* this ---> [::] <--- means, that paragraph (only!) was researched from the net
October 22, 2008
Arrived in Beijing and the first thing you notice is the heavy smog just like in Xian. So many beautiful architectural buildings but hard to appreciate because of the smog. Well-manicured avenues and streets. Disappointed at our hotel, quite far from the city central…
First, let me apologize to whomsoever is interested, because this last installment of our Japan-China tour took forever to get done. Too many things happened as you may very well know and for the last 3 or 4 months, I wasn’t too keen on writing about anything. But now, I did manage to pull myself out of that slump and decided its about time I close that chapter specially because I have already visited 2 more countries since then.
Our driver picked us up at the airport and we were kinda wondering why our guide is nowhere in sight. Our driver cannot converse in English and all he did was drop us at our hotel. Nnylanna said its probably because we have nothing scheduled with them on the remainder of the day and true enough, our private tour guide Julie did call our hotel room to apologize for not meeting us at the airport because she is sick and would just see us the next day. Btw, I don’t think my sister mentioned it but we stayed at the Holiday Inn and contrary to my sister’s opinion, the location is not bad at all. just a point of clarification, in the video below , the "amarkano" i was referring to was our tour guide for that night named "Dylan". we were puzzled by the western sounding name.
…Booked a night tour that will take us to the Olympic Park, Tianamen Square, Popular Bar Area (Hutong area), ruins of the ancient City wall and the National Theater. Our guide is an energetic and friendly local whose English name is Dylan. We were joined by a young couple from Brazil who were very keen on Chinese history. We ended up interpreting on behalf of our guide…
When my sister made arrangements for our night tour, the conscierge told us that our guide’s name is Dylan so we instantly assumed, oh he’s a foreigner working in China or maybe married to a foreigner. Surprise, surprise, Dylan is a pure blooded Chinese who doesn’t have any western connection, at all ! you can tell right away the he just recently learned the English language, crammed for a quick course is more like it maybe for the recently concluded Olympics. I don’t expect everybody to be excellent English speakers but if youre going to be a professional tour guide in English at the very least I expect you to be understood by your clients and with all due respect to Dylan, but his English is sooo barok(in pinoy language it means “broken”), what’s he doing in this profession? I guess I have to thank my exposure to asian dramas and asian news programs for helping me understand what Dylan was saying, welll, most of the time. The young brazillian couple that were with us, Guillame and Julia, couldn’t understand a word that he was saying and my sister was right, we ended up translating for them and that got us into thinking, Dylan should have given us a cut of his pay :) I have to hand it to these brazillian couple, they came prepared. They have a computer printout of researched Chinese history. Julia doesn’t speak English so what happened was Dylan would tell us about this place and we would explain it to Guillame and he would translate it to Julia. Phew! Lost in translation :) …back to the tour, immediately the scale of development and the massiveness of this country was revealed to us. First stop, The CCTV Headquarters, it is an engineering and architectural wonder. With that structural design, you would ask, how in the world can it still remain standing??? See what I mean with these picture that I stole from the web ‘coz the first picture that we took were too dark to be appreciated…
It must be the influence of my dearly departed father but lately, ive been uber fascinated by building design and structure. I see a skyscraper or an unusual structural design and im like …in awe, trying to figure out how it works. What brought about this newly discovered respect and admiration for builders, and I mean for engineers and architects, I have no idea …hmmm, think I may be possessed by the spirit of Architech Gavin… haha. Here are other images of buildings in Beijing…
Next stop was the ancient Beijing City Wall, at least what’s left of it. its nothing compared to how preserved the Xian City Wall is and i was curious enough to dig some info about this place from the web…
[::] <---> The city wall of Beijing was a fortification built around 1435. It was 23.5 km long. The thickness at ground level was 20m and the top 12m. The wall was 15m high, and it had nine gates. This wall stood for nearly 530 years, but in 1965 it was removed to give way to 2nd Ring Road and the loop line subway of Beijing. Only in the southeast, just south of Beijing Railway Station, stands one part of the wall.
Sad, sad, sad, history making way for development :( we ended up taking pictures of ourselves just as a rminder that we were there, 'coz really, you can hardly see what remains of the wall. The walls are behind that flower structure…
Next stop, a drive by Tianamen Square and very near that is the Grand National Theater where we got off to take some pictures. In that gigantic complex, also located are several important government offices including their version of the parliament house and if im not mistaken, the remains of Mao is also displayed on one of those buildings. Unfortunately, didn’t see him ‘coz that whole area was closed the next day for visiting dignitaries from all over the region, including our very own "acting" Presidentita. The Grand National Theater is again, could only be described an impressive awesome building. It looked like a huge alien ship that landed on earth. See for yourself in again these pics that I stole from the web…
…We had a fun night even though it rained which hindered our photoshoot at the Olympic venues. The Water Cube was so impressive, so as the Dragon Building and Bird’s Nest(it looks smaller that its actual size). The People’s Square is impressive, HUGE place. Had dinner then off to bed.
