Peking around

By Bea
Arriving in Beijing, it suddenly hit me... this was the last stop on our China leg, that was the last train ride to a Chinese destination. Wow almost 6 weeks here. It’s been good, but to be honest, we’re ready to move on. The differences in culture were beginning to wear. The spitting, the smoking, the lack of situational awareness, the lack of earphones, the lack of volume control! That said, its been great. The people are really friendly and lovely. The country is so vast it was impossible to see it all but the a range of topographies and cultures we experienced surprised and delighted. We have been blown away.

In order to have our Trans-Mongolian rail tickets delivered on time we had booked our last few nights in Beijing well in advance and left a few flex days before to allow us to catch up with Doug. It wasn’t until we were just about to reach Beijing that we realised we didn’t have accommodation for that night. Our booking was from the following day! We tried to book an extra day with the same hostel but they were sold out, so we booked a one nighter was to be at the Happy Dragon, not far from the next nights hostel. The reviews were obviously written by people whose first stop in China was Beijing and they were a little thrown for what you got for your money! The place was fine. A little run down, but it was clean, good beds, hot shower and the staff were super friendly with good English.

The temperature had risen dramatically. It was now 35 degrees! I feel we may have bought this on ourselves after complaining about the amount of drizzly rain and overcast weather in the last 6 weeks, so we changed into shots and T-shirt’s and headed out.

Paranoia over our Trans-Mongolian tickets drove us to go to the next hostel and make sure there were no issues, there weren’t.

As this hostel was close the Drum Tower and the Bell Tower we took opportunity to visit them on the walk back. Pete was really impressed with how families were really utilising the public open spaces around the Towers. As the sun was setting, and the heat of the day abated people were just out having fun, couples chatting, kids playing on scooters, older ladies learning a new dance routine, older men gobbing, It was great to see, well almost.

As we continued our stroll back we came across an area of Hutongs. These are the historic lane ways that Beijing is known for. This particular area had been turned into a walking street lined with restaurants, cafes and overpriced snack vendors and was obviously a popular evening hangout.
Now I’ve loved Peking Duck ever since I first partook of these delicious pancake wrapped delicacies in London so many years ago and was eagerly anticipating a fine dining experience we had booked later in the week, so what we found little way down the hutong took my breath away.

A take away restaurant with rows of roasted ducks hanging in the window and piles of carcasses in a big vat below (you just wanted to grab one of those carcasses and gnaw at the meet) These guys weren’t selling your traditional delicate little rolls but massive, kebab sized, duck pancake rolls... so, ok, the duck may not be as good as the high end restaurants and lettuce isn’t a traditional filling but given the queue and the hoards of happy eaters outside..OMG..Guess what dinner was? And they were good. I wonder if they would franchise!

Contented on duck kebabs we continued our stroll back to the happy dragon for after dinner drinks and final season of Game of Thrones! (Yes we managed to download season 8).

Early the next morning we headed to The Forbidden City. Pete was dreading the thought of the hordes of people and mass queues. Last time he was in Beijing, he only got as far as the entrance gate, the mass of people was just too much. So we were both surprised at how efficient and seamless the process has become. Impressive, given the staggering numbers of people that visit this icon each day (in fact their website now has a live update of how many people are in the complex at any one time). Kudos.

The Forbidden City is huge and to get the most from the visit we opted to take a self guided audio tour, these activate as you approach points of interest giving short historical explanations, they also provide recommended routes based on time and interest. Like most places we have visited, the further away from the main area you go the less people and more interesting the sites, so we did find a few places that had fewer tourists, which was nice.

It is a wonderful complex but after several hours we had seen enough enclosed courtyards for concubines so called it quits and headed out the entrance much to the security guards disgust.
Over the road from the Forbidden City is Tian’anmen square, an obvious must see. We had been told from Ian and Caroline, on the cruise, that 3 students always stand vigil in the square in memory of the Massacre, they stand for an hour before 3 more come to relieve them. Sadly we couldn't find them amongst the other tourists.

By early afternoon it was hot and we were tired and hungry. Lonely Planet had recommended a Muslim restaurant nearby that did juicy lamb skewers. It was too hard to resist, so we decided to search it out. Anyone who has used the Lonely Planet will know, finding recommended restaurants is not as easy as it reads, their maps appear very different to google’s! After wandering around we went into a restaurant close to where the one we were looking for and asked, showed them the name, they had never seen or heard of it, more discussion with patrons who could interpret then suddenly some one clicked - right location, right food, changed name this was the restaurant we were after, and It was true, the lamb skewers were tasty... and juicy!

