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| china |
| beijing |
| After a 27 hour ferry ride across the Yellow Sea from Incheon, south Korea to Tianjin, China, a one hour cab ride and a one hour train ride I arrived in Beijing. It was late November and I had just finished 14 months of teaching English in Korea and was eager to get out and see the world. I stepped out of the Beijing train station and asked for a bathroom, we had been drinking on the train, the security guard gave me baffled look. I then made a peeing motion with my hands down at my fly and he looked disgusted and walked away...this was going to be interesting. From the train station we took a subway to Tianamen Square and eventually made our way to the Far East Youth Hostel down some hutong alleyway. |
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| Marty, some dude, Judy (from Korea) and some other dudes at our first authentic Chinese meal in Tianjin Train Station. |
| The Far East International Youth Hostel in Beijing. |
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| Jason, Thania, Michel and Danelle outside the hostel. |
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| The hutong alleyways of Beijing are some of the dirtiest and poorest areas of the city. When walking through them it was almost like I had been taken back 60 or 70 years to an older China, people burning coal to keep warm, open sewers, men with rotting teeth smoking cigarettes and playing mahjong...if it wasn't for the giant neon McDonald's sign glowing from afar like a giant futuristic sun. Most of the hutongs will be torn down to make way for the "New Beijing" and in preparations for the 2008 Olympics. |
| Marty playing a game of pingpong in an empty lot against this Chinese man we met. |
| Children coming home from school to the hutongs. They all wear the same ridiculous yellow hats, all over the city. |
| Beijing is kown for having some of the filthiest, smelliest, darkest public toilets in the world. This one was pitch black inside (only the camera flash for illumination). On the left is the sink, on the right are doorless "cubicles" with squatter toilets and one "Western Style" toilet near the end. The floor was covered in feces and and there were dead bugs plastered to the walls. But, hey, it was free! This sight is going to change dramatically over the next few years as Beijing is putting a lot of effort and money into revamping their public toilets. |
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| All over the city, you can find the day's newspaper posted, page-by-page, for anyone to read, free of charge. |
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| These three wheeled motorcycles taxis can be found everywhere. They're a lot like the tuktuks of Thailand, but I like the "Mao Communism" green a lot better. |
| This was a shop selling traditional and modern Chinese, hand-painted masks. |
| Bicycles, bicycles, everywhere...all different shapes and sizes. |
| Tianamen Square |
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| Yes, the one, the only, glorrific salute to Communism, the vast concrete plaza known as Tianamen, which apparently has enough room for one million people. There's a balcony just above Mao's picture on the gate to the Forbidden City where politicians make speeches to the crowds. |
| Just behind me and the sculpture here, is the MAOsoleum. Inside is the perfectly preserved body of Mao Tse-Tung and you can go and have a look, as long as your face is "full of solemn sadness" and you don't have a camera or other recording device. While the guards check your pockets, you have to remember to remain within the yellow lines outside and then follow the man with the loudspeaker. You can purchase flowers for Mao and place them by a gigantic plaque inside the building. When everyone leaves, they cart these flowers outside and sell them again to the next group of mourners. After you see Mao's body, you can purchase a number of fancy Mao memorabilia, including lucite keychains, wall plaques, holographic cigarette cases and lighters. |
| To the right of Tianamen Square is the National Museum and a Wax Museum. The Wax Museum was full of people's whose names we didn't know and a bunch of Communist leaders, along with Michael Jortdan and David Beckham. Here's Marty trying to figure out if this guy is real or not. (He was wax!) |
| And just for fun: Marty, Judy, two girls from England, Kris and Heath at the hostel. |
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| The Forbidden City |
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| So named because the commoners were forbidden to enter the premises. It took 14 years to complete, was finished in 1420 and required the manpower of over one million people. There's an audio-tour that you can take (you can see the tape deck hanging around my neck) and it's narrated by Roger Moore, 007. It was very entertaining, hearing James Bond talk about the colours of Heaven and Earth. |
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| The Great Wall of China |
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| A group of us hiked the Great Wall for about four hours from Jinshanling (about 5 hours drive from central Beijing) to Simatai. Portions of the wall vere very old and crumbling and there were a lot of steep staircases and drop offs. This portion of the wall was built in the 6th century between 550 and 577. It's the only existing portion of the wall that retains the features of the Ming dynasty wall structure. |
| At the end of our hike at Simatai (the wall continued on) there was a cable bridge over a river and then you could either hook yourself to a cable and ride down over a huge lake or hike back down to the bottom. I rode the cable down, a good two or three minutes...it was freezing cold. Apparently, there are two springs that flow into the lake on either side, one is hot and the other cold. Half the lake is old and half is warm and this creates the unique fog effect you can see around the lake. |
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| There's a few KFC restaurants in central Beijing. They've asianized the Colonel though, look at him! He's a little Chinese man, on the right you can see the real Colonel, but everyone already knows what he looks like. Nowhere else in my travels have I ever seen anything like this, what the hell? |
| Marty ordering McDonalds. He was getting really angry at the lady behind the counter because she was telling him "No stand there, sit down, I bring to yooo!" and he was saying, "Nope, that's okay, I'll just stand here." She was getting really annoying. Anyways, the food was the same as back home, they had an extra item on the menu though, these triangle shaped rice sandwiches and they were going like hotcakes! |
| I found a bunch of fooodstalls all the way down a street serving all kinds of Chinese snack-food delicacies. Pictured above, clockwise: Strawberries and kiwi, Strawberries, SNAKE, baby SNAKE, LARVA, giant MAGGOTS, SEAHORSES, giant GRASSHOPPERS, STARFISH and pineapple. Mmmmmmm! |
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| The Summer Palace |
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| The Summer Palace is a good one hour bus ride out of downtown Beijing. It's a huge enclosed complex of 290 hectares with a lake and small island connected by a bridge. There's a number of different temples and buildings scattered all around the grounds. |
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| The palace also houses the largest Imperial Garden on the planet. It was built in 1750 as a gift from the Emporer of China to his mother for her birthday. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't very nice the day we went, it was foggy and bitterly cold and most of my photos didn't come out too well. The lady on the right, above, is writing chinese characters on the pavement with a mixture of oil and water...this was a common sight around the parks and palaces of Beijing. |
| I don't know, but isn't this taking it a bit too far? |
| Marty checking out (trying to steal) some Buddha's at the Temple of the Fragrant Buddha. The heads of many had been removed by vandals or were destroyed during various wars. |
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| Me and Judy on the boat from Korea. |
| Marty and Judy at the hostel. |
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| The Temple of Heaven |
| The Temple of Heaven is loated within a giant park complex, near central Beijing. It's one of the most holiest temples to the Chinese as this is where the Emporer would come each Winter Solstice to pray for a good harvest. During Imperial times, the entire area was closed off to commoners. There are several buildings and temples as well as a compound surrounded by a perfectly circular wall called the Wall of Echoes. Two people can stand at any two points on the inside of the wall, speak towards it, and the sound will travel around to the other person, no matter where they are located. |
| A group of tourists posing on this circular stone, that is said to give good luck when you stand on it. |
| Unfortunately, it was another foggy, cold and miserable, December day in Beijing. |
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