Beijing, China

The imperial mecca of China, Beijing carries with it quite a bit of expectation. Showcased in the 2008 Olympics, I was extremely excited to see what this this city of massive coordination had to offer. Since our flight to Korea wasn’t for another five days, we had some time to kill. With a wide open agenda, we decided to spend the first couple of days getting a feel for the city.

The City

The first thing I learned about Beijing is that it is pronounced “Bay-Jing” not “Bay-Zhing”. Basically the second part should sound like the “jing” as in “jingle bells” not as in “genre”. Glad we got that settled.

The second thing I learned is that Beijing is large – certainly one of the world’s megacities. According to a recent 2010 Chinese census, Beijing is now home to roughly 20 million residents. Even more surprising is that it still ranks third in population after Shanghai (25.8 million) and Guangzhou (26.3 million). Nevertheless, Beijing is China’s most important city having long been the cultural and political capital of China. Holding the mantle of cultural attaché, Beijing has maintained a spirit and culture all its own. While the rest of China’s eastern seaboard has maintained an unrelenting bent toward progress, Beijing has largely bucked this trend instead holding to a noticeably slower pace of life.

After spending half a day navigating Beijing’s streets, subways, and squares, another all to noticeable observation is the “Sino-Sov” architectural disaster that engulfed the city from the 1950s through the 1970s. Large swaths of Beijing’s old city was leveled during this period and replaced with soviet inspired avenues as wide as football fields and large boxy concrete buildings that are all less than inspiring.

Luckily, the powers that be eventually redirected their urban planning process, and like most of the architectural world, probably wished that the 1970s never existed. The pinnacle of Beijing’s modern architectural movement has to be the CCTV (China Central Television) building and the National Centre for the Performing Arts. Both of these buildings have long intrigued me and I couldn’t wait to catch a glimpse of them in person.

Now, our preference would have been to stay at a small inn off one of the old hutongs (the narrow alleyways in the old part of the city) located in one of the historic neighborhoods just north of the Forbidden City.  Instead we opted for the Holiday Inn Express! I’m almost embarrassed to admit it. We go half way around the world to stay at one of the most American establishments in existence. The hotel was actually in a great location, just off a subway stop in the Dongzhimen neighborhood. More importantly, we had built up quite a nest egg of points over the past few years and jumped at the chance to use them for a free week of accommodation. Which finally gets me to the punch line of this random story. It just so happened that one of the best Peking Duck restaurants in all of Beijing lived right across the street from our hotel.  While its no Da Dong Roast Duck Restaurant, Jingzun Roastduck Restaurant is certainly in the top ten of duck establishments in Beijing, and at nearly ½ to ⅓ the price of its competitors, it certainly wins my vote for number one in terms of value.

My next favorite culturally relativist observation about China is the ubiquitous “children’s butt slit”. I know we’ve harped on this several times in our other China posts (see Sleeper bus to China), but COME ON. I’m pretty tolerant about a lot of things, but having to watch out for stray human feces lurking in the shadows along random pedestrian pathways pushes me beyond my breaking limit. Piggy back ride anyone?

Next on our list was the Houhai District. The area surrounding Houhai Lake, which is situated just north east of the Forbidden City, is one of the most serene escapes in all of the city by day transforming after sundown into Beijing’s epicenter for nightlife. Filled with restaurants, bars, nightclubs, music venues, tourist shops, and just about everything else, Houhai is a great place to spend at least one evening.

Tiananmen Square

Covering a massive 109 acres (9 football fields long by 5 football fields wide), Tiananmen is the largest city square in the world. It has been the site of countless historical events in both Chinese and world history including the memorable and infamous protests of 1989. The image of that student staring down a fully toothed military tank is certainly hard to shake while standing in the square. I was surprised (although I shouldn’t have been) to find that we were the only western looking, fair skinned people in the entire square.  Rather, the square was filled with Chinese nationals who had made the pilgrimage to Beijing from all over China. We met several Chinese students who had traveled from the rural outskirts of various Western Chinese provinces to experience their capital city. As the first western looking people they had ever met, they were as eager to get a photograph with us as we were to hear their stories. Never saw that one coming.

Forbidden City

China’s holy grail. The Buckingham Palace of the orient. Home to East Asia’s dynastic emperors for over 500 years, this special fortress had been cloaked in mystery for most of its life prior the political developments of the 20^th century. I would tell you some more interesting tidbits and anecdotes but in all honesty my mind fails to remember any. What I can tell you about the Forbidden City is that it is large and takes a full day to visit. The audio guide provided to every entrant is actually pretty legit and will talk your ear off for as long as your patience will allow it. And just in case you feel like practicing your dead, never used in real life language skills, the guide is even offered in Esperanto (aka a “perfect” language invented by linguists around 1890) – bizarre.

My favorite exhibit in the Forbidden City was a collection of highly ornate and intricate mechanical clocks previously owned by the Emperor himself and dating mostly from the 18^th and 19^th century. Amazing exhibit.

 Olympic Park

The last stop on our Beijing City tour was the Olympic Park, a sight that is all to familiar to anyone who watched the 2008 Olympic games. Indeed, both Beijing National Stadium (aka the Bird’s Nest) and the Beijing National Aquatics Center (aka Bubble Boy) are even more impressive in person.

Next up, the Great Wall of China – plus two other bonus sites.

 

Tags: Beijing, CCTV, China, Featured Posts, Forbidden City, full-image, Great Wall of China, Houhai, Jingzun, Olympic Park, peking duck, Sino-Sov, Tiananemen Square

Category: Asia, Blog, China, Destinations, Featured Posts, Pat's Blog