by Richard L. Weaver II, Ph.D.
On our third day in Beijing, we took a taxi to Tiananman Square and the Forbidden City. When you take a taxi you must have your present location as well as your destination written in Chinese so you can get to where you are going and return to your hotel. (Hotels provide this information as a regular and necessary part of their service.) Taxi drivers speak no English at all! Even with it written in Chinese, some drivers will refuse the fare because it is not enough. That is, they would prefer waiting for customers going a longer distance so they can make more money. For example, at the Silk Market, we were refused service back to our Beijing Marriott City Wall Hotel by six taxi drivers before we found a seventh to return us to the hotel.
Also, before this trip by taxi, we were warned several times about taxi pirates. Reliable taxis, we were told, had four characteristics: 1) they must be of a Hyundai make, 2) they must have a “B” as a prefix on their license plate, 3) they must display the driver’s taxi-license number prominently on the dashboard, and 4) they must be metered. I explain all of this for the following reason.
At the Silk Market, visited on the first day we were in Beijing, after being refused service by six legitimate taxi drivers, we were asked if we wanted a ride by a fellow who came up to us. We asked to see his taxi, and with him we walked over to a nearby street, where he showed us a white van parked a short distance away. Obviously — given the four characteristics listed above — we said, “No, thank you.”
I realize this sounds like making a mountain out of a mole-hill; however, when given the four characteristics listed above, we were told of rickshaw drivers who will throw passengers’ directions away, take them to a remote location, and demand an exorbitant price.
We talked to one couple at the hotel who were charged 50 RMP (about $7.00 U.S.) For the same trip for which we paid less than 20 RMP (about $3.00 U.S.) — going from the Silk Market back to the hotel. This certainly merits listing pirates as the fifth problem this city needs to solve if it wants to be “user/tourist friendly.” Get rid of the pirates! Take care of the basics!
We traversed the massive Tiananman Square walking north in the direction of a large picture of Mao on the front wall of The Forbidden City. The square was full of people milling around, and there were numerous light poles to illuminate the area at night. On each of the poles, there were a minimum of 3 security cameras focused on the crowds. Also, the place was teeming with police, and we saw at least 3 groups of about 25 soldiers each, coming or going from the square in formation, just in our half hour or so there. We did not feel intimidated in the least, but we were aware of the tight, ever-present, security. (We did not visit the Mao mausoleum housed on the Square. The website ChinaTravelTourGuide describes the mausoleum: “The Chairman Mao's Mausoleum stands in the south of the Tian'anmen Square, between the Monument to the People's Heroes and the Zhengyang Gate. The Memorial Hall is to memorialize the founder and first Chairman of the People's Republic of China. It provides people with a place to show their respects to Chairman Mao.”)
At the far northern end of Tiananmen Square and facing it lies the Forbidden City, and we entered with throngs of people through the Tiananmen Gate. Many people (like us) were wondering if our gate was the right one. Through the first set of gates, we then wandered along to and through a second set (without a ticket and still wondering if we were correct). Finally, there were ticket offices on either side of the wide terrace walkway, and we purchased two at 400 RMB ($59.07 U.S. for both of us) which included the Palace Museum.
When we walked through the “Southern Gate” — a huge, massive pagoda-like structure where they tore off the top portion of our tickets — we just continued walking straight ahead. (Incidentally, most of the visitors to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City are Chinese. There are very few caucasians, and we saw no tour with only Americans, although we came upon 3 couples (out of thousands of people) who had an English-speaking guide in one of the many museums lining the large squares throughout the “City” structures.)
At AsianArtMall.com a portion of the description includes this paragraph: “The Forbidden City, ( so named because common people were forbidden to enter ) was indeed a city. Over 800 buildings containing 8,886 rooms, and covering 250 acres. The entire complex is surrounded by a 32 foot high wall which is protected by a 165 foot wide drainage ditch forming a mote. The city is only accessible by entering through one of four gates which span the water.”
One of the features of Chinese culture pointed out by our previous tour guide, Michael Ye, and revealed over and over in what we observed, was all the meaning the Chinese people give to colors, symbols, animals, and mythical creatures. At AsianArtMall.com some of the many symbols are explained. Michael pointed out that with a culture that dates back over 5,000 years, many of the philosophical beliefs have been handed down through generations, and although he (Michael) may be a progressive young person with modern ideas, he is a traditionalist when it comes to beliefs in all the symbolism.
