Beijing - Acrobats, Temples and a very Great Wall

We arrived in Beijing on February 22 and made our way by bus and by subway to the Jade International Youth Hostel, near the Forbidden City and the center of the city. The "hostel" was really more of a hotel, a multi-story building with spotless, (if a bit characterless) rooms, a travel agency, restaurant and internet cafe. It provided us with a very comfortable home for the next 5 nights.

We spent our first day in Beijing sorting out our train tickets from Beijing to Lhasa. We had been corresponding with an agent based in Lhasa and went to the local office in Beijing to pick up our tickets. Unfortunately, most everything in Beijing was closed due to New Year celebrations. We were very lucky though - as we were staring at the closed door, a local man who spoke english offered to help us. Using his cell phone, he telephoned the office for us, was able to relay a message on to the agent (who was at home), who then called him back on his cell phone so that we could arrange a meeting time later that evening at our hostel. We found the people in China very interesting - the response we received ranged from being ignored, to having kids saying "hello" to us, to very friendly and helpful people the minute we looked like we might need some help. We definitely sensed excitement and pride about the upcoming Olympics.

Beijing seemed to us a city of contrasts - there are shopping malls filled with shops like Nike, Starbucks, Benetton and Addidas - and lots of shoppers spending their new found wealth. But you only have to stroll down a side alley off this shopping area to find the impoverished areas of Beijing, too. In preparation for the Olympics, the government holds monthly "queuing days" so that the locals get used to the idea of waiting in line ups. China recently passed an "anti-spitting" law, but you still have to watch your step on all the walkways, and you can constantly hear people hoiking (Edwin recalls SARS 2003 which called for an end to public spitting in Beijing).

That evening, we went to see an acrobatic troupe perform. We had excellent seats in the second row of the Chaoyang Theatre, and close up views of the breathtaking performances. As promised, we saw "Spinning plates, juggling umbrellas, contortionists and acrobats fill the air. Integrating superlative juggling, unicycling, balancing and jumping through hoops with the finest ancient Chinese dancing, the star-studded cast will amaze." We truly were blown away with the precision and strength of the troupe, most of which appeared to be between 8 and 18 years old. I have a sneaking suspicion that Cirque du Soleil has borrowed quite a few of their tricks from the Chinese traditional acrobats.

On our first full day of exploring, we boarded a very squishy bus that took us to the Temple of Heaven. Built in 1420, during the Ming Dynasty, it was built as a place of sacrifice for good harvests. Our favourite part of the temple was the outside grounds, where we watched dozens of people playing with feathered Chinese hackey-sacks, and practicing balancing and coordination drills with soft badminton racquets and weighted balls. One of the men in the park gave us both racquets and we gave it a go, although we were both pretty clumsy compared to how the local people make it look like a graceful dance.

We walked back through Tien'anmen Square, which was full of local families, many of whom were on vacation for the New Year spring holidays. We then continued on through the Forbidden City, a huge complex of 74 hectares surrounded by a 6 metre moat and 10 metre high walls. This was the Imperial Palace for 24 different emperors for over 500 years until 1924. The architecture and ornate paintings were incredible, although some were in scaffolding as much renovation work is being done throughout Beijing in preparation for the Olympics next year.

The next day we went to the Silk Market, famous for cheap imitation goods and hard bargaining. I bought a new "Tommy Hilfiger" shirt ("beautiful lady, why you so hard...give me good price") and Edwin bought a canvass bag for his camera, after removing a "North Face" jacket that two girls had pretty much forcibly put on him. That afternoon we got a little bit lost, but ended up enjoying a walk through Ditan Park which was just cleaning up after New Year festivities, and then we went to the Lama Temple, where we gazed in awe at an 18 metre high Buddha carved from sandalwood.

Our last major sight to see in Beijing was the Great Wall. We decided to walk a 10 km stretch from Jinshanling to Simatai, away from the tourist crowds. We were very glad of this decision, as there were very few tourists at these locations, and we had wonderful views of the Wall, through the mist. At the beginning of our walk near Jinshanling, and toward the end near Simatai, there had been quite a bit of restoration work and the steps were relatively easy (although steep) to climb. In the middle section; however, there were parts that were quite a scramble over gravel, broken rock and steps. The 10 km walk took us through 32 watchtowers, and we were accompanied nearly half of the way by some ladies from Jinshanling who self-appointed themselves our guides and tried to sell us beer, cola, postcards and t-shirts. We were impressed with their persistence, but not so much their guidance "this wall is very old". It was an incredible day, and a very cool feeling to have walked a stretch of such an historic monument.

On February 27, we left our hostel with what we thought was lots of time, and made our way to the Main Beijing Rail station for our 9:30 pm train. We went through the security checks at the entrance and as we couldn't find our train number on the electronic board, we asked at which platform we should go for our train. The police lady told us that we were at the wrong train station, and we needed to go to the West Beijing Rail station for our train to Lhasa. Whoops! We ran for a taxi which weaved in and out of traffic and got us to the correct station with time to spare.

Location: Lhasa, Tibet