Beijing!
Tuesday, September 24, 201322 - 24 September 2013
We found our hostel in the middle of the Hutong Area in the northern bit of the Beijing city center on Nanluogu Xiang. After dropping off our rucksacks, we explored the winding alleyways of the Doncheng district and visited the Drum and Bell Towers where we were both amazed at the amount of smog around us! A great feeling to have arrived and to have finally started our adventure =)
The view over the Hutons from one of the towers
Tired and jetlagged we had a very early night but not before trying some of the local street food delicacies, including stinky tofu (an appropriate name for such a smelly dish) and ‘stewed milk’ with red beans (somewhat like vanilla pudding without the vanilla). The best buy of the evening was steamed dumplings and some spicy rice (in a restaurant who proudly displayed their poor food hygiene rating certificate of a recent audit!), dinner for less than £2!
After a refreshing and long sleep we woke up quite early and
went next door for a disappointingly western style, but nevertheless tasty
breakfast. We braved the Beijing subway to get to the CITS office where we
planned to book train tickets for Mongolia. On arrival we were surprised to
find the whole office mid audio-tape directed tai chi session! After an awkward
fit of laughter we were welcomed in but after 10 minutes we politely declined
their expensive offer to help us cross the border. Intent on finding a cheaper
way we headed to Beijing Railway station only to be told the train towards the
border could ONLY be booked at CITS! (But we did successfully buy a ticket to
Dalian). Determined to find an alternative way we stepped into a tourist
information centre where a friendly and helpful lady suggested taking a night
bus which could be booked on the day of departure itself, wooooop!
With high spirits we headed to Wangtujing Snack Street in search of tasty celebratory treats. On arrival we came face to face with Chinese street food at its best with kebabs of chicken, fish, fried fruit, squid, grubs, locusts, sea horses, snails, snake, starfish and wriggling scorpions ...which Alby tried and enjoyed (yum)!
A surprisingly wriggly snack
After 10 minutes at the market we were tired of the special tourist prices and headed to Tiananmen Square to marvel at the space and surrounding architecture – what a sight. Another adventure on the subway brought us to the Lama Temple – a real beauty of traditional 18th century architecture and Buddhist statues.
The Lama Temple
In search of Mr Shi’s dumpling restaurant, which had been
recommended, we were tempted by a rival establishment serving Chinese noodle
hot pot and gave in – the best food we have had so far! On discovering that
blogspot.com is on of the 10 most popular of banned (and therefore
unaccessible) Chinese websites we unsuccessfully attempted to break through the
Great (fire)wall of China and hit a beer instead.
The dreaded (incomprehensible) firewall warning
Full of expectations we woke up on time to go discover the Forbidden City. After a nice walk we arrived there mid-morning with what seemed like the rest of China. We were overwhelmed by the shear scale of the complex, with huge halls and plazas that could hold 100,000 dancers. We spent the morning walking the backstreets avoiding the hoards of enthusiastic Chinese tourists who made it difficult to enjoy the City’s beauty to the fullest.
Forbidden city
Tired of being charged to see ‘extra’ bits of the complex, we decided to make our way back to the hostel and get ready for our journey to Dalian. On our way back we stopped off at our new favorite eatery for a light lunch. Around 6pm we hopped on the train to Dalian, after our first experience of a slightly confusing but very efficient Chinese train system with pre-departure waiting rooms for each train. At first sight our ‘hard seats’ didn’t seem that bad ...
1 comments
good to see you have been keeping your protein levels up by eating the local street food! Sounds like you could have saved some money by trapping your own in one of your first hotel rooms. Good to hear from you, try not to freeze if you end up camping and I'm sure we will get the obligatory photo of you guys in traditional Mongolian hats! Take care the both of you. Frav, Mum and Nina. xx
ReplyDelete