The first weekend after we arrived, Erica, Emily and I wanted to go into Beijing for the day. We left early on a Saturday morning and the plans were to make our way to Tian An Men Square, the Forbidden city, and then do some shopping/walking around the city by WangFuJing DaJie.
We left early, around 7 AM, to catch the bus that would take us from where we were between the 5th and 6th ring roads to the 2nd ring road close to the heart of the city. The bus ride was, of course, packed, even on the weekend. I was impressed by how efficiently everything ran - there was smart card system that read your bus pass as you boarded and again when you got off, and deducted money according to how far you rode. We had to go all the way to the last stop, which was DongZhi Men. From there, the plan was to walk our way over to the north end of TianAnMen Square, close to the Forbidden City.
According to Brent, the walk was only about 30 minutes.
NOT TRUE. We ended up walking for almost TWO HOURS. On the map it didn't look so bad, but around 10:30, it started to hit us that maybe we should have taken the subway. The walk there was fun though, we got to see a lot of city close up. It had been a while since I last visited Beijing. The streets were really spread out and wide, pretty much the opposite of places like New York and Chicago, things were a lot less packed together.
When we finally got there, we went straight to the Forbidden City and spent a little less than 2 hours walking around. The inside was huge - everytime we thought we had walked all the way across, there would be another layer of buildings to pass. Unfortunately, I wasn't really able to appreciate the history of the place as much as I would have liked, and I found myself reading the English version of the tourist plaques that were posted in front of important buildings throughout the city.
After we left the Forbidden City, we walked toward WangFuJing DaJie for lunch and just wandering around for the rest of the afternoon. The street contained a long stretch of sores and shopping centers. The nicest one was this huge mall that was about 6 floors to it. We were too tired from all the walking to do any shopping, so we ended up sitting in the food court. We didn't buy any clothes or anything, but I remember from the last time I visited that when you purchase something in a large shopping center, they first write you a slip that you take to a paying station, and once you've paid for everything you want, you go back to the small sections/boutiques in the store and pick up what you bought. It was a similar thing for the foodcourt - you have to put money on a card first, and then you but something to eat with the card and return the card when you're finished. The three of us shared a Shaved Ice - it was the real deal: this huge mountain of ice covered in condensed milk, jelly, read bean and corn (?).
We eventually made our way to a small kite shop that wasn't too far from the mall - the shop sold handmade kites that were of all different shapes and animals. After more walking around, my cousin, who currently works in Beijing, called us and wanted to take us out to dinner.
We ate at this really nice Roast Duck restaurant right along WangFuJing DaJie. My cousin, who obviously knew what he was doing, just said a bunch of things to the waiter, and about 20 minutes later, we had the whole ensemble in front of us, including duck liver, duck intestines, duck HEARTS, and even the head. They even gave us this card that had the registration number or something of the duck that had been cooked for us :D
One of the coolest things about the meal was the way the waiters served the tea. It was apparently the way it was done in the past, where there's this bronze teapot with an extremely long and thin spout, it must have been at least 2 or 3 feet long and a centimeter in diameter at the tip. Everytime the waitress poured the water, she would have to stand a bit aways from the table, and it always looked like she wouldn't actually be able to pour the water into the teapot, like she was aiming to far. But it never spilled.
After dinner, my cousin helped to direct us to a subway stop so that we wouldn't have to walk another two hours to get back. We got back to our apartment extremely exhausted but also very full, haha. Our original plan to go into Beijing again the next day didn't end up happening, but we were satisfied with our first trip into the city.
We left early, around 7 AM, to catch the bus that would take us from where we were between the 5th and 6th ring roads to the 2nd ring road close to the heart of the city. The bus ride was, of course, packed, even on the weekend. I was impressed by how efficiently everything ran - there was smart card system that read your bus pass as you boarded and again when you got off, and deducted money according to how far you rode. We had to go all the way to the last stop, which was DongZhi Men. From there, the plan was to walk our way over to the north end of TianAnMen Square, close to the Forbidden City.
According to Brent, the walk was only about 30 minutes.
NOT TRUE. We ended up walking for almost TWO HOURS. On the map it didn't look so bad, but around 10:30, it started to hit us that maybe we should have taken the subway. The walk there was fun though, we got to see a lot of city close up. It had been a while since I last visited Beijing. The streets were really spread out and wide, pretty much the opposite of places like New York and Chicago, things were a lot less packed together.
When we finally got there, we went straight to the Forbidden City and spent a little less than 2 hours walking around. The inside was huge - everytime we thought we had walked all the way across, there would be another layer of buildings to pass. Unfortunately, I wasn't really able to appreciate the history of the place as much as I would have liked, and I found myself reading the English version of the tourist plaques that were posted in front of important buildings throughout the city.
After we left the Forbidden City, we walked toward WangFuJing DaJie for lunch and just wandering around for the rest of the afternoon. The street contained a long stretch of sores and shopping centers. The nicest one was this huge mall that was about 6 floors to it. We were too tired from all the walking to do any shopping, so we ended up sitting in the food court. We didn't buy any clothes or anything, but I remember from the last time I visited that when you purchase something in a large shopping center, they first write you a slip that you take to a paying station, and once you've paid for everything you want, you go back to the small sections/boutiques in the store and pick up what you bought. It was a similar thing for the foodcourt - you have to put money on a card first, and then you but something to eat with the card and return the card when you're finished. The three of us shared a Shaved Ice - it was the real deal: this huge mountain of ice covered in condensed milk, jelly, read bean and corn (?).
We eventually made our way to a small kite shop that wasn't too far from the mall - the shop sold handmade kites that were of all different shapes and animals. After more walking around, my cousin, who currently works in Beijing, called us and wanted to take us out to dinner.
We ate at this really nice Roast Duck restaurant right along WangFuJing DaJie. My cousin, who obviously knew what he was doing, just said a bunch of things to the waiter, and about 20 minutes later, we had the whole ensemble in front of us, including duck liver, duck intestines, duck HEARTS, and even the head. They even gave us this card that had the registration number or something of the duck that had been cooked for us :D
One of the coolest things about the meal was the way the waiters served the tea. It was apparently the way it was done in the past, where there's this bronze teapot with an extremely long and thin spout, it must have been at least 2 or 3 feet long and a centimeter in diameter at the tip. Everytime the waitress poured the water, she would have to stand a bit aways from the table, and it always looked like she wouldn't actually be able to pour the water into the teapot, like she was aiming to far. But it never spilled.
After dinner, my cousin helped to direct us to a subway stop so that we wouldn't have to walk another two hours to get back. We got back to our apartment extremely exhausted but also very full, haha. Our original plan to go into Beijing again the next day didn't end up happening, but we were satisfied with our first trip into the city.
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