China trip, day 2: Beijing: December 2014
We managed to sleep most of the night (though we did require a little help from an over-the-counter sleep aid around 12:45 am). After breakfast we managed to Facetime with the girls for a few minutes before meeting our guide and driver and to go to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Tiananmen Square is huge and the buildings surrounding the square are lovely, but there is not much to see besides just the enormity of the square. Apparently, the two of us are an attraction in an of ourselves. We had two women ask to take pictures with us (this happened at the Great Wall yesterday, as well) and there were others that didn’t directly ask, but were definitely posing themselves so that we were in the picture as well. (Taking pictures with Western/caucasian visitors is very common, lest you think that it’s really us who are really that important.)
After visiting Tiananmen Square, we crossed the street to the Forbidden City where we spent most of the morning touring. The Forbidden City which has amazingly intricate buildings (see pictures on Smugmug). The only drawback to the morning was the temperature. We have been really fortunate that there has been a breeze most of the time we have been here, meaning that the smog is not very bad; however, it is ridiculously cold and the wind amplifies the frigid temperatures. Even with the cold, we toured almost all of the Forbidden City that is open to tourists (apparently, only about 60% is currently open). Once we decided we were too cold to do anymore, we left to go to lunch.
At lunch, our guide got into a shouting match with a man in the restaurant. Apparently, Arthur (our guide) had reserved a specific table for us and the man was sitting there. We did not really care where we sat, but it was apparently very important to Arthur that we sit by the window at that particular table. In the end, we got the table, and our guide apologized to the other man after lunch. (Arthur recognized his accent as being from the Northeast portion of the country, where he is from, and commented that people from there are very stubborn.)
After lunch we went to the silk market where we were able to see how they process the silk from the cocoons of the silk worms. Even though the jade factory yesterday and the silk market today appear to be designed to sell to tourists, they are subsidized by the government and guarantee that the product is authentic. We decided that the ease of purchase was worth the possibility of paying slightly higher prices. We were able to get silk outfits for all three kids that will definitely look adorable.
After a nice afternoon nap we went to the acrobat show. It was a good show, though some of the stunts were a little terrifying to watch. We are glad we went, though it was pretty comparable to things we have seen in the US. Think of it as the “minor leagues” for Cirque de Soleil.
On the recommendation of the concierge at the hotel, we went to the mall for dinner. The mall itself was fairly similar to what you would see in the US with the exception of the two floors of fairly nice restaurants (interspersed with a Dairy Queen and Subway) plus a strange series of escalators, some of which skip floors (6 floors in total). We ended up eating at a Thai restaurant that was very good. One of the great things about Beijing (and I am assuming other large cities in China) is that nearly every sign is translated into English and all of the menus at restaurants have pictures of the food, so you can pretty much just point to what you want even if there isn’t any English on the menu. It makes communication a whole lot easier.
A few random things to include here so we remember them about Beijing:
- In addition to driving being crazy, as we mentioned yesterday, it seems like people just park anywhere they want. Along the side of the road, on sidewalks, up against medians.
- We saw a store that only sells accordions — drove by it twice, in fact.
- At first the smog wasn’t really noticeable but by the end of the second day it was pretty bad. Just before twilight there is this strange glow that engulfs the whole city. The scent is fairly distinctive too — smog mixed with stale cigarette smoke.
- We were really surprised to hear American Christmas songs pretty much everywhere — airport, hotel, restaurants, malls. We thought we could escape from it over here for a few weeks but apparently not.
- No one here wears sunglasses. We saw one Chinese person today wearing sunglasses that’s it. Not that we expected everyone to be wearing them, but especially considering the glare from the sun through the smog, it was surprising.
- The city is enormous — roughly square, 100 miles on each side — and flat. Some of the roads have 6 lanes going in each direction, and the same street might go straight for 20+ miles. Different parts of the city reminded us of different cities — busy parts look a lot like New York, quieter areas look like some areas of London. When we were at the Great Wall it reminded us of some of the valleys we drive through in Colorado.
- They seem to be opposed to heat here. Granted, this is probably the coldest time of year, but many places even inside have been extremely cold. The mall and hotel have been fine, but the heat hasn’t been on in the car at all. Lunch and the acrobatic show today were both frigid. Jeff is not a fan of tea but has been trying it just to stay warm, or at least to put his hands on the teacup to warm up.
Tomorrow we leave for Shanghai (about a 2 1/2 hour flight from Beijing). We don’t have a lot going on other than travel, but we will try to post a short blurb regardless. We finally get to meet Han on Monday, so we are just counting down the hours at this point. Good night from Beijing.
Thumbnails of the pictures are below; you can also view them, along with some videos, in the China: Day 2 SmugMug gallery.
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