Stop 24 - Beijing

I made it...
to Beijing, the main reason I wanted to visit China. It's the capital, and has the highest population of any capital city in the world. The ~300km/h bullet train had me there in no time from my last stop - the trains are unreal, doesn't feel like you're going that speed at all:

And I made my way to my hostel, 365 Inn, located in one of the many small hutongs around Beijing. Near enough to a main tourist street, I went to gather my bearings of the surrounding area, and make a plan for the 4 nights I had here:

I kept in touch with Victor, Laura, and Andy from the tour group in the last stop, Xi'an, and we made plans to meet up at this tram just located at Qianmen station, in front of Tianmen Square:

Obligatory tourist photo

and after fuelling up on an overpriced Starbucks (the coffee in China is dirt, so have to make do with what you can), we set off on our sightseeing day in Beijing - first stop, Tiananmen Square (the location of many infamous protests, including the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre - apparently one of the most censored topics in China):

Myself looking very happy to pose in front of the Chinese flag. Just didn't want to do anything that might get me arrested.

Above is the gate we passed through to visit the Forbidden City, but none of us heeded the warnings online that it may sell out, as only 80,000 tickets are sold per day, and alas, the tickets were all gone. What to do? We decided to visit another attraction, The Temple of Heaven, and wouldn't you know with our luck - it was closed. The park itself was pretty cool though, and after meeting up with Marije, another girl from the last hostel in Xi'an, we came across a group of Chinese women playing what looked to be something similar to Hackysack (now learnt it's Jianzi). They invited us to join despite not having a world of English between them, and so we obliged:

They were pros, we were terrible. Though Laura managed to get a decent clip above of me looking like I had some sort of idea of what I was doing, so I'll take that.

After the women got tired of us ruining their game over and over again, the gang was splitting up, as Laura had to head on - so that left three of us. Trying out some traditional Beijing food, Peking duck, was on the cards, and was the sole Chinese food option I was looking forward to all trip - the restaurant, that I have no recollection of the name of, that we were recommended, came up trumps and the meal only cost approx €7 each:

At dinner tickets were bought for the Forbidden City for the next day, to ensure we actually made it past the gates this time:

It was again one of those things that felt a little lost on me, temples and living quarters of emperors in years past that I just couldn't resonate with. The architecture and scale was impressive, but it wouldn't be top of my list if returning to Beijing.

However, what would be top of my list, would be returning to the Great Wall. Saved best for last, and it truly was amazing. Similar to the Taj Mahal, it's one of those things that really is mind blowing as soon as you set eyes on it. We went with a day trip from our hostel to the Jinshanling section (furthest away from our hostel, ~3 hour drive by bus, and thankfully wasn't too crowded at all), and trekked ~14km. I was a little worried about doing it alone/without the hostel group or guide, but if returning I think I'd try and navigate things myself. It was €50 for the tour and absolutely worth every penny, but even wilder sections are available, for about half the price, if you're willing to explore yourself. The unrestored sections of the Great Wall were a particular highlight, climbing through ruins from years past. I was a pretty big fan of this. The pictures don't do it justice, but it was special.

And as a reward for all that trekking, a trip to Jing-A which was recommended by the English couple I met in Xi'an was my final stop. Dong-bei IPA, pictured below, was as good as any Irish/UK beer I've had in a while. Would also be pretty high on my list of places to return to in Beijing!

And that's that. Beijing was great, I don't think I captured enough pictures of the small hutongs and neighbourhoods throughout the city. The Great Wall lived up to my high hopes, and was nice to (pretty much) end my time in China on a high. Not quite finished though, as I've a local train to catch to Tianjin (no, I've never heard of it either) - a half hour away from Beijing, and half the price to fly to Tokyo from. Not too sure what there'll be to do there, but some preparation for Japan is needed, so I'm sure I'll make do.

Big love,

Stu

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