After 2 and a half months of travelling and heading into warmer weather I needed a new shirt and knew it was available Decathlon. (We are turning into Decathlon freaks! Well that and Mont-Bell!!). We had visited a small Decathlon in Shanghai which didn’t have what I wanted but the assistant recommended a store in Beijing that apparently is the largest in Asia & not far from where we were staying. Wow, he was not wrong - its massive, has every sport imaginable. Unfortunately what I
wanted wasn’t what I wanted after all, but we didn’t leave empty handed!

We picked up our bags and moved to the Beijing Drum Tower Youth Hostel. What a lovely place, light, bright, modern, great rooms but yet again staff let them down. If only they had the staff from the Happy Dragon! We were exhausted and decided to eat locally. A short distance from our hostel was the “Beer Guys” a craft beer house. Oh no!! Beijing and Shanghai is experiencing a surge in craft breweries and some of them are pretty cool. After a couple of (expensive) beers we had dinner nearby at a little local restaurant... more dumplings!

The Yangtze River was Pete’s must do, the Great Wall was mine. We had made a call to go further out of Beijing as the thought of great throngs of tourists at the more accessible and more heavily restored sections of the Wall close to Beijing did not appeal. The hostel offered a self guided tour, very reasonable price. A bus drops you at Jinshaling, 142km from Beijing, where there are lengths of restored wall, partly restored wall, and some wild wall. You then hike along the wall for 3 hours to Simatai where lunch was provided before the bus takes you back.

The humorous guide gave some concise explanations and instructions in both English and Chinese then left us to our own devices.

Access the wall itself is via the worlds slowest cable car - Stuart you will never complain about Hakuba again! We reached the top and it was a breathtaking sight. It was just how I imagined. The magnificent block work of the wall stretched far as the eye could see. Here was the Wall I was wanting to see. Bucket list - tick! The camera was in over drive. And best thing? There was hardly anyone here! We actually have photos with no one in them. Other than the people on our bus, we hardly bumped into anyone else.

The Wall was no easy feat. Most of the parts we were hiking had been restored, so easy underfoot, however this area is also known for some of its steepest! There were several sections the stairs were so steep a group of us, tackled it on all fours! There were other sections that were steep that didn’t have stairs but just a ramp, we were either pulling ourselves up using the wall ledge or turned around and walked backwards as it gave you better grip. I would not want to tackle that section of the wall in the wet!!

Past Simatai the wall is unrestored and you had the opportunity to explore the walls rugged beauty before trekking out.
At the bottom people were complaining of shaking legs... we certainly had given our legs a massive work out. The group had lunch at a near by restaurant , where we chatted to some nice people, and pick up some good tips from some Germans about purchasing our camper van!

We arrived back in Beijing in the early evening, exhausted and in no mood to go in search of food, so fast food it was (and another couple of episodes of Game of Thrones).

The next day, I was keen to see Olympic Park. Pete had already seen it on his last visit, but hadn't spent much time there or got to take any decent photos. It was quite sad to see that it needs a little TLC. Luckily Beijing is hosting the 2020 Winter Olympics and many of the facilities from the summer games are being repurposed for this event and the area being revitalised once more. We walked down past the torch, to visit The Birds Nest (the main stadium). It was a pretty amazing piece of architecture, I have to admit. We paid to go inside to get a better look. Renovations were well underway for the Winter Olympics, it will be pretty impressive when covered in snow.

Opposite the Birds Nest was The Water Cube (the venue for the swimming and other water sports). Unfortunately the Water Cube was being renovated and being turned into the Ice Cube so they would not allow visitors. We managed to get just inside the door and Pete got to take a few photos of the structure, but they were adamant we were not going further and we were pushed out.

I was having a few problems with my Apple Watch (user error), so in the afternoon we visited the Apple store (very dangerous). Within minutes everything was sorted. I wanted to check out Uniglo to see if I could get the shirt I had been chasing. Lucky for me, I found something and even better, it was on sale!

Beijing is famous for its Duck and we were definitely going to experience the real thing whilst here. Pete had done some research and booked us into a higher end establishment. On the way, we went via Jing A, a brew pub that served very good craft beers to a jovial crowd both locals and expats.

Dinner at Shen Yong Xing was sensational, appetiser selection of Beijing delicacies, which were delicious. Then the duck came out to be carved, we were first given a crostini with a slice of perfectly crispy duck skin and caviar - sensational. Then our favourite - the duck pancakes. The duck did not disappoint. However, we must admit, it was such good duck that it was a bit of a waste to use it in the pancakes.

Heading home, we thought we would nip into a cocktail bar that had a good write up. Wow what a find. Revolution is a very hip and crowded dive bar located off a back street on the ground floor of a non-descript residential tower block that serves sensational cocktails. We had to be strong, just one cocktail each!!! We were leaving the hostel the next morning at 5.15AM.

The alarm going off at 4.45am was not pleasant, but exciting, we were heading to board the Trans-Mongolian.