BEIJING!!!

Wow! It's been quite a while since I've written - there are so many things to write about that I kept putting it off and off…..I went back to Penang immediately after Beijing to visit with the family - I know it's only been a month since I've seen them since the wedding but…..Well, actually the main reason was also to spend time with my good good friends, one all the way from Birmingham and her GORGEOUS son!

Beijing was our 'home' for 7 days 6 nights facilitated by Air Asia X and its Go Holiday package. I tell you, as Air Asia gets bigger and bigger, I thank them for the opportunities they give to wee people like me to travel the world but I would also pray fervently that they get their customer service improved. Any time I have contact with Air Asia personnel, I inevitably end up feeling like I've gone through a wringer - try calling their hotline! I tried 1300-88-9933 at 8.10am (10 mins after they supposedly open) but this must be an old number cos I didn't get ANYBODY! So I had to get on the net and trawl around for their call number which is something I can't remember now…..Then after waiting for ages, I was told that I have to call another number for queries about their Go Holiday packages - apparently it's a different arm. And mind you, the call agents at Air Asia are always unfriendly and brusque when I call them. So remember this number 03-8775 4141 for Go Holiday packages - strangely though, I got someone friendly for a change.

LCCT taxi - very efficient and effective and cost friendly is 03- 9223 8080.

So anyway, going away was fun. We had an 8.30am flight and woke up at 4.30am all ready to jet off. Both of us were excited about going to see several wonders of the world and I was most definitely anxious to start shopping even though I was warned by several veteran Beijing visitors that there isn't much to buy. I was very looking forward to buying the classic strand of pearls from the famous Pearl Market……

Our flight was taking off from the new wing of the LCCT and needless to say, we were delayed a little bit - an hour - I am sure Air Asia times these things - just ensure the delay is not any longer than the 'meal voucher and penalty payment' period dictates.

(As you can see from the last pic, everything on the inflight entertainment menu is pay per access).

No issue, we arrived in Tianjin and got on the the blue logo bus waiting just outside the arrivals door for the RMB10/person trip to the very cool train station where we'd catch the HIGH SPEED BULLET train to Beijing. That cost us RMB58/person, 1.5hrs of waiting and 1hr travel time. The speed peaks at 330km/h. It was the easiest way to get to Beijing in a hurry so it was also packed!

Arriving at Beijing South Railway station, just go straight towards the taxi stand to join the long long line. It's a good thing the taxis are numerous and almost non-stop so the line moved extremely fast! We had booked our room at a 5 star (local/International???) hotel that was quite new so we had a bit of a challenge telling taxis where it was. But one very very sweet Beijing girl called the hotel and gave directions to the driver. Actually Beijing public is very very friendly, very helpful and we even had one girl (from Guilin though), who left the bus stop where she was waiting for a friend, to take us somewhere!

The taxi drivers ALL use the meter except some waiting at the airport and train station randomly. Also one terrible guy who quoted us RMB60 for a trip from the Hong Qiao Pearl Market (near the Temple of Heaven) to take us to somewhere in Wang Fu Jing…..Btw, if you are at the Pearl Market near sunset when they close (7pm), be aware and wary of the many women with bundled children who will approach you for 'donations'!!! They are relentless and quite scary. We didn't see many other beggars besides one more fat guy at the Great Wall of China who looked more drunk than hungry….Many people though were trying to make ends meet by collecting the plastic bottles of drinks everyone seems to buy. For recycling - one email calls them 'The Garbage People' but there was one we saw at Xidan who was pushing along her father or her husband in a wheelchair, who looked perfectly happy! She was smiling away and chatting with him….so - money ISN'T everything!

Anyway, I digress. Too many things to write so I shall outline the highs and ummmm…mediums of our trip!

HIGHs

Eating exotic creatures at Wang Fu Jing Xiao Che Street (Small Eats Street) - we had scorpion, cicada, llama meat, sea snake, sea horse and JH had a bite of WORM!! I just couldn't bring myself to try the worm cos its head was there and its eyes and its stubby almost not there legs. PLUS, JH said it smelled, but that would've been the least of my problems!!!

Starbucks at the Great Wall of China - not that that's a high really but it's just amazing!!! It's a shop down at the township at is at the entrance to the Badaling portion of the Wall which we went to. Btw, the township is half dead! Ke sian!!!

Hollyear Hotel, Guangqu Road, Chaoyang District or the Bai Huan He Yi DaJiuDian - most of them can't speak English but the service was very good and the rooms were great and it was very very close to the Shuang Jing subway stop, a 24hr McDonalds as well as shopping malls!

