Spent the last two days in Beijing with my sister and bro in law. Beijing was... interesting to say the least.
We flew in early Friday morning and managed to get to our hotel with a taxi. From the get to though, it was obvious the language barrier was going to be a quite a challenge. I don't think we got too badly ripped off from the driver (it's usually supposed to be 100RMB but it ended up being 120RMB which equals out to only $2USD more).
I had seen pictures of the outside of the hotel from the internet but I was nervous about how it would be on the inside. Especially after coming from Langham Place in HK. The lobby was actually really nice but the staff was inefficient in English (which is surprising since thy get so many tour groups) and not particularly friendly. Alas, we were given our key cards and I braced myself.
And it wasn't THAT bad but it was like roughing it after HK. It was undoubtedly worse than the YMCA I stayed at my first night in HK. And even worse than some of the hostels I stayed at in Europe (for twice the money!) Supposedly it was a three star, but it was in the States, it would've been a low two star. The only thing that comes close to it was the Travelodge in Vegas that we stayed at 3 years ago.
The hotel was the least of my worries though. Our first day, we walked to Tiannamen Square which was about 40 minutes away. Oh, that was another crap thing about our hotel, it was pretty far away from EVERYTHING. And less touristy, though I would normally welcome this, it was a bit of a different story where you can't communicate at all. On the way there, we were all really hungry and decided to stop in this restaurant. They had an English menu but all the waiters in China stand over you until you order, it's so much pressure! We just ended up pointing at something people at another table were eating. Luckily it wasn't like pig brain or something, just good old noodles with vegetables and a sweet sauce. So good. And they didn't rip us off! $9 or so for three people to fill up. Anyhoo, the city is gearing up for the Olympics so there's a whole disply commemorating it in the Square and also a few displays celebrating National Day which was the day after (Saturday). There's a lot of construction going on, hotels, businesses, public toilets, all for the 2008 games. Honestly, I don't know if they're going to be ready service wise. The Olympics do change a city quite a bit though so I am grateful to have seen it before that time.
Right across the street from the Square is The Forbidden City (with the giant picture of Mao and all) that have the palaces emperors used to live and rule from. The architecture is amazing and it was so awesome to see after seeing it in movies for years. The art and everything is such a far cry from the art I saw in Europe and special in its own way. This is a culture and society that has been operating for thousands of years. And as intense as they may be, Chinese people have invented a shitload of really cool stuff.
It was about rush hour when we left the Forbidden City and we tried to catch a cab but it seemed like the other 13 million people in the city were as well. We ended up walking all the way back to the hotel which was exhausting and frustrating. People stared as it's hard to be inconspicuous with a 6ft something tall white dude. Plus my purple hair. T'was funny at the same time though, you'd think some of them had never seen foreigners before.
I was exhausted after we got back to the hotel and dozed for about 15 minutes before heading out to a restaurant out towards the business district. it ended up being really cheap ($30 for three people and a 4+ course meal) but the place was quite far. it was easier to communicate at this place because some of the staff spoke English.
(I just want to clear up the fact that I'm not one of those stupid Americans that are pissed off that people can't speak English in foreign countries (although, they really should be more prepared with the Games coming up). I'm speaking more out of frustration and should have prepared by hiring a local translator or practing some Mandarin)
The food was delicious though, that's been pretty consistent throughout my trip. Which is great because I sure am a good eater.
The next day we wanted to get out to the Mutinyu section of the Great Wall because we heard it was less crowded and had better views. We missed all the buses going out there though and ended up renting a driver all day ($80 USD). The Wall is actually about 1 1/2 hours from Beijing (2 hours if there's traffic as there was for us) so it seemed pretty necessary at that point since we were leaving the next day. The driver's car was pretty nice and comfortable which made the ride bearable. I woke up sometime as we drove through another city before heading out to the countryside on a road lined with great, big trees and mossy hills.
To be continued! It's time to head on home to California (California here we come, right back where we started from, califoooooooorrrniaaaaa, califoooooooorrrniaaaaa, heeeeeeeeeeerrreee we coooooooooome!) <-- sorry, nerd alert
