Sunday 17th August.
After a cup of tea in my room
overlooking the station I went out to explore the adjacent Henderson shopping mall which looks rather
tired and past its prime. There are many places to eat but most have menus
in Chinese only, apart from the expensive looking Japanese restaurant.
Eventually I found one that had pictures and names in English where I order
sautéed beef, stir fried green beans and a beer. The place looks a bit like an
American diner, with red plastic bench seats and an open kitchen at the side.
The food proved to be far better than expected. Hot, tasty and freshly cooked.
Quite spicy with a lot of chilli and garlic. Quite different from the Chinese
food in UK or even Singapore.
Picked up a couple of beers from
the supermarket to go back to the room and do some washing!
Monday 18th August
Armed with the street map I
bought yesterday, plus the map sent by Real Russia, I thought it would be quick
and easy to find the travel agency to pick up my ticket for the first segment
of the Trans Siberian Express from Beijing
to Ulaan Baatar. Neither map had a scale and the map I bought shows the whole
of Beijing but
on too small scale to show all the individual streets near the centre. When all
else fails, ask a policeman, of which
there are many, guarding all access points to the station. Luckily the map from
Real Russia had the address in Chinese and he knew enough English to point in
the right direction and say "eight hundred metres". When I eventually
found the office the woman was very efficient and gave me the ticket telling me
that the departure time has been re scheduled from 0805 to 1130, which is far more civilised. Checked my
precious ticket; "Alles in Ordnung"
since it is printed in Chinese, Mongolian and German! After the hot walk I was
easily tempted by the nearby Starbucks for an iced latte, Danish pastry and
brownie; a good, healthy late breakfast.
Decided to explore the nearby City Wall
Park along one of the few
remaining parts of the city wall which dates from the 1400's and was originally 40 km
long. It was rebuilt and strengthened at various times and clearly they are
still working on it. The park is a pleasant oasis in an otherwise built up area
and supports many pairs of fat magpies.
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| The City Wall |
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| 12 Commandments for the City Wall Park |
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| Urban Beijing near the City Wall |
There is a museum in one of the
bastions which tells more about the history. The bastion and the wall were last
used defensively to defend the city against British and Russian troops in 1900. It also provides a good view over the
railway station and the tracks leading into it; a great place for train
spotters! There is a commercial art
gallery occupying part of the bastion where I found some of the works, by an
artist Xia Xing, are surprisingly explicit;
amazed it gets past the censors.
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| Woman's Best Friend ? |
From the top of the bastion I
could see my hotel but realised that I was separated from it by a very solid
Ming dynasty wall and many railway tracks, so the only way back was the way I
had come. Very hot and sticky by the time I arrived but felt more human after a
shower and a cup of tea.
Later in the evening met KY in
the hotel lobby where we had a couple of beers before going out to eat in the
Ritan area of Beijing.
A whole street full of restaurants, many nationalities and supporting a large
Russian community, based on the amount of Cyrillic in the menus. We chose a
Chinese restaurant where KY chose the food and treated us to a banquet. Fish
with little pancakes, two sorts of aubergines, juicy dumplings, and some other
dishes I can't remember! Later had a beer in a nearby Italian place.
Tuesday 19th August
Set out for the
Temple of
Heaven,
since I visited the
Forbidden City a few years
ago. On the way, at the corner of Tiananmen Square, I came across the
Railway Museum
which proved more interesting than I had expected. Plenty of information in
English although it is heavy on propaganda. The railways came late to
China and much
of today's network was only completed after the Communist Party came to power
in 1949. Based on the maps I saw,
difficult to interpret since all in Chinese,
I would not have been able to do this journey in 1949, although there
was a
Shanghai to
Beijing line by then. " In 1933 a train
ride from
Beijing to
Shanghai took around 44 hours, at an
average speed of 33 km/h. Passengers had to get off in
Pukou with
their luggage, board a ferry named "Kuaijie" across the Yangtze, and
get on another connecting train in
Xiaguan on
the other side of the river."
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| Mao overseeing the Railway Museum |
I also learnt that the high speed rail track
is laid onto solid concrete foundations rather than traditional railway
ballast, which fits with what I saw, and the rails are heavier, 60 kg/m, than
the usual ones. From the Railway Museum walked down Qianmen Street, a recently renovated
pedestrian avenue lined with buildings in traditional Chinese style although I think
all of them are new.
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| Qianmen Street, looking towards Tiananmen Square |
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| Qianmen Street |
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| Statues in Qianmen Street |
Walked down some quiet tree lined side streets until I came to the outside of the Temple of Heaven, protected by a massive, high brick wall extending as far as I could see in both directions. Made what I thoought was an educated guess that the entrance was on the left which luckily proved to be correct.
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| Boris Bikes in Beijing |
The Temple of Heaven
was stunning. And the whole complex is huge!
I think I must have visited it on my first trip to China over 20
years ago but my memory has faded with time. Obviously there has been very
extensive restoration and I don't know how much is original but the overall
result is amazing. According to UNESCO
" "a masterpiece of architecture and landscape design which simply
and graphically illustrates a cosmogony of great importance for the evolution
of one of the world’s great civilizations...". Yes, I had to look up
"cosmogony" too.
http://www.kinabaloo.com/temple_of_heaven.html
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| Gateway to the Temple of Heaven |
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| Temple of Heaven: Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests |
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| Temple of Heaven |
At one side of the temple complex is the "Hall of Abstinence" where the emperor would fast for a period of three days before making sacrifices for a good harvest. For three days of no food, no alcohol and no women, one might think a small monastic cell would be appropriate but obviously Chinese Emperors wanted to abstain in style!
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| Entrance to the Hall of Abstinence |
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| More Roof Decorations |
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| Why?? |
Not far away is the " Divine Music Administration"
complex designed to support the hundreds of musicians and performers for these
huge rituals. Inside there is an extensive exhibition relating to traditional
Chinese music, some of it rather lost on me since I have never got to grips
with understanding Western music despite several years of music lessons at
school.
There is more information here
In the evening went to Sanlitun Bar Street
where I had a salmon panini at Crepanini followed by a delicious Crepe
Tartin, while watching the street go by and the acrobatic pole dancer in the bar opposite, where I later
had a beer, by which time the pole dancer had been replaced by a band.
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| Crepanini |
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| Tsingtao at Crepanini |
I had
expected Sanlitun to be a Chinese equivalent of Holland
Village in Singapore,
or even like the bars around one of the lakes in Beijing
I had visited a few years ago. But many of the bars looked suspiciously
empty and none show prices so I suspect many are out to fleece unsuspecting
tourists. The one I drank in was quite
reasonable.
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| Sanlitun Bar Street |
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| Sanlitun Bar Street |
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| Street Food at Sanlitun Bar Street |
Going home the first few taxi drivers I approached didn't want to
go to the hotel but a driver of one of the little electric tricycle taxis was
happy to take me. A bit slow but a fascinating experience travelling silently
in an open air vehicle through the streets of Beijing, sometimes on roads and sometimes on
pavements. Later I have read warnings about not using these vehicles but the
driver of mine was very good and delivered me safely to the hotel.
