Beijing - Day 1
A full day in Beijing, here we go. First stop: The Forbidden City, 7:50am.
A quick coffee from the hotel coffee machine and a short Didi and we meet the guide. We have time for a quick street breakfast (a "door nail" meat pie) and a Seven-Eleven coffee before starting the tour.
We make friends with a German couple who live and work in Basel, Switzerland.
The guide is good but the accent is a bit hard to understand in spots, meaning we are having to concentrate extra hard. It's also the first genuinely cold day we've had so far. Top of 12 degrees and a stiff breeze.
We found it interesting to here "the virus" used as a bit of a timestamp. "It hasn't been too cold in Beijing since the virus". "Pensioners don't need to pay for a ticket since the virus".
There are of course many facts and figures and as always, it's hard to hold onto all of them. We aren't massive kings-queens-emperors people, to be honest. And the subject matter, in terms of buildings, is not that photogenic in our opinion. Lots of concrete. Strategically no trees, no flowers. That being said, the tour held our attention and it's definitely a must-do.
We end the tour at the North gate. We need some lunch. We enter one of the first places we see. It's nothing special but the food is good and cheap. Noodles and dumplings, can't go wrong.
Now we want to get to the highest point around here at Jingshan Park - a man-made mountain made from the earth from the man-made canals that were dug at the period of building the Forbidden City. It's still on the same North-South axis that area is all on. In fact all of Beijing seems very North-South oriented.
The views from the top are nice. Not stunning, but pretty nice. I wouldn't say Beijing is the most picturesque city I've ever seen, but it has its charms. For example, the trees are beautiful and so old! They each have a plaque on them identifying their age and what dynasty they are from. There is one that is estimated at over 1000 years old - still blooming, but with a fair bit of assistance having its limbs propped up where needed.
Likewise, some more good bird watching, adding some more to our collection.
We have a new district to check out called Dongsi. We get a taxi, which was pretty expensive compared to Didi, especially since Jeff couldn't haggle the driver down no matter how hard he tried.
This district has been pitched to us as a more authentic, local, normal set of Hutongs without the touristy shops. We start wandering down the first one and it's definitely more "real life" here. There's still the odd coffee shop or convenience store amongst the long rows of single row, grey brick, grey-tiled residential houses - but they aren't tourist attractions.
We wander down side alleys and try and get a feel for what life is like here, considering there are probably about 10 million people living like this. It's hard to get a feel for the setup of the houses though. It's a very solid facade on the outside and you can't see how the groups of houses are setup in there, with the shared courtyards etc. Which is fine, we probably shouldn't be so nosey anyway.
It's time to transition to a different area, which is in theory a bit more gentrified and better for wandering at night. We get a Didi. The driver was super angry with us (the first non-friendly experience we've had in China) but we couldn't figure out why. And Jeff is still not 100% sure he's pronouncing "sorry" correctly. So that was awkward.
But we make it up to the Andingmen district in one piece and head into a casual looking restaurant recommended by the taxi driver from before (the extortionist one).
It looks like maybe Fasta Pasta level in terms of fanciness and appears to be a franchise. The menu is ridiculously big. A bit of a change from last night where there was no menu because they only served one thing!
We get stitched up a bit because "the side dishes" we've ordered are bloody massive, including the "pancakes" which are bigger than the breakfast pies we had this morning. So we've effectively ordered for 4 people. We give it a decent nudge but come up short. The 500ml local beers probably aren't helping. Interesting to see they are 3.9% ABV though.
We waddle out and decide we better clock up some more kilometres around these Hutongs before heading home in order to work off this food.
It's just gone night time and the lighting is very nice for a wander. The grey houses with the leafy green trees and the lights coming on make for a lovely atmosphere. We can tell how lovely it is by how many photoshoots are going on everywhere we walk. It's incredible. Got a nice red-wall? That's a backdrop. Got a simple grey wall? That's a backdrop. Got someone trying to do construction on the footpath you're standing on? Even better.
Jeff spots a guy taking a photo of something other than himself or his girlfriend and sees that it's a good shot of a shop with the lighting just right. He strikes up a conversation. The photographer says the name of the shop is using ancient Chinese characters that he hasn't really seen before - his best guess is "Rest" and "Goes".
We join the crowd who are enjoying the Saturday evening, checking out some cool little shops - not too touristy, but at the same time, a bit kitch. There are kids out trick-or-treating. They are happy to say hello and always seem impressed when we say Ni Hao back.
Oh, side note about the public toilets - they are prevalent around the cities we've been to so far. And even in and around the local Hutongs there was always one nearby and in good shape.
We aim for home from where we are, happy to go down any streets but the main ones. The best thing about these Hutongs is you never know what you're going to find. Sometimes it's a long story of nothing but then 3 or 4 cute little restaurants. Or just a convenience store where you can load up on Pocari Sweat for tomorrow.
We finish with a 3 yuan (60c) soft serve from somewhere on our hectic strip before heading to bed.
Another big day: 18km, 22 dumplings.
