July 9 – Beijing

After a great 5 days in Hong Kong we elected to take a train to Beijing rather than fly so that we could get a chance to see the Chinese countryside. We managed to book the last 2 seats available which were in third class but we figured it couldn’t be that bad…big mistake. The train ride was 24 hours on what felt like concrete seats that would not recline. It appears that China Railways not only sells tickets for seats, but for standing room also. There were at least twice the amount of people as seats and the 24 hours consisted of screaming, loud music, and constantly adjusting to get comfortable with our backpacks on our laps and locals sleeping literally under our feet. It’s definitely not something I would choose to do again but I’m glad we had the experience. We also got to meet a bunch of people, who were all very eager to try and talk to us – which was more like a game of sheraids.

 

 

Beijing is very different from Hong Kong. It’s a sprawling city, packed with Chinese tourists and very few people speak English. It definitely feels like the China I had imagined. We visited the Forbidden City which, for the record, is not a city and is not forbidden. We then explored some of the Hutongs (traditional Chinese neighbourhoods which are quickly being replaced with office buildings and housing developments). We then grabbed a few drinks on the rooftop bar of the Emperor Hotel and watched the sun set over the Forbidden City. On the way back to our hotel we decided to stop at the night market  where you can buy every type of food on a stick that you can think of; scorpion, snake, shark, seahorse, beetle, starfish… We went with the scorpion.  

 

 

 

 

The next day we visited the Summer Palace which is a former summer residence for one of China’s Emperors. It’s a large park with beautiful buildings and several lakes. We grabbed some Chinese food to go (which apparently they just call food here), a few beers and rented a boat to explore one of the lakes.

 

 

 

 

I’m amazed at how many people there are in this country. They’re everywhere and for the most part they move very slowly. Tomorrow we’re off to the great wall.