Beijing I: Tackle the basics

by Richard L. Weaver II, Ph.D.    

With three days in Beijing, we really had a good chance to get to know the city, and there is no doubt the city has a great deal to offer tourists.  After visiting eight other large Asian cities, you might think we had seen enough or that our views might be slightly jaundiced, and there is something to that perspective.  We feel we had been in Beijing one day too long by the afternoon of the second full day, and we felt we had seen everything we wanted to see — but this does not have anything to do with what this city has to offer tourists.
    
During our visit to Beijing (March 30), the city was still suffering from one of the worst sandstorms in years.  The report from the NowPublic website for March 20, 2010, in an essay by Barbara McPherson, “Beijing Hit With Sandstorm from the Gobi Desert.” McPherson begins her essay saying, “A strong weather disturbance in Western China has hit Beijing with a huge sandstorm from the Gobi Desert.  While Beijing suffers periodically from sand blown from the nearby desert, this is the most intense sandstorm to hit the capital city in years.”
    
What does the sandstorm have to do with our drive into Beijing from the dock at Xingang?  Well, the drive offered me an opportunity to close my eyes because China, in the area along both sides of the main highway between the port and the city of Beijing, has planted scores (thousands) of trees (primarily poplars, it looked like), so that on the drive in all you could see were rows and rows of trees, mostly with white painted around their bases (about three feet up the trunk), and although there was little foliage this early in the spring, it was still all that could be seen.  The specific purpose of the trees was to cut down on the effects of the pollution by sand. — at least to provide a natural buffer.
    
Before getting to our hotel, the Beijing Marriott City Wall Hotel, we passed the massive city wall.  According to Wikipedia the wall was built around 1435 and, it says, the wall included “many gate towers, gates, archways, watchtowers, barbicans, barbican towers, barbican gates, barbican archways, sluice gates, sluice gate towers, enemy sighting towers, corner guard towers and moat.  [Beijing] had the most extensive defense system in Imperial China.”  Most of the city wall (don’t confuse this with The Great Wall) has been destroyed, and the piece we saw is what is left.
    
After an efficient check-in process at the Hotel, we exchanged money at the bank across the street (ICBC), where, being foreigners (the only caucasians), we were given special treatment and shown to the front of the line.  Nobody spoke any English.  (The Chinese currency is the yuan or RMB (Ren min bi). 6.76 RMB equaled $1.00 U.S.. when we were there.)  
    
We took a taxi from the hotel to the Silk Market — a very clean, four story mall with escalators between floors where they sell “knock-off” merchandise from watches and jewelry to wallets and purses and from silk material and ties and scarfs to clothing and jackets.  Andrea found her Christmas ornament there (a key chain with a picture of the Great Wall), and I found my tee shirt.  Also, we bought tee shirts for our nine grandchildren at less than $5.00 U.S. each.
    
The Silk Market was our experience for the day, and having visited many similar markets, we did not spend a great deal of time there, nor did we explore it fully.  Besides, the store owners (and salespeople) were aggressive and would even grab your arm and try to pull you into their store.  Stores were plentiful and measured about 8 to 10 feet across the front and were totally open to the narrow aisles that separated one row from the next.
    
We carefully planned our second day in Beijing and after a great deal of thought, we decided to take a Princess-sponsored, private tour to the Great Wall and the Summer Palace, and, although expensive, it was the best decision we made in Beijing.  Why?  Michael Ye (Ye Nan) is the reason — our tour guide for most of our second day in Beijing.  Despite the rain and fog (and pollution) that prevented us from seeing very much — anywhere — Michael Ye made everything worthwhile.
    
When you have an intelligent, educated, knowledgeable, English-speaking guide it makes all the difference in how much you gain from any experience.  We did not go to the Badaling section of the Great Wall because (Michael told us) of the traffic, the numbers of tours there, and the density of people.  Instead, Michael took us to the JuYongGuan, which is the section of the wall closest to Beijing.   At the TravelChinaGuide.com website there is a description of the JuYongGuan pass where this portion of the Great Wall is located: “Juyongguan Pass, also known as Juyongguan in Chinese, is located 12 miles north of Changping County, about 37 miles from Beijing. It is a renowned pass of the Great Wall of China. Enlisted in the World Heritage Directory in 1987, it is a national cultural protection unit” — and is considered a substantial military stronghold.
    
We walked on the restored wall (very steep!), and when we arrived at a third section of the wall (going up), we decided not to continue.  Spaces between the steps were large, the steepness of the grade was extreme, wetness made steps slippery, the rain, fog, and pollution made it difficult to see anything on either side, and, looking up, the staircase disappeared into the clouds above.  We visited buildings around this section, and we used the clean public toilets there.
    
We were in the rain and the dense fog did not help viewing conditions.  Michael had some “pull” (connections) at the gate, thus we were able to park just a short walk from the wall.
    
The Great Wall is impressive in its size, but that is precisely what makes it one of the eight wonders of the world.  It is 3,889.5 miles long (we didn’t walk the whole length!), and it was begun in 221 BC.  It was only in the Ming Dynasty when the Ming constructed walls along the northern border of China designed specifically to keep the Manchurian and Mongolian nomadic tribes out of China.  Also, the Great Wall helped defend the empire against the Manchu invasions of 1600, even though the Manchus crossed the Great Wall in 1644 and seized Beijing, defeated the Shun Dynasty, and established the Qing Dynasty.  Obviously, the decision to construct the wall as part of a defense system was a good idea, even though at times it didn’t work as effectively as planned.
  
I want to talk about our continuing tour with Michael Ye.  In the second Beijing essay, I will continue from the Great Wall forward --- and the reason why Beijing needs to tackle the basics will be explained.
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At the About.com website, under the topic, “Geography,” and the subtopic, “The Great Wall of China,” it says, “The Great Wall of China is not a continuous wall but is a collection of short walls that often follow the crest of hills on the southern edge of the Mongolian plain. The Great Wall of China, known as "long Wall of 10,000 Li" in China, extends about 8,850 kilometers (5,500 miles).”  There is much more here on its history and development.

Most everything you want to know about Beijing can be found at the BeijingPage.com.  Beijing facts, hotels, tourism, shopping, food, transportation, entertainment, and community are included here.
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Copyright June, 2011, by And Then Some Publishing, LLC.