Big Beijing
Beijing is big, huge. Ten lane highways leading to Tian An Men Square. Skyscrapers all the way from the airport to the centre, racing along the overpass into the evening traffic jams, or taking the modern toll road, through a gate which has a temple type tiled winged roof. That was the big surprise in January 2008. All modern. Yet so Chinese. Giant skyscraper with what looks like little ancient Chinese temples perched on top.
Fifteen million people. I can't be sure that number is accurate. When I tried to count, the people kept moving.
Beijing is big, huge. Ten lane highways leading to Tian An Men Square. Skyscrapers all the way from the airport to the centre, racing along the overpass into the evening traffic jams, or taking the modern toll road, through a gate which has a temple type tiled winged roof. That was the big surprise in January 2008. All modern. Yet so Chinese. Giant skyscraper with what looks like little ancient Chinese temples perched on top.
Fifteen million people. I can't be sure that number is accurate. When I tried to count, the people kept moving.
Major hotels are near the square. And the underground train goes there. Use your phone to photography the subway map. We asked another westerner to tell us the transfer station. Note the station nearest your hotel to come back. The underground costs two yuan per ticket regardless of distance.
Skyscrapers Replace Slums
They were getting ready for the Olympic Games in August 2008. Around Tian An Men Square the old Hougangs or slums have been moved. You can still see a few. One storey shacks with winding alleys and scarcely room for one person to walk between. Claustrophobic. You can take tours. We just glimpsed them as we passed through the city on a tour bus.
The people have been moved out. To skyscraper cities on the outskirts of the city. Whilst they might prefer a modern building, it must be disconcerting to be so far from the city centre. Would anybody take the time and touble to match them up with the same neighbours? Or, like Singapore, install shops, doctors, nurseries, libraries and all you need on the ground floor of each development, like the old corner shop, to save travelling. To find out you would have to read magazines about the Asian economy, published in other countries in the region.
Hotels
Raffles Beijing Hotel
On Changan Road, which apparently means Perpetual Peace.
In China the media is censored. No time for dissent. It's a society which values obedience. When I researched the story of the Willow Pattern Plate on the internet, I found a collectors site which said that whilst Britain sees the story as one of romantic lovers reunited for eternity as love birds, orientals would see it as a cautionary tale of how the disobedient eloping couple were caught and condemned to an eternity of only seeing each other as birds.
Skyscrapers Replace Slums
They were getting ready for the Olympic Games in August 2008. Around Tian An Men Square the old Hougangs or slums have been moved. You can still see a few. One storey shacks with winding alleys and scarcely room for one person to walk between. Claustrophobic. You can take tours. We just glimpsed them as we passed through the city on a tour bus.
The people have been moved out. To skyscraper cities on the outskirts of the city. Whilst they might prefer a modern building, it must be disconcerting to be so far from the city centre. Would anybody take the time and touble to match them up with the same neighbours? Or, like Singapore, install shops, doctors, nurseries, libraries and all you need on the ground floor of each development, like the old corner shop, to save travelling. To find out you would have to read magazines about the Asian economy, published in other countries in the region.
Hotels
Raffles Beijing Hotel
On Changan Road, which apparently means Perpetual Peace.
In China the media is censored. No time for dissent. It's a society which values obedience. When I researched the story of the Willow Pattern Plate on the internet, I found a collectors site which said that whilst Britain sees the story as one of romantic lovers reunited for eternity as love birds, orientals would see it as a cautionary tale of how the disobedient eloping couple were caught and condemned to an eternity of only seeing each other as birds.
I went on a day tour to The Great Wall and the mountainside Ming tombs.
Ming Tombs
You see a hall made into museum with glass cases showing the emperors' clothes and jade belts and gold money. Real gold reproductions.
Originals in Taiwan? Are you planning to visit Beijing - for the Olympics in August? If so, they are making great efforts to get ready for you. Slums have been cleared. For you, only the best.Huge hotels are being built along highways carrying 8-10 lanes of traffic to Tiananmen Square.
I had coffee and excellent cheesecake in Beijing Raffles Hotel.
But Peking Duck is better in Swan Peking in Hatch End.
THE GREAT WALL
The Great Wall was very steep and slippery. I would have fared better if I'd known it's not flat but sloping. So you need proper gear for walking uphill on slippery stones, with both hand free - quite unnerving. I wrote a poem about it.
CITY SIGHTS
I also saw the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, and best of all the lakeside Summer Palace, a long covered walkway looking over the shallow lake where rather incongruously people were walking and tripping over on the ice.
Th Forbidden City was a huge complex. The guide pointed to the new cobblestones in front of us, the old ones to our right. I thought it was a pity not to leave the old ones. Until we walked over the old section. Lots of missing cobbles. In the UK you'd have had glass or plastic sheeting above. Health and safety. Very easy to fall.
What's left to see inside? Wait for the crowd to clear and peer through a glass window and see a red silk draped daybed and a four poster bed.
The Temple of Heaven has a pleasant garden, in fact a huge park. You walk along avenues and activites are taking place on either side. Ballroom dance music was playing and couples were dancing.
Then from another area more rousing jolly choral music. What was that? I asked the guide. Patriotic songs.
In the park was the Chinese restaurant. Big round table with a lazy Susan in the middle. Sweet and sour chicken. Vegetables.
Shopping
Plus stops at a pearl mall, silk mall, and a teahouse selling roses for making tea. The only tea I've ever liked. New discovery.
I liked our hotel, the Jianguo Garden. Such a pretty girl waiting to welcome you into the lift.
The Asia Kitchen had a breakfast and supper buffet. With pickled ginger.
The Chinese restaurant offered steak in sweet and sour sauce.
Another oriental restaurant, Mongolian, had 'ox threat'.
Jianguogardenhotel.com
For more hotel reviews see
TripAdvisor.com
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