Next stop, the Olympic venues. As you may have read above in her notes, my sister said that the National Aquatics Center nicknamed, Water Cube, where the swimming competitions were held is an impressive structure. Its like a plastic multi-colored bubble wrap. I saw a special on national geographic channel about this building and I understand why my sister was gushing over it. And the fact that it was built by an Australian company has nothing at all to do with it, naaaahhh… :) The Olympic Stadium, a.k.a. The Birds Nest was located beside the Water Cube but its was not lighted so we couldn’t really appreciate it so we just drove by the next day and again, contrary to my sister’s observation that it looks smaller than its actual size, I found it to be a huge massive steel edifice. Awesomely unique:) …and of course, it didn’t matter that the rain was pouring that night, as if a little matter like rain can get in the way of our pictorial ..haha..
In that same olympic venue area is Pangu Plaza, Beijing’s Dragon Hotel. It is rated as a 7star 5building hotel that is shaped like the Chinese fabled creature, the dragon…
Finally, we visited The Hutongs, at least those parts that are now lined with bars that is I understand beginning to become very popular among the young Chinese. I will write about them later ‘coz we came back to the residential part of this place with Julie on our regular tour schedule. So, end of the night for us.
23October 2008
Early breakfast. Tummy not too good today. I had to take 2 “Lynn’s vitamins” this morning. Was scheduled to meet our tour guide Julie at the hotel foyer at 8:30am. 9am and she’s still a no-show so I asked the concierge to ring up the China agent only to be told later that it was a disconnected line. I was getting really annoyed by this stage. A few minutes after, the driver that fetched us at the airport greeted us and we were told that Julie is sick and will meet us at our first destination for the day, The Temple of Heaven. Anyways, Julie was there when we arrived and she has got a bit of a cold. In the meantime, ive sent a text message to Che to complain about China Travel Service Beijing. Julie proved to be a good guide. Among the 3, she speaks better English.
just a point of clarification for non-relatives who may be puzzled at this point at who “Che” is, she our travel agent cousin whom I understand made all the arrangements for this tour. Also, please dont ask me what those “vitamins” that nnylanna was referring to, what they are for and why they are called as such … my lips are sealed, glued, cemented and stiched. Besides I am generously compensated for my silence ..haha..
The Temple of Heaven and its surrounding park was very beautiful. According to Julie, it has become a meeting place for their senior citizens. It has festive atmosphere and they have different kind of activities for everyone. Ballroom dancing, Tai Chi, Chinese opera, mahjong, card games and a lot more. I thoroughly enjoyed looking and observing the people having a great time...
[::] <---> The Temple of Heaven (also Tiantan Park) is the grandest cult architecture complex in the world and a masterpiece of the Chinese people created in ancient times. It covers 2,700,000 square meters (667 acres), which is nearly four times the area of the Forbidden City. The temple was constructed in 1420 during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), and was enlarged during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Emperors of the two dynasties used to worship the heaven and pray for rich harvests, as the feudal emperors thought they were the son of the heaven.
next stop is Tianamen Square. Unfortunately, the huge complex is closed(I stated the reason why in my post above). We then headed to The Forbidden City. We were in “awe”, it is so hard to describe this magnificent place. the complexity and grandeur is uncomparable to any palace in Europe. Photographs doesn’t do it justice. You have to be there and see it in person to appreciate it fully. And this palace was built way before the manificent palaces in Europe.
Years ago, I saw the movie called “The Last Emperor” on tv and from then on I have been fascinated by this place. it is the world’s largest surviving palace complex. That statement alone shows you the importance of this place in the scheme of things in this part of the world. Its history is sooo rich and sooo long that I don’t think I could even begin to describe them to you.
[::] <---> The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the It is located in the middle of Beijing, China, and now houses the Palace Museum. For almost five hundred years, it served as the home of emperors and their households, as well as the ceremonial and political center of Chinese government. Built in 1406 to 1420, the complex consists of 980 buildings with 8,707 bays of rooms and covers 720,000 m2 (7,800,000 sq ft). The palace complex exemplifies traditional Chinese palatial architecture,and has influenced cultural and architectural developments in East Asia and elsewhere. The Forbidden City was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987, and is listed by UNESCO as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world
...The Meridian Gate, front entrance to the Forbidden City...
...one of the rockeries near the entrance of the Yuhua yuan, an Imperial Garden...
...Glazed building decoration...
...the Gate of Divine Might, the northern gate...
...the throne in The Palace of Heavenly Purity, the largest of the 3 halls of the Inner Court.
