[ by Stian ]
Beijing is notoriously known as one
of the most polluted cities in the whole world, so I have to admit I
did not look forward to experiencing Beijing after having experienced
the heavy pollution in Hanoi and been told that it would be thousand
times worse in Beijing. I had also been told the people of Beijing
are rude, and that the food might be a challenge to figure out of. I
was filled with loads of preconceptions unfortunately, but WOW I was
thankfully proven wrong. Beijing turned out to be a fantastic
destination and has now become one of my favorite destinations of the
whole trip:-)
Introducing Beijing
Beijing is the capital and the
second largest city of China with a population of a little more than
20 million inhabitants as of 2012. It is located pretty far
north, or at least it felt like far north as this would be as far
north I would be traveling this year (except for my trip back home) –
AND the temperature was pretty cold – almost like Norway. The truth
is Beijing is on the same latitude as the capital of Turkey, Ankara,
only – it's for sure hard to believe. The climate is therefore very
dry and it rarely rains, we were told.
It was the Mongolians who invaded
the country during the 1200s who made Beijing to the capital of the
country. The City got it's current name during the reign of the
Ming-dynasty (the 1400s). Beijing is translated as «northern
capital». In the beginning of the 1980s the economical and social
transformation of the country took place, which has affected the
country's capital a lot and after the city was chosen as the host
city of the 2008 Summer Olympics, the city has experienced a new era
and developed into a city that meets the expectations of western
standards.
Arriving Beijing
Arriving at the international
airport in Beijing was without any problems, thankfully. Our
preconception of China was that everything is strict and regulated,
so at least I was a bit concerned of the whole process of getting
through immigration, even though there were no obvious reason for us
to be worried. It even turned out that the international airport in
Beijing was one of the most effective airports we have experienced so
far, cause it only took a few minutes to get through all the
checkpoints before we officially finally found ourselves on Chinese
ground :) Wiiiiiiii!!!!!
Couchsurfing Once Again :)
In Beijing we had opted for
couchsurfing once again, both to save in some money, but most of all
to get to know some local culture and to have someone who know the
city to relate to. Before our arrival we had received two
invitations from hosts in Beijing who were willing to host us – so
we decided to stay with both since we were staying a whole week in
the city. We had also received messages from girls that wanted to
hang out with us while in Beijing – and we chose to meet one of
these girls, since she seemed very interesting. We also knew Shirley
from before, the Chinese girl we got to know during our Rock-tour
experience while in Central-Australia. Shirley was willing to meet up
with us and show us around when in Beijing, so we were really blessed
with great people to relate to while exploring this unknown giant of
a city :)
Max and Ken
Max was the first guy who invited us
to stay at his house. His profile on CS did not say much so I did not
know what to expect, other than that in his invitation he requested
us to help him a bit with his English-studies during our stay, which
of course would not be a problem at all for us. Max was living
together with his boyfriend Ken – and they made a very cute couple
together. We were not aware of this ahead of arriving to China
though. They both were pretty calm and well, even though they were
just 30 and 24 respectively, their personalities were more like those
of elderly, retired people, haha. They have a «strict» daily routine
waking up at 6 in the morning (workdays) and at 7 am (at
off-work-days), and they ALWAYS go to bed at 11 pm. In many ways they
were just what I'd expected of the Chinese. Their daily routine is
pretty much set for the same every day, and steering off the routine
is not done with ease and/or pleasure – as we would notice when we
arrived home to the house a bit «too» late a couple of times, that
is passed 11pm.
Their apartment was located in the
Baiziwan area – around 30-40 minutes outside of the city center
with public transportation. They provided us with a lot of great
information and recommendations of how to get around in BJ, so we are
forever grateful to them for all they did for us. Though, since they
were working almost every day, we did only get the chance to know
them in the late evenings (that is before 11 pm), but the second day
of our stay, Sunday, they had the day whole day off and we got the
chance to hang out even in daytime as well, which was very nice:) We
though did feel a bit bad for messing up their daily routine by
staying out so late some of the days. We had many people we wanted to
meet up and a lot we wanted to see and experience while in Beijing,
so it was almost impossible to be back before 11 pm. Most people
can't meet up before 7 pm anyways since they are working in the
daytime – and sometimes it took us a whole hour to get back to the
house as well (BJ is a pretty big city). So after 4 nights at Max &
Ken's we decided to stay with the other guy who had also sent us an
invitation as he seemed to be more laid back and we could come and go
as we pleased ourselves.
