I've not been feeling well the last couple of days so not much to report (not much interesting anyway).
We get one English TV station here (for free anyway) called CCTV English. It is basically just a news, current affairs and kind of China advertisement station. They have news at the normal sorts of times, then during the day some (occasionally) interesting shows about various parts of China.
This evening the top story was about a festival in what the rest of the world calls Tibet and here is called the Tibetan Autonomous Zone. From what I can gather (the various reporters don't always speak great English and the sound production can be pretty crappy) this is a festival that has gone on each year for the past 1000 or so (they make a lot of sweeping statements on Chinese news) and is about yogurt. This seems unlikely but it's been on TV two nights in a row (they also repeat a LOT of stories). Weird.
Incidentally, the news is incredibly dull.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Monday, August 29, 2011
Sunday - markets and more markets then the gym of weird
So today we went to the markets for a change! This time though, we were after clothes, at least I was because I seem to have neglected to bring enough shorts with me.
Short cycle to the shops, they are kind of near one of the embassy areas. Four floors of pretty much stalls, and they sell most of what anyone might need, t shirts, shorts, socks underwear, jackets, pants, shoes, bags everything.
Jane and Anita were bargaining for some t shirts, the lady wanted some huge price for them and when they decided to leave she followed them and started grabbing Jane and tried to bring them back. I ended up having to go back and pry her hand off Jane's arm, not very nice. Not sure why she thought behaving that way would persuade them to buy anything off her. Grabbing is not cool.
The vendors definitely start out high but it's kind of hard to work out what the right price should be. I found some shorts I quite liked and nearly choked when she said the price was Y280 (about $45). I started at Y25 and ended up getting them for Y90. I suspect I still got a bit ripped off but it seemed reasonable. I'm not very good at bargaining anyway.
Then we went to another multistory market thing, this time for tech products. There seem to be a bunch around, they had all kinds of laptops, screens, basic camera gear, projectors and as we went up there were more and more components like cases, video cards etc. Lots of fun.
After that, back to the apartment for a restful afternoon.
In the evening we decided to join the gym onsite at the apartments. It's called First Club. The price is similar to a gym in Aus (or so people tell me!) but this is not quite like any gym I've been to. After we sign up, the guy takes me through the change room. Shows me my first locker with some shoes (so I don't have to get my own shoes wet). Then we go to my second locker with towel, more shoes, coat hangers etc. All very nice. He shows me the shaving area complete with couches then downstairs to the showers, private giant spas (one with bubbles, one without) and games room, all in the men's locker room by the way! So if you want, you can sit and play video games while naked. Then I notice that I have to wear a swimming cap in the pool, so back to the front to ask if I can get one somewhere. "No problem sir, I'll bring you one." Well that was easy! I thought I was going to have to buy one.
It's at this point I think that I manage to lock my keys in my locker (they were in my shorts pocket). Grrrrr. So I am now half naked, trying to explain to the locker room attendant that my key is inside my locker while he looks at me blankly before saying something. I then look at him blankly. I did manage to get him to go and get the front desk guy who let me in. Note to self, don't do that again.
I walk through the disinfectant pool thing and into the proper pool. It's only 25m, but there are about 5 or 6 lanes wide which means I can have two to myself if I need them. Not really like swimming at home where there's about 8 to a single lane. Mostly people were just playing in the pool, no one but me was actually swimming. Oh well, I will take this time to get fitter I think. After that it's back to the locker room, sit in the spa for a while, have a look around then back home for dinner. I don't know whether gyms in other places are like this but we're certainly getting more for our money here than at home. Plus it's about 5 minutes walk from the house. Tomorrow I might go for a run.
Short cycle to the shops, they are kind of near one of the embassy areas. Four floors of pretty much stalls, and they sell most of what anyone might need, t shirts, shorts, socks underwear, jackets, pants, shoes, bags everything.
Jane and Anita were bargaining for some t shirts, the lady wanted some huge price for them and when they decided to leave she followed them and started grabbing Jane and tried to bring them back. I ended up having to go back and pry her hand off Jane's arm, not very nice. Not sure why she thought behaving that way would persuade them to buy anything off her. Grabbing is not cool.
The vendors definitely start out high but it's kind of hard to work out what the right price should be. I found some shorts I quite liked and nearly choked when she said the price was Y280 (about $45). I started at Y25 and ended up getting them for Y90. I suspect I still got a bit ripped off but it seemed reasonable. I'm not very good at bargaining anyway.