Climbing the Great Wall of China - what to say? What do I NEED to say? We climbed up but took the cable car down. We spent about 2-3 hours up there, slowly climbing.

The weather at 14 degrees Celcius.

Metered taxis and their willingness to go wherever you want.

The helpful public in Beijing - besides most of the police and soldiers who probably are too elite for us to talk to.

Seeing Chairman Mao Tse Tung's embalmed body in the People's Hall in Tian'anmen Square.

The wind at the rocks of the Little Island at the Summer Palace.

Doorless toilets - I thought I'd seen the last of these in Chengdu and Tibet but no!!! I saw one set at a SHOPPING MALL!!! The Gong Mei Da Sha shopping place which our hotel recommended us (in Wang Fu Jing) but it was just full of touristy stuff. The top floors are like outlet malls with discounted brand clothes, bags and shoes but nothing to my fancy! Pitty.

The Olympic Bird's Nest and Water Cube!!!! The wind there when you walk from the Subway Station (get off at the Olympic Green stop) - there are loads of people flying long long kites which vendors sell for 20RMB I think….

Cute kids - the babies there look really cute cos they are chubby (but not oversized) and they all come with reddened cheeks - do you think there is a checklist one can check off desired traits????

Xidan Shopping Centre is a more affordable shopping place for 'bargain' hunters. Especially visit the section (there seems to be 2 wings - a better one and a more Sungai Wang type) with the Snack section on the Ground Floor. BECAUSE the top floors are all clothes, shoes and bags, accessories……AHHHHHH!!!! We were abit short on cash due to a terrible cashier at the Lao Shi Teahouse (you'll read more of that later) so I didn't buy anything…..besides the fact that I was kinda tired and didn't really see much that I had to have.

The Face/Mask Changing portion of the Cultural Show at the Lao Shi Teahouse. The Teahouse is extremely famous in Beijing cos that's the one all the Presidents, Prime Ministers and Premiers visit. The show is supposed to be superb but I had watched one of almost equal quality in ChengDu for 1/3 the price.

The Quanjude Peking Duck restaurant. In Wang Fu Jing, it's located at a very weird side alley - don't know how people find it. We found it by accident even though we knew we wanted to go there since it was FAMOUS. A little after the Gong Mei Da Sha 5 storey shopping place when it's on your right, down a little side alley on your right and the restaurant is on your left. We found there is also one branch near the subway stop near our hotel (Shuang Jing!!!) Hahhahaha….. It's absolutely delicious and I don't even eat duck!!

Yoshinoya Café (yes like the one that's in Malaysia!!!) near Shuang Jing subway stop. It was the first good meal I enjoyed in dayssssssssss!!!! I don't really fancy Beijing food…..

The Imperial Park inside the Forbidden City.

Being with my husband 24x7….

MEDIUMs

The Forbidden City which just had long long wide wide expanses of concrete and bridges and tiny 'palace' buildings. You can't enter any of them!!! They're all blocked off at the doorways and all you can do is jostle and elbow your way to the front, peek into the doom and gloom and take a couple of obligatory photos and leave….No aura pervades, no awe inspiring architecture, no wondrous facets.

The Temple of Heaven where you pay RMB15 to get into the Park surrounding it and then RMBx to get into the Round Mound, RMBx to get into the Echo Wall and RMB20 to get into the Temple itself!!!! The first and only (as far as we know) attraction in Beijing where you have to pay extra to see the actual site itself!!!! Here I see the same dragon designs and blue, green and gold colours from the Forbidden City. The only thing I learnt was that it was built without a single nail. Hmmmmrmrmph! Again, you can't enter! Again long expanses of concrete to walk upon before you reach anything of so-called value and god help you, if you visit in SUMMER!!!

The boat ride at the Summer Palace where if you get off on one end your ticket is 'burst' even though the signage at the ticket office says round trip - no worry, just walk off to one side and you can exit via another ummm, exit. The thing about these places - North, South, East West exits!!!

Hong Qiao Pearl Market - stacks upon stacks upon stacks of t-shirts, shoes, bags - none of which interested me. You can see the rather crude quality but besides that, the style was just not very pretty. I did buy an imitation Co@ch handbag at the Silk Market though (a different location!) for RM20. I think the sheer volume of stuff to sift through and bargain for just exhausted me before I even started!