Second Host: Gabriel
Our second host in Beijing was
Gabriel, a 26 year old architect, and botox-clinician – or how to
say that in English, haha. That is, he has two majors, one as an
architect and one in botox (?). While he was waiting for projects to
do as an architect, he was therefore working at a clinic who was
providing botox for the «needed» ;) It turned out that Gabriel was
living pretty much right next to the area were Max & Ken was
living, so it was very easy to get to his place. Funnily enough it
turned out that his closest subway station was the same as Shirley's,
our girl from Central-Australia – so all the people we had to
relate to during our stay in BJ was pretty much located in the same
area. Gabriel left us a set of keys, so we had the chance to sleep in
in the morning and to come back as we pleased in the evening. It did
turn out though that Gabriel was more like us and liked staying up
late himself so it felt a bit more relaxed staying at his place.
Upon arrival he met us at the
metro-station and immediately took us to the Pirate Ship BBQ
restaurant and treated us with dinner, or at least he treated me..
The last few days of our stay in BJ Kenneth felt sick and
terrible and was not very hungry at all so he turned down the offer
of BBQ dinner this evening. After dinner we headed for Gabriel's
house, which was a pretty large sized apartment. He was also living
with a room-mate, but his roommate did not speak any word English so I
did not get a chance to get to know him. Gabriel on the other hand
got his major degree in France so he spoke French fluently, and his
English was pretty good as well. The two following evenings we also
got to hang out with Gabriel and the second evening he took me, along
with a female friend of his, to this very nice Yunnan Restaurant
called The Middle 8th, and once again he treated me with
an amazing Chinese culinary experience:) This night we also went to a
bar called The Bar at Migas, were we enjoyed a drink before heading
back home.
The last evening, the day of our
departure, we had dinner with Shirley at the amazing restaurant Da
Dong Duck Restaurant, which has been awarded having the best duck in
Beijing as well as many other awards. Gabriel
joined us as well. Here I got to experience real Peking duck, which
was amazing, and I also got to try century eggs, which is a pretty
awkward dish to be honest – as it look like rotten eggs made of
gel...
Since I and Kenneth parted ways
Gabriel followed me to the airport, while Shirley followed Kenneth to
the airport. I would be leaving for Indonesia while Kenneth would
be leaving for Australia and therefore we had different flights
departing from different terminals, so we said farewell to each other
already at the restaurant. I also had to say goodbye to Shirley at
this point as well unfortunately. Gabriel was definitely a really
great host and he gave us more than we could ever ask from a host. It
seemed to be his pleasure though, so of course we are grateful for
all the experiences we got – and he was for sure a handsome guy as
well. It was very sad to say goodbye to him at the airport.
The people of Beijing in general
My China guide book wrote the
following about the one-child generation of China: «Spoiled,
selfish, asocial, unwilling to share and overweight – Chinese
sociologists have described the country's only-children as small
emperors...» This was as far from the truth as it could be. We
experienced the older generation to be the so-called «emperors» of
China. Already at the airport we noticed that many of the older
generation had no respect for the people around them. They have no
conception of queuing as they force their way through to the front of
every queue, and they have an aggressively attitude when they
approach each other. We saw it even among the elderly who was working
in restaurants and those working as cleaners at public toilets –
the older the waiter/cleaner, the more rude and annoyed he/she seemed
to be. It is also the older generation that do begging, and they do
it very aggressively as well, by blocking your way until you give
them money, refusing to move when they were told to. So my guide book
were pretty much wrong all over when referring to the people of
China. The younger generation was generally way more attentive of
their surroundings, more respectful when it came to queuing, they
were never loud in an obnoxious way and rarely spoke in an aggressive
tone, while the older generation was extremely rude, pushy, demanding
and loud. Ah well, that was just our experience though.
Sights of Beijing.
We did get to do a fair bit of
sightseeing during the days of our stay. I was extremely
positively surprised of how much Beijing has to offer of sights.
Considering that the weather was fantastic all through the week as
well, with temperatures around 15 degrees most of the time – the
conditions were fantastic for sightseeing.
Tian'anmen Gate
Tian'anmen Gate is probably one of
the most famous sights of China, right after the Great Wall of China,
mostly because of the giant portrait of Mao Zedang above the
entrance. This was also the first stop of our sightseeing in
Beijing. The Gate is located at the northern end of the Tian'anmen
Square (Himmelske Freds Plass) and is also the main entrance to the
Forbidden City. It was on the podium just above the entrance, just
above where the portrait is hanging today, that Mao declared the
constitution of the of the communist state on October 1st
1949. The writing on each side of the gate is translated as «Long
live the harmony between the people of the world» and «Long live
the People's Republic of China».
