One man show in China!
Matka uuteen ja tuntemattomaan alkoi
tosiaan Pekingistä neljän päivän minilomalla. Tähän reissuun olin varustautunut
avoimella mielellä ja varsinkin sellaisella mentaliteetilla, että tutkiskelisin
Aasialaista kulttuuria mahdollisimman tehokkaasti. Tämä setti opetti minulle
paljon ja mielenkiintoisilta tilanteilta ei vältytty / niitä pääsin kokemaan
aikalailla. Saapuessani Pekingiin suoralla lennolla olin aika jännitynyt ja
tämä turistitohelointi johti suoraan pimeään taksiin…josta kuitenkin hinnan
tajutessani luikin aika huolella ja nopeasti pois. Lyhyen visiitin lähestyessä
loppua alkoivat hommat muuttua tutummaksi ja uskonkin yhden miehen sirkuksen
perinteisemmässä Kiinassa olleen huikea startti vaihdolle! Kirjoittelen päivä
päivältä tähän alle tapahtumien kulusta englanniksi.
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| Linnunpesä |
What a great start for my Asian adventure!
This is a story about 4 days in Beijing – Welcome to the circus?
Day 1:
Finally…Beijing international airport. I
was feeling a little nervous with all the Mandarin going on and not getting a
clear answer from anyone. This tourist got fooled right away…took a spot in an
illegal cab. Once I noticed the price (10 times more than it was supposed to
be) got out of it very quickly. The real cab ride to my hotel was very nice
with some very Chinese scenery. The first day was full of walking and I
seriously did 20 kilometers of parks and different sights…they were a must see
though. Beijing was not so crowded since it was -1 degree cold. Although it’s an experience to go the subway during rush hour time (not for people with claustrophobia). This weather scaring some people off was good for me since it made the subway trips a lot easier.
Something that I also saw or that I found weird during the first day was all
the spitting…there would be many people spitting for example in a supermarket
as well. During this day I didn’t know what I ate…it was from a local little
BBQ (I’m sure it was meat) in a Hutong (a narrow street or an alley in Beijing)
nearby my hotel. The jetlag got me and I went to bed at 7pm.
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| The Forbidden City |
Day 2:
I got up early the next day…really early
(5am). Breakfast was three small wheat buns with an unknown spice in them from
a guy who had his grill or oven next to the BBQ place I went to. I think the
breakfast set with the buns and a juice cost me 80 cents in euro. Pretty good
for a very good breakfast! After this I walked into a park with two locals
playing badminton. Since I’ve done a lot of badminton I stayed to watch them
play for a while…then something unexpected happened. The lady came up to me and
probably asked me if I wanted to play. Yes! So I went and played with the other
person and my skills worked. The policeman next to us started clapping too,
haha. I’m sure this is the best way to do morning exercise in Beijing for me!
This wasn’t the only sports I’d do during the day though. Not sure if I did
more kilometers than during the first day but at least as much. The sights I
went to were: Tiananmen square, The Forbidden City, Beijing Olympic Park and
China Science and Technology museum. The Forbidden City was huge and I didn’t
really even know where to go there. It was a good intro to Chinese history for
me. Tiananmen square and Forbidden City are something very patriotic for many
Chinese people I noticed. The place has great scenery and the only bad thing about
it was that a lot of people will try to cheat tourists and for example some
ladies will try to go out for a ‘’tea’’. After getting out of this maze I went
to a random (again) restaurant to get some random food.
The prices were very cheap and I thought the soup on the list was a starter. After the soup arrived to my table I realized that ordering 3 dishes was definitely not smart. This epic fail lunch size wise was a thrill for the local people again and they took photos of me with the massive amount of food…sweet! While walking around Beijing and trying to get to the Olympic park I couldn’t stop noticing all the Nokia adverts all over the city. People were actually interested about Lumia in Beijing. All in all smart phones and tablet type of devices were huge there…almost every single person had one. They also knew how to enjoy all the benefits in them. I swear it is possible to see 10 different TV programs and movies at the same time in Beijing just by doing a 360-degree spin in the middle of a big crowd. Once I got to the Olympic park the size of this event hit me. What a massive site for an event…I could imagine the crazy amount of people there in 2008. Bird’s nest was the first place where I asked for someone to take a photo of me. After this 8 other people wanted to take a picture with me. Be prepared to take photos with local people if you go there :D One thing that I found interesting in the Olympic Park was a building that they were supposed complete before the games but couldn’t do that. Now they were finishing the Olympic observation tower 4 years later. I though this place was great to visit and highly recommend to spend some time around there. China Science and Technology museum was really close to the park and full of interesting stuff. It was so huge that I didn’t manage to do all the exhibition halls. Went to an Imax and a planetarium movie though…in Chinese J
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| Morning exercise! |
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| Rolling sushi and a tea tap |
The prices were very cheap and I thought the soup on the list was a starter. After the soup arrived to my table I realized that ordering 3 dishes was definitely not smart. This epic fail lunch size wise was a thrill for the local people again and they took photos of me with the massive amount of food…sweet! While walking around Beijing and trying to get to the Olympic park I couldn’t stop noticing all the Nokia adverts all over the city. People were actually interested about Lumia in Beijing. All in all smart phones and tablet type of devices were huge there…almost every single person had one. They also knew how to enjoy all the benefits in them. I swear it is possible to see 10 different TV programs and movies at the same time in Beijing just by doing a 360-degree spin in the middle of a big crowd. Once I got to the Olympic park the size of this event hit me. What a massive site for an event…I could imagine the crazy amount of people there in 2008. Bird’s nest was the first place where I asked for someone to take a photo of me. After this 8 other people wanted to take a picture with me. Be prepared to take photos with local people if you go there :D One thing that I found interesting in the Olympic Park was a building that they were supposed complete before the games but couldn’t do that. Now they were finishing the Olympic observation tower 4 years later. I though this place was great to visit and highly recommend to spend some time around there. China Science and Technology museum was really close to the park and full of interesting stuff. It was so huge that I didn’t manage to do all the exhibition halls. Went to an Imax and a planetarium movie though…in Chinese J
Day 3:
On the third day it was time to take the
minivan to The Great Wall Of China. The weather was perfect without smog or
clouds but the temperature…-17!?!?. Lucky I had warm clothes with me. The
feeling on top of the hill in the third tower (the last one I did) was awesome.
The weather saved me from a huge crowd of tourists again and I got to climb the
wall with only few people. Another bigger tourist sight we did was the Ming
Graves. The area has 16 graves for all the rulers of Ming Dynasties but we did
only one of them. The people I did the climb with turned out to be very nice
and the rest of the day I spent chatting with them and going to other sights
such as a pearl farm, jade stone factory and a silk factory. We also had a
traditional Chinese lunch with a rotating table and a lot of tea. During the 4-day
visit in Beijing I drank more tea than I’ve ever had in my whole life. Tea was
everywhere. In the evening they even had a tea tap in a rolling sushi
restaurant. So this time it wasn’t a beer on tap. My day ended with a 3-hour
walk back to my hotel from downtown. I had trouble with the maps…big troubles.
Got back safely though! |
| The Hobbit? |
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| Feeling great at the top! |
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| Almost complete |
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| Wangfujing mall |
Day 4:
The fourth day was for shopping some
Chinese items and also some convenient things like a hard case for my mac. It
was a lot cheaper to buy some nice shirts and gadgets from Beijing. Made me
feel like I’ve gotten ripped off with Apple gadgets all my life. A very nice
see trough case for the MacBook pro was 14 euros in the main Apple Store
downtown Beijing (You can imagine what all one is able to get from the multi
purpose stores in a little more quiet district). This was also a day to try
some sweet dishes like scorpion, candy apples, Beijing duck etc. I found a
great night market to enjoy all the local dishes. After all that eating and
shopping during the day I was ready to take a rest and fly to Hong Kong. There
was only one thing in the way. Older ladies dancing Pitbull in front of the
subway station?!? I think you might find this video interesting. Just a cheaper
place to do your dancing lessons I guess :D
Beijing was truly an experience and a very
special trip for me as well…did a huge amount of things in 4 days and this text
doesn’t even cover it all but if you ever go to Beijing you certainly get a lot
for your money. All the things I did including shopping, food, sights, subway
card and taxi cost me somewhere around 200 euros. This might not be the case if
you love brand shoes etc. though.
Now I’m ready for Hong Kong. CUHK classes
start on Monday the 14th!
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| Beijing - January 2013 - Niklas - |
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