My love/hate relationship with China

When we were in Thailand last year Scotty and I said we would never go to China. The Chinese tourists we'd experienced in Pai, Northern Thailand were loud, rude and pushy. And yet here we were, flying from Malaysia to Beijing! And we soon learnt that what we thought was 'rude' behaviour was actually quite normal in China. And not only 'normal' but it was necessary. When you're living in a city with over 21 million people you don't have much choice but to be pushy and loud. 

When we decided to go to Hong Kong for Scotty to race I thought it would be crazy to be so close to Beijing and not stop in and see the Great Wall of China. So that's what we did. 

Sipping on a hot chocolate in the bar at our hotel

Although we've been to quite a few Asian countries, China was definitely a culture shock. The number of people that could speak English was at a minimum. Taxi drivers had no idea where we wanted to go and hotel staff couldn't understand a word we were saying. We soon became very good at hand gestures and pointing! One thing that made things easier was having the name of hotels and other places we wanted to go written in Chinese, because if the locals can't speak English there's not much chance of them being able to read it either!

The next surprise came when we tried to access Facebook to let friends and family know we'd arrived safely. It turns out China has banned Facebook! I know, shock horror! How were we going to survive 4 whole days without Facebook!! #firstworldproblems

I'm going to start with a story about one of the more negative experiences from Beijing. When I first wrote this post I had this story at the end, but I'd rather finish on a positive note, so I'll squeeze it in here instead.

On our final night in Beijing we went to a restaurant that specialised in hot pot meals. I'd seen so many people having them since we'd arrived so I really wanted to try one. We had no idea how they worked and there were no English speaking people in sight. To cut a long story short - just because the word duck is on the menu, does not mean you are getting any meat... The duck was purely flavouring in the broth. So, when you're ordering you need to order the flavoured broth of your choice as well as a selection of meats and vegetables to cook. Suffice to say we had a rather interesting meal that night, but we're now much better educated for next time! (We had a fantastic hot pot meal in Tokyo on a random night out with some locals, so stay tuned for that in the coming weeks!) 

A big downfall to that night in Beijing was the group of men sitting at the table next to us. They were drinking and obviously having a great time, but this also involved chain smoking the whole time too. As annoying as that was, we were getting used to the fact that a lot of countries still allow smoking inside restaurants and bars. What I couldn't stand, and what really made for an unpleasant experience, was the fact that they were not only throwing their cigarette butts on the floor, but they were also spitting on the floor next to their table as well. And just when you thought that was enough to make you gag, they proceeded to blow their nose into tissues and then throw them onto the floor as well. Yuck!!

Now onto a couple of tips for traveling to China: 

1. There are people who spend their time wandering around the tourist spots listening out for people that speak English. They will spark up a conversation with you and then invite you to go with them to 'practice speaking English'. THIS IS A SCAM! We had this happen on a number of occasions so I was glad I'd heard about it before we arrived. 

2. Taxis don't drive down hutongs to your hotel. Some cars will drive down, but really there's not enough room, so taxis will not. And it's perfectly normal for someone from your hotel to call their mate to get them to take you to the airport at ungodly hours of the morning. It's actually quite a reliable way of getting there. You pay the hotel in advance, the 'taxi driver' will come right to the front door (even down the hutongs) and take you where you need to go. Your other alternative would be to carry your luggage out onto the main street and try to hail a taxi, and at about 4am, you'll be struggling to find anyone out and about, let alone a taxi. NB: It could be a bit busier earlier in the morning during the warmer months, but we were there in the thick of winter!

3. Speaking of taxis - be sure to steer clear of 'black taxis' or taxi drivers that try to approach you at the airport. They will charge a lot more than a regular taxi. Follow the signs towards the taxi rank when you're at the airport. It's always a good idea to have a rough estimate of the cost of getting from the airport to your hotel before you arrive, this will help you to identify scammers that are trying to charge too much. We knew our taxi was going to cost about 85CNY, so when they said it would be 650CNY we knew it was a scam. We ended up paying 125CNY which we were happy with. 

4. On a more comical note - If it's the middle of winter, do not wear shorts! The locals will point and laugh (without trying to disguise the fact that they are actually laughing at you) and will insist on taking your photo when you're not looking. They will also stampede you in the street to have their photo taken with 'the crazy foreigners'. We learnt this quite quickly and Scotty made sure he wore pants for the rest of our time in Beijing. 

The hutong where we were staying

And now for the good bits!

The architecture in Beijing is incredible! A few must see places are:

A. The Forbidden City (also known as the Palace Museum). You can pay for an audio tour which is a great way of knowing what you're looking at, and a lot cheaper than paying for a guide. They pause and reset if you walk ahead to the next building so you don't have to wait around. From memory it was about a 4 hour 'tour' and we weren't planning on spending that much time there, so we found the audio tour very useful. 

Forbidden City

B. To get a fantastic birds eye view of the Forbidden City I would highly recommend going to Jingshan Park. If you pay to go into the Forbidden City, walk all the way through to the other side, exit the Forbidden City and cross over to the other side of the road, you'll come to Jingshan Park. Bear in mind there are lots of underpasses/walkways and fenced off areas around, so you can very rarely just 'cross the road', you will generally have to walk under, around and across to get to the other side.

Jingshan Park

The central most point of Beijing

C. Tiananmen Square is such a cool place to visit. There are so many people around exploring the buildings and taking in the atmosphere. Be prepared to go through security checks and have your bags x-rayed. And there are a lot of hawkers around the underpasses selling trinkets and beanies (in the winter).   

Tiananmen Square at night

We were lucky enough to be staying within a 15/20 minute walk from most of these places (bonus points for me for choosing the hotel!).

One of my favourite buildings in Beijing. I'm not sure why, I just loved it!

Something I would definitely recommend doing while you're in Beijing is a night at the Red Theatre watching a Kung Fu Show. It was a fantastic night out with such talented performers. But be warned - you're not allowed to take photos inside the theatre! And if you try, you will get in trouble! 

Kung Fu Show at the Red Theatre

Another must see place in Beijing is the Summer Palace. We were very close to not going because I'd read mixed reviews, but I'm so glad we went with our instincts and checked it out. If we hadn't we would've missed out on the awesome experience of 'ice skating' on the frozen lake - something you don't get to do every day. If you've got enough time you could walk around the whole lake - such a relaxing way to spend a few hours taking in your surroundings. And it's meant to be pretty impressive in Summer too.

'Ice skating' at the Summer Palace

Locals ice fishing at the Summer Palace

Marble boat at the Summer Palace

Visiting the Great Wall of China was an incredible experience and one that deserves it's own post, so that will come next! 

One of the traditions I loved about our trip to Beijing was the flag raising ceremony at Tiananmen Square. Each morning at sunrise and then again each night at sunset everyone gathers to see the flag risen (at sunrise) and taken back down (at sunset). It was really special to see so many people joining together, even in the freezing cold. 

Locals coming together at sunset to watch the flag being drawn down

They have a fantastic train system in Beijing and everything is very accessible. But be prepared to push your way to the front if you want to get on. There's no time for manners, if you want to get on the train, you have to do what the locals do. It took a bit of getting used to as it's very much against our nature to push in front of people or squeeze your way to the front, but in Beijing if you want to get anywhere, this is what they have to do. Just don't forget to switch back to the 'polite' way of doing things when you get home! 

A typical Beijing street

So, there you have it - my love/hate relationship with Beijing. As you can see there are so many amazing things to see and do there, but there are just a few things that take you by surprise as well. At the end of the day, that's what traveling is all about. Take the good with the bad, and embrace every moment!