Before arriving to China this was
one of the sights I knew of, but I had expected way more of it.
We had to buy a separate ticket apart from the Forbidden City to
enter the museum of the Tian'anmen Gate, so we got our ticket and
then had to stand more than an hour in line before getting in – and
when we finally got inside it was the most boring experience ever.
There is absolutely nothing to see or to learn since there is nothing
translated into English. So it was a total waste of time –
especially since you are not allowed to take photos inside either...
well well.
The Forbidden City
So after the disappointing exploring
of the Tian'anmen Gate we then head on for the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City was constructed between 1406 and 1420, during
Emperor Yong Les of the Ming Dynasty's period of reign. The
construction was an impressive piece of work that needed one million
workers, hundred thousand craftsmen and a huge amount of material.
When the whole city was completed it was the world's largest palace
complex. During time there has been a lot of damage done to the
complex, but the emperors have tried to fix a lot of it through time,
but the whole complex is at the moment undergoing a massive
reconstruction, which will last until 2020 and cost more than a
billion Norwegian kroner. The last emperor to reside in the city was
forced out of the palace in 1924, and the year after the Forbidden
City opened it's doors to the public under the name of The Palace
Museum, which still is the official name of the complex.
The Forbidden City is a very
beautiful and interesting complex, but all the buildings and the
gates look pretty much the same – and the same goes for the
interior of the buildings. So after a while it gets tiring to
explore the area – mostly because of the massive crowds of
tourists that occupy this area as well. The Imperial Garden is the
most interesting part of the complex cause it differs a bit from the
rest of the complex, or at least I think so;) The most impressive of
the whole complex is the layout of the constructions which is based
on the principles of Feng Shui – the belief of bringing luck by
constructing buildings in a certain order/pattern so that the stream
of chi or positive life-energy becomes as strong as possible.
The palaces was constructed along a line from north to south, on the
same line as the polar star, which was believed to be the heart of
the universe. The whole area is shaped as a square, which represents
the Earth, with the emperor in the center. To fulfill another
requirement, «mountains in the back, water in the front», a moat
was constructed around the square and a man made hill constructed in
the Jingshan-park, just north of the square.
Tian'anmen Square (Himmelske Freds
Plass)
The Tian'anmen square is the largest
plaza in the world. It is 800m long and 500m wide. Some of the
major attractions are located here, among them the Tian'anmen Gate,
the National Museum, The Peoples house, Monument of the Heroes of the
People and the Mausoleum of Mao. The plaza was constructed in the
1950s as a symbol of the power of the communist and to mark that the
Chinese people had become authoritative. Since then there has been
many a public commemoration at this place, but also demonstrations,
among them the student demonstrations of 1989, where tanks moved into
the square causing many hundreds, maybe thousands of protesters to
be killed. An episode known as the «Massacre Of the Tian'anmen
Square».
Well we did not do much in this area
other than take some photos and then pass by, but the area is pretty
impressive for sure. Most impressive is the massive security
around the whole area. We had to go through metal detectors and to
get our luggage checked as well at all entry points.
Qianmen Street
We were told to go to Qianmen Daije,
which is located just south of the Tian'anmen Square. This is a
pedestrian street and is one of the most amazing streets I have ever
seen. The whole street is constructed in the same gray brick
layout, and one would think that a totally gray street must be
boring, but it is done so perfectly well that I had to admire the
whole street for a long time. This is a shopping street and there are
many restaurants here as well. The street is extremely clean and the
litter bins and the benches for the public are in my eyes pure art. I
love that they have not commercialized the street with the typical
logos and signs of the bigger chains, but kept it minimalistic. The
street almost feel a bit fake, like if you were on the set of a
movie production or in a theme park or something, but I loved it. We
discovered that there are actually many similar streets like this
other places in Beijing as well – so this is obviously a style
Beijing is using all over the city, but it works very very well. I
was very surprised, in a positive way, to realize this, and suddenly
Beijing became one of the most beautiful cities we have seen so far on
this trip:)
Hou Hai
We met up with Shirley already on
the first day (that is the first whole day after our arrival), which
was a very nice reunion. She decided to take us to the Houhai area,
which is a beautiful and popular area known for its nightlife and
many restaurants. Houhai literally translates to "Rear Sea"
and refers to a lake and its surrounding neighborhood in Xicheng
District of central Beijing. Houhai is the largest of the three
lakes, along with Qianhai (literally the "Front Sea") and
Xihai (literally the "Western Sea"), that comprise
Shichahai, the collective name for the three northern-most lakes in
central Beijing. Since the early 2000s, the hutong neighborhood
around Houhai has become known for its nightlife as many residences
along the lake shore have been converted into restaurants, bars, and
cafés. The area is especially popular with foreign tourists visiting
Beijing and is also often visited by the expatriate community and the
younger generations of locals. There is also a number of small shops
here with all kinds of interesting stuff as well.
We did find this area really nice.
As we came in the evening the area is very nicely lit up and the
atmosphere is great. We noticed that it is a bit more expensive
than other places of course. Funnily enough we were to have dinner at
a Chinese restaurant in this area and they turned out to be out of
rice! I was like WOW, is THAT possible! I am in China for God's sake,
at a Chinese restaurant and the one thing they are out of is RICE? I
had never believed I would experience that in China. It also
turns out that you have to pay for your food, even though its a
regular restaurant, before you get your food – which I did not like
very much as I prefer to pay afterwards. If the food is inedible for
example (as we experiences one time in Singapore, we should
definitely not pay for it).
Dianmen Street: Gǔlóu and Zhōnglóu
The second day of sightseeing was
the day we hang out with Max and Ken and we headed for the
Gulou-area, which is a very nice area famous for the two towers Gǔlóu
and Zhōnglóu. Gǔlóu is the drum tower of Beijing which was built in 1272 and is
located at the northern end of the central axis of the Inner City to
the north of Di’anmen Street. It was originally built for musical
reasons, but it was later used to announce the time and is now a
tourist attraction. Zhōnglóu
is the bell tower of
Beijing and is located closely behind the drum tower. Together with
the drum tower, they provide an overview of central Beijing and
before the modern era, they both dominated the ancient skyline of Beijing.
The Bell and Drum Towers continued to function as the official
timepiece of China and government until 1924, when the last emperor
of the Qing Dynasty was forced to leave the Forbidden City and
western-style clockwork was made the official means of time-keeping.
The Dianmen street is a really nice
street, filled with nice little cafés and many cute shops with all
kinds of fantastic souvenirs. I also got to taste Chinese
yogurt, which has a very different texture than the yogurt we are
used to back home, but it tasted great. The only problem with this
street is that it is extremely crowded on Sundays, so it was almost
impossible to get through anywhere, it really did feel a bit
claustrophobic as well at times.
Improv-performance at Penghao Theater
and Café
After having checked out the
Gulou-area, Shirley took us to the Penghao Theater Café where she
had friends who were doing improve performance art. This was a
very nice theater café, and there was almost no people there so we
had lots of space for ourselves. We had ourselves a hot chocolate and
we then got the opportunity to witness an improve-performance by some
Dutch students. I have to admit it was very very interesting, but
also very very awkward as the performance was about 2 girls and 1 guy
obviously having some kind of complicated 3-way relationship, and
they all acted more like animals rather than humans... and they
showed a lot of skin as well, which is not that bad in my world
though.
The Yonghe Temple
Another famous attraction in Beijing
is the Yonghe Temple also known as the "Palace of Peace and
Harmony Lama Temple" or «The Lama Temple». This temple is
a monastery and temple for the Tibetan Buddhism and the architecture
is very very nice. When we got there it was already closed so we
didn't get to see it. The plan was to return at a later date, but it
didn't happen. We were told it's worth checking out... so for all you
going to Beijing at one point, it is worth checking out;)
Tiantan Temple / Park
Tiantan Temple, in English called
Temple of Heaven, is a complex of religious buildings situated in the
southeastern part of central Beijing. The
main temple was constructed between 1406 and 1420, and was in 1998
listed as a UNESCO world heritage site. The complex was
visited by the Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties for annual
ceremonies of prayer to Heaven for good harvest. It has been regarded
as a Taoist temple, although Chinese Heaven worship, especially by
the reigning monarch of the day, predates Taoism.
This temple for sure is amazing and
beautiful. Though around the time we were here there was
preparations for some kind of festival going on and a lot of the area
had been used for a stage and seatings, which kind of ruined for the
perfect view of the temple, and also this was also another place with
thousands of tourists, so it did feel a bit claustrophobic at some
points.
Jingshan Park
Jingshan Park is the
artificial/handmade hill that was constructed just north of the
Forbidden City to fulfill the requirement of the Feng Shui. It
was originally an Imperial garden, but is now a public park. It
covers an area of 230 000 sqm and is 45,7 meters high. The
construction of the park was done by manual labor and animal power,
which makes the hill even more impressive. Jingshan consists of five
individual peaks, and on the top of each peak there lies an elaborate
pavilion. These pavilions were used by officials for gathering and
leisure purposes. These five peaks also draws the approximate
historical axis of central Beijing. Today the park is popular among
both young and elderly for socializing and gatherings.
Beihai Park and the White Pagoda
After exploring the Jingshan Park we
moved on to the Beihai Park which is an imperial garden to the
northwest of the Forbidden City. First built in the 10th century,
it is amongst the largest of Chinese gardens, and contains numerous
historically important structures, palaces and temples. Since 1925,
the place has been open to the public as a park. It is also connected
at its northern end to the Shichahai.
The admission to this park was a bit
higher so Kenneth opted not to enter though. I only dropped by
for a short while and did not get to see a lot at all. I did go to
the highest peak on the Qiónghuá Island which is located in the
center of the park and houses the Bai Ta, The White Pagoda. The white
pagoda is 40 meters tall and is made of white stone and decorated
with sun, moon and flame engravings. Beihai literally means «northern
sea».
Catty Wong and her art
In the evening we headed for the
«countryside» of Beijing were we would be visiting Catty Wong for a
BBQ. Catty was one of the girls
from couchsurfing that really wanted to see us while we were in
Beijing and she definitely seemed to be a crazy cool girl so of
course I wanted to see her as well. Catty is an artist, a
painter, with a very eccentric taste of art – but her artwork is
really good! I sent her a text message and she immediately invited me
and Kenneth for a BBQ. She explained the way to her house and when we
got to her place, we definitely knew that we had found the right
house. Her front yard was embraced with a pink fence and the area was
decorated with eccentric kind of art. It really did differ from all
the other front yards in the neighborhood. Catty herself turned out
to be an amazing girl, very friendly and free spirited, with not a
single worry at all in the world to consider, or at least that's how
she came across as this evening at least. Her paintings are though
torn between many different feelings, but mostly sadness and anger –
and she told us that she usually do her paintings when she is feeling
sad or similar.
Felix the Dutch guy
It turned out that Catty already had
a couchsurfer staying at her house, Dutch guy Felix, who at the
moment was traveling for 4 years, from Amsterdam to Indonesia, or
that is his plan at least. He had already completed 8 months of
the tour and he had really interesting experiences to share with us.
Specially the time he spent in Mongolia was very interesting to
listen to, and also to see the photos and the videos he had from the
country. Winter is definitely not the best time to visit Mongolia,
but really makes the experience a one of a kind. I though do not
think that I never could have been as tough as Felix. He had even
spent a couple of hours in jail while in Mongolia, because of a
disagreement with some local guys. Felix is an extremely positive guy
and perceives everything in a positive way, no matter how bad the
circumstances are, which is really impressive. So together with Felix
and Catty, and later joined by Catty's neighbor Xiao as well, we
prepared for a BBQ. The food was good, though I have to say
that the fish-products made of fish and shrimp-powder and looked more
like candy at first sight, was some of the stranger kind of food I
have seen. The taste was pretty OK though. Since we had a «curfew»
to relate to we could not spend the whole night there, even though we
had the option of spending the night at her house. We had to get back
to Max and Ken's house as we were to get up early the next morning to
go to the Great Wall of China. The evening was indeed a really good
one, and I really hope that I will be able to meet both Catty and
Felix again in the future sometime:)
Great Wall of China
This was our fourth day in Beijing
and we were to go to The Great Wall of China, which is one of the
most famous tourist attractions in the whole world, and is also one
of the new 7 wonders of the world. It is a massive construction
that took several hundreds years to build. It was emperor Qin Shi
Huang, who unified China to one nation during the 200s B.C, who
decided to connect the unsystematicly built fortresses along the
northern border and to turn them into the «Wall of Ten Thousands
Miles». The construction of the 600 km long wall to protect Beijing
was going on until mid 1500s. In total the length of the Great Wall
of China is about 21 200 km, though most of the wall has been
destroyed by time – even in August 2012 a 30 meter section of the
wall collapsed because of heavy rain. The wall is constructed mainly
of stone, brick, tamped earth, wood, and other materials. Especially
the parts mainly consisting of tamped earth has been very vulnerable
throughout time.
It was an amazing day with sun, blue
sky and the temperature was amazing. Discovering the wall on such a
day was a dream come true experience. We headed for the Badaling
section, which is the part which is closest to Beijing, approximately
80 km northwest of urban Beijing city. There was a lot of tourists
here as well, but not as far as many as we had experienced in the
Forbidden City so we were very pleased. The wall is a beauty in every
aspect, even the parts that have collapsed, which we could see when
passing with the train, has it's beauty intact. We hiked to the
highest point of the Badaling section, but it is possible to get to
the top with a cable car, another option if you hike to the top is to
luge down again on specific tracks for lugeing. We though hiked both
up and down as we are Norwegian, God damn it;)
The Great Wall was the only thing we
managed to get to see on this fourth day. We spent like forever
to figure out how to get to this place as it was really difficult to
find information and the people at the train station really did not
speak any English at all almost.. and when we got back to the city we
went back to Max and Ken's house to pick up our stuff as this was the
day we changed housing, and then met up with Gabriel later on.
Summer Palace of Beijing
On the fifth day we dropped by the
Summer Palace of Beijing, the Yiheyuan, which translates as the
«garden of nurtured harmony». The
area is mainly dominated by a hill and a huge lake and numerous
halls, temples and gardens. This is just another very impressive and
beautiful park /area of Beijing with lots of impressive buildings. I
choose not to write so much about these as it would be way to much
anyways. One notable construction is though the Seventeen-Arch Bridge
leading to a pavilion on a small island in the lake, which is pretty
nice. As the size of this palace is really big we spent a long time
here – and we (or at least I) took a lot of photos :)
Olympic Green / National Stadium
The last day of our stay in Beijing
I went on my own to the Olympic Green to see the National Stadium,
also known as the Bird's Nest. The
Olympic Green area is pretty amazing. It's huge, it's brand new and
therefore modern. The strangest thing though is that it felt
completely empty. There were not many people there at all – only a
few tourists. Because of lack of time I chose not to go inside the
stadiums, and only to explore the area from the outside, which I
guess was just as OK.
Beijing Zoo
Of course we had to drop by the
Beijing Zoo while in Beijing. Mostly because we really wanted to
see the giant pandas, which they have several of in this park. What
is more Chinese than the pandas? Not much – and they are the cutest
animals ever. So we got to learn about pandas. The zoo itself is OK,
but we were very disappointed with the area designated for the
African animals, like the elephants and the rhino, which was almost
nothing. The outside area was under reconstruction so they were kept
inside in the smallest rooms ever – and the same for the hippos. So
both I and Kenneth felt a big NO-NO for this part of the park. Well
well....
Da Dong Duck Restaurant
To round off our fantastic Beijing
stay, Shirley treated us with the most amazing dinner ever at the
famous Da Dong Duck Restaurant. I do choose to put this
restaurant as a sight in itself since the food is amazing here, but
it is by far way more expensive than many other restaurants, so we
were a bit shocked when we saw the menu and the prices and that
Shirley was to pay for all this by herself. At least we avoided
ordering the most expensive , not that we would have liked to have
had the most expensive anyways, which was the famous sea cucumber and
in my eyes did not look very inviting to eat;) haha. Silly me was of
course able to forget my Visa credit card at the restaurant, but did
not discover this until my second day in my next destination which
was Indonesia... well well. Thankfully Shirley got a hold of it, but
I had by then already canceled it and ordered a new one from my bank
in Norway.
Culinary Beijing
We had several amazing culinary
experiences while in Beijing, but we have to admit that we did end up
eating a lot of fast food as well. Since we did not have a real
breakfast option at our hosts houses (it really does not seem like
the Asians make a lot of breakfast themselves at home) we ended up
taking the easy way a few times and especially KFC got to enjoy our
company a few times. I have to admit though, that even though I love
Asian food, it really is fantastic to have some greasy fast food once
in a while as well. We also ended up at McD once, and Subway and
Starbucks a couple of times as well. The best restaurants we did go
to though were by far Pirate Ship BBQ (more western like food), The
Middle 8th (Chinese Yunnan traditional food) and Da Dong
Duck Restaurant – all these three places I would recommend everyone
who is going to Beijing to explore:) But the places Jin QiaoYuan and
Jin Ding Xuan are also very well worth a visit. Jin Qiao Yuan offers
great rice noodles almost FREE, and they always give you half price
discount coupons when you order, for the next time, to make sure you
return. Jin Ding Xuan is a very busy chain of restaurants but they
stay open 24-7 and have a very extensive menu with almost every kind
of Chinese dish to choose from. It's not that expensive either.
We were a bit worried before our
arrival to Beijing, because we had heard rumors that it might be
difficult to order food at places since no one speaks English and you
never know what you actually end up with. In Beijing though, a
lot of places have a poster on the counter with all the alternatives
and you just have to point at the picture of your order to tell the
employer what you want, but just forget about asking what kind of
meat is on the picture... that's a lost cause. We were pretty much
very lucky with our restaurant visits as well, except for one, Kao
Rou Ji, located in the Hou Hai area. This restaurant was even
mentioned in my guide book as one of the better ones, but it was
pretty much a horrible experience – both food and service – well
well. In Beijing it's common to pay at the same time as you give the
waiter/waitress your order – in other words, IF the food is crappy
you will have wasted your money big time. At another Chinese cuisine
place I had breakfast, and got some strange kind of meatballs, which
Shirley said was made of «leo» and made a growl-like
impression-sound – so I don't know if I was eating cat or if it was
cat-food, or whatever. Hopefully it was neither and just a
mistranslating of the recite;) At least it was not lion-meat,
Shirley assured me of that at least;)
The only thing China really CANNOT
get right is sausages. Hot dogs are very popular in Beijing –
they either come by themselves grilled on a stick, baked into some
kind of cracker-like pastry, or in some kind of wrap. I was told the
sausages are from Taiwan, but the flavor is pretty much awful and
the color of the sausages is bright pink, which really does not help
the temptation at all. Gabriel though was of the opinion that Taiwan
sausages are way better than German sausages, which he believes is
too fatty. I really could not disagree more as I felt the same about
the Taiwanese sausages. One of the craziest combinations of
flavors Kenneth made an attempt at, which was something called Crazy
Fries – that is salty French fries served with ice-cream and
strawberry jam – crazy indeed, and not really tasty, but Kenneth
seemed to LOVE it – so I guess there is a Joey hidden somewhere in
Kenneth;)
Some last words about Beijing:
WOW – this turned out to be the
longest blog entry ever... ah well. Shit happens as they say. I LOVE
BEIJING! We were extremely lucky as we were told that we had
arrived at a very good time during the year as the level of pollution
is at the lowest of the whole year. I have to admit I didn't notice
any pollution at all really, so I was very pleased with that as I was
very worried before our arrival. The people we hang out with in
Beijing were GREAT, and most of the food we had was amazing and the
sights are incredible! There is also lots of really nice shopping
opportunities here which you can't find many other places so this is
in every way a one of a kind city. I will recommend for everyone to
go to Beijing at least once in your life – it is really worth the
trip. I wish I could have stayed way longer time... I will definitely
100% sure return one day:)
Tian'anmen Gate and The Forbidden City
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| First sight that met us outside the Forbidden City. |
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| Me in front of Tian'anmen Gate |
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| The incredible task: Take a photo WITHOUT the annoying tourists in: Completed:) |
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| Tian'anmen Square (Himmelske Freds Plass) |
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| Entrance to the Forbidden City |
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| Amazing complex, loads of tourists though... |
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| The Imperial Garden |
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| Forbidden Jump:) |
By the Tian'anmen Square
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| National Museum |
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| Zhengyangmen Gate Tower (to the right) at south end of the square. |
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| Mao's mausoleum, with monument in front. |
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| Zhengyangmen Gate Tower |
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| The 0 point of highways in China |
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| Qianmen Archery Tower |
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| Beautiful street in the city center |
Qianmen Street
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| Sugarglazed berries, walnuts, figs and so on - mmmm:) |
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| Most beautiful shopping street in Asia:) |
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| Yummy yummy - it was VERY sweet though;) |
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| Every detail is perfection in this street:) |
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| China Railway Museum |
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| While waiting for Shirley... |
At Hou Hai Area at night
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| Could this be a place for my friend Erik Berg? ;) |
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| Changing colors by the lakeside. |
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| We all need some happiness in life:) |
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| Kenneth and the lovely Shirley:) |
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| Next gay club in Trondheim should definitely look like this:) |
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| Coolest T-shirt store ever:) |
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| Good times, despite dining at a crappy restaurant;) |
2nd Day in Beijing
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| "Park" outside of Maz and Kens apartment building. |
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| Max and Kens apartment... look very Norwegian to be honest. |
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| The cute couple, Ken + Max |
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| Wonderful Chinese dish: Add this with the below and voila - perfection:) |
Dianmen Street: Sunday Madness
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| Blind street musician |
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| Golou - The Drum Tower |
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Zhōnglóu - The Bell Tower
|
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| Nice display:) |
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| Me want one:) |
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| Definitely chaos today - but still a really really nice street. |
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| We SEE YOU! |
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| Really cute puzzle:) |
At the Penghao Theater
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| Strange improv-performance... |
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| ...though I don't complain as the hot guy undressed... |
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| ...and then got fisted.... |
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| ...before it really turned awkward;) |
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| Max, Ken, Ken and I:) |
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| Wiiiii: Shirley and Me:) |
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| Love this photo :) |
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| And they wonder why there are bird flu in China? |
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| Really cute fat Chinese:) |
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| Finally a workout - I needed that;)haha |
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| Ah ok... I see. Now I know where to go... |
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Jin Ding Xuan Restaurant - open 24/7
|
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| ....and they served really nice food too:) |
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| Lamp at the subway station. NICE:) |
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| Two pieces of badass, protected from pollution:) |
3rd Day: Tiantan Park & the Temple of Heaven
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| Tired tourist... even though it was not THAT early... |
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| The park is pretty large and contains lots of small temple complexes as well. |
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| A typical sight in Beijing: Local women dancing/working out. |
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| Beautiful Mother Nature. |
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| Tiantan Temple = Temple of Heaven, the largest temple in the park |
Next up is Jingshan Park
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| Main temple on top of Jingshan Park |
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| View of the White Pagoda from Jingshan Park |
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View of the Forbidden City, as Jingshan Park is the manmade park
located right behind the Forbidden City |
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The main temple houses a beautiful gilded Buddha,
but we were not allowed to take photos from the inside. |
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The other side of the Park, right behind me would be the Forbidden City.
