Beijing and Back Again: Two Expats' Tale of Tackling the Chinese Capital

“Now it is a strange thing, but things that are good to have and days that are good to spend are soon told about, and not much to listen to; while things that are uncomfortable, palpitating, and even gruesome, may make a good tale, and take a deal of telling anyway.” 
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

~*~

Finally, I have given myself enough space from the trip to actually write the blog about it. As any English major would, I have called this trip "Beijing and Back Again: Two Expats' Tale of Tackling the Chinese Capital."Yes, I was inspired by The Hobbit to title this trip. My friend Julia and I had to go through many perils in order to enjoy Beijing during the Chinese National Holiday while we were there from Oct. 2nd-5th. We had to conjure up Bilbo's courage to make it through.

For those of you who don't know, the Chinese National Holiday is a week-long holiday used to celebrate the day the People's Republic of China (PRC) was founded on October 1st, 1949, at a ceremony in Tiananmen Square, Beijing.  In many ways, it was perfect to visit the Chinese capital during National Week, 64 years after the PRC was founded. During the week, Tiananmen Square is decorated in festive attire showing pictures of Mao Zedong, the founding leader of the PRC. Tiananmen Square has even more history, having been the setting of the infamous Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989.

Before we left on our little voyage we joked that since Julia and I were voyaging together we would need a chaperone. Little did we know, that that was exactly what we needed, preferably one that could speak Chinese. In appropriate fashion, we got to the train station a whole hour ahead of time and patiently waited by our platform for the fast 5-hour train to Beijing. We even got some McDonalds so we wouldn't be hungry on the train. So as the minutes clocked down, we were getting anxious that a train wasn't arriving at our gate. We got up and asked some officials if we were at the right gate and they all assured us that we were. Then one person said, "the middle."

We panicked and finally saw the line we were supposed to be in, except it was for the next train. We had missed ours. It turned out that the only seats left were in first class and we had to pay for them, along with a ticket exchange fee. It was painful to hand over those bills. Even more painful, however, was the ticket teller explaining to us in Chinenglish that the new ticket was for tomorrow, and not today. We walked away totally disappointed, but willing to come back at 5pm the next day, giving us only two days in Beijing. I wanted to make sure though so I asked someone at the line forming at our new platform.  Apparently the teller mixed up her "today" with "tomorrow." We were soon on our way in comfortable first class seats.

We arrived in Beijing and quickly got on the subway. The subway stop we were supposed to get off at was closed, so we took a cab with this other expat couple. The taxi driver was really nice, but to a fault. There were times where we stopped the cab and walk around so he could get his bearings. A lost taxi driver is never a good sign. Finally, we got a map from a nearby hostel and walked over to it, ditching the cab driver on the way, although he looked pretty content with coming with us.

The front desk worker couldn't speak English and couldn't find our reservation which we made a week ago, so gave us an empty room instead. The next morning we woke up early and went on a Great Wall Tour. It took us four hours in traffic to reach the Wall but when we did it was worth it. There were very few tourists in our "secret" location. We hiked up and down the mountains through the history that has shaped modern day China.

An archaeological survey has found that the entire wall with all its fortifications measures 13, 171 miles. It was beautiful and I took some of the best pictures that I have in a long time. My legs hurt for days after though. The Wall is not the easiest thing to master, especially when it is extremely windy and you didn't bring a jacket.

We took the long bus ride home that night feeling accomplished--we had hiked on The Great Wall of China! Success! When we got to our hostel, however, the owner was there apologizing that they were fully booked and we would have to find another hostel. I tried to summon my inner travel agent mom who would have never accepted this, but she was a nice woman who offered to take us to a partner hostel and receive 20% off. Unfortunately, the hostel was further than our previous hostel to the Forbidden City where we were going the next day.

Ironically, the Forbidden City is easy to enter,
with the huge picture of Mao ushering you in, but difficult to leave. Julia and I had to pay 2RMB to leave….which is like 20 cents, but still! Overall though, the Forbidden City was awesome to see, even with the Beijing smog. We saw the Dragon Wall, a golden throne, art pieces galore, and the architecture that has become symbols for the Chinese people and culture. I also found a Beijing spoon! (I collect spoons from each new city I go to).

Afterwards, we were planning to meet up with my friend Henry who is a teacher in Beijing, who is the son of a friend of my dad's. At the meeting time my phone ran out of money and the Forbidden City was closing (guards barely let us exit the way we came back to meet under the picture). We jumped on the metro to the next stop to add money to my phone, but we couldn't find a store. Instead, Costa Coffee came to the rescue! I emailed Henry who met us there.

He took us to this great famous Peking Duck restaurant and then to KTV (karaoke) afterwards. The duck was the best I have ever eaten. There was a special sauce that makes the duck taste exquisite. The karaoke was a blast! KTV is really popular in China and it was fun to finally do it and with people who like to sing!

The next day, and final day, we walked around Tiananamen Square where the smog is the main thing in all of our pictures. Even through the rough patches, Julia and I made it back to Shanghai, this time with a 2nd class ticket and the right train, with a bunch of memories and stories to tell our friends.

A video I created with clips of my Beijing trip for my internship with City Weekend: