Summer Olympics News

Last Sunday was a really nice and sunny day, so I went for a stroll around Xihai, Houhai and Qianhai, all of which are lakes Northwest of the Forbidden City. I started out at Xihai Lake, very close to Jishuitan subway station. As opposed to the other two lakes, it’s allowed to fish there, so the lakeshore was crowded with people patiently dangling their fishing poles into the water.

I walked around the lake, taking short detours through the adjacent alleyways every once in a while. Occasionally, there would be a rickshaw driver coming my way shouting “Hello! Hello! Hutong!”, but apart from that it was really nice and quiet, something you really learn to appreciate in Beijing. The number of rickshaw drivers and hawkers increased as I came closer to the other two lakes. Houhai and Qianhai are lined with Western-style bars with huge Budweiser-signs and Western-style decoration, where you can get expensive drinks and, well, let’s just say mediocre Western food. I had a salad at one of the bars, and while I’ve definitely had worse, I’ve certainly had better, too.

After lunch, I went on another trip through the Hutongs, this time on foot. There’s a small, busy alley right next to Houhai and Qianhai, where you can buy yet more souvenirs or just enjoy the atmosphere. Once I got out of there, I headed left and walked through the Hutongs next to the Bell and Drum Towers.

For the night, a couple of friends and I had reserved tickets for the performance at “Laoshe Teahouse”, a teahouse named after the play “Teahouse” by the famous writer Lao She. It’s behind Tian’anmen Square, to the West of Qianmen. People sat at tables and could enjoy tea and snacks during the performance, some of which tasted really good while others tasted really… interesting. The show included traditional music, excerpts from Peking operas, sketches, an artist who could change the color of his face within the fraction of a second, a magician, and a kung fu performance. I can really recommend this place. Don’t expect a Western style theater: people are drinking tea and chatting while watching the show, but that’s exactly what makes for a great atmosphere. Performances are every night at 7:50; you have to reserve tickets in advance. Prices for tickets vary from 60-180 Yuan ($7.5 – $23) depending on how close or far away from the stage you want to sit.

I’ve always admired people who come to China even though they don’t speak any Chinese, and I‘ve always wanted to know how they manage. That’s why I decided to pretend that I did not speak or understand a word of Chinese for a whole day. The experiment did not always go smoothly. I switched to Chinese once, and although I could pretend I did not speak Chinese, I could still understand what people were saying, and it was not always possible to block that out when deciding what to do or say next. Overall, this day was definitely one of the most interesting experiences I’ve had so far.

Beijing Subway
The subway was easy to find. Stations are marked with a blue sign saying “Beijing subway”. The ticket booth was also easy to locate; just look for a big crowd of people fighting and cutting in front of each other (or for the sign saying “tickets”). Ticket prices are only written in Chinese. I was unsure whether non-Chinese speakers would be able to guess which of the many numbers is the price, so I just handed the lady a 20 Yuan bill to be on the safe side (tickets are 3 Yuan, around $0.35). Stations are written both in characters and “Pinyin” (the official transcription), with English translations whenever there exists one. So far no problem. On the train, stations are announced, but if you are not familiar with the pronunciation, it might be better to keep track of where you are on the map right above the door.

Beijing Hutongs
I got off at Qianmen and walked up Dazhalan Jie, a noisy street filled with little restaurants, stores selling souvenirs, tea, Chinese crafts, etc., before deciding to take a tour through the Hutongs. Hutongs are the famous small alleyways of Beijing, mostly lined with one-storey traditional courtyard houses. They are one of Beijing’s most popular attractions, but have made the headlines over the last couple of years mainly for being torn down and being replaced by more modern buildings. There are still a few left though.

It’s easy to find a rickshaw that will take you on a tour through the Hutongs, as a matter of fact, sometimes it can be very hard to fend the drivers off. I bargained for the price for a short while, which was not that easy, as the driver spoke no English, except for numbers, but overall no problem. We settled for 20 Yuan ($ 2.5).

