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China Page 2: Beijing
We visited Beijing for a long weekend in August 2000. Having lived in Hong Kong for two years, we figured it was about time for George to actually see a little bit of the "real" China, and we figured that visiting the Great Wall and Forbidden City was as good a start as any, even if it was only for a couple of days. Our friend Andrea, who lives in Beijing, joined us for the Great Wall hike and generally helped us arrange everything.
Beijing
Beijing is, of course, a big city, though more in the LA sprawl style than the HK or NY skyscraper style. In other words, not much to look at as far as a skyline. It tends to be dry and dusty, and either too hot or too cold (not bad when we visited though). There are a lot of broad boulevards, which they've taken the trouble to spruce up with trees (new trees, that is, the Communists having basically killed all the old trees in one of their many lunatic campaigns; they also made a concerted effort to kill off the sparrows and such, by the way, but that's another story). The trees are cottonwoods, selected because they're fast-growing, which tend to cover the city with an annual blanket of cottony sheddings. Of course, the trees are doing well just to survive in the ever-present cloud of carbon monoxide that permeates the city. You know it's bad when people visiting from Hong Kong notice that your city has noxious air.
By the way, after returning to HK, we caught part of a Chinese basketball game on tv (yes, that's how bad it can get here) and noticed that the Beijing team was nicknamed the Ducks. Peking Duck, get it? We wonder if these guys actually have a sense of humor or if that was an accident. In any case, we're working on getting some Beijing Ducks t-shirts.
The Great Wall
We hired a car and driver to take us out to the Great Wall, to one of the several places where it is accessible near Beijing. Actually, we went just over into the next province (or county or whatever), to a place called Jinshanling (Gold Mountain Tomb). The driver dropped us off there, and we hiked back in the direction of Beijing, going as far as Simatai. This took about 5 hours of pretty good hiking. There are precious few spots, at least on this part of the Wall, where the Wall is not heading up or down at a fairly steep angle (and down can be nearly as bad as up, when you have to watch every step). It makes us seriously question the truthfulness and/or sanity of these people who talk about riding bicycles on the Wall.
So, do you want the good news or bad news? The bad news is that the Wall has turned into a little bit of a tourist trap, with tourists wreaking god-only-knows what kind of harm to the Wall and its surroundings, and hawkers being very persistent about selling you postcards and other stuff you don't need. Very persistent. They will tag along for your entire hike if need be. The good part of this bad news is that at the end of a hot, dry, five-hour hike, we were really happy to see the folks selling Coke at Simatai. We offered to trade them Andrea, our camera, and all our clothes for two Cokes.
But the really good news is that the Wall deserves every bit of the tourism that it gets. It - and the Forbidden City as well - are rare examples of the cliched touristy places to go that really are must-see, incredible sights. It's just amazing to stand on the Wall and think about its age, history, and sheer size. And the surroundings are relatively untouched given the proximity to Beijing and the amount of traffic/tourism nearby (hopefully that'll continue, as preserving the Wall would seem almost pointless if the views from it were of apartment blocks). Even the number of people on the Wall itself drops surprisingly fast as you move away from the main access points, which is great (most tourists, especially Asian ones, won't take an extra step past the photo op, so if you do you can find yourself nearly alone rather than amidst a throng).
Oh, and one final note, to do our part in debunking a persistent myth: the Great Wall is not visible with the naked eye from space. No more (in fact a lot less, since it's unlit) than an Interstate highway, anyway. Not sure how this "only manmade structure blah blah" got started, but if you think about it you'll realize how impossible it is.
The Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square
The next day, we visited the Forbidden City, paying the higher foreigner rate to gain admission of course. This place really needs more than a day of walking around. It is big. Very big. Courtyards, palaces, art exhibits, temples, gardens, etc. Perhaps the most amazing thing is not the size, but the incredible detail that goes into every bit of this enormous palace-city. Installing a zillion stones/tiles into the side of a building is one thing, but carving each one into a little dragon (or whatever) first is something else. Every rainspout, every railing, every doorsill, has some intricacy to it. It really contrasts to Tiananmen Square, which is also huge, but is a flat, nearly featureless expanse. One is a piece of art, the other a glorified parking lot (which, incidentally, we hear they're planning to use for beach volleyball if they host the Olympics - this is sort of equivalent to using the Lincoln Memorial for a wet t-shirt contest).
Anyway, the Forbidden City seems like the sort of place you could spend days walking around, especially if you're interested in Chinese art or history. Or if you liked The Last Emperor and thought his palace looked mighty cool, like we did. And there are some truly excellent photos to be had if you have the time, and equipment, and skill...but George didn't, so all you get are the shots on this page. Again, this place may be overtouristed, but it has good reason to be.
We took a short walk through Tiananmen Square before heading back to the hotel. Not much of interest there (except historically speaking), though it looks like the locals like to come out for picnics, kite flying, etc. As with the rest of China, but moreso, you notice the rather large number of uniformed and plainclothes (yes, you can tell, just like in the States) police officers (and/or soldiers, there's a fairly fuzzy distinction between the two). The other interesting tidbits were a sort of schoolkids color guard that looked like Communist Boy/GirlScouts or something, the Big Brother style sound system, and the giant Mao portrait that looks out at the square from the Forbidden City. The big Mao seems so weirdly anachronistic, like a throwback to the days when they didn't have KFC and McDonald's just down the street. Talk about turning over in your grave.
Oh, speaking of food, we had dinner one night on the outdoor terrace at a really good Chinese restaurant a few blocks from the hotel. Proof once again that authentic Chinese food can be done in a very tasty way. We figured we ordered the right stuff when a couple of Chinese businessmen sat down nearby, took a look at our table, and basically asked the waiter to bring him all the same dishes that we had ordered. Yay, chalk one up for the gweilos!
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