Then we went to another multistory market thing, this time for tech products. There seem to be a bunch around, they had all kinds of laptops, screens, basic camera gear, projectors and as we went up there were more and more components like cases, video cards etc. Lots of fun.
After that, back to the apartment for a restful afternoon.
In the evening we decided to join the gym onsite at the apartments. It's called First Club. The price is similar to a gym in Aus (or so people tell me!) but this is not quite like any gym I've been to. After we sign up, the guy takes me through the change room. Shows me my first locker with some shoes (so I don't have to get my own shoes wet). Then we go to my second locker with towel, more shoes, coat hangers etc. All very nice. He shows me the shaving area complete with couches then downstairs to the showers, private giant spas (one with bubbles, one without) and games room, all in the men's locker room by the way! So if you want, you can sit and play video games while naked. Then I notice that I have to wear a swimming cap in the pool, so back to the front to ask if I can get one somewhere. "No problem sir, I'll bring you one." Well that was easy! I thought I was going to have to buy one.
It's at this point I think that I manage to lock my keys in my locker (they were in my shorts pocket). Grrrrr. So I am now half naked, trying to explain to the locker room attendant that my key is inside my locker while he looks at me blankly before saying something. I then look at him blankly. I did manage to get him to go and get the front desk guy who let me in. Note to self, don't do that again.
I walk through the disinfectant pool thing and into the proper pool. It's only 25m, but there are about 5 or 6 lanes wide which means I can have two to myself if I need them. Not really like swimming at home where there's about 8 to a single lane. Mostly people were just playing in the pool, no one but me was actually swimming. Oh well, I will take this time to get fitter I think. After that it's back to the locker room, sit in the spa for a while, have a look around then back home for dinner. I don't know whether gyms in other places are like this but we're certainly getting more for our money here than at home. Plus it's about 5 minutes walk from the house. Tomorrow I might go for a run.
Saturday - markets and walking
Saturday and it's time to go to the food market again. It was still fun, we just went by ourselves this time and I'm starting to be able to hear the numbers when people call them out. Still lots of good fruit and vegetables, we got about 5 mangoes for about Y12 which is just under $2!!
After the market, we rode down to Wangfujiang St, which is pretty much the equivalent of the Pitt St mall. We left our bikes and walked around the inner city near the Forbidden City. We mostly stuck to the alleys and back streets, partly because they're much nicer and partly because walking down the main streets we get attacked by people selling tours, wanting to take us to Tiananmen Square, the Great Wall.
Kind of annoying after a while (especially when we were about 5 minutes walk from Tiananmen anyway). So we walked through the hutongs, past the front of the Forbidden City and down into Tiananmen Square. It's a very big space, pretty busy but looks empty just because of how huge it is. In the middle is Mao's Mausoleum (the Maosoleum :) but we didn't go in this time.
Down through the square then back through some back streets to Wangfujiang from the south. We looked in a few of the department stores, they are really strange. They sort of have the same setup as Australian department stores except that the departments are wildly different, it's not like they have shirts with shirts. They have shirts with tea and then toy helicopters and then camera gear.
We also wandered down "Snack Street" where I had been before looking at the scorpions and silk worms. When we got back to our bikes we saw that the night market was opening so we had a look around there too. Definitely coming back here, maybe not for the sheep's penis but other stuff looked good (there's nothing quite like walking away from a stall and having a guy shout "penis" at the back of your head).
Then we went to Paddy O'Sheas which is an Irish pub pretty near our house. They had the Beldisloe on all the TVs which was nice and we got a good spot just before the place filled with Australians and New Zealanders. Great game and we even won!!! After a bunch of drinks we decided to head back to MOMA (our apartment block) to have pizza at Charlie's. The problem was that we had more people than bikes so David (different David) gave his friend a lift and I gave a lift to his girlfriend who was pretty comfortable on the back of a bike (even one ridden by a slightly drunk me!!).