The tour was a nice way to relax, although I would have liked to learn a bit more about the different places he took me to. We went to a hotel, several old residences, an old theater, Liulichang, and through lots of Hutongs. Whenever we passed another rickshaw, I could listen to my driver bragging in Chinese about how much money he was charging me. After about thirty minutes, we got back to where we had started. My driver took out the piece of paper with all the places we had gone to (10 altogether) and said: “Twenty. Each.” As I did not even have 200 Yuan ($ 25) on me (not that I would have paid that much) and was starving and not in the mood for a fight, I decided that this was a good time to let him know that I had understood what he had said the whole time. So I gave him the 20 Yuan and I told him in Chinese: “We agreed on 20 Yuan. There you go. Stop overcharging people.”He had to laugh really hard, and I don’t think he was all that upset about the 20 Yuan, either.

I do have to say that problems like this happen quite frequently, and they cannot always be solved that easily. Always make absolutely sure how much you are supposed to pay and for what. If you are asked to pay more money than you agreed on later, don’t.

Beijing Restaurants
I went to one of the little restaurants on Dazhalan Xijie, most of which have English menues, as this is an area frequented by Western tourists. Dazhalanjie is actually one of the very few places in Beijing where I found dog meat on the menu, although none of the dog dishes were translated into English. No need to worry though, you can be absolutely sure you won’t be served dog meat anywhere unless you order it.

Beijing Taxis
After having lunch, I took a taxi to Coal Hill, a park right behind the exit of the Forbidden City. It’s a really popular place as you have a great view of the roofs of the Forbidden City from the top of the hill. It would have been within walking distance, but I was tired and still wanted to test how taking a taxi in English would work. The taxi driver did not speak English, and he did not understand my attempt to mispronounce “Jingshan” – the Chinese name of Coal Hill – either. Things became much easier once I took out my map of Beijing. Tourist maps are sold on every corner, and are handy as they are written in both English and Chinese. Although there are some taxi drivers who do speak a little English, I would recommend always taking a map with you (make sure names are also written in Chinese characters) or to have someone write down the address in Chinese for you. That way, there’s really not a lot that can go wrong.

Coal Hill
The top pavilion on Coal Hill is under construction at the moment. Unfortunately, they do not tell you that before you get to the top, where the guard sent everybody back down. I simply decided to climb up the rocks, which was what most other tourists did as well. I could only get to one of the smaller pavilions though, from which the view is not as good.

I had fried eggplant for dinner at one of the restaurants next to the Forbidden City, which also had an English menu. As the English menu didn’t have prices, I had her show me how much my dish was on the Chinese menu, which she did truthfully.

I have to admit I was really tired once I was on the subway and heading back home. Speaking Chinese can make you tired sometimes; I was not aware that not speaking Chinese can be even more exhausting.

First thing on Thursday, I went to see the “Bird’s Nest” the National Stadium right next to the North Fourth Ring Road, which is still under construction. The Bird’s Nest will be the main track and field stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. It’s a building made of overlapping steel bands and does look quite a bit like a bird’s nest or something comparable. After seeing a picture of it on the official website of the 2008 Olympics, I thought it looked really strange, but I have to say I liked it when I went to see it.

I could see parts of it from the bus, but where I got off, it was hidden behind trees and billboards. I walked around the construction site for a while, trying to get a better view, or rather any view at all. Soon, more and more construction workers with blue overalls and yellow helmets came my way, and after while I did find one of the entrances. I did not seriously expect to be able to get on the construction site, but as people were walking in and out, I thought I would give it a try, just to get a better view. I was immediately stopped and sent back by a guard though as soon as I got anywhere near the entrance. So I just took a picture and then walked back down the road.

Next, I went to the International Olympic Sports Center, formerly the Asian Games village. Here, it was possible to get inside the Center, but not any closer to the gymnasium or the other venues. I walked around the construction site, lined with small two-story buildings where the construction workers live, and then decided to have lunch at the Olympic Center Restaurant, which is more like a cafeteria, except smaller. But there was some problem with the kitchen, and they could only serve cold snacks, so I left. I was the only foreigner around, and probably the only foreigner who had come in a while, as the Olympic Center is quite a way from the center of the city, so I was stared at a lot more intensely than usual and decided to leave.

