the building. From the outside I think it looks like a drop of water ready to burst. It was really neat to go inside and take pictures of the pool where Phelps made history. Afterward we went over to the Bird's Nest and looked around a bit. It is a much more exciting and impressive building from the outside because of the unique architecture; on the inside it is like any other wide open stadium. One day I would really like to be in attendance for an Olympic event.

Once again we were on the move and we went across town to the Summer Palace and gardens. This is a very wide open expanse of gardens right on a small lake. Since we hadn't eaten yet, the first thing we did was each grab a bowl of real Chinese ramen; during lunch we even had a show! Just outside the little restaurant there was an incredible Chinese man painting kanji on the sidewalk with long sponge brushes. They had long handles so he could stand up while he was painting on the sidewalk, and at the bottom very absorbent sponges to hold all the water he was using. The most impressive part of what he was doing was that he would paint with both hands at the same time! Sometimes he would write the same kanji with each hand, but mirror them; and other times he would write two completely different kanji at the same time!!! Once we were finished eating, Lauren and I went to get a closer look at what he was doing. He noticed us admiring his work and started to draw some for us. In English he explained what he was drawing - China, America, People, Friendship, Happiness, Power. Afterward he gave us each a small souvenir of the same kanji written on delicate tissue paper for us to keep.

We continued walking through the Summer Palace searching for a boat ride through the lake. After walking forever, we finally found a dock and a big boat to tour people around the lake. The boat was shaped like a dragon, and it was packed with Chinese tourists. After the boat ride we decided to call it a day and we went back to Jimmy's to hang out with him a bit and take it easy.

By our third day in Beijing, all the traveling was catching up with us and we made it a point to sleep in late! We lounged around in the morning, wrote postcards, checked email and bank accounts, and around lunch time we finally headed out into the big wide world with Jimmy and his friend Carlos for lunch. Jimmy loves fancy places and to call the Lan Club fancy would be an understatement. It was the most intricately decorated restaurant to which I have ever been. It was designed by a man named Philippe Starck and is beyond decorated. The whole place is practically a museum! The paintings are on the ceilings and the banquet rooms are blocked off with burlap. Lauren and I walked around (as though we were in a museum) and took some pictures. I don't know if my words can paint the most accurate picture of how COOL this place really was. The food was good too and thank goodness we went there for lunch because it is crazy expensive for dinner! After lunch Lauren and I got back on the tourist wagon and rode it all the way over to the Hutongs. Hutongs are traditional Chinese villages that have been largely destroyed in Beijing. Of the 10,000 that used to exist, there are only 3,000 left and the Chinese government has finally decided that it is important to protect these wonderful historical buildings. Hutong literally means narrow road, so the best way to tour through them is on foot or by rickshaw - we did both. We didn't have a lot of time to spend, so we hired (waaaay cheap) a private tour guide for a one hour over view of the Hutongs. We even got to meet a local woman who lived in the Hutongs and speak with her about daily life there.

After our tour, we ran back (and by ran back, I mean we were in a slow cab during rush hour) to Jimmy's place so that I could change clothes and Lauren could take a nap. I had dinner plans with Uncle Tim for the night and I had to meet him on the other side of town in less than an hour. I quickly changed clothes and did a quick primp in the mirror before I decided to jump on the Beijing subway instead of endure a long and slow taxi ride. I got to the hotel where Uncle Tim was staying and found him in the hotel lounge. We enjoyed a drink together and started to plan our excursion to the Great Wall for the next day. After our drink we walked over to the tour reservations desk and booked a private car and English speaking tour guide for the next day to take us to the Great Wall and back to the Hutongs for a real, in-depth tour.

Once the plans had been made (mostly in Chinese which was cool because I had never heard Uncle Tim speak Chinese before), we went to dinner at a Korean bbq place that he really enjoyed. Now there are a lot of reasons, but in my life I had never spent any real, quality time with my uncle getting to know him. I discovered quickly that there was so much I didn't know, but really wanted to. There were overwhelming amounts of food, but the best part of the meal was the conversation he and I were able to have. I learned about his past jobs, more about his education, and a lot more about the direction he wants for his life in the future. This dinner was so special for me because for the first time we were able to see and acknowledge one another as so much more than extended family members. I feel a closeness to him now that I feel I can count on for the rest of my life and embarked upon the beginning of a relationship that I am hoping will grown and evolve through the years. I am such a believer in the closeness of family and in taking the time to understand learn about all the amazing experiences that someone else has had. Dinner ended with a great hug and a, "see you tomorrow" and then back to Jimmy's I went.