More drinks and pizza (mmmmm, pepperoni pizza) and then to bed
After the market, we rode down to Wangfujiang St, which is pretty much the equivalent of the Pitt St mall. We left our bikes and walked around the inner city near the Forbidden City. We mostly stuck to the alleys and back streets, partly because they're much nicer and partly because walking down the main streets we get attacked by people selling tours, wanting to take us to Tiananmen Square, the Great Wall.
 |
| From Central Beijing |
 |
| From Central Beijing |
 |
| From Central Beijing |
 |
| From Central Beijing |
 |
| From Central Beijing |
Kind of annoying after a while (especially when we were about 5 minutes walk from Tiananmen anyway). So we walked through the hutongs, past the front of the Forbidden City and down into Tiananmen Square. It's a very big space, pretty busy but looks empty just because of how huge it is. In the middle is Mao's Mausoleum (the Maosoleum :) but we didn't go in this time.
 |
| From Central Beijing |
 |
| From Central Beijing |
 |
| From Central Beijing |
 |
| From Central Beijing |
Down through the square then back through some back streets to Wangfujiang from the south. We looked in a few of the department stores, they are really strange. They sort of have the same setup as Australian department stores except that the departments are wildly different, it's not like they have shirts with shirts. They have shirts with tea and then toy helicopters and then camera gear.
We also wandered down "Snack Street" where I had been before looking at the scorpions and silk worms. When we got back to our bikes we saw that the night market was opening so we had a look around there too. Definitely coming back here, maybe not for the sheep's penis but other stuff looked good (there's nothing quite like walking away from a stall and having a guy shout "penis" at the back of your head).
 |
| From Central Beijing |
 |
| From Central Beijing |
 |
| From Central Beijing |
 |
| From Central Beijing |
 |
| From Central Beijing |
Then we went to Paddy O'Sheas which is an Irish pub pretty near our house. They had the Beldisloe on all the TVs which was nice and we got a good spot just before the place filled with Australians and New Zealanders. Great game and we even won!!! After a bunch of drinks we decided to head back to MOMA (our apartment block) to have pizza at Charlie's. The problem was that we had more people than bikes so David (different David) gave his friend a lift and I gave a lift to his girlfriend who was pretty comfortable on the back of a bike (even one ridden by a slightly drunk me!!).
More drinks and pizza (mmmmm, pepperoni pizza) and then to bed
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Mandarin lessons
So last night was our first Mandarin lesson over here. We started with the basics, simple pronunciation of the pinyin and moved on to some pretty simple sentences and conversation.
你好!
你好!
你好吗？
我很好， 你好吗？
我也很好
That sort of thing. In translation it means:
Hi!
Hi!
How are you?
I'm very well, how are you?
I'm also very well.
Not exactly the most stimulating conversation but we have to start somewhere I guess!
I do have the benefit of having reasonable pronunciation and perception at least. I spent a long time at uni learning how to hear and reproduce these sounds, it would be a shame if it didn't help at all. However Mandarin is on the lists as one of the most difficult languages for English speakers to learn, partly because of the tones, partly because of the idioms they have, but mostly because of the characters.
Learning the characters is going to be a big and difficult thing. In my class in Sydney some people asked whether it's possible to get by just by learning the pinyin (the Romanised translation of the characters) and our teacher said "not really". That was a serious understatement! Most of the time all you will see are characters and it's impossible to work out from context (at least for me) what any of them are. I spend a lot of time looking up stuff on my phone and trying to match them on signs and menus. So really the pronunciation is a pretty small (but important!) part of the process.
I'm really looking forward to the time when I can read a little and sort of understand something of what people say. I'm also coming to the conclusion that may not happen in the time we are here :)
So I have the first homework I've had for a while but there's kind of an incentive to do this, the more I can learn the easier life will be.
你好!
你好!
你好吗？
我很好， 你好吗？
我也很好
That sort of thing. In translation it means:
Hi!
Hi!
How are you?
I'm very well, how are you?
I'm also very well.
Not exactly the most stimulating conversation but we have to start somewhere I guess!
I do have the benefit of having reasonable pronunciation and perception at least. I spent a long time at uni learning how to hear and reproduce these sounds, it would be a shame if it didn't help at all. However Mandarin is on the lists as one of the most difficult languages for English speakers to learn, partly because of the tones, partly because of the idioms they have, but mostly because of the characters.
Learning the characters is going to be a big and difficult thing. In my class in Sydney some people asked whether it's possible to get by just by learning the pinyin (the Romanised translation of the characters) and our teacher said "not really". That was a serious understatement! Most of the time all you will see are characters and it's impossible to work out from context (at least for me) what any of them are. I spend a lot of time looking up stuff on my phone and trying to match them on signs and menus. So really the pronunciation is a pretty small (but important!) part of the process.
I'm really looking forward to the time when I can read a little and sort of understand something of what people say. I'm also coming to the conclusion that may not happen in the time we are here :)
So I have the first homework I've had for a while but there's kind of an incentive to do this, the more I can learn the easier life will be.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
The art of the velocipede
Today I mounted my trusty steed and rode off into the Beijing traffic. I have learned some more things and I will share my newfound knowledge with you:
I was in this bookshop because it was a cool place to go as well as to buy books for (Jane and) my Mandarin lesson later today. I was looking around the "Learn Chinese" section and managed to find the book in Chinese/Russian rather than Chinese/English when a helpful lady came up to me and asked me what I was looking for. I should point out at this juncture that all the learn Chinese books are spine side out as you would expect. What you may not expect for a book about learning Chinese (for beginners no less) is that all the words on the spines of all the books are in Chinese characters. NOT HELPFUL!!
Anyway, this nice girl looked at my picture of the book and took me to where it was. She asked me where I was from and I told her and she asked me if I wanted to look at other Chinese/English books too so I checked them out. I went to leave and said "Xiexie" (thanks for you non-Mandarin people) and she said wait, are you sure you have the right book. I said I think so and she said, I am not kidding, "but this is a beginners book, and you speak so well." I didn't have to heart to tell her I only know 2 words, but it was very flattering :)
On the way back I found a shop with a knight outside it, no idea why. He was just marching back and forth.
I also found an alleyway/market thing where they sold many scrumptious foodstuffs such as coconut, kebabs, dumplings, scorpions, bugs of various species, seahorses, starfish and many other things.
I guess if you want to eat a scorpion then that's fine (they're still wriggling by the way!!) but the poor sea horses looked so cute before they were stuck onto kebab sticks. Oh well.
- The traffic is much scarier when you're in it
- It's been a long time since I've ridden a non-motorised bike
- Riding in Beijing is really fun as long as there isn't too much traffic
- If there is too much traffic, the cars pull out into the bike lanes to try to get ahead. Without indicating or looking (or listening to my little bell!!)
I was in this bookshop because it was a cool place to go as well as to buy books for (Jane and) my Mandarin lesson later today. I was looking around the "Learn Chinese" section and managed to find the book in Chinese/Russian rather than Chinese/English when a helpful lady came up to me and asked me what I was looking for. I should point out at this juncture that all the learn Chinese books are spine side out as you would expect. What you may not expect for a book about learning Chinese (for beginners no less) is that all the words on the spines of all the books are in Chinese characters. NOT HELPFUL!!
Anyway, this nice girl looked at my picture of the book and took me to where it was. She asked me where I was from and I told her and she asked me if I wanted to look at other Chinese/English books too so I checked them out. I went to leave and said "Xiexie" (thanks for you non-Mandarin people) and she said wait, are you sure you have the right book. I said I think so and she said, I am not kidding, "but this is a beginners book, and you speak so well." I didn't have to heart to tell her I only know 2 words, but it was very flattering :)
On the way back I found a shop with a knight outside it, no idea why. He was just marching back and forth.
I also found an alleyway/market thing where they sold many scrumptious foodstuffs such as coconut, kebabs, dumplings, scorpions, bugs of various species, seahorses, starfish and many other things.
I guess if you want to eat a scorpion then that's fine (they're still wriggling by the way!!) but the poor sea horses looked so cute before they were stuck onto kebab sticks. Oh well.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
One week at a time?
We've been here just over a week. It seems weird to me that we'll be here for a year but given how long it's been since I lived in my house (having moved out about 4 weeks before we left), it doesn't seem weird that I'm not living there.
The time has flown by, there's so much to do to get settled and so much to do in the city as well that it feels like we've been here a month instead of a week. So even though I have seen friends and family recently, I am missing them. Hopefully we'll get some visitors soon anyway. We are heading back to Aus at the beginning of October though so we might get a chance to see people while we are back.
I think I've pretty much gotten over my culture shock. I still see things that are strange and odd, things that I find kind of disgusting, things that are awesome and things that are hilarious but I don't quite feel like I'm on another planet any more. Until I try to communicate with someone and then I remember that there are very few people here (at least that I'm interacting with) that speak my language and I had better get on and learn theirs.
