Japan does not have many public holidays. Maybe I should re-phase that...In my opinion, Japan does not have many public holidays. I might feel like this simply because I come from a country were public holidays, Christmas holidays, Easter holidays and Summer holidays are a normal state of affairs. Well, Japan has shown me how different things can be. I have had to forego Easter holidays, Summer holidays and most of my public holiday lie-ins and little escapades. However, I have been blessed with a whole week of holidays known as Golden week. This falls in the last week of April and ends in the first week of May. The only problem is that all of the people in Japan take it as an opportunity to travel. Since Japanese people generally go on holiday inside Japan itself, travelling in this country could be a slight nightmare. This is what led me to cast my eyes across the sea of Japan and head to the mainland of China.
I decided to divide my week of holidays between Beijing and Shanghai. It was truly an amazing experience and turned out to be a very enjoyable holiday. We landed in Beijing rather late on a Friday night and caught a taxi to the hostel I had booked. I have to admit I was rather worried about the accomodation. Firstly, I'm not really a hostel kinda lady and secondly, a hostel in China sounded even more worrying for some reason. However, my worries were rather unfounded as the hostel ended up being a rather cool place to stay and I got to pretend to be back-packer savvy! The hostel was build around a 19th century court yard and most of the original building was still in tact. However, the bedroom window did overlook one of the busy Hutong roads and hence any chance of a good night sleep went flying out of the window on our very first night there. The hostel was two minutes on foot away from Tiananmen square and hence the Forbidden city. The square itself is bare but the sheer size of it is mind-blowing. Beijing does that to you.
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| Tiananmen Square No matter where you go, the space available will take your breathe away (except maybe in some hostel bedrooms!). The forbidden city was interesting. I was rather disappointed as many of the palaces and temples are not open to the Public and so all you can do is walk around them. However, the Garden at the back of the property is beautiful and makes it all worth while. One of the temples within the garden, known as the temple of Happiness is perched on a mountain of jagged rocks which looks slightly impossible to climb. I did take some time to contemplate whether this was supposed to be symbolic. I did wonder if there is a reason why only this temple is perched on such terrain. I'll let you all form your own conclusions... |
The temple of Heaven which we visited in the afternoon is surrounded by one of the greenest parks I've ever seen. Also, like everything else it spreads for miles and miles on end. However, we got to the temple too late and couldn't actually go inside. The area around the temple is full of shopping malls which are massive. Anyone who loves shopping and has money to burn will have a whale of a time in Beijing. The number of shopping malls is outrage!
| The following day, we headed to the Olympic stadium park. This I think was one of the best high lights of my trip to China. We bought a ticket and entered the water cube and sat in the stands looking over the pool where Michael Phelps won eight Gold medals. The architecture is also fantastic. The water cube's size is so deceptive. It looks small from the outside but is massive on the inside with five floors and three pools; one which was the official pool, another the training pool and another pool which is now open to the public with a small water park within. I took the opportunity to be slightly patriotic and locate the Maltese flag and take a photo of it too! In the evening, we stumbled across one of the coolest teahouses in Beijing. It is called Laoshe teahouse and it hosts traditional Chinese performances whilst serving fresh tea (including tea leaves) and nibbles. It was an awesome evening. The show was quite interesting with traditional Chinese music, singing, acrobatics and Kung-fu and the building in itself was worth the money. The building is a traditional teahouse and has seen the sights of many important people including Bill Clinton and George Bush Jr. |
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| The Bird Nest Stadium |
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| The Water Cube |
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| Hehe! I couldn't resist :) |
| The last day of the trip was dedicated to trekking part of the Great Wall of China. I did a lot of reading up about which part of the wall is best to visit and concluded Mutianyu is where I wanted to go. I concluded this simply because Badaling is packed with tourists and lots of hawkers which can dampen the adventure of it all. However, getting there proved to be rather testing! This might be due to the fact that we wanted to get there on our own, without any tour guide or booked transportation. We decided to be proper back-packers and use public transport. One word of advice, unless you want to swear so much that you'll get a one way ticket straight to hell, do not attempt to catch a public bus in China; especially if you've only been there for two days and do not speak any Chinese. The experience was horrendous. It took us two and a half hours simply to find the bus let alone get a ticket and get on it. And, to make matters worse, we were at the right bus station! |
We did eventually get on the bus and rid it for around two hours before getting off and getting a taxi for the last stretch of the way. Although, it was a difficult experience, it was worth it all. Firstly, it turned out to be ridiculously cheap and secondly it was a very unique experience to ride two buses in China! The wall was amazing. I do not think I can describe how it felt to climb to the top of the wall and look down. I do not think I ever imagined getting there and being to say that I have climbed the Great Wall of China. I also can say that I bought a t-shirt saying the exact same thing and that I nearly died on the Great Wall too. My, my it was a hard climb. Stairs, stairs and just when you think you're done, more stairs! But...it was amazing!
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| Yes, I did trek all of this part of the wall. |
The surrounding area is also beautiful as it is a mountainous region full of greenery and waterways. If I had more time, I would have loved to stay overnight in one of the little hotels that are scattered along the roadside. However, I had to make my way back to the city to catch the overnight bullet train to Shanghai.
My time in Beijing came to an end and I did leave with rather mixed feelings about the city. It is a remarkable place and it has undergone a lot of change at a very fast rate and yet there is something about it just doesn't sit right with me. The city is dirty and I think this is partly due to the people who throw litter without anywhere and all the time. This is a rather big problem as the population of Beijing is so large and hence the amount of litter produced is phenomenal. I remember walking around in the Water cube and seeing piles of take away food boxes all over the floor scattered in big heaps everywhere when there were litter bins available . However, certain places are very clean and everywhere you look, someone is always close by sweeping up rubbish. It is a city of opposites I think. And, one word of warning, be careful where you choose to eat! Always make sure that the restaurant has a sanitation grade poster on display! Trust me, I learnt this the hard way; places that don't can be horrendously dirty and scary!
Next post, my adventures in the city of Shanghai!
