25th August 2009
BEIJING: FUN AND GAMES IN THE CAPITAL
With a heavy heart we caught our plane from Bangkok to Beijing. Thailand has been a fabulous and welcomed break. We have relaxed and are now fully rejuvenated for our last few days of relentless sightseeing.
Even before we had checked in, China as usual, tried to make things as difficult as possible for us. While booking on to our flight, we were asked for proof of our return flight from China to the UK. It was an e-ticket and we didn’t have any details on us – and more to the point, it should be irrelevant because we had a Chinese visa that was valid for 90 days. We were entitled to be in the country for 90 days, surely that was enough time to organise a return, if we did not have one.
I could understand their concern if we did not have a visa, but not only did we each have a visa, but ours was for the longest possible length of time you could get! It is so frustrating; before you can even get in to the country they already create problems. We have never had so much trouble travelling a country as we have had in China.
We were sent to Finnair’s desk, so they could print off our return flight details to prove we were not intending to be refugees in China. Rather cantankerously I advised the inbound China flight lady, that should I plan to be an illegal immigrant in any country, China would be in the bottom 3 – one above Iraq and Afghanistan. Everything about China is such a hassle and that’s before you even get there!
We then managed get through passport control with each others passports, so they are obviously very selective with security. Or maybe they think we all white/blonde people look the same…
The flight back to Beijing was quite bumpy but we were kept amused for a short while by an announcement stating that “Smoking is prohibited on this flight and this includes electronic cigarettes”. What the hell are they?
We arrived in to Beijing at about 6.30am with no hostel booked. We went back to good old Starbucks to utilise their free wifi and looked up some accommodation. We selected 4, then asked the girls on the Information Desk to call them for us. When we found one with a room, the girls wrote down the name and address in Chinese for the taxi driver. We’re getting good at this pre planning.
In an unexpected act of competency, the taxi driver knew where the hostel was and drove us straight there with no hassle. Our new abode is called Templeside House Youth Hostel and is situated in a gorgeous old hutong not too far from the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square.
The hostel’s website spiel says: “Living in the guest house can help you get a better understanding of Beijing’s local life. You could never get the same feeling and travelling experience without staying in the hutongs. Wandering through the long and puzzling hutong, smiling at the locals and neighbours, seeing the blue sky in the open air traditional courtyard, listening to the whistling doves… Templeside gives you a glimpse of what life in the city is really like.” I wrote exactly what they said because I couldn’t write it any better. It did exactly what it said on the tin and was beautiful, quiet, serene, traditional and Chinese! For once!
The owner Bobby came out to meet us personally and he spoke excellent English. He had studied in Australia and set up 3 hostels in Beijing on his return. We asked him about all the trips available, as we really want to visit the Great Wall. However, we do not want to visit the touristy parts but the ruined, untouched areas where noone goes.
We have heard that some hostels will offer this but you can only access it by private car and only if the driver knows the area well. Bobby said yes, he could do that for us and he would drive us personally! What excellent service. We may tie it in with a stop off at a more touristy part too, so we can have the best of both worlds.
For our first evening, we went to a huge indoor local market called Ya Show, which sold everything in the world on about 8 different floors. We mooched about for a couple of hours, being shouted and pulled at as we walked past each stall. Each person vying for our trade. Lizzie bought a gorgeous hand embroidered silk dressing gown and I bought a Chinese original painting.
In the surrounding streets, to our amazement, we found a gorgeous looking Spanish Tapas restaurant. We shared some dishes between us; lamb skewers and Camembert with caramelised onions to name a few. It was delicious.
After dinner we found a street with a good selection of bright noisy little bars, full of Chinese and westerners alike. We tried to find a table outside in a bar that took our fancy to no avail. Two western guys asked us to join them. We ended up spending the evening with them and their Chinese friend Ping Ping (aka Pandora). 8+ drinks later…
As we had a full day of sightseeing planned for the next day, we said goodbye to our evening companions and went to find a taxi. We looked for our hostel’s business card which had the address and map on in Chinese – but could not find it. We were on the other side of the city, without a map, the address or my phone.
It was gone midnight and all the internet cafes were closed. There seemed no way to find out how to get home. No one speaks English and without someone to translate, it is literally like being on a different planet. Luckily, I had taken a photograph of our street name. We went back to the bar and asked Pandora for help. Pandora called her friend, asked him to get the full address of our hostel and text it to her in Chinese. She then showed a taxi driver and after an hour of faffing, we were off.
The taxi driver dropped us off on the main road that our hutong lead off from. Unfortunately, although we recognised the road, we had no idea which end we lived at – and both ends looked identical. By this time it was past 1am. We wandered around for a bit in the dark, debating whether to enter a hutong or not, as we would likely get lost if it was the wrong one.
Then we came across 3 youths with a very cute, friendly puppy. I showed them the photographs of our hutong name and the front door of our hostel. We made ‘shrugging/ lost’ actions to get the message across. One of the group, a young boy, walked us the entire way to our front door. Neither could speak the others language but the boy could still understand us, recognised we were lost and went out of his way to help us. It is moments like that when you are really touched by a country’s generosity. Everyone thought we were mad to travel a country like China alone, without a guide and without any ability to speak the language, but we have triumphed over adversity. All you need is blonde hair and a smile!
Stayed: Templeside House Youth Hostel, Liu He Hu Tong 2 Tiao,
Fu Cheng Men Nei Street, Xi Cheng District, Beijing
danilovescats - travels 