I'm definitely enjoying the pace of life and the change from Aus. I see why people like to live overseas (and why some people get fed up, the language barrier makes it easy to have sympathy for people who give up) and like the expat lifestyle. It is possible to live here without knowing Mandarin (makes it hard though!!) and even without eating any local food but it isn't a life I want to lead.
So having got ourselves reasonably well established now, the apartment is sorted (I had some issues getting the power back on after it ran out today, a story for another day :), we have transport internet, we know where the shops and markets are, we know how to use the subway and pretty well how to get around town. Time for some new challenges. We start Mandarin lessons tomorrow (assuming I can get to the bookshop to buy the textbook) and I would like to start getting a little further afield and find out more about this city we are now living in.
If anyone has any suggestions on things to do and see then let me know. Definitely a return to the Forbidden City is on the list as well as the Great Wall, but I think we might add some more local stuff in as well.
The time has flown by, there's so much to do to get settled and so much to do in the city as well that it feels like we've been here a month instead of a week. So even though I have seen friends and family recently, I am missing them. Hopefully we'll get some visitors soon anyway. We are heading back to Aus at the beginning of October though so we might get a chance to see people while we are back.
I think I've pretty much gotten over my culture shock. I still see things that are strange and odd, things that I find kind of disgusting, things that are awesome and things that are hilarious but I don't quite feel like I'm on another planet any more. Until I try to communicate with someone and then I remember that there are very few people here (at least that I'm interacting with) that speak my language and I had better get on and learn theirs.
I'm definitely enjoying the pace of life and the change from Aus. I see why people like to live overseas (and why some people get fed up, the language barrier makes it easy to have sympathy for people who give up) and like the expat lifestyle. It is possible to live here without knowing Mandarin (makes it hard though!!) and even without eating any local food but it isn't a life I want to lead.
So having got ourselves reasonably well established now, the apartment is sorted (I had some issues getting the power back on after it ran out today, a story for another day :), we have transport internet, we know where the shops and markets are, we know how to use the subway and pretty well how to get around town. Time for some new challenges. We start Mandarin lessons tomorrow (assuming I can get to the bookshop to buy the textbook) and I would like to start getting a little further afield and find out more about this city we are now living in.
If anyone has any suggestions on things to do and see then let me know. Definitely a return to the Forbidden City is on the list as well as the Great Wall, but I think we might add some more local stuff in as well.
Monday, August 22, 2011
Transportation
So today with the assistance of one of Jane's colleagues, we went shopping for bikes. A bike is definitely a necessity in Beijing, everyone has one and rides everywhere. Walking takes a long time, the city is totally flat and very bike friendly (insane traffic notwithstanding) and it's a very suitable mode of transport.
Getting to the bike shop with Yuseiw was easy, she spoke and the taxi driver went. When we were at the shop, we got a card so we could get back. However once we tried to go back, we couldn't find a cab driver who could find it. We tried about 6 cabs before calling Yusiew and getting her to speak to him (thanks :). It turns out it was either because they just don't go that way often, or because the street name didn't match the name on the English side of the card. Either way, it was a bit of a pain.
It wasn't even all that far away, oh well. Once we got there we looked through their selection. They sell everything from single speed road bikes for about 5-600 yuan all the way up to serious racers for 45,000 yuan. We settled on some 3 speed bikes for about 900. Two bikes plus baskets and locks came to about 1900 yuan. This equates to almost $300 for two fully kitted out bikes, of a reasonable condition. It is possible to buy them for much cheaper but these were a decent brand and should last a while. We might even get some money back at the end of our year :)
So we pay, they adjust the handle bars and seats for us and we ride away. Jane immediately says "your wheel looks weird" and we stop and my wheel seems totally warped. Back to the shop we go, I show the guy and he adjusts the spokes for about 20 minutes. I thought the wheel was broken and he'd have to swap it but he knew what he was doing and soon it looked perfect! Shows what I know about bikes anyway.
Then we mostly work out ho to get home and it's on the road. Riding is a fair bit more confronting than walking, you're a lot closer to the traffic and people expect you to know what you're doing. However, following my rules for walking in Beijing, we made it home with no problems.
So now we are true Beijing-ren (Beijingers) having bought stuff from the markets, ridden our bikes through town and survived both experiences!