In the afternoon, I went to see a couple of art exhibitions in Chaoyang disctrict, which I will write more about later.

Wangfujing, the main shopping street, is about a 15 minutes walk from Tian’anmen Square. If you don’t enjoy walking, you can also take the subway: it”s just one station away from Tiananmen East. At Wangfujing you can basically get anything you need. Everything is pretty expensive though, so I am usually perfectly happy just window shopping. Right when you enter Wangfujing, there’s Oriental Plaza on the right side, a mall which also has a supermarket where you can get Western food, in case you’re desperate for cheese, chocolate, Western spices and the like. There’s Wangfujing bookstore, where you can also get a selection of English books if you’ve run out of things to read. Wangfujing is lined with shops selling shoes, jewellery, make-up, souvenirs, expensive brand clothes – probably one of the few places in Beijing without fake clothes – and so on. There’s also a Bank of China towards the end of Wangfujing, in case you’ve spent all your money shopping.

I first went to a small snack alley where you can have skewers, fresh coconut milk, egg rolls, and other snacks or even buy some bagged roast duck. There are also lots of small places were you can get lunch. I wanted to see whether it was possible to get a meal ordering in English, so I went to one of the little restaurants. There was no English menu available, but the waiter spoke English well enough that he could understand that I wanted him to bring me a Chinese menu and recommend a dish. If you want to eat in this snack alley, it’s always best if you have the person show you the price on the menu or tell you how much it is. I was cheated here before and charged an incredibly high price for a meal that didn’t even taste good because I blindly ordered something without asking for the price. I ordered fried noodles, and although the noodles tasted a bit like “Chinese food” in Germany and dishes are pricey, it is nice to go to the snack alley for some skewers or for lunch in case you get hungry while shopping at Wangfujing. Also, the atmosphere, especially at night, makes it worth coming, although you should keep an eye on your things, as the alley is usually crowded. After the snack areas, there’s an alley were the usual souvenirs are sold: fans, teacups, purses, tablecloths, chopsticks, paintings, etc. None of the hawkers are shy, so I was followed by shouts like “Hello Lady”, “Look!” and “I give you good price”. Just ignore them unless you want to buy something. Once you reach the end of the souvenir alley, you can either go back to Wangfujing, or continue for a short walk into a more genuinely Chinese alley.

I next decided to go into “Tenfu Tea Store”, a chain store with shops all over Beijing. On entering, I was immediately welcomed by a shop assistant who followed me around, offered me samples of tea, tea candy, cookies, and other snacks, and who ensured that I would not escape without having bought anything. I finally managed to get out by buying a pack of tea candy for 10 Yuan (a bit more than $1). I’m sure there are other ways of getting back outside though. You can do your tea shopping at Wangfujing, but it’s really pricey, and if you have the chance – and the guts to take a bus in Beijing – you should really go to Maliandao, an area with streets lined with nothing but tea shops. I am planning to go there sometime next week and will let you know how things went.

When I was asked whether I wanted to come visit an art exhibition yet again, I decided it was time to leave Wangfujing.

Tian’anmen Square, right in the center of the city and the largest square in the world, is always packed with tourists, Chinese and Western alike, and of course vendors selling tacky souvenirs, postcards, kites, water, etc. Here I also got to witness the rapid change Beijing is under. When I came on Monday, the Square looked just like it had looked a year ago, once I came back on Tuesday, the whole area in front of the “Monument of the People’s Heroes” right in the middle of the square, was under construction. (EDIT: As I learned from the newspaper that night, those are the preparations for the anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China on October 1, which started on Tuesday. I didn’t realize that they started that early, but I should have figured, as the flower ornament decorations which are displayed on the square on October 1 probably do take a long time to make. Also, this year there are going to be flower statues of the Olympic mascots for the first time, each around 12 to 15 feet high. The decorations are supposed to be finished on September 27, so hopefully I’ll get to have a look at them before I leave.)

