5 days in Beijing. Stayed at the Youth Hostel in the hutong neighbourhood. Visited Tiananmen, Forbidden Palace, Summer Palace, Chinese Opera, Chinese Acrobats.
Well, I managed to arrive safely in Beijing and make my way to the hostel all in one piece. The flight was fairly uneventful which was good, I watched a couple of movies on the flight to Malaysia and then the sleep factor kicked in between KL and Beijing so I got about 3 hours sleep on that flight. The hostel is situated in a hutong neighbourhood. Hutongs are the traditional style housing for Chinese in Beijing with small narrow streets winding around with barely enough room for a car. The hostel is in a traditional chinese style courtyard building, there are four sections built around a central courtyard which is quite scenic. Beijing is very big, noisy and polluted. Hardly anyone speaks English so it can be a bit difficult if you are lost and trying to find directions as many can't even read English so it's best to have someone write your destination in Chinese before you set out. Yesterday I went down to Tiananmen Square - which surprisingly is a very big square! In the middle is Mao's mausoleum (or is that the Maosoleum?). It was closed because it was a Monday, I am not sure whether or not I'll go and have a look, maybe just for curiosity's sake - maybe compare it to Uncle Ho's! A student started talking to me as I was walking past and asked me if we have these mausoleums for our leaders in Australia - somehow I can't imagine us erecting one of those to John Howard or Gough Whitlam or anyone (well maybe Bradman or James Hird!). After Tiananmen I had to go in search of a bank so found that and got some cash and wandered through some markets, they sell a lot of meat on sticks barbecued and rolled in spices, I was talking to a guy selling them and he has live scorpions on sticks also! I din't feel so hungry after that. I then came back to the Forbidden City which is huge! I got an audio tape tour which pointed out the highlights (narrated by Roger Moore!) but there are something like 900 buildings there. Much of the information is in Chinese so it is difficult
Favourite spots:
Tiananmen Square and the markets. The restaurants and street stalls.
What's really great:
The people, the food, the buildings but not the smog!
Sights:
Tiananmen Square
Accommodations:
The YHA in the hutong neighbourhood
Other recommendations:
The subway - when it is finished Beijing will be a great place to visit!
1 votes
del.icio.us
Digg this