Incidentally, comments are welcome :)
Getting to the bike shop with Yuseiw was easy, she spoke and the taxi driver went. When we were at the shop, we got a card so we could get back. However once we tried to go back, we couldn't find a cab driver who could find it. We tried about 6 cabs before calling Yusiew and getting her to speak to him (thanks :). It turns out it was either because they just don't go that way often, or because the street name didn't match the name on the English side of the card. Either way, it was a bit of a pain.
It wasn't even all that far away, oh well. Once we got there we looked through their selection. They sell everything from single speed road bikes for about 5-600 yuan all the way up to serious racers for 45,000 yuan. We settled on some 3 speed bikes for about 900. Two bikes plus baskets and locks came to about 1900 yuan. This equates to almost $300 for two fully kitted out bikes, of a reasonable condition. It is possible to buy them for much cheaper but these were a decent brand and should last a while. We might even get some money back at the end of our year :)
So we pay, they adjust the handle bars and seats for us and we ride away. Jane immediately says "your wheel looks weird" and we stop and my wheel seems totally warped. Back to the shop we go, I show the guy and he adjusts the spokes for about 20 minutes. I thought the wheel was broken and he'd have to swap it but he knew what he was doing and soon it looked perfect! Shows what I know about bikes anyway.
Then we mostly work out ho to get home and it's on the road. Riding is a fair bit more confronting than walking, you're a lot closer to the traffic and people expect you to know what you're doing. However, following my rules for walking in Beijing, we made it home with no problems.
So now we are true Beijing-ren (Beijingers) having bought stuff from the markets, ridden our bikes through town and survived both experiences!
Incidentally, comments are welcome :)
The City is Fobidden
So today we decided that visiting the Forbidden City or Budao "Palace Museum" as it's called here. It's a nice day, warm but not scorching, not too much pollution. Turns out it's also the last day of school holidays. These are all terrible, terrible mistakes to make in China it appears.
After squeezing ourselves into the remaining cracks on the train to get here (quite pleased we made it without getting lost though), we followed the hordes to Tiananmen Square to find more hordes. If there are 1.2 billion people in China, at least a million were trying to get into the Forbidden City this morning, all pushing, shouting, getting in each others way and so on :) Also so many tour groups, all following someone with an umbrella and a little flag. Umbrellas are ubiquitous here, people use them all the time; sunny days, rainy days, normal days. This is all fine until you realise they hold their umbrellas at my eye height and they don't watch where they're sticking them.
We were supposed to meet some people at the entrance to the Heavenly Gate (it like everything else has a giant Mao on it) but we couldn't find them. There was a guy charging people for shooting pictures of them and then printing them out on his little portable photo printer which is pretty entrepreneurial I thought.
Once we got through the gate it was bedlam. I have never seen so many people outside of a music festival, all trying to get into the shade. We got to the ticket booths and the line was hundreds of metres long. We fortunately found our friends which is surprising, and we decided that rather than push through all the crowds, we'd go for a walk around the walls and then to Jingshan Park which has a temple on top of a hill. You can see the whole central city from the temple so we decided to go there. The way around the city was really nice, lots of shade, not too many people and some people out on the palace moat in peddle boats.
On the way around, some people decided to stop and ask Jane and Anita to be in a photo with them. Not to take one for them like we first though, but to be in a photo with some strangers.
On the way past we passed the corner of the moats, fantastic view. It was a bit misty so I will have to come back when it's clearer, maybe in the winter when the moat freezes over (no more peddle boats!)
The park itself is nice, lots of trees, lotus flowers in pots. Apparently an emperor hanged himself there (the people revolted against him, successfully, and he killed himself while blaming it all on his ministers!) which is nice! The vast majority of the tourists here are internal Chinese tourists which is a little odd. Not sure where they're all from, all over I guess. It does mean that most of the guides, signs and everything are aimed at them though which can be challenging.
We climbed to the top of a decent hill, Chinese steps all have a very small rise which is tough when you have longer legs! They're really tiring to climb up, but the view at the top was definitely worth it. The temple is pretty nice, has a giant gold Buddha who looks like he's trying to burst out, Hulk-style. Well sort of. The view over the city is fantastic, we are definitely going to come back on a slightly less hazy day. The Forbidden City itself is huge.
The temple has a view out all directions, the lakes to the west of the city centre look interesting, I think we will have to check them out when we get our bikes.