Nan Men Hotpot which was recommended but was absolutely yucky!!! Oh my god! I enjoy my lamb but the peanut sauce was just to die for (in a negative way!!!!!!!) JH hated it with even more of a passion! The other recommended one was Ding Ding Xian hotpot but we weren't going to risk it!!!!

The little waste baskets in the toilets that hold everything!!! (Check Chengdu and Tibet posts from a couple of years before!! Heheheh)

Hotel not providing Body Lotion and nowhere in Beijing selling it - finally found 1 generic brand at Watsons.

Squeaky bed!

Sky high prices - a normal blouse in expensive shopping malls cost RMB598 and RMB298 in cheap shopping malls! Really pretty foldable umbrellas that cost RM150!!!! (Please be careful to note when I use RM for Ringgit Malaysia and RMB for RenMinBi - the exchange rate at the moment being almost half).

Weird/different fashions that didn't appeal to me.

And finally!! The BIG CON! Almost the one and only CON. For those of you travelling to the Great Wall of China - NEGLECT READING THIS AT YOUR OWN PERIL!!!!!!!!!!!

We took a subway (Jishuitan stop) to the DeShengMen Long Distance Bus Station for our No. 919 bus to the Badaling Section of the Great Wall. (Btw, Badaling being the most restored but most advised against in the internet is mostly frequented by the Chinese while other areas like Mutianyu and etc. is visited by Mat Salleh - cos that's what the Lonely Planets and TripAdvisors say).

It was about a kilometer or less from the subway entrance to the bus station. We encountered 3!!! Read that 3!!!!!!!! Cons along the way!!!

First a good looking, well dressed man with a little red flag told us that there were no public buses going up to the wall as the was road construction going on, only his bus was going…..and we could partake in the pleasure and save our Beijing trip from being for naught by paying him RMB200 per person per way for it. A lot of 'let me tell you, do you understand' going on before we extricated ourselves and walked on a little further. This is at the first bus station looking place after the subway.

Another guy, with another little flag, seeing us walk away from the first one, tried to entice with the same story but a much lower price - only RMB50 per person per way using a taxi!!!! He tried to put us with another 3 tourists…..I was extremely suspicious cos I'd never read about any road construction going on in my research before coming and I realllllly didn't think the Government of China would stop tourists from going to one of their major sites just because of a little road construction!!!!!

We walked back a little bit and decided to ask the public! They told us, "Walk on further!!!! 500meters more. DO NOT LISTEN TO THE TOUTS! Ask people with the Department of Public Transportation uniform on. The bus still goes!"

And so we walk back - this time completely unharassed by the touts. We approach a couple of men with the official uniform on and this was the biggest disgrace of all! The man told us and another German couple that we were too late for the buses! A one way trip was 80km and it would be too late for us (at 11am) to go, visit and return. He sold us a potential solution, sharing a cab up and perpetuated a lie one of the touts had spouted earlier - that the touts were an arm of the business by the Govt. to get to the Great Wall. We translated this to the German couple, thinking we could at least believe a man in uniform. Sad to say, all we did was spread the lie. He hung around which raised my suspicions - he kept urging us to share a cab and finally, thinking that he must be getting a cut and therefore shaking his credibility as a reliable source of information, JH decided to just walk on down the road and postpone the Great Wall Walk to another day when we would get the fast train instead. Btw, research shows the fast train costs RMB17/person!

So we bid bye bye to the German couple and walked on further down the road. We stopped yet another No.919 bus to ask (JH being dissatisfied with previous nonchalant 'NO' answers by other bus drivers) and the kind man told us to walk on further to the actual bus station. And this is where we are gob-smacked!!! Just a little bit down the road, probably about the 500 metres the kind public had asked us to walk, was the Deshengmen Bus Station with the No. 919s sitting in a line awaiting customers! The next bus was scheduled to leave in 10 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!

We rushed forward, got on, paid our RMB12/person!!!!!!!! And settled in for the journey. The bus gets full up pretty fast but not a problem, they jalan every 0.5 hour and there are lots and lots of them! JH whispered the cons back along the main road and the bus driver just smiled knowingly if not resignedly.

SO when you want to visit the Great Wall of China with the bus - just get off the Jishuitan (Blue Line - No. 2 I think) and walk down the main road (no need to cross any roads!!!) until you reach a large fake/replication of a GREY STONE GATE (looks like the Ming Wen Gate). The bus station and the No. 919 is there! IGNORE EVERYONE along the way telling you there are no more buses or that you are too late or that the sky is falling down!!!!!!!!

Seriously!