All of the 800 buildings (originally built between 1406 and 1420) have been rebuilt more than six times throughout the centuries because of fires. They are decorated in bright, clean colors of yellow, red, green, and blue often with gold-plated highlights, however, as pointed out at the AsianArtMall.com website, “With the color yellow being the symbol for the royal family, you will find it to be dominant throughout the City. For example, the roofs have yellow glazed tiles, palace decorations are painted yellow, and the bricks found outside are yellow.” All the buildings that can be seen today are post-18th-century.
The Forbidden City was home to 24 different Chinese emperors, and it is the best-preserved collection of ancient architecture in China. Because of its place in history, importance, impressiveness, and my memories of our time there, I will continue my discussion of it in Beijing IV — my fourth Beijing essay.
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The website AsianArtMall.com has a great deal of information and it is a worthwhile and informative stop.
At the Kwintessential website the essay, “Chinese Culture Symbols,” begins, “Every culture has some identity forming symbols that are instantly associated with that culture. The Chinese culture being one full of symbolism has many prominent symbols that can be termed as the cultural symbols of the country.”
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Copyright June, 2011, by And Then Some Publishing, LLC.
Showing posts with label Beijing needs to tackle the basics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Beijing needs to tackle the basics. Show all posts
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Beijing II: Tackle the basics
by Richard L. Weaver II, Ph.D.
We are taking a private tour with our tour guide, Michael Ye. We also have a driver who speaks no English and has a small picture of Mao and a jade Buddha hanging from the rear-view mirror for good luck. We have already toured the Great Wall (discussed in Beijing I). From the Great Wall, Michael continued to educate us about China and Beijing. He told us, for example, that whereas the U.S. has a big middle class (45-50%), China’s middle class amounts to only 15%. These are mainly young, educated, and sophisticated Chinese who are likely to help forge a new direction for China. He explained that the “new” China is similar to “capitalistic communism,” and all land in China is still owned by the government. There is no private ownership; people only rent it.
Michael considers himself part of China’s “new” middle class and, too, thinks positively about communism and the role Mao Tse Tung played in advancing China. Mao is widely viewed as one of the most respect Chinese leaders of his time.
Beijing, despite its attempts to open up and become more westernized and “user/tourist friendly,” has major problems to overcome if it wants to truly become “user/tourist” friendly. First, is pollution. They are aware of this and working on it. The tree plantings (mentioned in Beijing I) are designed to ameliorate some of the effects of the Mongolian sandstorms. (About a week before our visit, as noted in Beijing I, it was severe, and it affected both Shanghai and even Hong Kong and Taiwan, but it had mostly dissipated in Beijing by our visit there.)
Also, to help their pollution problem, they have moved all factories out of Beijing. Having the Olympics there (2008), helped expedite this move. Also, car use is restricted in Beijing (although the effects are hard to notice). Gas in Beijing is expensive ($4.00 per gallon U.S. when we were there). All those wishing to drive in the city must pay an $8.00 per day (U.S.) tax. This may have made a significant change, but it is not noticed by tourists, and pollution remains a serious problem. Traffic, then, is a second problem.
The third problem is the aggressiveness of Chinese drivers. Pedestrians do not have the right of way, even in well-marked crosswalks. Cross at your own risk — or peril! It isn’t the constant changing of lanes, entering abruptly onto a heavily-used traffic lane, or driving at high speeds, but it is driving without any regard for pedestrians and their safety.
The fourth problem is as serious as all of the first three: you cannot drink the water. Even in the most sophisticated, expensive, and luxurious hotels (and the Beijing Marriott City Wall Hotel is one of these), you are warned not to drink the water. Even the residents must boil their water first, and most depend on bottled water. We bought a 1.5 liter (big!) bottle in the local market for 6.00 RMB (about $.90 U.S.), and we will have some left over because we have been carrying bottles with us (which we re-filled on the ship) from the Four Seasons’ Hotel in Bangkok.
Beijing needs to tackle their problems with a vengeance.
Getting back to our tour with Michael Ye. From the Great Wall, we went to the Beijing Rin-Ze Jade Garden Trade Company where we saw carvers of Jade at work, huge jade pieces, as well as attractive room decorations. Then we were led into a massive (about the size of a Walmart store) salesroom where all sizes, shapes, and colors of jade were for sale. There were few other people in the store, and the clerks spent time with us showing us how to tell real jade from plastic. (It’s hard to tell the difference just by looking at it.) We bought nothing.
Having visited the Great Wall and the jade factory, it was time for lunch, and we had a typical Chinese lunch (where many on tour-bus excursions were also eating) in a restaurant at the back of another massive-sized salesroom of all kinds of Chinese cultural artifacts. Called the Yu Long Friendship Store, their prices are less than the hotels, more than the local markets, but guaranteed for quality and workmanship. We are not shoppers, but the food in the restaurant at the back of the store was delicious. (Although the food was good, as an aside, I have had much better Chinese food in a variety of U.S. restaurants.)
