Beijing
Dear Rudy:
We returned this past week from a trip to Beijing. It was somewhat of
a last minute trip; not one which we had been planning for years or
even months. Circumstances and happenstance came together and we went
for eight days. It was magical.
We did have time to research the trip to some degree before leaving
but as has often been the case in past trips much of the research and
preparation is done on the plane. In our case the thirteen-hour trip
from Detroit to Capital Airport in Beijing served us well. The books
and maps aside, though, the rest, in our experience is an ad hoc
adventure of exploration on our own. This lends itself to some degree
of excitement. That, at least, has been the routine with trips to
Europe and other more "normal", if you will, destinations. But would
it work for Beijing?
None of the gang of four on this trip spoke any Chinese and our sense
and knowledge of Chinese customs was gained mostly from fortune
cookies and many bad late night Chinese restaurants in any number of
cities - be it New Ulm, Minnesota or London.
After some musing, we collected guidebooks, an article from The New
York Times, an excellent, detailed map of Beijing and searched The
Savvy Traveler web page. That information in hand, we decided to use
our old approach and search our way around the city on our own. The
best decision had already been made - to go to Beijing. The next best
decision was to venture about without the benefit of China Travel
Service or another group tour of that ilk. We also had rehearsed
several Chinese phrases which would have to serve us in all
situations and all instances! There was nothing about us that would
indicate to anyone that we were anything but aliens visiting a
foreign land.
Our adventure was a success.
Beijing is a fascinating city to explore on one's own. Venturing
about alone gave us much more time at such sites as the Forbidden
City, the Summer Palace and so on. On foot we also got a sense of the
grand scale of the City. Chong An a major thorough fare, is six lanes
wide; a daunting task to cross mid-day; an absolute minefield during
rush hour! Against this back drop we turned off major streets into
quiet neighborhoods; self contained with small markets and
restaurants. Many seemd more characteristic of small towns than a
city like Beijing.
Taking routes dictated more by whim than anything else also brought
us to many of Beijing's hutongs. On foot it seemed more intimate and
less of an intrusion into these neighborhoods than some of the
pedi-cab tours we saw on occassion more or less racing through these
areas.
The hutongs are the remainders and reminders of old Beijing. An
article appearing in The New York Times Travel section before we left
guided us to one of these areas in the back lake area of Beijing.
This is a delightful chain of three lakes in the northwestern part of
the city. The willow, azalea and tulip trees ringing the lakes were
coming into bloom thanks to the string of sunny, seventy degree days
we experienced. Also in this area is Soong Ching Li's home. She was
the widow of Sun Yat Sen and a major force in China' politics for
many years. Her sister was married to Chiang Kai Shek. The home is a
quiet city refuge in a garden setting behind an imposing stone wall.
We encountered maybe fifteen people during our two hour visit.
While we walked miles, we also used taxis, ever present in Beijing.
Most are red and small sometimes making it difficult for four people
to squeeze in, especially with daypacks and packages. The traffic is
generally hectic but for all of what seems to be chaos, the traffic
moves and we always arrived safely at our destination. We encountered
some problems with a few of the drivers but then we have also had bad
experiences with New York taxi drivers who speak Enghlish! The
indiscretions amounted to nothing more than some efforts to charge us
over and what was on the meter. We stood our ground and paid the
metered fare. We also refused to enter into a negotiated rate as that
was almost always more than the meter rate. "Please turn on the
meter" said in halting Chinese became our mantra with taxi drivers.
Halting as our speech may have been, the response was always positive.
One minor discomfort of proceeding on our own was the fact that we
were very identifiable visitors, myself particularly, standing six
feet tall with red hair! That made us general targets for pleas for
money. We almost always declined.
All of this is to say, get the books and a good map and set out to
explore the city on your own. It is a wonderful way to visit Beijing.
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