Beijing, China September 3-9, 2006

A week in Beijing is barely enough to scratch the surface, but we managed to fit in three full days of sight-seeing, some great meals and some interesting times! The flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing is six hours, with no time change. We stayed in the very new and modern Crowne Plaza Hotel on the 4th Ring Road, very close to the Olympic Park. Nearby the hotel were apartment buildings originally built for the Asian Games held a few years ago. When exploring one evening before dinner, we ran into some policemen...they have a new man on the beat!















Day 1 sightseeing had us in a private tour with our guide, David. We first visited the pandas at the zoo in the Panda House. They were cute but I felt sorry for them in their unnatural surroundings and there was no information on the enclosures nor any names for them! From there we went to the Lama Temple, said to be Beijing's most colourful with beautiful rooftops, stunning frescoes and impressive decorative arches. It is a vast complex of many buildings, the most renowned Tibetan Buddhists temple outside Tibet. Originally a palace for Emperor Yong Zheng, he moved into the Forbidden City in 1723 and in 1744 the property was converted into a lamasery. The most prized possession is a 55-foot high sandalwood statue of Buddha. Here is Pat looking at one of the several carved copper scrolls (prayer wheels) which rotate.















Our thirst was quenched at a traditional tea ceremony, which was interesting (although not on our itinerary...we found that to be typical as well as annoying). Here the young lady is preparing one of several teas...our favourites were the green teas and the jasmine tea!



Day 2 found us in a small tour bus with our guide Song and six other tourists (Philippino, Indian, Lebanese and Chinese). We began with a trip to the Summer Palace in an immense park in the northwest part of the city. It was once the playground for the Imperial Court in order to escape the oppressive heat and humidity of the Forbidden City, and was refit in 1888 by the Empress Dowager Cixi with money earmarked for a modern navy! A marble boat at the northern edge of the lake was her only nautical concession!


The beautiful Long Corridor (about 750 m) was all being repainted and restored for the 2008 Olympics. Here is just one example of the intricate architecture and colourful paintings that line the corridor.




A dragon boat ferried us from one side of the manmade Kumming Lake back to meet our bus. The lake was dug with the help of 100,000 labourers. The site was very crowded with masses of mostly Chinese tourists, but we enjoyed the cooler breezes and pretty gardens outside of the city centre.



After an unscheduled (i.e. not on our itinerary) stop at a pearl factory, we visited the beautiful Temple of Heaven, another example of classic Ming architecture. The temple halls are round and the bases are square, which comes from the ancient Chinese belief that heaven is round and the earth is square!




Another unscheduled stop took us to visit the Chinese Herbal Medicine Hospital, which we found to be a waste of time, particularly since we arrived at the Forbidden City (the main highlight of this tour) too late to enter. Song tried to appease us with a brief visit to Tiananmen Square! We were interested that when asked about the incident there in 1989, he claimed to know nothing about the pro-democracy demonstrators forced out of the square by army tanks!






That evening we attended the Beijing Night Show, a dinner theatre featuring elaborate costumed-dancers and acrobatics Cirque du Soleil style. Note to self: if the Chilean wine you order is corked upon opening, good luck trying to send it back without paying for it!



By Day 3 we were a little savvier in the art of touring Chinese-style. This time our tour bus had only four other people (brothers from the Philippines and a couple from Israel), none of whom were interested in the trip to the jade factory en route to the Great Wall and the Ming Tombs! Our guide, Maggie, had a lot of animated discussion about this situation between us and her boss, but we finally prevailed and set off to see the Great Wall, about an hour out of Beijing. We spent two hours climbing at Badeling, where most of the tourists are shepherded. It was hugely crowded and the many hawkers were fairly annoying. It was a beautiful day, however, and the cool breeze was welcome. The wall itself is quite spectacular, and just like in all the pictures, it snakes off into the distance as far as you can see.




After lunch upstairs in a large cloisonné factory (another tourist trap), we headed for the Ming Tombs. It was an interesting drive in the country among apple and peach orchards, many of whom had roadside stands selling fresh fruit. We noted how dry the area was, everything was so very dusty. We spent the evening with some P&G colleagues from Italy, currently working in Beijing. They took us to a wonderful Brazilian Restaurant which was very popular.

Day 4 took Pat to deliver a paper at the chemical convention so I joined up with some other P&G spouses for a tour of two well-known markets, Hongqiao and Yaxia. We were impressed with the orderliness and cleanliness of them! With the help of our P&G driver, Jong, I bargained and negotiated for the best prices in a piece of black Chinese silk (which I am having made into a traditional Chinese long dress, a cheongsam, for Chinese New Year!), a faux Tod’s purse, a blue Chinese mug and some silver earrings!



On Day 5 we finally got to visit the Forbidden City, thanks to the driver, Ponpon, of our Italian friends! We spent two hours walking from one end to the other (the site is approx. 1 km long and ¾ km wide), and particularly enjoyed the pretty park area at the far end with colourful shrubs and flowers, statues and interesting cyprus trees!



After lunch at a local restaurant famous for Peking Duck, we checked out one of the main shopping streets, thankfully a pedestrian mall, adjacent to the Grand Hyatt Hotel. Pat found a unique glass shop and bought some very pretty glasses (sherry, flute). I treated myself to a (now much loved) denim Ports jacket!

The summer Olympics are coming to Beijing in 2008 and the city is furiously working to get ready. We found many heritage sites closed or else covered and under renovations with work being carried out round the clock. A hillside beside the Great Wall boasted a huge sign featuring the logo of the games.



The Olympic Stadium was under construction very near our hotel in the same area where the Asian Games took place some years ago. This is what it looked like in September 2006…what will the end result look like?!?



One of my favourite parts of China was the signage! We found these ones in the Forbidden City and on the Great Wall!








We would like to visit Beijing again, but only after the Olympics are over, as by then the city will have been totally spruced up and the scaffolding removed (one hopes!). Perhaps, too, by then the government will be able to address the horrendous traffic problem and the pollution. Another time we would stay more in the central part of the city, rather than out near the Olympic Site, which was about 45 minutes’ drive from downtown. There is much to see, much history to absorb and wonderful food to try!