Beijing

From Beijing (Adam), Mon 13/11/2006 2:48 PM

Hey Everybody!

I hope everything is going well for all of u back home.

We have been in Beijing for a week already and done so much here so its probably gonna be quite a long one here. Our last few days in Singapore were fun-filled and pretty busy. We spent them on a small island called Sentosa just off Singapore. The island is like an amusement park so we saw a few 3d movies, took a luge ride, went to underwater world and watched a musical fountain and laser show. That kept us pretty busy for a few days. We went out with Carly's friend Peggy and her mates which was great fun. They took us to a big club called Zouk and we witnessed a strange phenomenon: loads of people in the club were doing synchronised dance moves and singing along to these awful, cheesy 80's tracks. It was hilarious although slightly unnerving when they started doing it to us!

Anyway now onto Beijing. It is freezing here, on the first day we went out to do some sightseeing and instead ended up shopping for warm hats and gloves. So imagine my surprise when we are walking around one of the big central lakes and we see old men in their speedos swimming in the lake! I tried to tell one of them its too cold for that sort of thing and he just laughed and beat his chest like tarzan letting out a manly roar. These people are nuts.

Chinese people are fantastic. Every park we have been into is packed with the older generation engaged in lively singing, dancing, playing ball games, doing tai chi... Its the exact opposite to Western countries where its the young kids that hang out in the park mugging people and vandalising benches. Carly and I bought one of these shuttlecock-type things that we'd seen a lot of chinese oldies kicking around in groups. So we were practising keeping it in the air and a young girl came over and put us to
shame for a while. After that two guys walk over in their suits with briefcases, one old and one young. To my surprise the older guy hands his briefcase to the young one and comes over to join in! Its like life starts at 50 here, the young people don't really seem to do anything.

Aside from engaging in leisure activities with local pensioners we have actually done some sightseeing here. Obviously everyone's heard of the Great Wall of China... so i'll leave that til last so u don't just read it and skip the rest. We have been into quite a few temples, all very different as some are Buddhist, some Taoist and some Confucianist. Most impressive is probably the Temple of the Lamas, it is the biggest Buddhist Temple in China and has an 85ft tall statue of the Buddha inside one of its pagodas. Also inside was an exhibit of Buddha images from Tibet which were pretty cool, some of them are really scary looking and have extra eyes on their palms and the soles of their feet!

We visited the Temple of Heaven where all the old people go to do Tai Chi. There were a number of pagodas dotted around the temple grounds. Some of which had funny names such as the Animal Killing House, otherwise known as the Animal Beating House. There is also a stone there which is supposed allow anyone that stands on it to speak directly to God so all these Chinese people queue up to jump on it but all they seem to say is "Hai" before they make way for the next person.

Today we went to two big temples, the first is an important Taoist Temple called the Temple of the White Cloud. It has many small pagodas dedicated to different Taoist deities with one big pagoda which has 60 statues of important deities. The second temple is called Great Bell Temple because it houses the Yongle Bell, a 40 ton bell that can be heard 30 miles away. The bell is enormous and it has chinese calligraphy all over it. Altogether on the inside and outside of the bell are engraved 230,000 characters.

Apart from all these temples we have seen a lot of weird and wonderful things in the centre of Beijing. There are outdoor gymns dotted around (for the old folks), kids with special trousers with holes in the arses so everywhere is their toilet, honest taxi drivers, people flying kites, millions of bicycles... We went to the Beijing Planning Exhibition Centre which has loads of exhibits of the plans for developing Beijing. It is really a unique city as the centre is full of small protected buildings and the high rise buildings are all in a circle around it. As Beijing is hosting the Olympics in 2008 everything is being rebuilt right now so a lot of things we have wanted to see are covered in scaffolding.

The two biggest buildings in the Forbidden City are some of those under renovation so sadly we couldn't go in them. It still took up an entire day tho as there are so many buildings in there. They all follow the same colour scheme: red walls, yellow roofs and green and blue borders. It was incredible to see the sheer size of this city within the city. The emperors used to live here and needed all these buildings to house their concubines, some of them had up to 1000!

We went to see some Peking Opera in a very posh theatre inside a very posh hotel. Even the guys pouring tea for the audience were doing some crazy kung-fu with their watering-can-style-teapots before pouring the tea from some unlikely angle. The opera was really cool, lots of acrobatics and swordfights, kinda like watching Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon live. The voices are something else tho, the women sing at such high pitch i thought the teacups would explode.

