Day 3 April 25 Beijing

We slept reasonably well but were rather stiff and sore. I should explain that our body training for the rigors of our visit to the lands of the obese waddlers consisted of doing ... absolutely nothing. Consequently we have no-one to blame but ourselves.

Guide and driver were waiting for us and we headed off around the corner to Tiananmen Sq. Like yesterday, though, the actual square was not accessible to the hoi poloi – some visiting foreign dignity. Possibly even our own Prime Minister who is on a NE Asia tour. The guide said she is also visiting the Forbidden City (FC) today – our next destination, which we reached on foot, via an underpass we had not seen the day before. The lamp posts outside the FC were festooned with Aussie flags. We did not encounter PM Julia though.

We were glad that while we were lost yesterday, we got as far as we did in the FC - we saw the buildings at their best in bright sunshine. Today was a gray overcast sort of day, a little cooler, but just right for this plump couple – about 20° C.

The FC is a vast complex of courtyards and buildings. Most of the significant ones were not open to the public – you could only peer into a dark interior through barred-off doors. No matter, as for me the aesthetics of the building exterior were of more interest. Jeff was very informative about details and history of the complex. Apparently it is easy to spend two to three days there. I was initially annoyed when Jeff kept frog-marching us onward while I was desperately trying to take a photo or two. We finished at the other end of FC after 3½ hours – just in time for lunch.

 

Our next destination was a tourist trap – a pearl shop. We watched an oyster being shucked and had been asked to guess how many pearls it contained, Joan and I guess four and five, but there were actually 15 tiny 2-3mm pearls, two of which we got to keep to warm us up for the main pitch – a large posh showroom featuring different colours of pearls in various arrangement. We succumbed. Outside, Jeff thanked us for the 7% commission that his tour company picks up. Nice.

The Temple of Heaven in the city’s south was our last stop, It is set in a large green area and features three main temples along an extended axis. Many retired people spend all day in the grounds (free access). We listened as an old man played the two-stringed instrument that gets on my nerves while another man sang a song in a strong voice.

Just then a man approached our guide asking if he could have his picture taken with me. Apparently I am such a freak that he felt compelled to record his encounter with this strange tall monkey. It was a hoot. The guide reckoned he was from a remote region where he had never encountered a foreigner.

Just before the end we encountered two old chaps practicing their calligraphy skills by writing on the smooth dark pavement using just a brush and water.

Day 2 April 24 Beijing

We had some sleep, so were reasonably alert when we landed in glorious sunshine at 5:25am. It’s a huge airport – we taxied for what seemed like 15 minutes and arrived into a superbly designed terminal building – truly the most beautiful such structure I have seen. I was deserted. At immigration we were annoyed to discover that cabin crew had not distributed immigration cards, so we had to queue twice. Lesson learned – we took spares to use on our return journey. After a shuttle ride to another terminal we collected our baggage within minutes and walked out to be greeted almost immediately by our tour guide Jeff. We were away within minutes and arrived at our hotel two hours after landing. On the way to the hotel he had given us an impromptu Chinese lesson – hello, thank you, toilet, beer, all accompanied by a lot of laughter and touching. He knew all about us by the time we got there.

Beijing traffic is bad, explained Jeff, but seeing as it was Sunday, it was actually good. Weekdays the city is gridlocked. Due to our early arrival we had to wait one and a quarter hours for a room to be vacated and cleaned, In the interim Jeff engaged us in a steady stream of conversation. His English was very good. 29 years old and about to be married in two weeks time, to a woman he has known for 12 years.

The hotel turned out slightly better than our expectations, but with the usual annoyances – e.g. no towel hooks, not enough hanger, dim globes. This was a free day and we had gotten Jeff’s recommendations for a few tour-complementing things we could do – Tiananmen Square, the Lama temple, Bei Hai park. He also pointed out on the map where could eat.

After a shower and brief rest we headed off toward Tiananmen but immediately got lost Some other tourists pointed us in the right direction. Maybe the coriolis effect was affecting my sense of direction or map-reading skills, because we would up in the forbidden city, not Tiananmen. 

We encountered zillions of people trying to get in there. Once I discovered this error, our challenge was to cross the huge thoroughfare separating Tiananmen and the Forbidden City. It took some time to discover that this only possible by using underpasses situated at each intersection.

Once on the right side of the road we saw an open area, but I am not convinced it was what we were looking for, so we headed for the Orient Mall that Jeff had recommended to have lunch and a coffee. After a quick freshen-up at the hotel we hit the public transit system by going to the station near Tiananmen. Those with backpacks (me) have to put them through an Xray machine. We were determined to master the ticket machines and that was pretty easy with a good touch-screen UI in English. It asked us to choose our destination but this is redundant because the price is the same wherever you go. People pressure forced this apparently. Each journey costs 2 yuan, so 8 yuan for the round trip = $1.16 – dirt cheap. The hardest part was determining which direction to go, but this was eventually discovered from very clear signs on support pillars. Both routes were loops, so it didn’t really matter except for time. On one route the cars were packed, and I mean packed. Sitting down? In your dreams.

Our journey took us to the Lama Temple – a shrine with many prayer halls, each with a Buddha inside, One was enormous - ~25 m tall, apparently carved from a single sandalwood tree. A Guiness Book of Records plaque outside says so. The halls were had beautifully painted and sculpted ceilings, all with devotees kneeling to pray. On most buildings there was a sign indicating how many incense sticks were required to be offered. These could only be lit and burned in cauldrons outside in the plaza. I dislike the smell. Many roof gables featured a recurring set of animal figures which we found amusing.

After returning to the hotel to get some relief for our weary bones we had dinner at the Orient Mall. One of our dishes was Spicy Crispy Chicken and it was lathered with chilli – Bob C would have loved it.

Day 1 April 23

Well, we're off today and what a good day for it - wet. We hope that Beijing will be better. I don't know if I will be able to write about Beijing whilst there, but I will try. There won't be much to report the rest of the trip as we'll be with family most of the time. However, I may post a photo or two now and then.

Our taxi arrived on time at 15:45 and conveyed us to Pennant Hills station with only a little guidance from me. There we purchased our rail tickets to the airport using our Seniors Card and were delighted to discover that it only cost $21.40 – for two! Thank you Govt of NSW.

The journey was uneventful but we were soon confronted by a long and slowly-moving check-in queue. It took about forty five minutes to traverse, but the lady at the counter was very nice. We had attempted online check-in dozens of times over the preceding day, all to no avail, so we missed out on exit row seats – only four in the whole cabin. We wandered around for a short while, had a fish and chips meal and then boarded.

The aircraft was an Airbus A330-200 – 2x4x2. Joan had researched seat pitch as being at the better end of the range - 34”. At first this seemed okay but after a while I noticed that there was a stiff wire rod around the periphery of the magazine pocket. I could not place my knees without it digging into me. Various bodily contortions ensured in my effort to attain a modicum of comfort, but these could only be sustained for short periods before it started to hurt somewhere else.