To Beijing or not to Beijing?

When you're met from the train station by someone as lovely as 'Emma' our hostel contact, then you can't but help immediately love the place you're visiting. Not only did Emma met us, but she also paid for our few stop bus ride to our hostel - green AND hospitable (considering that you're paying peanuts for the hostel itself).

So good arrival, good hostel and as it turns out - good location. We were hungry on arrival so headed out for the mandatory Peking Duck, only to find a big place on our corner with many ducks hanging succulently in the window and with many locals chowing down inside on this tasty dish. And it didn't disappoint. Sod the lonely planet recommendations that were 4km away - we found a great place for half the price on our doorstep.

So after a day or two just hanging out and settling in, Beijing was primarily about the following major attractions - Summer Palace, Forbidden City and Great Wall.

First up for us was the Summer Palace. We hopped on the (working, air-conditioned, lots of space) 'London Underground equivalent' and found ourselves a comfortable 20 mins later several km out of the city centre Summer Palace. This place is massive (as you will find most of Beijing is with one block normally being 1km in distance). We arrived around midday and found ourselves wandering around until closing time without even having visited all the parts yet.

A couple of observations. This place would be so much nicer without the constant grey pollution haze that now seems to dog it - you can imagine Empress Cixi parading around in the summer sun. It would also be much nicer without a million Chinese tourists - OMG - they are everywhere, they are loud and they have no idea what the verb 'to queue' means.

There is some amazing architecture here regardless, from the marble boat (built by crazy Empress Cixi instead of modernizing the navy at the time), the bridge with all the lions on it (where every one is in a different pose) and the other crazy bridge that is so steep that it's really hard to walk on!!!

Next was the Great Wall. Our hostel had a great tour out to a part of the wall that Lonely Planet says is technically shut to the public - hooray said we!!!! A nice quiet area without tourists!!!! So off we trundled and we had the most amazing time. The weather was scorching, but we bought along plenty of water and a good attitude and we scaled some really steep parts of the wall, conquered one corner that made us (all 12 of us on the tour) feel like we were kings of the castle and then chowed down into some amazing Chinese food at this very local place on the edge of the wall where we'd first started out climb. This was a great day - and the views (as the photos will attest to) were incredible!

Finally - after some rather curious issues trying to advance book our Tibet permits with the wonderful aid of Ismena Clout, without whom it seems our visit to Tibet would not have been possible - we made our way down to the Forbidden City. Again - without the hoards of Chinese Tourists or the searing polluted heat this place would be a quiet mystical amazement. As it is, the main central part is just a crazy rampage of pushing and shoving. If you make it up the right or left sides, however, to the clock display or the palace rooms then you get a much better impression of how life in the City would have really been. And this place is also massive. It's just ironic that all the most important rooms are named things like "place of heavenly peace and tranquility" and whilst you're viewing it you're surrounded by a million loud mouthed Chinese tourists with their guides howling over their loud speakers.....

Regardless of all the manic-ness - we loved Beijing. The people are friendly (and pushy and loud), the food is incredible (forget the major tourist priced hubs like Houhai and head for the streets just off them to the north and you get noodle soups and Peking Duck for incredible prices), the Hutongs have a brilliant sense of community (little side streets basically where every one lives) and the hospitality of China is (in 2010) above reproach - they want to make sure you have a good time and will do this at their own expense - how the Chinese appear to foreigners is the very core of their national pride.

Other things that I'll remember about Beijing:

• That the men have a habit of wearing their shirts tucked under their chests thus showing their midriffs - and this happens regardless of physique

• Tiananmen Square - You'll all be familiar with this infamous place because it was right here, in June 1989, that absolutely nothing happened. At all. To be honest it's not as vast a space as I was expecting, mainly because of the big buildings that have been erected in the middle of it. You have to ask if it really qualifies as a square if there are buildings in the middle. Oh, and it was also surrounded with very heavy traffic and pollution

• That women carry umbrellas always - open above their heads come rain or shine - frankly this step back to the fashion of the parasol is something that I reckon should catch on the world over! Though Sean would argue the point of the obvious tall person disadvantage...

• That spitting is common, but not as much as I was anticipating... And they're polite about waiting for you to pass before they spit the phlegm out - how nice of them

• Baoze - such wonderful steamed dumpling goodness!!!! And for pennies!!!

• That everything works here - the trains, the buses, the public toilets - it's all just as you think these public services should be. So far, 10 out of 10 for China. But this was only their capital. Who knows how the rest of the country will measure up?

We would find out soon enough, as we boarded the train to Xi'an...

BT9_Beijing 6-10 Aug 2010