Beijing (d9) Flea market & Soap opera

This is our last full day in this exciting city. It will also be my last blog entry; the next one will be from home! We will leave for the airport tomorrow soon after lunch.

Today was souvenir day. We headed to Panjiayuan flea market across town. It is a giant flea market with thousands of vendors selling "antiques", jewelry (lots of pearls, jade, and amber), and an assortment of knick-knacks. It's a great place to bargain. Even haggling the price down 50% is not enough. I read that vendors will jack prices up 10 fold! It's not a place for amateur treasure seekers because one has to be an expert in antiques and Chinese history not to be fooled. I'm guessing 99.9% of the stuff they sell is fake. It was fun to walk through and experience the sights and sounds.

When we were not venturing around town today, I caught some TV shows. There's this soap opera that ran at least 10 episodes from morning until night today. It is set in modern Beijing, very sappy, and the story a little pathetic. The story weaves around a woman whose husband wants a divorce so he can marry his mistress. The wife refuses and hangs on to this un-reciprocated marriage. She relents eventually after seeing her husband's display of affections to his mistress and hearing that he never loved her. But, the mistress gives her husband-to-be an ultimatum sensing that he is still really devoted to his ex-wife and daughter. Before the news came on earlier tonight, the family appears to be reunited after the doctors reported that the man's suspected tumor is really benign. How's that for a synopsis of 10 episodes of Chinese soap opera.

Beijing (d8) JinShan Park & Dumplings

A pagoda sits on top of a giant pile of dirt that came from the building of a moat around the Forbidden City.


The pagoda is the highest point of the city. A giant buddah statue resides in it with a mini-me buddah on its lap.

A rose garden adorn the picturesque Jinshan park.

From the pagoda, smog can be seen blanketing the northern section of the Forbidden city.

Our Beijing vacation is winding down. We hadn't much on the agenda other than heading up to Jinshan Park where the view from the pagoda on the top of the hill offered a panoramic view of the city. We couldn't see much because the city was blanketed in smog. We were able to catch the red roof tops of the Forbidden City and take some pictures. Today was fairly hot and humid. We found another shopping plaza that had a much better and more authentic food court. We'll be going there again tomorrow for lunch and/or dinner!

Earlier tonight, we met up with a friend who was also visiting Beijing. We had dinner at a dumpling restaurant that was rated the top 10 restaurants in the world by the New York Times!The food there was indeed delicious. The dumplings just melted in my mouth. Even the dessert, mango over ice shavings and almond jello over ice shavings were terrific!

Tomorrow is souvenir day and packing up to head home!

Beijing (d7) Wal-Mart

Today was to be a low-key day, a break from the Forbidden City excursion that made our feet sore! We headed to this Wan-Da Plaza that housed an international movie theater, some stores, the Sofitel hotel, and Wal-Mart! The movies being shown were disappointing... everything we had interest in seeing were dubbed in Chinese. So, instead, we took a tour of the Beijing Wal-Mart Supercenter. It was HUGE! There was a full supermarket with meats, vegetables, and all sorts of goods.

The Wan-Da Plaza was in the center of the business district in Beijing. It was perhaps the first place we were at where the people didn't blatantly stare at us. Everywhere else we went, people stared (not short glances!) as they walked pass by us. I didn't think we looked that strangely, but maybe we did. I think it was more amusing for me to study the Beijing people and learn the culture of a people in a very different country. The generation gap is vast. The young people seem stylish and sophisticated while the older generation are stoic and apparently weather-beaten!

We will head to Jin-Shan park tomorrow. If it's a clear day, we might be able to get a really spectacular panoramic view of the Forbidden City and Beijing.

I will upload pictures when I get home!

Beijing (d6) Forbidden City

Entrance to the Forbidden City. You still have to walk about half a mile to get to the ticket office to see the Halls.




Carving along the slope is one single piece of stone weighing over 250 tons.


Female lion has a baby cub under her paw.


Male lion has a ball under his paw.


All the roof edges are adorned with these little animals, the bottom-most is always a man riding a chicken/phoenix. The Hall of Supreme Harmoney has the most, 11 of them.











Today was Forbidden City day. What architectural wonders! I was most impressed by the 250-ton stone carving, the brass sculptures of phoenixes, lions, turtles, and the little animals (including a man riding a chicken/phoenix) that adorn the roofs edges. The palace was huge! It was another exhausting day to walk around the compound. Our feet screamed in angry protest. We decided to rent an audio guide to accompany our tour which explained many of the things we were looking at. Many buildings or halls had poor explanations plaques or were just too crowded to carefully read through them. The doors to each hall were heavy and thick; each door had 99 round pins representing "forever" and "longevity". Porticos in each hall made the buildings quite cool in the Beijing spring breezes. We were also able to recognize several spots where "The Last Emperor" was filmed. Disappointingly, the main hall, "Hall of Supreme Harmony", was scaffolded for renovations. Several other less significant buildings were under renovation.

Dinner was at the KungFu diner/fastfood joint in the Oriental Plaza. Images of Bruce Lee decorate the KungFu place. My meal was very tasty and homey.

Today was a great day! We will rest tomorrow and head to see the Olympic park and perhaps the Summer palace in the next few days.

Beijing (d5) Hutongs and duck

Prince Gong's mansion


Prince Gong's mansion


Siheyuan courtyard house






Hutongs are narrow alleyways weaving through neighborhoods of Beijing. They've got lots of character and charm. Most of them have been renovated and modernized since the wooden construction could not have withstand centuries of man-made and natural disasters. They still led to courtyard homes of wealthy as well as common folks. We toured a hutong this morning west if Qian Hai. The mansion of Prince Gong was there. He was the second in command to Emperor Xianfeng (Qing dynasty 1851-1861). His mansion was quite extravagant. There were 9999 bat figurines throughout his home in his desire for longevity. The most charming part of the tour was really the siheyuan courtyard home where we had tea (in paper Dixie cups) with a young woman whose family has lived there since the late 1940's. The rickshaw ride was delightful in the almost perfect Beijing spring weather.

