Beijing Dynasty
I’m just back from Beijing. What an extraordinary trip! Travelling as part of a very small group, we arrived into the Chinese capital on our direct flight with Hainan Airlines at 5am local time on Sunday and left again in the early hours of Thursday morning, arriving back in Dublin at just after 6am, Irish time, on the same day.
When I’ve got my thoughts together, I’ll write a comprehensive piece about the amazing experience of Beijing – the atmosphere, the sights not to be missed, the fabulous food, the juxtaposition of its modern skyscraper dimension with its ancient hutong heart – that’s the alleyways where homes, small shops, street-food outlets and music bars all sit cheek by jowl. For now, though, here’s a quick trot through 10 of the things that surprised me about Beijing, things that I didn’t know before I stepped off the plane in the People’s Republic of China on this day last week.
1 At sunrise every morning when the
national flag is raised in Tiananmen Square there are some 30,000 people gathered there to watch the procedure. Yes, 30,000, every single day. Nor is the flag with its accompanying all-day guards (three – one from each of the military disciplines) located in any special spot – it’s just at one end of the Square, closest to the entrance to the Forbidden City, in a small, roped-off area. And yes, you can take photographs.
2 It takes six hours to drive across
Beijing. That’s partly because traffic is something of a nightmare in the city, but also due to the vastness of the place. How vast? Almost 17,000sq.km and with a population of some 22.5million. To put that in perspective, the whole of Northern Ireland is less than 15,000sq.km and the total population of Australia is 24million. And when it comes to that figure of 22.5million, you need to bear in mind that that is only the number of residents actually recorded. Interestingly, apart from queuing for security checks on Tiananmen Square and walking through the Forbidden City, I never felt overwhelmed by the sheer volume of people. It didn’t feel as oppressive in that regard, as, Mumbai, for example, or even Istanbul. The sheer size of the city obviously dilutes the population impact.
3 There was no smog. Apart from the very occasional industrial-type whiff in the air, the atmosphere was absolutely fine. Occasionally I saw someone wearing one of those mouth masks, but they were few and far between. The time of year helped, of course – we are coming into a good time to visit Beijing. Last week we were blessed with clear sunny skies (27C/28C) on our first and last days, and with warm, overcast days in between.
4 The best restaurants for authentic food are ‘chain’
restaurants, and are the places where the locals eat. These are often places known for their expertise in particular dishes – Peking Duck in one, for example, or what the Chinese call Hot Pot in another. Without exception they were all branches of different ‘chains’, rather than standalone restaurants. On our last night, four of us ventured out into one of the hutongs in the atmospheric Hou Hai area and ate a splendid meal in a restaurant called Judehuatian – four huge dishes, which we shared, a bottle of wine, a couple of beers and two bottles of water for €17 a head. Only the next day did we discover that it was part of the ‘chain’ where we had lunch on our very first day. On both occasions we were the only foreigners on the premises. 5 Apart from in our hotel, all of the toilets we encountered – in restaurants, bars, at the various ‘sights’ – were of the ‘squat’ variety. Most were very clean but not all provided toilet paper. In some (including at the Great Wall) you paid for paper. Best idea is to carry your own. 6 Everywhere was spotless. There was no litter on the streets (lots of street-cleaners in evidence, travelling around on small, three-wheeled vehicles complete with witches-style brushes and receptacles for rubbish) and even in city underpasses, to take you on foot from one side of a vast street to the other, there was no evidence of dirt, and no bad smells. 7 The subway is fantastic – and so cheap. We only used it once, but had to change lines to get to our destination. There are trains every minute, and everything is well signed – and also in English – so it is very easy to get around. The cost? For four of us to travel for six stops, change lines, and travel for another six stops, it cost a total of 20 yuan. For all of us. That’s just under €2.50! 8 Beijing Opera is not opera. Nor is it for the fainthearted. There is no actual singing, and the ‘music’ is somewhat discordant. It’s essentially a mixture of a number of art forms – mime, acrobatics, slap-stick etc. Kind of Marcel Marceau meets Laurel and Hardy. 9 It’s a really green city. There are trees everywhere and the old city wall area is now a park. The biggest surprise, for me, was the beauty – and size –of the park at the Temple of Heaven. The imperial building here is one of the must-sees in Beijing, but the surrounding parkland is such a wonderful amenity. A lot of the grass is left long, creating a meadow-like effect, and the locals use the park as a recreation area – a place to meet friends and play cards on a bench, a place to walk, to jog, to do Tai Chi. And if you think that our own St Stephen’s Green is big at 22 acres, then prepare yourself – the Temple of Heaven’s park sprawls itself across a stunning 650 acres!
10 The Great Wall, unlike many tourist sights, is
truly great – not just in its size, but in its impact. And you can visit on a morning or afternoon trip from Beijing. Most people opt for the part at Badaling, so it gets overrun with tourists. Just a little further is Mutianyu and while there are the obligatory tourist traps there as well – restaurant, souvenir shop etc – it’s not as busy. When you stand on the Great Wall here and see the wall and a series of watchtowers disappear into the distance, it is truly humbling to realise that you are following in the footsteps of all those who walked this path centuries before you. Especially the workers who actually built this amazing structure.