Once there I was greeted with one heck of a wild party happening. To continue celebrating his birthday, Jimmy was throwing a party for 50 of his closest friends in Beijing at his apartment. I had already had plenty to drink that night, so I hung around the screaming people throwing back the beer for about 15 minutes before I went back to my room and fell asleep.

Bright and early the next morning, I woke up to take a shower and get ready for a full day with Lauren and Uncle Tim! Upon walking out into the hallway, I was greeted with the stickiest floor I have ever felt on my feet and the debris of one crazy party. I'm really glad I slept through it. Around 8:25am, Uncle Tim and the private car he hired pulled up outside Jimmy's building and the three of us were on our way to Mutianyu - an historical section of the Great Wall complete with a cable car ride. The car ride took about an hour and a half, so after the tour guide introduced herself and gave us some background about the Wall, Lauren and I were zonked out!

The first thing we did was hike up a hill lined with vendors all selling the same Chinese trinkets. At the top of the hill was a cable car that gave a nice view of the wall on the way up to where tourists can climb it. Just so happened that we got into car #58. The significance of car #58 is that former President Bill Clinton rode in that exact car when he visited China in June of 1998 - boy did I feel lucky - *cough* At the point where the cable car drops you off, you can begin climbing up the wall to either the left or the right. MeiMei (the tour guide) informed us that the right section was much more level and easier to climb (called the parents' trail) and the left side was more rigorous and challenging (called the heroes' trail). We were guilted into the heroes' trail. Uncle Tim had already climbed the wall, so he hung back and waited for Lauren and I to get to the end and back again. You may think that this is just like walking on a straight path....NO! This is like serious climbing in certain parts and the smoggy air isn't really helpful for a fully oxygenated climb. But in about 45 minutes Lauren and I made it to the end of the Mutianyu section and took a few minutes to take in the scenery. The view of the wall from way up there is really wonderful. It is so hard to believe that ancient Chinese people began building this wall nearly 2000 years ago! MeiMei told us a story about how when the laborers were building the wall, they would often die of fatigue and malnutrition and their bodies were buried inside the layers of the wall because there was no time to dig a proper burial.

We took a ton of pictures and then started making our way down the wall, back to Uncle Tim. We met up with him at the bottom and grabbed the cable car back down. You'd never believe, but the cable car we got was none other than #58 - the Bill Clinton car - again! We met MeiMei back at the bottom and got in the car and made our way back to the hotel where Uncle Tim was staying to grab a quick lunch before our excursion that afternoon. We had a quick Italian meal with salad and real pizza and then took off down the road for the Hutongs! The tour with MeiMei was a three-hour in-depth tour that included the bell tower (on the Dragon Line) and Prince Gong's Mansion. Prince Gong's Mansion was really impressive because of how large it was in addition to the wonderful tea house we were able to visit. Inside the tea house, Lauren and I sampled four different kinds of Chinese tea - Oolong, Jasmine, a modern fruit tea, and a cherry tea with rosebuds. The woman inside the tea house taught us how to do a traditional Chinese tea ceremony (which is much less involved than the Japanese one) and also showed up some magic. I am always a sucker for magic, so all her porcelain tea ware that would change colors when heated made me oooh and aaah. I even ended up getting a couple "magic" mugs as souvenirs!! After our tour through the Hutongs, the car took us back to Wudaokou and Uncle Tim and I parted ways. I am so thankful he was there and I was able to spend such a nice time with him. I am really looking forward to being home and visiting with him some more!

Once inside, Lauren and I watched a movie to avoid packing. We grabbed a Japanese dinner with Jimmy and his friends to finish out our incredible Chinese vacation and then packed and went to bed. The next morning was an early one and little did we know what was in store for us and our long day of travel. But that is for another post.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Please post pictures! all of this sounds amazing! Rachael

Mikey said...

I'm so jealous! Reading this just makes Morgantown feel so boring, so I think I'll go out and see if I can find something around here that's even 1% as exciting as anything you've done in Beijing. Adventures!!!