After the Great Wall, the Jade Garden Trade Company, the Friendship Store, and lunch, we visited the Summer Palace. At a Chinese website, the essay on “The Summer Palace,” describes it like this: “The Summer Palace is the largest and best-preserved imperial garden in China. Its Chinese name, YiHeYuan, translates as 'Garden of Nurtured Harmony' or 'Garden for Maintaining Health and Harmony.'” The essay continues, “As its name implies, the Summer Palace was used as a summer residence by China's imperial rulers - as a retreat from the main imperial palace now known as the Palace Museum (or 'Forbidden City') - a pleasureground in the countryside, yet near to the city. The Summer Palace is virtually a museum of traditional Chinese gardening that uses rocks, plants, pavilions, ponds, cobble paths and other garden styles to create a poetic effect between different scenes. . . .”
Unfortunately, because of the continuing rain, fog, and pollution, we were unable to see the dragon located on an island in the middle of the huge man-made lake. The Palace was spacious and lovely, and you can see why emperors enjoyed the ambiance of these gardens. That you could feel despite the inclement weather.
The tour of the Summer Palace ended our private tour with Michael Ye.
In the third Beijing essay I will discuss Tiananiman Square and the Forbidden City. I will also mention taxi-cab pirates. If there was a fifth problem Beijing needs to solve with respect to making the city more “user/tourist friendly,” it would be the problem they have with pirates. You cannot have tourists being subjected to even the possibility (or merely the thought of) price-gouging by uncontrolled, rogue pirates. It is not a pleasant thought, but it is a real and pervasive threat.
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At the website ChinaReport.com, Doc Ben has an essay on: “About Beijing Taxis,” which gives the following tips for using taxicabs in Beijing: “1) Get a Cab at your Hotel. This way the Doorman or Concierge at the Hotel can translate your destination to the driver, and this may avoid any mis-communications. After this you will have a better drive. 2) As most drivers still have difficulty communicating in English, for exotic destinations, I advise to bring a map of your destination area. This way - if a problem occurs or they head the wrong way ( with you along ), you can simply point your destination out to the driver. If you have Chinese names on your map you are a champ! 3) Be sure you have a licensed cab with a working taxi-meter. No meter , no go. 4) Don't be fooled into a pre-arranged price. At tourist-sites drivers may come up to you and offer a price. If you are not familiar with the low prices in Beijing, you may be fooled and pay double of zilch. Ooooh well, get over it and learn !”
For things to do in Beijing, check out the website Beijingtraveltips.com, and an essay there called, “Beijing! Travel Tips.” The tips there, including pictures, cover Beijing nightlife, shopping, eating, tourist travel, transport, sights, tips, hotels, and an online store.
-----
Copyright June, 2011, by And Then Some Publishing, LLC.
We are taking a private tour with our tour guide, Michael Ye. We also have a driver who speaks no English and has a small picture of Mao and a jade Buddha hanging from the rear-view mirror for good luck. We have already toured the Great Wall (discussed in Beijing I). From the Great Wall, Michael continued to educate us about China and Beijing. He told us, for example, that whereas the U.S. has a big middle class (45-50%), China’s middle class amounts to only 15%. These are mainly young, educated, and sophisticated Chinese who are likely to help forge a new direction for China. He explained that the “new” China is similar to “capitalistic communism,” and all land in China is still owned by the government. There is no private ownership; people only rent it.
Michael considers himself part of China’s “new” middle class and, too, thinks positively about communism and the role Mao Tse Tung played in advancing China. Mao is widely viewed as one of the most respect Chinese leaders of his time.
Beijing, despite its attempts to open up and become more westernized and “user/tourist friendly,” has major problems to overcome if it wants to truly become “user/tourist” friendly. First, is pollution. They are aware of this and working on it. The tree plantings (mentioned in Beijing I) are designed to ameliorate some of the effects of the Mongolian sandstorms. (About a week before our visit, as noted in Beijing I, it was severe, and it affected both Shanghai and even Hong Kong and Taiwan, but it had mostly dissipated in Beijing by our visit there.)
Also, to help their pollution problem, they have moved all factories out of Beijing. Having the Olympics there (2008), helped expedite this move. Also, car use is restricted in Beijing (although the effects are hard to notice). Gas in Beijing is expensive ($4.00 per gallon U.S. when we were there). All those wishing to drive in the city must pay an $8.00 per day (U.S.) tax. This may have made a significant change, but it is not noticed by tourists, and pollution remains a serious problem. Traffic, then, is a second problem.