That was an exhausting morning! We spent the early afternoon converting currency, buying some groceries, and taking a nap. In the late afternoon, we decided to head back to Qian Men, the southern most edge of Tiananmen Square to visit a night market. Night market was under major renovation, but we did find a restaurant serving Peking duck (the fried rice was far better than the duck!). Heading back to the hotel with the sun had just set, we noticed how pretty Beijing city is lit up in lights. This is a very beautiful city. What a showcase for the world in August!

Tomorrow... Forbidden City...

Beijing (d4) Tiananmen Square

Front Gate to Tiananmen Square. You can see Chairman Mao's Memorial Hall through the opening.


Monument to People's Heroes


People gathering chanting patriotic slogans to support and encourage the earthquake relief efforts.


Gate of Heavenly Peace and the entrance into the Forbidden City.

Today was suppose to be an easy day, no agenda, nothing to have to get done. Yet, it was an exhausting day. We're still recovering from the Great Wall excursion yesterday. All we really wanted to do was explore the subway system which was fairly straight-forward. We ended up riding it to Tiananmen Square, just 2 stops away from the Beijing Train Station. The country is commemorating those who lost lives in the Wenchuan earthquake by having a 3-minute silence at 2:28pm (one week to the minute of when the earthquake set off) and closing down all forms of entertainment for 3 days (no theater, no movies, no celebration, etc, and suspension of the Olympic torch relay). A group of young students passed out little white flowers. We decided to head to Tiananmen Square to see the activities, but missed it by a few minutes. The entire country is in solidarity to support and encourage those affected. It was quite amazing to see.

Tiananmen Square is a huge expanse of open space... very impressive. There were people everywhere! We will head back in the next few days and see the Forbidden City near by.

All this walking has made my feet very sore even with good hiking shoes. I'm putting my feet up for the rest of the night and get to bed early. Tomorrow is the Hutong Tour where we'll be riding in rickshaws and drinking teas in some one's courtyard house.

Beijing (d3) Great Wall

Spectacular view of the Jinshanling section of the Great Wall


Some portions of the Wall, especially areas less touristy, remain in ruins


Approaching Simatai section of the Wall where it looks like the back of a dragon


View from a tower


A short cut had taken us through a small farming community.

A very simple farm had livestocks with goats, chickens, one horse, and donkeys.



Simatai section of the Great Wall looking back to where we had come from


My tired and aching feet
















We woke up at 6am this morning to ride for 3 hours to the Great Wall of China from Beijing. The Great Wall is an impressive structure. We joined a tour that dropped us off at the Jinshanling section of the Wall to hike about 10km (I think about 6.2 miles and 4 hours) to the Simatai section of the wall. These are the least touristy area of the Great Wall because it is also the furthermost away from downtown Beijing. There were sections with very steep staircases (up and down) and very dangerous (some parts remain unrepaired and crumbling), not too different from the ones Frodo and Sam climbed on "Return of the King". We were exhausted! We actually had to take a short cut, led by some Hebei farmers/peddlers trying to sell us souvenirs (these Hebei farmers reminded us, then, of Gollum). The view along the hike was spectacular! We're taking a break from heavy sight-seeing tomorrow and have nothing planned but to look for a place to do laundry (apparently, these probably do not exist in the country...). Dinner tonight was Papa John's Pizza and corn flavored ice cream!

Beijing (d2)

Today was still a very tiring day from the jet lag and traveling. We decided to take an easy and just walk around the city a little bit, at least a few blocks from the hotel. We had good intentions to walk to Tian'anmen Square, but was just too tired. We found a really posh and ritzy shopping center-Oriental Plaza (more like the Court at King of Prussia in PA) with the latest fashions and really high end merchandise. This definitely does not resemble the China most people know from text books. I think the world will be quite surprised when they are welcomed here in August. After all that walking, we came back to the hotel and took a 4-hour nap! Even the loud trains outside my window would not wake me up from my slumber. I was dog tired!

Meals are always interesting ventures. It is trying to figure out what to eat that is the hardest part. So, tonight, it was hot pot. At least, we know the food is well cooked! We were tempted to try the Chinese version of Papa John's Pizza. But, after wandering around the mall (another one that is not as posh) for some time and not finding it, we settled on the hot pot place. It was almost perfect since it was as light (more veggies and not as meaty) as we can make it, and we can be really filled.

Tomorrow is off to the Great Wall. It will be an all day excursion!

Beijing Arrival

Greetings from Beijing! It is now 5am; I am up and about from the jet lag. This is an interesting city, very similar to the old Taipei I remember as a kid. People are everywhere! There are tall & modern skyscrapers interspersed by really ancient neighborhoods with narrow alley ways (hutongs). There are new constructions everywhere as well. The city is teeming with excitement for the upcoming Olympics. Our first impression of the city was the Beijing International Airport. How impressive that was! It's got the reputation for being the largest airport in the world (so far). We're staying at a hotel near the Beijing Railroad Station. The window to my room overlooks railroad tracks. It's a bit noisy, but didn't really keep me awake. I think I was just really tired from the traveling the day before. We were trying to find a place to eat last night in the Station, but couldn't get into the building at all without a train ticket. Wow... what a sea of people there! We'll be exploring the city some more today, at least figure out the best way to roam around.