We went for a visit to Beijing Underground City which is a huge maze of tunnels built during the Cold War in case of a nuclear attack. They have the capacity for 300,000 people and were never finished. The tunnels were supposed to cover the whole of Beijing but they do extend to Tiananmen Square and to the Airport which is big enough. Our tour guide joked that if we take a wrong turn we might end up back in London. Until recently they just let tourists go down there and wander around all alone but because of the Olympics they are having to tighten up on health and safety in the tourist industry. Still this hasn't stopped us from wandering into several building sites this week. The first was a huge department store near our hostel, easy mistake to make it was all lit up with neon signs but when we got to the door there were workmen everywhere, pretty dangerous. We went to visit the Imperial College and the Confucius Temple inside and the entire place was covered in scaffolding with men working everywhere yet they still sold us a ticket to go in!

Ok so the Great Wall. We took a tour from our hostel which took us to the Mutianyu section of the Wall, about 2 hours from central Beijing. From the car park we could see the wall snaking along the tops of the mountains and it is so far up that it looks tiny. It was about a half hour climb up the stairs to the Wall. The views from up there are unbeatable, mountains on three sides and the flat plains extending out to Beijing on the other. We walked along the top of the wall to the West, basically heading up to the nearest peak. From there we could see even further, unfortunately the photos don't really do it justice. You can see the wall extending out to the horizon in both directions, winding over the tops of the hills. If i was invading China there's no way i'd have any energy left to fight the soldiers on the Wall after climbing up the mountains! It was pretty tiring climbing up the mountain then walking up all the steps and ramps on top of the wall so on the way down we opt for the 'speed slide'. It sounded more interesting than the cable car... and it was. Basically it's like a toboggan that slides down a metal chute with a lever that controls the brakes. There's no steering so u have to lean into the corners and pull the brake lever back to make it round. It was great fun and definitely the perfect thing after all those steps!

So that's Beijing so far. I think i covered everything so far and we're here til next Saturday so there'll be another one from China before we get to Tokyo. Chinese people are fantastic and this week has really made me want to see more of China. On the other hand it is nice to spend 2 weeks in one place after flying somewhere new every week for so long, we are making ourselves a bit more at home here. The hostel is really nice as well and it's an authentic Chinese house with a courtyard in the middle with a fish pond and everything!

Anyway that's it from me,

Speak to u soon

Adam

The next installment! (sorry about the length!) (Carly) Mon 13/11/2006 3:55 PM

Hi again!

We are now in Beijing and we love it here! As we are here for 2 weeks its been nice to relax a bit and unpack a few things. The hostel is great, its a traditional Chinese hutong with the rooms around a covered courtyard. The people are lovely too. Its family run and there is a baby in a baby-walker who seems to like us talking to him as he keeps bumping into my chair! one guy who works here calls Adam "Reebok" because of his hat and trainers and has been introducing us to Chinese hip hop. The only down side to Beijing is that it is FREEZING!!!!!!!!!!! On the first day here we had to abandon our plans and go in search of warm socks, gloves and a hat for Adam! It was so cold that I dug out the coat I had made in Thailand and was glad that we couldn't send it home.

We have seen and done so much here that I couldn't begin to write about it all so I'll just pick out a few highlights! The craziest thing we've seen was men swimming in Hou Hai (North Lake). It was the coldest day we've had here and there they were in speedos! We could not believe our eyes. Tian'anmen square is absolutely huge! Mao's mausoleum is in the centre and it is so big that it makes Lenin's look like a toy! On th esquare we kept being approach by "art students" but we'd heard it was a con so kept trying to get away. We ended up hiding in the National Museum which is under renovation like most of Beijing for the Olumpics. We did see some cool wax works but only recognised Sun Yat-sen, Mao and Jackie Chan in the Chinese section!

After we went to the Beijing Urban Planning Exhibition Centre which is a lot more exciting than it sounds! We learnt a lot about the ambitious plans for the 2008 Olympics and if they end up being half as impressive as the exhibition it'll be worth returning to Beijing in a few years time. The surprising thing about the Beijing building trade is that they actually appear to get things done. One night we thought we'd found a shopping centre but found that we had wandered into a building site (a little to easy to do here!) as they were welding in the car park and the inside was empty. The welding was a bit concerning as the welder was not wearing a mask and there were no screens round him, but they seem to be pretty lax about that! Surprisingly two nights later Adam walked past and found that work was finished and the shopping centre was open!

