The hotel/hostel where we stayed was a bargain at about US$30 a night including breakfast. While it isn’t in the central part of Beijing where the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square are located it is in a really nice part of the city populated by hutongs. These are small alleyways of old Beijing with tiny little houses and streets so narrow that only bicycles and mopeds can get through making for nice places to stroll. Hutongs are fast disappearing as many were torn down for construction of venues and hotels for the 2008 Olympic Games.
Our hotel served mainly westerners but was staffed entirely by Chinese men and women. It is interesting to sit and listen to their conversations trying to understand the occasional word. The music of the sounds and the twisting of the tongue, throat and cheeks to make the unique jingle of the language are captivating and encourage the listener to learn these particular acrobatics to be better understood.
Some of the staff speak well and assisted us in learning the basics. We’ve walked for miles exploring shops and other touristy stuff as well as markets frequented by locals only. We still get stared at a lot but we figure that if you don’t get stared at in your travels, you are doing something wrong (it means you go only to touristy spots).
The hutong neighborhoods provided a real slice of life in modern-day China with a mixture of the old, traditional ways and modern, new-fangled stuff. Food is still grown, processed and prepared in the old ways but often using modern appliances.
The homes are so small that washing machines, fridges and other large appliances are in the yard (when there is one) or, more often, in front of the small house where the laundry is hung to dry and chairs and TVs are set up for relaxation.
The houses weren’t built with bathrooms but used to have outhouses. These have, thankfully, been eliminated and in their place public restrooms with showers, sinks and traditional toilets have been built. It is not unusual to see people walking around in their pajamas from their house to the public bathrooms.
The classic – stereotypical, even – places to see in northern China include the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, Tiananmen Square, and the Great Wall. A more recent addition is the “Bird’s Nest” – the stadium that was the heart of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Each of these has been hyped up so much that visitors may wonder what all the fuss is about when they finally see for themselves these wonders of China. The best place to prepare and understand is in history. Whether you read it in your guidebook, on Wikipedia, novels or history books doesn’t really matter as long as you get a sense of the times during which they were built and the significance they still hold today.
Bell and Drum Towers
The Drum Tower was constructed in 1273 and repeatedly burned in battles and rebuilt over the centuries. It was an important building at the centre of the Mongolian capital (think conquerors Genghis Khan and Kublai Khan) as it marked the hours in the day with the beating of its drums heard for long distances. Visitors must climb very steep stairs to get to the drums but there they will be delighted by a brief drum-beating ceremony. The second building, the Bell Tower, was also built during the time of the Mongolian conquests of Beijing and was burned down. The existing building was reconstructed in the 18th century and also includes a climb up a very steep stairway. In both cases, you will be treated to spectacular views of the neighboring hutongs (traditional Chinese homes).
From a Palace to a Lamasery
A Tibetan Buddhist temple originally built as the home of a 18th century emperor but was converted into a lamasery (where religious lamas live) soon after its original resident moved to the Forbidden City. It features five large halls and five courtyards ringed by finely-decorate buildings with gold paint, detailed carvings and statues of Buddha. The Yellow Hat sect of Lamaism (from Mongolia) makes it home in this monastery which remained closed during many years of the Cultural Revolution and was reopened in 1980. The buildings and its statues have been refurbished a number of times. Most recently, the Giant Buddhist Maitreya (which according to the Guiness Book of World Records is the largest in the world) was coated with 2.5 kilos of gold foil at a cost of more than 500,000 yuan (US$87,719) in state funds.
Tiananmen Square, Mao and Tons of Flowers
China has many famous ‘world’s biggest’ and Tiananmen Square is no slouch in this area as it is known as the world’s largest public square. The square is just south of the Forbidden City which represents everything Communism fought to replace: emperors considered gods on Earth; privileges for very few royals and aristocrats; and the extreme excesses of the rich while the poor starved.
The people watching can be a lot of fun as Chinese nationals took the requisite photos of themselves in front of the huge portrait of Chairman Mao, kids ran around with their backsides open to ventilation (for convenience and no need for diapers or to rush to the toilet), and old people provided a sense of the history that has occurred in this location.