Stepping off the overnight train from Xi’an, I was immediately surprised how clear the Beijing air was. I was expecting my lungs to be corroding from smoggy air the second we all exited the car, yet I didn’t detect anything out of the ordinary. There’re all these articles and people telling stories about how bad the pollution is here, but I have yet to really see it. The air in Xi’an was much worse because dust from the Loess Plateau blew down upon the city, making the air very dry and grainy. I know the pollution gets very bad, but I think this time of year is very good for China’s air and weather because there has been sun almost every day we are traveling and no smog.
We soon met our new tour guide, Kelly, who reminded me of our first tour guide, Summer. The walk to the van seemed very long, at least to me because my luggage magically appeared to have gained 20 pounds, but we all thoroughly enjoyed this vehicle for it was very spacious and had high ceilings. Once we reached the hotel, we all quickly settled down and ate a delicious breakfast (some notable items being hash browns and croissants and BACON!! ).
Afterwards, we met Kelly again to venture off to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. The whole area is 8.5 kilometers long where all the buildings are lined up so perfectly that you can see the main gates through all the central building’s archways from the end of the strip. Tiananmen square is very big and is overlooked by a ginormous oil painting of Mao Zedong. This painting has to be repainted by hand every year to keep his face looking fresh. The Forbidden City was originally built in the Ming Dynasty as the emperor’s palace and was grand enough to house him. There were many buildings with an individual function for the emperor to use from his bedroom, to his robe changing room he used before big ceremonies.
One thing to note about the area surrounding this landmark was the massive guard and police presence. In the previous cities we visited, there were policemen, but there was only the occasional one directing traffic in a village or a gang of them in the cities huddled together on their phones. I had yet to notice the huge police force people talk about in the US whenever China was brought up. In Beijing, however, there were policemen stationed at and between every intersection and guards in green uniforms standing stock still with their chests puffed up. Ola and I joked about how many classes these young men had taken to learn how to stand so straight. These guards also all seemed to be very young, or as us youths would say, to be “young beans” (you could also say “young green beans” since they were all dressed in their green uniforms haha). None of them looked a day over 30. Another rank of guard we noticed was men dressed in suits with a long overcoat that were stationed closer to the Forbidden City. Ola also noted the absence of guard dogs since many guards with police dogs would have patrolled a landmark of this caliber in the US. The absence of dogs here was replaced with the thousands of guards stationed every 15 feet along the sidewalk.
After seeing this landmark and having a delicious lunch, we took rickshaws to visit a local community and saw how many people live in the city. Families have recently built new walls around their old ones surrounding their homes in order to create more room for their expanding families. We walked through a man’s home and were delightfully surprised to see how nice the kitchen and living areas were. The rooms that make up the house including the kitchen, living, master bedroom, and children’s bedrooms are set up around a courtyard in the center of the property. Some families choose to fill this standard courtyard with more rooms, but many also keep this feature for it is quite pleasant to spend time outdoors when the weather is nice. One other interesting thing to mention is that houses in these areas don’t have bathrooms and the residents instead have to use communal bathrooms. The quality of these bathrooms ranges from stalls to an open room with five holes in the ground.
We were next taken to a shopping street with many western stores, including H&M and Prada. We stayed here for an hour and then were taken to eat dinner at a famous Beijing duck restaurant called Li Qun. I highly recommend it. The duck is roasted in house and is brought to you after it’s roasted for you to make sure it is cooked to your liking. It is promptly whisked away afterwards and finely carved for you to wrap up in a thin pancake with cucumber, onion, and Beijing duck sauce. The restaurant itself was quite quaint and modest looking, despite having received numerous awards for outstanding food. To enter, one must pass through three thresholds covered with hanging plastic flaps, pass by the open fireplace that roasts the ducks, and enter into a small, old courtyard with private rooms surrounding it. Beer boxes are stacked in corners of the yard, sinks are stuck in between doorways and you can hear the commotion of the kitchen for it is, at most, 15 feet away from the farthest table in the courtyard. It was a wonderful experience.
After diner, we turned into the hotel early in order to relax and settle into our last hotel before Hangzhou. Ola and I decided to hit the gym because although we walk around a lot, we were craving a nice, hard workout session. Upon returning to the room, we realized we had forgotten the key and had been locked out. We then had to go down to the lobby in our exercise clothing to get a new key. Ola was wearing workout pants and a t-shirt, but I was in shorts and a t-shirt. This is notable because although the women here wear high heels and short skirts, they are often paired with at least leggings and a bare leg or arm is seldom shown. It may be the time of year, but our group can count on one hand the number of times we have seen a woman here rock a bare leg or arm. Naturally, my exercise ensemble that wouldn’t have gained any attention back home turned many a head in the lobby, mostly from the older generation. I quickly obtained the keycard and promptly retreated to the elevator. Ola and I then showered and climbed into our beds to write our blog posts and see if we could get some sleep since we would have an early morning the next day.
Zaijian for now!
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