This month of August marks two years since our epic trip to China and given the lockdown, time to travel down this memory lane.
A work friend and I had visited Shanghai in Aug 2018 and then decided to travel to Beijing over the weekend, to ofcourse see the Great Wall and other sights. We were to leave from Shanghai on Friday evening, but had the opportunity to advance this and with in-numerous permutations and combinations we had advanced our flight from Shanghai to Beijing by a few hours thinking we would get more time in Beijing. Where did we know that Murphy’s law decided that it was their day, infact their Trip!
Day 1: Woke up in the morning to a typhoon in Shanghai, hence heavy rains. Unsure if our flight would take off, we still proceeded to the airport. Checked in, boarded and 20 mins past ETD we hadn’t taken off. 😦 Again, everything in China happens in Chinese including flight announcements. The head purser then made an announcement which sent some irritation across the plane. On asking him, he responded in broken English – “Mechanical error, change flight”. Oh god! 1.5hrs of waiting, shifting to a new aircraft, and a 1hr wait at the baggage belt, irritated, we checked into the hotel at Beijing finally at 3pm!! We now had only 1.5 days in Beijing and we were determined to do the 2 main highlights – The Great Wall and Forbidden City and few other places.
Our first thoughts as we rode our taxi from the airport, Beijing is far more touristy than Shanghai and it looks like the capital city – huge, wide roads, maybe more populous as well. Beijing also has much more to offer from a tourist sight standpoint. But, in China, most tourist sights close by 5pm and the last entry is at 4pm = we barely entered our hotel, dumped luggage and sprinted hoping to reach Forbidden City before 4pm. This included, getting a metro map, understanding the stations to go to, buying tickets at the kiosk, running crazily across the station, using google picture translate to find our exit (yes even these are in Chinese!) , pushing and shoving our way through the queues to enter Tiannenmen square, sprinting for almost 1.5km; Phew! it was too close.
We did reach Tiannenmen square a little before 4pm and were blown away by the sheer size of the square. Everything in Beijing is huge and far apart! #PlanWell. We then started hunting for the entrance to Forbidden City – but we couldn’t find it – no sign boards, and no one to help. Misery loves company and there was this Turkish couple who were equally lost. After multiple futile attempts at getting directions, arguing with a Chinese guard who got sick of us and let us enter into one of the gardens, and playing google translate with another guard, we got to the entrance- but alas, we were late and it was shut! Damn Murphy! Disappointed and tired, but determined that tomorrow we will definitely make it!
We then spent some time walking around the Tienanmen area, admiring the vast expanses, gardens etc and then left to visit Hongqiao market. This is one of the top places for shopping especially pearls. Go to the 3rd floor and you feel like you are in pearl heaven! An entire floor lined with multiple stalls selling many many designs, one is spoilt for choice! #Tip – bargain hard! The Hongqiao market sells anything from watches, to stoles, bags, tailored clothes, some silk etc. One really could spend an entire day wandering and shopping here. After spending about 2hrs there we came back to the hotel to plan our next day – The great wall of China, Ming tomb and Forbidden city. Phew! What a day it was!
Day 2: Next day dawned and as Murphy would like it we woke up to rains!! But we were determined come rain or sun we will see what we set out to see.
There are 2 modes to get to the Great Wall – You could book yourself onto a day tour which would take you to the Wall and Ming tombs including lunch and a tour guide OR you hire a private car for the day. It isn’t recommended that you hail any taxi to go there as its fairly on the outskirts and stretches for the entire day. After a bit of dilemma, we chose the private taxi since it gave us the flexibility of times and we could spend as much time as wanted; anyway we were travelling and behaving like locals. He hired a private taxi from the hotel, yes negotiated for rates and set off to the portion of the Great Wall at Badaling. There are 2 popular sections of the Wall – Badaling and Mutiyano. We chose to go to the more popular and bigger section of the great wall, which is in Badaling. The Turkish couple we met the previous day had taken the tour to Mutiyano and weren’t happy at all and they recommended we do it on our own.
The Badaling section of the Wall is one of the longest sections open to public and is also quite crowded with Chinese locals. You will hardly see any foreigners (I guess they all go to Mutiyano – would recommend Mutiyano for a quieter experience). An early start at 6:00am and a 2hr drive from Beijing, there is a process to go up to the wall – long queue to board the bus to go to the cable car ticket counter, purchase cable car ticket, even longer queue to get to the cable car (includes pushing and shoving to jump ahead in the line), a 7mins ride up the mountain – all totally worth it!
