Tasha’s trip in Beijing
Beijing, nostalgically still called ‘Peking’ by journalists and wistful academics also know as ‘Northern capital’ which interestingly is exactly what Peking translates to. It is believed that Beijing was the largest city in the world from 1425 to 1650 and from 1710 to 1825. It is now the 17th largest city in the world.
After arriving in Beijing I headed to a hostel called Red Lantern which had been recommended. It was not in the centre of town but set in the characteristic Hutong, one of the few historical charms to survive. There is a maze of narrow alleys leading to a number of old courtyard architecture (one of which was the hostel setting) and was ideal as it meant there was loads of tasty and very cheap street food around. It was also nice due to the fact that is was close enough to reach anywhere in the city but far enough away from the hecticness!
I visited a number of different sites in the city including Forbidden City, home to the Emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The Forbidden City was constructed soon after that (1406-1420), followed by the Temple of Heaven (1420), and numerous other construction projects.
Tiananmen Square, which has become a state symbol of the People’s Republic of China and is featured on its emblem, was burned down twice during the Ming Dynasty and the final reconstruction was carried out in 1651. I went to the Summer Palace, which was teeming with Chinese tourist, all wearing matching red hats, taking pictures of anything that moved like there was no tomorrow all following leader with an even bigger red hat a flag. The park was nice and due to Quinlong Emperor was mainly dominated by the huge Kumming Lake which he ordered to be deepened and expanded in the 18th century, using 100,000 laborers.
The Great Wall
“He who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a true man” So what did I do…climbed it twice!! On my first visit I went to Badaling which was the restored part of the wall, the most-photographed manifestation, 70k north of Beijing. Although I did enjoy this and appreciated this part of the wall which was really impressive due to the restoration, it was not what I had came to see. It was so packed with tourists and big groups it was almost cringe worthy! There was also a unnecessarily large number of beers stuck living in small pits which I did not partly like or want to promote by being there or even contribute too, by paying the extortionate entrance fees (even if I did manage to blag a student entrance with my driving license).
My next visit though, was fortunately somewhat different: I caught a local bus 3-4hours north of Beijing centre to a part of the wall called Simati, from there I hiked about 20km along the invigorating stretch past 24 watch towers (some of which were crumbling) to Jinshanling and a bit further. This part which was apparently deemed to dangerous for tourist (which I could appreciate due to some of the treacherous paths, steep accents requiring both hands and precarious plummets) where the wall was falling to bits and in some places in rubble. Still, seeing the wall like this and how in snaked along so jagged peaks as far as the eye could see really allowed me to see what a feat of engineering it really was ceven buy today standards.
Finally after my trek I met an old friend from England who has been living in Beijing for a couple of years and spoke Manderin (which helped considerably when ordering) and finished my visited, which would not of been complete, with out trying the the famous “Peking duck’. It was GOOD!
