Visiting the Popular Sites

Friday, October 10, 2014
Beijing, China
I was in China in the 70's. How times have changed. First in the 70's our cases were examined and all goods recorded e.g.earrings, dresses, camera etc and when we exited the country all goods were checked to make sure we had not "left" anything behind. The streets were packed with people in blue Mao suits and riding bikes. As a westerner, we were taken in a car. One of the only cars on the streets. You didn't have to stick on the left or the right, you just ambled across and if, when in the countryside, the road was covered in soil, you went across the fields There were two types of streets. One with lovely buildings, evidently inhabited by high party officials and other streets made up of glorified shacks.
Now the streets are packed with cars, yes packed, There didn't seem to be much road control although people seemed to avoid other cars. Now the clothes are western, no Mao suits to be seen. No problem coming in or exiting the country via the airports People were so friendly, their humour is similar to ours. Our guide, Jasmin, was excellent as were our drivers.
Day 1
They were very conscious of security at Tiananmen Square and our bag was x-rayed. Once we were in we were free to wander and once we had swallowed a mouthful of water for the guards, we were able to keep our water. The Forbidden city was an amazing living museum. We were shattered as we had just come off the plane so probably didn't absorb as much as we should have done.
In the 70's Tiananmen Square was deserted, just four tourists looking at Mao's portrait.
In the evening we walked down unlit streets in the Hutong (old district) to the Konji restaurant by a lake. We felt very safe and people were so friendly. Managed to order food pointing at pictures and lovely food too. The lake was really lovely. We saw a collection of lights at one end that we aimed to explore another day as we were so tired.
We loved our hotel, the Shichahai Shadow Art Hotel. Only about 20 rooms and situated in the old Hutong. Each room had a lit shadow shape by the door. Our room was peaceful and comfortable.
We saw a Shadow Art performance and I was able to paint four of the characters in Chinese traditional shadow play, male roles, female roles, painted roles and clowns. The shapes had been cut out already from skin. I painted them with special inks.
For breakfast they provided pink bread as a sandwich, no idea what was inside but delicious.
Day 2
Wished we could have stayed longer in the Temple of Heaven park. It was originally used as a vast stage for the Emperor who came to pray for good harvests, atonement for the sins of his people and to seek divine clearance from the gods. It was so interesting. People ballroom dancing listening to an old record player, tai chi and all manner of different exercises. One man had a collection of old batteries that had a letter of the English alphabet and a number beside it. He also had a board with holes to fit the batteries and a very large dictionary. The aim of the game was to try and make an English word by dropping the batteries in the holes. It was like Scrabble, you fitted another word alongside the original word. Nobody knew what the words meant or could translate them but the owner of the board looked up each word in his vast dictionary to check if it was correct. I gather the winner was the person who had the most points.
We tried the "Echo wall" at the end of the park and the "Round stone alter " to boost our voices
The afternoon was spent at the Summer Palace after our guide suggested a place to eat, only used by the Chinese. Interesting dumplings and tasty. The palace was used by the imperial families of the Quing Dynasty. We had a trip on a boat across the Kunming Lake. Some beautiful colours and carvings.Summer palace is where Chiang Kai-shek (October 31, 1887 –April 5, 1972 was captured. At the onset of the Second Sino-Japanese War,  it became the Chinese theatre of World War II, Zhang Xueliang kidnapped Chiang and obliged him to establish a Second United Front with the Communists.
We went to the Cong Su Feng Ge restaurant on Xidajie Street, not far away. Suggested by tour company. We were not that impressed. We thought we would follow the lake around. We got lost but came across a collection of "shops". Inside each of these shops was a different musical band, really interesting. Found we had gone around in a circle but were pleased that we had seen some "real" life.
Day 3
The third day was a long excursion to the Great wall of China at Jinshanling. The wall stretched for 6,000km built to keep out the "Barbarians" of the north and west. This was a much quieter area of the wall avoiding coach parties and had fewer visitors. It fact we only saw about three others on this section of wall. We started our wall escapade by a cable car "Egg" to lift us to the wall. Then after a small climb we were actually on the wall. Some parts were renovated and easy to walk along, other parts were very trying, steep and no renovations to the stones. What a beautiful view, the weather was perfect, clear blue sky, a little cooler than Beijing. We stopped at a tower half way along our journey. There was a man with a small portable heater for boiling water, Nescafe and, would you believe it, coffee mate!
In the 70's we visited the Ba Da Ling area of the wall, very popular now. Then, once again, we were the only tourists. About 10 yds of the wall had been renovated, the rest was as it had lain for centuries. It was also freezing there in April
For our meal we went back to the Konjie restaurant and ordered a dumpling. Not any dumpling! It was a size of a six inch ball. The waitress also brought along a straw. Why? We had ordered a soup in a dumpling. You made a hole in the top to suck the soup out and then ate the dumpling. Different!
Day 4
On to the station, one of the largest in Asia. Luckily our guide took us to the train otherwise, with the numbers of people, area covered and platforms, we would never have found it! We took the bullet train to Xian.

Comments

2025-02-08

Comment code: Ask author if the code is blank