The third problem is the aggressiveness of Chinese drivers. Pedestrians do not have the right of way, even in well-marked crosswalks. Cross at your own risk — or peril! It isn’t the constant changing of lanes, entering abruptly onto a heavily-used traffic lane, or driving at high speeds, but it is driving without any regard for pedestrians and their safety.
The fourth problem is as serious as all of the first three: you cannot drink the water. Even in the most sophisticated, expensive, and luxurious hotels (and the Beijing Marriott City Wall Hotel is one of these), you are warned not to drink the water. Even the residents must boil their water first, and most depend on bottled water. We bought a 1.5 liter (big!) bottle in the local market for 6.00 RMB (about $.90 U.S.), and we will have some left over because we have been carrying bottles with us (which we re-filled on the ship) from the Four Seasons’ Hotel in Bangkok.
Beijing needs to tackle their problems with a vengeance.
Getting back to our tour with Michael Ye. From the Great Wall, we went to the Beijing Rin-Ze Jade Garden Trade Company where we saw carvers of Jade at work, huge jade pieces, as well as attractive room decorations. Then we were led into a massive (about the size of a Walmart store) salesroom where all sizes, shapes, and colors of jade were for sale. There were few other people in the store, and the clerks spent time with us showing us how to tell real jade from plastic. (It’s hard to tell the difference just by looking at it.) We bought nothing.
Having visited the Great Wall and the jade factory, it was time for lunch, and we had a typical Chinese lunch (where many on tour-bus excursions were also eating) in a restaurant at the back of another massive-sized salesroom of all kinds of Chinese cultural artifacts. Called the Yu Long Friendship Store, their prices are less than the hotels, more than the local markets, but guaranteed for quality and workmanship. We are not shoppers, but the food in the restaurant at the back of the store was delicious. (Although the food was good, as an aside, I have had much better Chinese food in a variety of U.S. restaurants.)
After the Great Wall, the Jade Garden Trade Company, the Friendship Store, and lunch, we visited the Summer Palace. At a Chinese website, the essay on “The Summer Palace,” describes it like this: “The Summer Palace is the largest and best-preserved imperial garden in China. Its Chinese name, YiHeYuan, translates as 'Garden of Nurtured Harmony' or 'Garden for Maintaining Health and Harmony.'” The essay continues, “As its name implies, the Summer Palace was used as a summer residence by China's imperial rulers - as a retreat from the main imperial palace now known as the Palace Museum (or 'Forbidden City') - a pleasureground in the countryside, yet near to the city. The Summer Palace is virtually a museum of traditional Chinese gardening that uses rocks, plants, pavilions, ponds, cobble paths and other garden styles to create a poetic effect between different scenes. . . .”
Unfortunately, because of the continuing rain, fog, and pollution, we were unable to see the dragon located on an island in the middle of the huge man-made lake. The Palace was spacious and lovely, and you can see why emperors enjoyed the ambiance of these gardens. That you could feel despite the inclement weather.
The tour of the Summer Palace ended our private tour with Michael Ye.
In the third Beijing essay I will discuss Tiananiman Square and the Forbidden City. I will also mention taxi-cab pirates. If there was a fifth problem Beijing needs to solve with respect to making the city more “user/tourist friendly,” it would be the problem they have with pirates. You cannot have tourists being subjected to even the possibility (or merely the thought of) price-gouging by uncontrolled, rogue pirates. It is not a pleasant thought, but it is a real and pervasive threat.
-----
At the website ChinaReport.com, Doc Ben has an essay on: “About Beijing Taxis,” which gives the following tips for using taxicabs in Beijing: “1) Get a Cab at your Hotel. This way the Doorman or Concierge at the Hotel can translate your destination to the driver, and this may avoid any mis-communications. After this you will have a better drive. 2) As most drivers still have difficulty communicating in English, for exotic destinations, I advise to bring a map of your destination area. This way - if a problem occurs or they head the wrong way ( with you along ), you can simply point your destination out to the driver. If you have Chinese names on your map you are a champ! 3) Be sure you have a licensed cab with a working taxi-meter. No meter , no go. 4) Don't be fooled into a pre-arranged price. At tourist-sites drivers may come up to you and offer a price. If you are not familiar with the low prices in Beijing, you may be fooled and pay double of zilch. Ooooh well, get over it and learn !”
For things to do in Beijing, check out the website Beijingtraveltips.com, and an essay there called, “Beijing! Travel Tips.” The tips there, including pictures, cover Beijing nightlife, shopping, eating, tourist travel, transport, sights, tips, hotels, and an online store.
-----
Copyright June, 2011, by And Then Some Publishing, LLC.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
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.
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.
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