It's amazing how symmetrical everything is constructed. |
At the Beihai Park
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| At the top, by the White Pagoda. |
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| View of the Jingshan Park from the White Pagoda. |
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| No smocking in the toilet... hear that guys? Don't smock! |
At Catty Wangs house:)
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| Us and Catty, she was AMAZING:) |
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| Felix the really nice Dutch couchsurfer:) |
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| Catty's cute front yard - only one of it's kind in the neighborhood. |
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| Felix playing "for" Kenneth;) |
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| All ready for BBQ:) |
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| A Freezing cold Kenneth...poor guy! |
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| Catty's neighbor:) |
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| Even fish products say it with love. |
4th Day: Great Wall of China
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| Seriously? It is so fucking embarrasing:( Just right next to the entrance... |
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| Kenneth showing how steep the wall is:) |
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| Lot's of tourists but not claustrophobic at least:) |
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| It really IS one of the most amazing sights of the world:) |
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| Shortcut down... by lugeing... |
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| Jumping THE Wall:) |
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| ...and again and again and again and again! |
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| At the very top at the Badaling section:) |
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| Great Day for SURE:) |
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| Love this photo with the flag:) |
Dinner in the evening of the 4th day
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| Gabriel, our second host! |
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| Really nice BBQ indeed:) |
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| Worth checking out:) |
5th Day: Summer Palace of Beijing
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| Gabriel's apartment complex area... it's easy to get lost here... |
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| The beautiful canal street just before the summer palace. |
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| The Summer Palace main entrance:) |
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| Because of it's location it was difficult to get great photos... |
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| Kunming lake with the Seventeen-Arch Bridge and the lake island:) |
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| Summer Palace view from the lake side:) |
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| The Seventeen-Arch Bridge |
At Nighttime: Starry Street - very high tech, fancy street:)
Dinner at the Middle 8th Restaurant
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| It's SAKE:) Very nice indeed:) |
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| The most amazing Chinese Food Ever:) |
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| Gabriel's really cute friend who joined us for dinner:) |
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| Me and Gabriel - he really was a nice guy:) |
Last Day in Beijing: Olympic Green Park
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| The really nice Birds Nest stadium:) |
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| Wall of all the medalists of the 2008 Olympics:) |
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| The famous swimming hall. |
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| In front of the Olympic torch. |
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| Chinese resting, common sight in Beijing. |
At the Beijing Zoo
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| Kenneth's horrible new passion... |
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| You looking at me? |
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| Elegant. |
Last Dinner at Da Dong Duck Restaurant
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| Shirley and Kenneth:) |
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| Amazing Century eggs and pink ginger leafs:) |
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| I liked it a lot:) |
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| Really really nice:) |
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| REAL Peking duck is this... |
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| ...mixed with this... |
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| ...like this, into a thin rice-leaf wrap and then wrap it and EAT:) DELICIOUS:) |
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| More amazing Chinese food:) |
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| Good times:) |
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| This is were I said goodbye to Kenneth and Shirley. |
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| We had a really nice time with Gabriel:) |
I have to say I did a good job. As I had 1800 photos from Beijing it was hard to pick out "ONLY" 300 photos to show off.... as I always want to show photos of both the sights we see, the people we meet, the good times we have together, and of course the daily life of the locals as well as simple, pretty, beautiful, amazing or artistic things I might pass on the street on a regular day... I hope you all enjoy the photos;)
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