And because the Forbidden City is a famous and important place, allow us to do what we do best and what is expected of us ...to have our picture taken here :)
To this day, and even after Julie our guide painstakingly explained to us the all-important ”NORTH-SOUTH AXIS” where all the important historical landmarks in Chinese history is located, I still do not understand it. btw, the day that we went to the Forbidden City is also officially the start of winter in china that year, suffice it to say, little miss “temperature sensitive” was freaking out each time there is a strong gust of wind as attested by the video I took below.
Next is the Hutong area and riding a rickshaw to see what it was like living in Beijing during ancient times. We had another excellent guide just for the leg of this tour. Cant’ remember his name, an old man who speaks very good English. Had a good conversation with him about Chinese history and life in china. He took us around the Hutong area including the Hou Hai bar area(we went here last night with Dylan). Then had homecooked lunch with a family that lives in Hutong.
[::] <---> A hutong is an ancient city alley or lane typical in Beijing, where hutongs run into the several thousand. Surrounding the Forbidden City, many were built during the Yuan (1206-1341), Ming(1368-1628) and Qing(1644-1908) dynasties. In the prime of these dynasties the emperors, in order to establish supreme power for themselves, planned the city and arranged the residential areas according to the etiquette systems of the Zhou Dynasty.
Again, we forgot to take pictures of our Hutong hostess and guide. Welll …while we were riding the rickshaw we took the picture directly above this, the old man riding the bike is our guide. As we were talking to our guide while having our lunch, I got an impression that he is not youre average Chinese guy. This is a learned man who use to work for the government and was previously assigned to various overseas posts. Later, I told my sister that he was probably a Chinese spy ‘coz that was the vibe im getting from him …a chinese secret agent… Waaa, me and my overactive imagination :) As far as our hostess is concerned, she’s a housewife that welcomes tourists in her home inside a compound in the Hutongs. At first, I was like, were having our lunch in someone’s home and I didn’t know what to expect from that. does she know we're coming? is there like a menu? Are we sharing the table with other guests? are we suppose to pay her? … ‘coz really, it’s the first time I’ve heard of this kind of arrangement. It turns out that its all part of a tourism program of mainland china, to give their citizens a chance to earn a few bucks and at the same time showcase their hospitality. Not a bad idea at all. and to answer my previous queries, yes, our hostess was expecting our arrival. no, there was no menu, the food was already prepared when we got there and it is pretty good. No, we did not share the table with other guests. And, Julie said we don’t have to pay our hostess BUT, we were instructed to give her a fixed amount(I forgot how much) as a token for her hospitality. OwwwKay …hospitality has a pricetag …hahaha, just kidding, honestly, she’s such a nice lady so we were happy to give her that money. If im not mistaken, only the state can own land in china so everybody just lease the land and/or houses from the Chinese government. The area where the Beijing Hutongs are located are prime lots and im surprised that the very rich and the very poor live side-by-side. From the outside, when you see the door entrance, there’s no significant sign that it’s a rich man’s house or not. BUT actually in the old days, you can tell by by those round/hexagonal shape markers located on top of the entrance door. The more markers, the higher their place in society is.
Next stop was a place for Chinese Traditional Medicine. We were here for a very short stop as my sister and I are not into it.
We were brought to this room where a talk about Chinese medicines will be held and my sister and i were like thinking …we don’t need this and we know how this will end …they are going to sell us some Chinese meds, so, we made our great escape and off we went to look for Julie. Thanks, but no thanks!
Julie informed us that our scheduled Chinese Opera tonight has been cancelled for tomorrow night. So we’ve asked her to book us for the “Legend of Kung Fu” show which was highly recommended by Mrs. Arnie. Julie was able to get us a ticket for the matinee show at 5:15pm. It was worth watching, enjoyed the show, the production was excellent.
Julie dropped us at the theater for the Kung Fu Show and she said only the driver will be back to wait for us outside when the show ends to drive us back to the hotel, thank’s Julie! As soon as we set foot in Beijing, my sister was already telling me that we have to see this show on our free night because one of her aussie friends really enjoyed it and as I looked at the audience, it is mostly composed of some very excited caucasian tourists. The show is actually a play, a fusion where drama was combined with martial arts. Very interesting, very impressive, very entertaining. Before the show started, we were told that taking pictures is strictly prohibited during the show because it may endanger the lives of the performers because they will be doing some very difficult routines that require their full concentration and the flash from our cameras will be a distraction. Im afraid just this one time, my sister forgot her good breeding and took a quick shot as soon as the curtains went up. But in fairness to her, she only took this 1 photo below AND all the cast members were just in a stationary position when she took the shot, so no harm was done. Excuses, excuses …kinampihan ba ang pasaway :)
***END OF PART 1 ***