From the initial views from the cable car to the time when you set foot on the wall, its marvelous. We initially wanted to climb up to the wall, but again, no one is willing to help with directions and no signboards, makes it difficult. Once up on the Great Wall you see why it has the name. Its an immensely majestic structure running across the mountains and a great sight to see. You can climb up the wall to any of the watch towers but be careful! The climb is steep and did I mention crowded! The Great Wall was meant to fortify China against the Mongolian and other invaders. Stretching across the country, there are only few sections of the wall accessible to public. Many sections of the wall has been destroyed in the past, some pieces been picked up by locals to construct homes etc. Hence only certain portions have been restored.
We spent a good few hours climbing up and down the wall and then decided to begin our descent. there are 2 ways to get down – back through the cable car or walk down. We wanted to walk down but couldn’t figure out the path. We just decided to follow some signs and finally found one English speaking local who confirmed the path to us. It took us about 30mins to descend, however we ended up at a different place from where we started #Facepalm. Retracing our steps, we were finally able to reach back to the spot where we bought our cable car tickets – though 45mins behind schedule!
We then quickly hurried to our next spot – Ming Tombs. This is where the last emperor and his wives were buried and this has been constructed bang in the middle of nowhere, amongst nature and yes its the only underground palace in the world. Its worth a visit purely to absorb the nature and admire the location. After spending a short while there we then headed back to our final spot which was Forbidden City again. It was 1:45pm by the time we left Ming tombs and it takes about 1.5hrs to reach Beijing. But it took us a bit longer given that Beijing’s traffic situation is worse than Bangalore!! It was 3:30pm and we were still 2.5km from Tianenmen square.
We decided to then rely on our feet – hence raced a bit of the distance, hailed a tuk-tuk for some portion of it, even got conned by the tuk-tuk driver who extracted more money from us and reached the beginning of Tianenmen square around 3:45pm. To enter the square and further towards Forbidden City you need to navigate the crowds, go through security clearance and walk close to 1-1.5km to the entry gate – we were so late, we sprinted – me ahead and my friend close behind. Sprinting, I could see the gate of Forbidden city ahead of me, turned around and my friend wasn’t there! I rushed and entered the gate at 3:55pm, still no friend in sight. I then spotted her running towards the gate, and while I tried explaining to guard to give it a minute he started closing the entrance. With an extra boost and a long jump, my friend leapt and made it to the other side, while the guard closed the gate behind her! Woah! That was close!
We caught our breath and then proceeded to the ticket counter, bought the tickets to enter into this magical Forbidden City. The Forbidden city is the palace complex housing the Palace Museum and was the former Chinese Imperial palace and state residence of the Chinese emperors from the Ming to Qing dynasty. This HUGE complex has about 980 buildings spanning 180+ acres. It looks exactly like in the movies, with all the grandeur, impeccable architecture and intricate designs. We were completely awestruck, not knowing where to start. We had a little over an hour and realised we wont be able to see the entire place – it really is a city! We picked a few highlights of the Museum like the Hall of Supreme Harmony, portions of Front Court, Meridian Gate etc and spent the rest of the time just walking through the complex – from the north gate to the south gate exit. I was particularly intrigued by the design of the roofs – just amazing!
You can easily spend an entire day in the Forbidden City and still have places left to see! The complex is very over-whelming by its sheer size and expanse and could be quite tiring to walk across – so plan well and stock up on some water and food.
It was around 5:30-6pm when we exited the Forbidden City, tired but exhilarated that we could accomplish what we set out to do. We spent a bit of time walking back and figuring out how to get back to our hotel to crash after a long, exciting and adventurous day!
China is a very different country to visit as a tourist. Beijing has so much more to offer and you can easily spend more than a week in this city. Yes, getting around as a tourist can be difficult, but this trip definitely builds a lot of confidence in yourself – in a country with a major language barrier, being able to navigate and start surviving the way they do, getting into the Chinese way of life..
Finally, some Tips to survive a trip in China –
- NO ONE speaks English – People are very hesitant to even try and help you, give you directions. All signboards are in Chinese too – Have all your apps in place – Maps, Translate, Search etc.
- Commute within city – traffic is usually high and that would mean negotiating (trying to) with a taxi driver. We ONLY used the Metro – the kiosks have English as an option, very easy to use and NO human interaction.
- Bargain – Chinese vendors quote really high prices and they know you will bargain. We have in some cases bought things at a price 60-70% reduced from the quoted price.
- Navigating crowds – concept of queues, waiting in line, patience – not so much – its a survival of the fittest -so be ready to push and make your way through crowds.
- Food – if you are a vegetarian, please carry enough food for the trip – adding the complexity of language barrier, finding veg food is very difficult.
- Cash – its largely a cash economy (or Chinese e-wallet) and ensure you have cash on you – withdraw from ATMs at your hotel.
- Check Closing Times – Plan well and check opening and closing times of all sights. Many places shut early.
Hope you enjoyed the Read.. Do drop in a comment, appreciate it!
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