Beijing

Lin with Smiling Proletariat at the Chinese National Museum

Friday, November 13

We are now on a high-speed train to Shanghai, after spending one week at the 250-year-old Emperor Guesthouse in Beijing.

The guesthouse used to be linked to the Forbidden City through underground tunnels, part of which we could see from the basement. It was an excellent location just south of Tiananmen Square, and we spent our days exploring the Forbidden City, National Museum, Summer Palace, hutongs, and markets. We were lucky to meet up with my friend Hannah and Sarah’s friend Claudio, who live in Beijing and showed us places we wouldn’t have found otherwise.

Palace Guards Practicing

Tiananmen Square Through the Smog

With Mao on a Clear Day

Winter at the Summer Palace

Lunch at Wangfujing Market

I, of course, went to the Olympic village and marveled at the bird’s nest and water cube up close – the area is beautiful and I could still feel the thrill of last year’s games.

Lin at the Bird's Nest

Our friend Kate showed up once again at our guesthouse, and one day the three of us plus an Englishman, Neil, took a trip to the Great Wall. We had actually seen sections of it from our train to Beijing, and walking along its ramparts and guard towers was magnificent. We could see sections of it snaking along the mountaintops in the distance and marveled at the sheer scale of  imagining such a project and the logistics of supplying its army of guards. At this time of year there are relatively few tourists and we enjoyed having large sections to ourselves. We accessed the wall at a village called Mutianyu, where we rode up the mountain on a ski lift and then back down via a very fun high-speed toboggan chute full of twists and turns. Our guidebooks say, however, that it’s only a myth that the Great Wall can be seen from outer space!

Neil, Dressed as a Spaceman for the Occasion, and the Rest of us

Lin With her Back to the Wall

"Oh, chute!"

Beijing is full of new and renovated buildings and infrastructure finished for the Olympics, and the subway is one of the cleanest and easiest to navigate I’ve ever seen, with signs and announcements in both Chinese and English.

One of Beijing's Spotless New Subway Lines

Though crowded, the crime rate in Beijing is very low and we were assured it is safe to walk anywhere day or night. There are large numbers of police and soldiers everywhere, and security checks at the entrances to public squares, museums, bus stations and the like. People are very friendly and often hailed us with clear delight that we were visiting their city.

It is very cheap here, even cheaper than Mongolia. We found a tiny family restaurant near the guesthouse, run by a family that included a delightful girl and boy. We ate there four of our seven nights in Beijing because it was so convenient after a tiring day of sightseeing, the food was delicious, and we ate to bursting for less than $3 US. Beautiful “pashmina” scarves are $2-3, the metro is less than 30 cents, and a bottle of water is about 15 cents.

The Chinese... Always Looking Out for us...

On the train from Ulan Bator, and for the first two days in Beijing, we were horrified at the pollution – we could not see more than a few blocks ahead, and even in the great halls of the museum the smog was evident. But the locals said those days were particularly bad because it was the beginning of the heating season – Beijing had its first snowfall last week which triggered all the furnaces. The air was indeed better for the rest of our stay, and everything looked beautiful in white. It was a fitting end of winter for us, as Shanghai will be in the 50s-60s F and Hong Kong even warmer. This morning I ditched my winter parka, the wool sweater I’ve worn nearly every day since this trip began, and a turtleneck. Hooray!