After walking across the square and around the Monument of the People’s Heroes, a tall obelisk-like building, I first went to the National Museum to the East of the Square as I still remembered from my last visit that right in front of the museum, the “Official Timekeeper” is counting down the days, hours, minutes, and seconds until the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics and I wanted to get a picture. Everyone else had their picture taken there, too. As soon as I had taken my camera out, a group of Chinese came up to me and asked whether I would mind getting in the photo with them. We took a really historical picture, Chinese host and foreign guest shaking hands right in front of the countdown clock for the 2008 Olympics. Being asked to get in a photo is a phenomenon that probably everyone who has been to Tian’anmen Square or anywhere nearby has experienced. Especially on days when there are lots of tourists from the countryside, it is basically inevitable. Just smile and enjoy feeling like a celebrity.

Once they had left, a student came by and asked me whether I wanted him to show me around an art exhibition in the museum. Again, this is something very common. There are countless art exhibitions all over Beijing, and art students are always looking for potential buyers. They used to ask directly whether you wanted to see their art; as far as I can tell they’ve switched strategies now and involve you in a conversation first until it is very hard for you to turn them down politely. It can become annoying if you’re asked for the tenth time in a day, but there’s no harm in going once if you want to buy a Chinese painting or just for the experience. My self-declared tour guide showed me around, explaining the pictures half in English half in Chinese. Although it was clear that he wanted to sell, it was no problem to get back outside without having bought anything.

Afterwards, I decided to go inside the museum, and since I’d been told by various people on the Square that the only interesting exhibition at the moment was the waxworks, that’s where I went. There were two exhibition halls. In the first one, the 20th century leaders were standing right opposite the emperors of the past dynasties. In the second, there were wax figures of the ethnic minorities, and of famous Chinese of past and present from the fields of literature, sports, movies, etc. There was also a small selection of famous Western people, including Charlie Chaplin, Marilyn Monroe, Isaac Newton, Einstein, and Bill Gates. I really liked the waxworks, but captions were only available in Chinese, and it’s only half the fun guessing who is who when you have no way to find out whether you guessed right or not.

To the West is the Great Hall of the People, where the National People’s Congress meets, banquets are held, etc. You have to leave your purse or backpack outside, and since valuables cannot be stored, I went inside equipped with two wallets, a cell phone, passport, camera, and my plane tickets – just a bit too much to hold on to with just two hands while wanting to take photos. As expected, I found vast halls with red carpets, decorated with paintings and with chandeliers on the ceiling. Some of the rooms are named after the different provinces. Quite a few areas were off limits to tourists though when I went, and overall, there was nothing too spectacular, except for the fact that I had been were the official government of China meets, which was what I had come for to begin with.

To the South of the square is the “Chairman Mao Memorial Hall”, a name which is slightly misleading, as the building serves both as a memorial hall for the Chairman and other Party leaders of the first generation as well as as Mao’s tomb. Unfortunately, the hall was already closed by the time I got there. As this place is very high on my lists of things I want to see while in Beijing, I will definitely come back later and write more about it.

Finally, and most importantly, there is the Forbidden City, also known as the Palace Musuem behind the Gate of Heavenly Peace (Tian’anmen in Chinese, hence the name of the square), the large gate with Mao’s portrait to the North of the Square on the other side of Chang’an Boulevard. I will write more about the Forbidden City in a separate post.

On Monday and Tuesday, I did some sightseeing in the central area of Beijing. I am going to post my tours in three or four different posts, sorted by area. If there’s one thing I have learned from the last two days, it’s to bring super-comfy shoes when walking around Beijing all day long. This is of course something that should go without saying and it’s not the first time I’ve made this mistake, but I thought my shoes were perfectly okay, and was proven wrong yet one more time. Another thing I am amazed by again and again in Beijing is distances. Everything here is huge, so you should always take the time it will take you to get to places into consideration, even if you’re just going on a sightseeing tour in and around the center. That said, I had two great days in the heart of the city.