trip to Kuala Lumpur and Beijing - the Beijing leg

I went to Beijing for the second leg of my trip. Unlike Kuala Lumpur, I've never been to Beijing before. Or China for that matter. Given that my mandarin sucks, it would definitely be an interesting experience. Thankfully, I have a good friend who is currently residing in Beijing. It was good of him to let me crash at his place during my stay. He had to work odd hours from 12pm to 8pm every weekday. This had its advantages, however, since we could make use of the morning to do stuff.

Beijing itself is a nice place. My friend described it best as a 'bigger version of Melbourne'. Beijing is a very flat city with no obvious elevation changes. It is also a very big city and, customarily, it's not exactly clean or smog-free. In fact, smog is one of the those things that plagues Beijing. Perhaps it was by the grace of God or some higher being, but when I arrived in Beijing, the sky cleared-up and it was sunny for almost the entire duration of my visit. My friend and I joked that I must be blessed or something, because the fog returned when I left Beijing.

Since I was only staying for 6 days, there wasn't all much time to get the most out of Beijing. Never-the-less, I think I did an admirable job of fitting in as much as I could in the 6 days. I visited the usual suspects: The Great Wall of China, The Forbidden City, The Summer Palace, Tiananmen Square, and the Ancestral Palace. The Ancestral Palace was a mistake. I thought I had walked into the Forbidden City, but I was mistaken. It wasn't a complete loss, however, because it wasn't nearly as popular as the Forbidden City. I could take my time absorbing the architecture and history. It also gave me the opportunity to take nice photos without other tourists getting in the way.

Of the four places I visited, I think I enjoyed the Summer Palace the most. I wittingly described the Summer Palace as 'a monument to embezzlement'! My friend and I had a good laugh at this, since it's true. The entire place was built from money embezzled by one of the empress dowagers. Despite this, it is truly a monumental achievement. There is a grand lake in the middle of the Summer Palace. This lake is several hundred acres large, and it was completely hand dug. You can hire a boat or catch a ferry to cross the lake. There is a Buddhist temple to one side of the late that sits on a hill. Climbing to the top of the temple is a struggle with marginal rest and inadequate sustenance; but the view from the top is spectacular. You can see most of the lake and also the surrounding city area of Beijing.

My visit to the Forbidden City was nice but somewhat underwhelming. I think this was due to my 'accidental' visit to the Ancestral Palace. There wasn't a whole lot 'new' about Forbidden City when compared to the Ancestral Palace. A lot of the architecture was the same (this was to be expected), but there were some interesting items on display. There was a room dedicated to different teapots of different construction and material. I had a guide take me around and explain a few things to me. This was definitely a good thing; since my Mandarin sucks so much, I could only observe and take pictures. The one thing that did stick out in my mind was after I finished touring the Forbidden City. I was dropped off at the back entrance of the Forbidden City and made my way to the front. However, there is another tourist attraction just behind the rear of the Forbidden City that my friend suggested I should visit. To get back to where I started, I needed to walk the length of the Forbidden City. This took 45 minutes of brisk walking! I don't think it takes that long to walk from one end of Melbourne CBD to the other.

Now, what trip to Beijing would be complete without a visit to the Great Wall of China. Thankfully I planned my trip to coincide with a weekend. My friend and I used this weekend to visit the Great Wall of China. Unfortunately, it rained on this day but luckily it was mostly a drizzle and not a downpour. The Great Wall itself is truly a monument to the endeavours of man. You have to go there to get an understanding of the scale and the sort of undertaking required by our Chinese ancestors from several hundred years ago. Scaling the wall is exercise in itself. There are fairly steep sections of the wall that will test your stamina. We visited a very touristy section of the Great Wall, and unfortunately there were masses of tourists visiting and climbing the wall. I did, however, manage to get a couple of photos of the place.

Food in Beijing is different and interesting. I am used to eating food from Southern areas of Asia - predominantly Cantonese-influenced food. Wheat and pork are a staple diet of the northern Chinese. Noodles (wheat-based) are far more abundant than rice dishes. My friend told me that anytime you ask for 'meat', you will get pork. Otherwise, you will have to ask specifically for a certain type of meat. Food in Beijing is very oily. Apparently it's for presentation. The oil makes the dish glisten and appears more attractive visually. I ate quite a variety of local food, but my favourites have to be Peking Duck and lamb skewers from hawker stalls. There is this one specific hawker stall that my friend likes that serves lamb skewers, chicken skewers and other entrails of various animals. Out of all the things I ate in Beijing, the weirdest has to be deep-fried scorpion. My friend dared me to eat the last of 4 deep fried scorpions if he ate the other 3. I unwillingly accepted. I have to say, it's not something I want to eat again. It tastes like an insect (if you've ever accidentally eaten an insect before) even though some say it tastes like prawns. Overcoming the mental image of a deep-fried scorpion and the crunchiness as you bite down on it is definitely a case of mind over matter.

I didn't end up buying all that much stuff from Beijing. I bought a couple of trinkets and I also bought a couple of t-shirts that were Astro Boy-themed. Don't ask me why; I just thought they were cool. I did, however, spend 600RMB on good quality Chinese tea. That's around about $100 worth in Australian money. I'm not sure how much I actually bought weight-wise, but I bought 2 large tins and a couple of packets of Chrysanthemum Tea. I didn't want to be carry too much, so I just made sure I filled my luggage bag to the brim. More than anything else, it was just nice to be out of the country and hanging-out with a friend in a foreign place.

Given that I've not had a decent holiday in 4 years, I'm really glad I made the effort to go somewhere with the 2 weeks I had between jobs. I don't know it was quite enough; I don't think it was. At least, I think, I made the most of the time that I had off.

Here's a link to my photo album of my trip:

trip to Kuala Lumpur and Beijing - the Beijing leg