We climbed back down and had some lunch. One of the things about Beijing is that there are a lot of public parks and people spend time in them doing things that at home, they would normally do in private. This can include things like singing, dancing hanging out and also going to the toilet. We were serenaded by someone when we stopped for lunch, his music all sounded like seventies film scores and he was terrible! His mum seemed to like it though, she was there dancing away and clapping after every song so I guess that's something :)
After that it was a long walk back south to the other side of Tiananmen square. We took a quick look out to the square and saw the outside of Mao's Mausoleum, or the Mao-soleum as I shall be calling it from now on. This will need a return visit, as will the inside of the Forbidden City on a different day. It does look like it will be really pretty once the weather cools down so I'm looking forward to it.
As it is though, after all the walking on stones (bloody Beijing is all stones, concrete and marble), my feet need a couple of days rest. Back to the air-conditioned comfort of the apartment to enjoy the market food from yesterday and rest a little.
 |
| From Forbidden City and Jianshang Park |
After squeezing ourselves into the remaining cracks on the train to get here (quite pleased we made it without getting lost though), we followed the hordes to Tiananmen Square to find more hordes. If there are 1.2 billion people in China, at least a million were trying to get into the Forbidden City this morning, all pushing, shouting, getting in each others way and so on :) Also so many tour groups, all following someone with an umbrella and a little flag. Umbrellas are ubiquitous here, people use them all the time; sunny days, rainy days, normal days. This is all fine until you realise they hold their umbrellas at my eye height and they don't watch where they're sticking them.
We were supposed to meet some people at the entrance to the Heavenly Gate (it like everything else has a giant Mao on it) but we couldn't find them. There was a guy charging people for shooting pictures of them and then printing them out on his little portable photo printer which is pretty entrepreneurial I thought.
 |
| From Forbidden City and Jianshang Park |
Once we got through the gate it was bedlam. I have never seen so many people outside of a music festival, all trying to get into the shade. We got to the ticket booths and the line was hundreds of metres long. We fortunately found our friends which is surprising, and we decided that rather than push through all the crowds, we'd go for a walk around the walls and then to Jingshan Park which has a temple on top of a hill. You can see the whole central city from the temple so we decided to go there. The way around the city was really nice, lots of shade, not too many people and some people out on the palace moat in peddle boats.
 |
| From Forbidden City and Jianshang Park |
 |
| From Forbidden City and Jianshang Park |
On the way around, some people decided to stop and ask Jane and Anita to be in a photo with them. Not to take one for them like we first though, but to be in a photo with some strangers.
 |
| From Forbidden City and Jianshang Park |
 |
| From Forbidden City and Jianshang Park |
 |
| From Forbidden City and Jianshang Park |
On the way past we passed the corner of the moats, fantastic view. It was a bit misty so I will have to come back when it's clearer, maybe in the winter when the moat freezes over (no more peddle boats!)
 |
| From Forbidden City and Jianshang Park |
The park itself is nice, lots of trees, lotus flowers in pots. Apparently an emperor hanged himself there (the people revolted against him, successfully, and he killed himself while blaming it all on his ministers!) which is nice! The vast majority of the tourists here are internal Chinese tourists which is a little odd. Not sure where they're all from, all over I guess. It does mean that most of the guides, signs and everything are aimed at them though which can be challenging.
 |
| From Forbidden City and Jianshang Park |
 |
| From Forbidden City and Jianshang Park |
 |
| From Forbidden City and Jianshang Park |
We climbed to the top of a decent hill, Chinese steps all have a very small rise which is tough when you have longer legs! They're really tiring to climb up, but the view at the top was definitely worth it. The temple is pretty nice, has a giant gold Buddha who looks like he's trying to burst out, Hulk-style. Well sort of. The view over the city is fantastic, we are definitely going to come back on a slightly less hazy day. The Forbidden City itself is huge.
 |
| From Forbidden City and Jianshang Park |
 |
| From Forbidden City and Jianshang Park |
 |
| From Forbidden City and Jianshang Park |
The temple has a view out all directions, the lakes to the west of the city centre look interesting, I think we will have to check them out when we get our bikes.
