Beijing Part 2 (7-12)

Thursday was Great Wall day. Jerry always referred to it as the Chinese Wall. 

One reason I had selected this tour is that it goes to the Mutianyu section of the Wall, which is farther from Beijing and is less crowded. It took an hour and a half to get there. Jerry told us that we would see many people, but they would be mostly foreigners, as Chinese people don’t want to go that far and go to the Badaling section because it’s closer to the city. 

We took the chair lift to the top of the mountain and down again. There is a choice to take a toboggan slide down, but we stuck with the chair lift. Actually, it wasn’t crowded when we were there. But it was hot. We were glad to be leaving at noon rather than arriving and starting to walk as some people were. 

This section of the wall has 23 towers, but we went to only six, walking about one kilometer to the end and then back. 

The wall is a series of steps up and down the mountain. 

Views of the surrounding mountains and the wall snaking over them were lovely.

After our Great Wall walk, we stopped for lunch nearby. Jerry ordered a local fish specialty. It was cut in half and cooked with the meat side up and was seasoned nicely. We also had our daily eggplant, which was served over a bed of sweet onions, and green beans. Then it was back to the city for an hour and a half. 

At the hotel we relaxed until time for dinner, as this was the night of our Beijing/Peking duck dinner. It had been ordered in advance and was served shortly after we arrived. We also had Chinese beans/broad beans. Since we had a whole duck, this was enough. The duck was good although I’ve had better. Ercilia didn’t like it, as it didn’t have as much flavor and was cooked differently than she is accustomed to.

After dinner we were dropped off at the church in Wangfujing. We also walked around a couple department stores in the area just to see them. Then Ercilia directed us back to the hotel on a road the driver had taken. But she had the wrong road; so we ended out walking much more than planned. When the road intersected with a main road we weren’t familiar with, I showed our hotel card with a map on the back to a policeman on the corner. He pointed out the direction for us, which was the direction I knew we needed to go. Eventually we came to Tiananmen Square where we enjoyed watching all the people taking photos of the gate with Mao’s picture. We also enjoyed seeing the area lighted up at night. At the next corner we asked the policeman which way to go, and he pointed out the direction. When we came to the next big intersection, a policeman was sitting in his car. When I showed him the hotel card, he gave us directions in English, which was really nice. At that time, we were finally close to the hotel. So, instead of taking half an hour to return, it took an hour and a half. It was a good walk and we were happy to have seen the Mao gate lighted up, but we were glad to be back, as it was 11:00 and we’d been walking for 3.5 hours.

Friday was the last day of our tour. We started at the Summer Palace. I remember going there on the previous trip and especially remember the marble boat. 

Even though we arrived at 9:45, it was already crowded. 

First we went to the stage where performances were held and where they now do a short show of classical performances. 

We saw dancers, a singer, and a music ensemble. I enjoyed them, but with the atonal classical music, the show was long enough.

Next we walked around the area. The 750 meter covered walkway is the longest in China. It is decorated with paintings representing many areas of the country. 

We had a brief glimpse of the marble boat, which is what I remember from my previous visit, before getting into a dragon boat to ride across the lake. 

From the boat we got a good view of the seventeen arch bridge. The boat ride ends near the entrance. Although the palace and grounds are lovely, it was difficult to enjoy them with the mobs of people. Although it seemed like there were more people than at the Imperial Palace, there probably weren’t. It’s just that they were crowded into smaller areas. It wasn’t pleasant to have to fight the crowds just to walk along.

Back in the city, we had a rickshaw ride through a few hutongs. These are narrow lanes where people live in crowded conditions. They originated in the 13^th and 14^th centuries and surround the Imperial Palace. At that time, they served as courtyard administrative residences. 

Important officials had/have larger homes and are noted by the number of beams sticking out of the front door. Now they are mostly inhabited by retired people, as young people don’t want to live there. 

We were taken into one house that is a private residence for a wealthy family.  Most of the courtyard houses are divided into five to ten small “houses,” which are actually one room, where people only have room to sleep. They do not have bathrooms; so there are public toilets and showers (for pay) in the area. The number of electric meters outside a house indicates how many families live there. Many hutongs are being demolished by the government and Jerry predicts that they will completely disappear in ten to twenty years.

Lunch was at another good restaurant. We had a vegetarian lunch: cooked cucumbers, bamboo, eggplant, and fried rice. The bamboo was some of the best I’ve had and was cooked differently—with the skin and with special seasoning. Then we walked through a renovated shopping area.

After our tour, we returned to the hotel to rest and be out of the heat for a couple hours. Then we walked to Jingshan Park, which is close to the hotel. The park has a hill with pagodas from which you can view the Imperial City roofs as well as the modern city. 

When we got to the top, there were already many people lined up with their cameras on tripods waiting for sunset. Since it was only 5:30, they had a long wait till the 7:30 sunset. After going up the hill, we walked around the rest of the park. 

The big water lilies were in pots in one area and were blooming. 

In another area several children were bicycling and roller skating while their grandparents watched. 

As the evening progressed, more people came to the park to walk. It was an enjoyable and relaxing place to hang out for a couple hours.

Next we headed back to the Wangfujing food stalls. On the way we stopped at the Forbidden City tower to watch the sunset. 

Again, photographers were lined up along the moat, waiting. 

Once at the food stalls, Ercilia had her fish on a stick and curled potatoes on a stick that she had been talking about for two days. I had squid and dumplings. We also had the cute balls decorated like animals. The man had said one had chocolate inside. They turned out to be steamed bread, and the chocolate wasn’t chocolate. They were fun to try but not really great tasting.

After eating, we took the direct route back to the hotel, as we had been walking for four hours and it was time to get packed and ready to leave on Saturday.

Saturday morning Ercilia walked with me to the bus stop where Jerry had said I could get a taxi to the train station. Although I enjoyed the time with Ercilia, as we got along well and traveled well together, I was ready to head off on my solo journey.