My time in Beijing could be summed up as follows: if I never made it back to the city, my life would still feel complete. You can read between the lines on that statement if you want.
I really do wish I had a more positive experience in China (maybe I would have liked a less touristy area of the country?), but I just got targeted way too much and hate having to be rude to people for them to leave me alone. To me, part of the fun of traveling is talking with locals, getting tips on places to go and hearing life stories, but unfortunately every English speaker I met was trying some scam. I am sure there are lovely people in the city, I just didn’t happen to meet any of them.
Don’t get me wrong, the Great Wall was breathtaking, the parks were gorgeous and the history is rich and beautiful. I did not like, however, being in an environment where collaboration and communication were hindered and scamming foreigners is a game that law enforcement turns a blind eye to. Sites such as Facebook, Yelp, YouTube, Twitter and the blog website I am using right now (basically anything that provides a platform for users to share information with large audiences) are blocked from use by the government. There are fairly easy ways around it, but just the idea of limiting people’s voices made me feel uncomfortable…reading or learning about such censorship and actually being in the middle of it were much different experiences for me (and makes you appreciate being able to do what you want on such sites).
If you are curious about just two of the number of scams attempted on me, search for “Beijing tea house scam” or “Beijing art scam”. It is nothing that threatens safety, just different forms of pressuring/charming people out of money in a super aggressive manner. I understand that not knowing a language and traveling alone automatically make me a target, but it seems as though absolutely nothing is being done to protect non-natives. A girl I met had the tea house scam happen to her in Shanghai and the police station she reported it to knew the particular teahouse since that is part of their regular business. In Beijing, I was approached by the same guy “selling art at a booth around a corner” (super legitimate, right?) on two different days on the exact same street corner wearing the exact same coat each time and conveniently only approaching foreigners. There were two police officers standing about twenty feet away on both occasions. It does not seem like it would require a rocket scientist to at least get the situation a little under control since it is the same people and same businesses performing these “tricks”.
Enough commentary, time to think positive thoughts and share with you “happy things about Beijing": dim sum cooking class, Olympic Park, poetic signs to keep people off grass, hiking the Great Wall, wandering in the Forbidden City and grown men holding their mom’s hand.
Dim sum cooking class
My day of dim sum started with figuring out how to use the Beijing subway system, which is pretty easy. I headed only one stop from where I was staying to meet my cooking group and Chenyi (a chef who runs cooking classes through her home) at the market. The markets here were different from those I had seen in Thailand in that similar booths of fruits and meat are lined up as vendors promote their products, but everything is inside a building instead.
After picking up the fresh produce that we needed we made the 5 minute walk to Chenyi’s house down a cute hutong where our lesson for the day began. She went over different condiments that are used in Chinese cooking (rice wine, vinegar and soy sauce). I learned a lot such as that each of these condiments are given a grade based on content percentages (the higher the percentage, the better).
Chenyi teaches classes daily with about 8 different menus that she rotates through. I resisted the urge to sign up for a different class every day I was here since I thought there would be other things to do in the city than just learn to cook. Today’s theme was dim sum, so we made three dishes: barbecue pork buns, siu mai (basically like meat filling in small tart-shaped dough) and won ton soup. I definitely have a new appreciation for Chinese food since it took a long time to form all the dough in the different shapes required to make each dish.
Olympic Park
After dim sum, I ventured to the northern part of Beijing to see Olympic Park, the park that has all of the structures used during the 2008 Olympics. I was wrong in thinking that I could just take a stroll through the small park since everything was so large in scale and I could have probably spent an entire day exploring the architecture, landscapes and sculptures in the area.
I even happened upon an “Ex-Games” event…not the real one, but they were playing good music, so I stayed there for a little bit.
I love using Bing.com because they have a new picture from around the world every day, so I was very excited to see the “Bird’s Nest” arena which was featured on the site last month (or maybe the month before…I can’t remember).
Poetic signs to keep people off grass
This is pretty self explanatory. Madre and padre, you better watch out because I might just create replicas of these and put them in the front yard because I love them so much.
Hiking the Great Wall
I joined a tour group for the three hour drive to the Jinshanling part of the Great Wall. Even though there were parts that were closer to Beijing and more walking friendly, this part had not been redone and had less tourists, so I decided it was worth the extra time. I am not sure what exactly I was expecting, but being there and walking part of the incomprehensibly long path was incredible. Fun fact: it is the only manmade structure that can be seen from space.
I met a girl from New York who had quit her job to travel for 5-6 months and from there we met a Brit who had been traveling for 8 months, an Aussie whose home base for work was Laos (but who traveled to Beijing for work) and a graphic designer from Mexico who was in Hong Kong for work and spending a long weekend in Beijing. I loved it when Becky, the Brit said that during her 8 months of travel she lived more than she would have ever lived otherwise while working. Hopefully I will look back on my experience with the same attitude.
We had a great day exploring some of the towers and taking lots of pictures along the way! Nothing could have ruined that experience, so I’ll leave out my thoughts on the woman who followed me around and told me I was beautiful the entire 3+ hours I was on the Great Wall so that I would buy a book from her. :)
We had a great day exploring some of the towers and taking lots of pictures along the way! Nothing could have ruined that experience, so I’ll leave out my thoughts on the woman who followed me around and told me I was beautiful the entire 3+ hours I was on the Great Wall so that I would buy a book from her. :)
Wandering in the Forbidden City
Before venturing into the Forbidden City (which is the largest palace complex in the world) you must first walk through Tiananmen Square, the largest square in the world.
The Forbidden City (or Imperial Palace) was closed to outside visitors for some time (I think about 500 years), but since then most of the structures have been restored. It was built in the early 1400s and was home to several emperors. Beyond just buildings, there were water features and gardens on the grounds as well as displays of ceramics, jewelry, paintings and other handmade items illustrating traditional Chinese art forms. It is hard to even try and describe the large magnitude, but maybe you can get a sense from some pictures.
Grown men holding their mom’s hand
Precious and adorable. Enough said.