 |
| From Forbidden City and Jianshang Park |
 |
| From Forbidden City and Jianshang Park |
We climbed back down and had some lunch. One of the things about Beijing is that there are a lot of public parks and people spend time in them doing things that at home, they would normally do in private. This can include things like singing, dancing hanging out and also going to the toilet. We were serenaded by someone when we stopped for lunch, his music all sounded like seventies film scores and he was terrible! His mum seemed to like it though, she was there dancing away and clapping after every song so I guess that's something :)
 |
| From Forbidden City and Jianshang Park |
After that it was a long walk back south to the other side of Tiananmen square. We took a quick look out to the square and saw the outside of Mao's Mausoleum, or the Mao-soleum as I shall be calling it from now on. This will need a return visit, as will the inside of the Forbidden City on a different day. It does look like it will be really pretty once the weather cools down so I'm looking forward to it.
 |
| From Forbidden City and Jianshang Park |
As it is though, after all the walking on stones (bloody Beijing is all stones, concrete and marble), my feet need a couple of days rest. Back to the air-conditioned comfort of the apartment to enjoy the market food from yesterday and rest a little.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
First China Weekend
So for our first weekend in Beijing, we started off going to the market. The market was just a local one, maybe 10 minutes walk from our apartment.
The place is huge and it was packed! People everywhere, pushing each other in true Beijing style. Some old woman tried to push me but I showed her :)
The noodle man was chopping noodles for all he was worth. Fresh noodles for dinner
They also had so many types of mushrooms!
We ended up buying about 2 weeks worth of groceries (including about 6kg of chicken) for about $25. I couldn't believe how much stuff we got.
On the way home there was a weird impromptu market by the side of the river ("river", pretty much a drain) where I was accosted by some guy, no idea why.
However, fishing in the canal/drain thing does not strike me as a good idea. Well I hope they don't catch anything, and if they do, I really hope they don't eat it!
This afternoon we took our first trip on the metro out to the China University of Geoscience which is about 1.5 hours away from the house (an hour on the train and half hour walk). Like everywhere else, there's a dirty great big Mao looking at me.
We were there to go rock climbing on an outdoor climbing wall. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I can guarantee you that it wasn't this:
It was fricking huge! Also it doesn't open in the morning because it gets sun. Once we started climbing the wall face was really hot at the top.
The climbing was fun, really long climbs though. We were taking some of the chinese Thoughtworkers for their first climbing session, they did really well. I did have to share my shoes with a big Chinese guy though, they only had one pair of shoes larger than 42 (they were 44's, still too small). He seemed friendly though. We also got talking to a girl who spotted my PADI bag, she had done her instructors in Malaysia, which was a bit of a coincidence. She backed up the theory that the only diving in China is Hainan island. Apparently they have diving clubs in Beijing but there's nowhere to go other than overseas.
On the way home on the train, there was a busker going through the train. He had the best china-fro I've seen so far:
All in all, it was a fun day, beautiful weather, fun at the market, first trip on the metro, climbing, meeting odd people and then a nice dinner of new, cheap market food. And tomorrow we're off to the FORBIDDEN CITY!!
The place is huge and it was packed! People everywhere, pushing each other in true Beijing style. Some old woman tried to push me but I showed her :)
We ended up buying about 2 weeks worth of groceries (including about 6kg of chicken) for about $25. I couldn't believe how much stuff we got.
On the way home there was a weird impromptu market by the side of the river ("river", pretty much a drain) where I was accosted by some guy, no idea why.
This afternoon we took our first trip on the metro out to the China University of Geoscience which is about 1.5 hours away from the house (an hour on the train and half hour walk). Like everywhere else, there's a dirty great big Mao looking at me.
On the way home on the train, there was a busker going through the train. He had the best china-fro I've seen so far:
All in all, it was a fun day, beautiful weather, fun at the market, first trip on the metro, climbing, meeting odd people and then a nice dinner of new, cheap market food. And tomorrow we're off to the FORBIDDEN CITY!!
The Hutongs
So hutong in Mandarin means alleyway, pretty much. This particular hutong (which doesn't have a hutong address for some reason) is called Nanluogu Xiang and is a former kind of crappy alley all done up. It's pretty targetted at tourists and it was fun. There are a lot of shops selling tourist type stuff like leather bound books, crockery, pens (I bought a mousepad cause I really need one at home :) and we also managed to find someone selling mojitos (they were pretty good!).
We then had some dinner on the roof of a restaurant which was very nice
Once we were done with the hutong we walked home. On the way home we went past "Ghost Street" which is one of the streets with heaps of restaurants. Everyone wanted us to come inside, we got yelled at by everyone as we went down the street!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)