(sorry this is a long one)

It was quite an inauspicious start. We were meant to stop in some random Chinese airport on the “direct” flight the travel agent booked for us, for only 1 hour 45 mins. It turned out to be more like 3.5 hours, but we did get some free pot noodles and some biscuits. It turns out that in this domestic airport they did not take visa or master card. They accepted cash (but we couldn't find an ATM) or Wepay/Alipay only.

Crawling into our rather expensive bed at the Hilton (a first night treat), we were pleased to have got to Beijing to a comfy bed and easy check in.

Getting a Chinese SIM, cash out and getting to our hotel was pretty easy, check in required Google Translate, but all good (glad I downloaded offline Chinese on Google translate as it came in handy a lot over the next few days).

We are staying in quite a local part of town, which means that we regularly almost got knocked over by electric scooters and bikes (actually that happens everywhere). One thing we have noticed is that footpaths aren’t necessarily footpaths, they are places that your scooter can travel more quickly than the dedicated scooter lane, or a handy place to park your car.

The subway system in Beijing was to become our friend over our time there, being very easy to use, and cheap. We purchased a pre-paid card at the beginning with 80rmb (cA$18) on it, and despite bombing around each day (at least 2 to 3 trips a day), we still had about 20rmb (cA$4) when it came time to hand it in and get our refund.

That evening we went on a “Foodie Tour” which took us to try some street food. It was ok, we got to try things and go to places that we wouldn’t have necessarily gone to i.e. we tried some Imperial sweets, which included something like sweet mushy peas pressed into a block (:-/) and donkey burgers (where apparently it was necessary to show pictures of sad donkeys at the restaurant…).

I think the best thing about the walking tour was that we met Emily, who had been living in China for almost a year teaching English – we were to spend the next two nights drinking beer with her in (much to Luke’s delight), a craft beer place.

Day 1 - Tian’anmen Square, Chairman Mao and the Forbidden City

It was 35 and pretty humid.

Tian’anmen Square is huge – a great open expanse of concrete. People sheltered in any shade they could get, this included in the shadow of lampposts, and under the umbrellas which housed the policemen dotted around the square.

We got to Mao’s mausoleum at about 11am, no queue and after dropping our bags off across the road at the bag check we followed the queue and walked straight into the mausoleum.

It was interesting, there were lots of Chinese people buying yellow chrysanthemums to lay in front of Mao’s picture.

When we got into the tomb room, it wasn’t as strict as Lenin’s tomb, and you weren’t as close, but as we walked in and went to follow everyone else around the right of his tomb, we were motioned to start a new pathway to the left. Just us, walking on our own… a little awkward.

I don’t think Mao was lit from within, but his face was lit up much more than everything else, so that it glowed, eerily.

Next to the Forbidden City – it was hot, there were lots of people, a lot of the palaces were closed off, and of those you could get to, you could only see the outside. Still we schlepped around for about 3 hours seeing everything we could (and didn’t have to pay more for).

This evening we had a good night out and spent far too much on food and beer with Emily (good food and good beer, but nonetheless not backpacker-worthy), and missed the last subway. You might think we partied hard… but the subway stops before 11pm! No taxi’s being available we caught a funny little three-wheeler, as long as you leaned into corners it was fine.

Day 2 – A trip to the Great Wall

We had read that the closest section of the Wall (Badaling) got absolutely rammed with crowds, but that the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall was only about 1.5 hours out of Beijing and had not only a cable car to get you up to the Wall, but had a toboggan to get you down, so clearly this was our choice!

The Mutianyu section appears on a lot of posters as it has some attractive Ming-era (1368-1644) guard towers and beautiful views. A 3km section was renovated (I think) in the 1980s.

The tour group included 4 Swedes, 2 French, Luke and I.

We chose wisely.

The Wall was relatively empty, which meant that we got to take great photos with no one in them, and the wall was actually peaceful to stand on, without hoards of people yelling at each other or pushing.

We also got to go walking on a bit of “wild wall” i.e. un-restored, eat apricots picked from trees we found on that walk and then climb back in through a window in one of the towers. All good fun.

Day 3 – A walk around the Houhai Lakes

We walked around some old Hutongs (alleys) and pretty lakes in the centre of Beijing.

Today it was 35 degrees and humid.

We did find a nice little restaurant for lunch to refuel on dumplings and Beijing noodles, a cold noodle dish with vegetables and a soy and red bean paste.

Day 4 – The Summer Palace

The Summer Palace was used by the royal family etc to escape the heat of the Forbidden City. It is a great big sculptured parkland with lots of temples and other buildings which have amazing names like: Hall of Benevolence and Longevity, the Garden of Virtue and Harmony and the Buddhist Temple of the Sea of Wisdom (you get the picture).

As every single English language sign reminded us, the Summer Palace was burned down by invading French-
Anglo forces at the end of the second opium war in 1860, and was rebuilt.

Today it was 36 degrees and humid.

We walked around the whole lake and up and over “Longevity Hill” (home of the Cloud Dispelling Hall).

We were walking around for about 6 hours, I lost my sense of humour after about 4.5hrs, with 3km to go. I did however gain heat rash around my ankles which makes me look a little diseased, even more so now I have cream which has turmeric in it, and dyes my skin yellow!!! So pretty.

We had Pizza Hut for dinner near the Summer Palace – don’t judge.

We then went to find a pub showing the State of Origin, which we found in the embassy district of Beijing, where we watched the mighty Blues beat the Maroons (convincingly) alongside a few Australians, and next to a group of Fijians (who went for Queensland, but thought it was good that NSW won to make the last game better). After many "cheers" with our new Fijian friends, we headed back to the hotel. Ready for the next day of schlepping.

Day 5 – Beijing temples and Roasted Duck

Today it was 38 degrees and humid.

We visited the Lama Temple, a large Buddhist temple in the Tibetan style, which was built in 1744. It is a very popular place for worship and accordingly was very busy.

Now I may sound like a prig, but if you’ve been to Tibet (anyone? Tibet?) then this wasn’t as exciting as all that.

The Confucius Temple was a bit different, and had lots of interesting exhibits (not just the content, but they were airconditioned) about Confucius’ life (interesting) and how basically how the whole world’s modern political and moral principals are based on Confucius’ teaching (a bit overblown).

We now have a two step description of places, if somewhere has air conditioning it is “interesting”, if it doesn’t have air conditioning, but is noticeably cooler than outside, it is “curious”. For example, in summer in Sydney the trains are interesting, in Beijing, they are merely curious.

We then went to another craft beer place for Luke.

Finally to end our touristy time in Beijing we went and had Roast Duck (Peking Duck). We went to Siji Minfu (Sorry Emily Da Dong was a bit out of our price range) at about 3.30pm, and got a seat immediately (apparently if you go at dinner or lunch you can wait up to 2 hours – and people do).

We had a roast duck (of course) and some sweet, sticky lotus root stuffed with rice thing. It was nice, a bit greasier than in Sydney. Still it had to be done, and the whole ceremony of the chef coming out and carving the duck at the table was good fun.

Here endeth the time in Beijing. Now it was just time to go back to the hotel room and pack our bags for the train (31 hours to Ulaan Baator – first class baby!).