The Forbidden City was a good day out. There was an exhibition called "Golden Russia" celebrating 200 years of the Kremlin Museums (strange they didnt tell us that in the Kremlin). Adam refused the free audio guide as we've been there, but inside we discovered why the Kremlin is so dull - everything good has been sent to other countries! Outside we were nabbed by another "art student" and decided to check it out this time. Unsurprisingly she said we could buy the art to help poor students, we just said we were poor students ourselves and left! The buildings in the Forbidden City were beautiful. They all follow the same style and use the same colour scheme so the effect is very co-ordinated. The two largest halls were covered in scaffolding which was a shame but clearly necessary when we compared the old damp pavillions with the bright newly painted ones! Inside the pavillions we saw articles of daily life in the Forbidden City as well as collections of art, scrolls and porcelaine started by the Emperors and continued by the museum. One of the highlights of the day was the "Nine Dragon Wall" which had nine large dragons in 4 different colours and was very cool! The gardens were also very beautiful with rocky "hills" (well I'd probably describe them as small piles of rocks), ancient cyprus trees and canals. The funniest part of the day though was seeing children running around with slits in the seats of their trousers. Apparently it is acceptable for small children to do their business in the streets here like dogs/cats and these slits are to facilitate this practice. Their poor little bottoms must be freezing though especially in this weather it can't be comfortable having a draft and your bottom on display. The government is trying to phase these holey trousers out because of the Olympics (tourists dont really like to see kids pooing on the underground!) but we saw at least 3 children wearing them!

The old people are very cool here as they are very active. In the parks we've seen them singing, dancing, playing/listening to music, doing tai chi, playing tennis and kicking these things which look like shuttlecocks. We spent the day in 2 of the parks yesterday and bought one of these shuttle cock things. It was pretty embarrassing when all the grannies were so much better than us but we met a few people who asked to join us! The Temple of Heaven was a place where the Emperors made sacrifices but as it is set in a big park it is also full of these active seniors. Like most ancient chinese architecture the buildings were built along the north-south axis and the buildings were similar in style to those in the forbidden city and most of the temples. However there were some unusual shaped pavillions here including the "double ring pavillion", the "double square pavillion" and the "fan shaped pavillion" - i think the names lose some of their elegance in translation. In the centre of the Circular Mound Altar was a stone which is supposed to make you voice reasonate as if you are talking to the gods, so people kept jumping on it and shouting "Hai!".

We visited the Beijing Underground City which was built during the Cold War as protection against a nuclear attack. It was built by hand for secrecy but unlike the handmade tunnels in Vietnam it was really big, with high tunnels and enough space to hide over 300,000 people. Luckily Beijing was not a nuclear target though as the tunnel would not actually have worked! We also went to see some Beijing Opera in a posh hotel where they put on special shows for tourists. The operas are usually 20 hours long so this is a lot more practical! The singing was really strange, it has been compared to strangling a cat and I have to say its a good comparision! I cant imagine how they manage to get their voices to make those high pitched squawks! The show was really impressive, the singers did acrobatics and impressive tricks throwing and kicking spears around. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!

We have been to lots of Temples including the largest temple in Beijing (Temple of the Lamas) which had a museum of Tibetian Buddhist icons, a Taoist Temple with one pavillion with 60 colourful statues of different gods and the Temple of the Big Bell which is now a museum of bells from China and abroad. Shopping has not been neglected either. We went to a traditional shopping street full of silk shops and colourful lanterns and to a market where there was lots of art and statues. We really like Beijing at the moment it is up there with Vietnam!

The best day so far though has to be Saturday when we went to the Great Wall. It was amazing seeing it snaking across the mountains as we approached and seeing the beautiful views for miles around from the top! Climbing up though was not so much fun! I'm not sure if it was because I had a cold or because it was so freezing but on the way up it felt like every breath was burning my chest! Adam did not have any trouble and steamed ahead. it had looked a long way up from the car park and it really was! On the top I could not appreciate the view for a good five minutes. When I'd recovered though it was easily worth it, the view was spectacular and I guess Adam was right saying that it would not have been the whole experience if we'd got the cable car up! We found that the top is not flat like Angelina Jolie would have you believe in Tomb Raider II (terrible film -we saw it in Vietnam), she could not ride her motorbike up and down the steep steps that cover the section we were on! We went for a long walk along the top (even though more steps were the last thing I fancied) and ended up even higher and with better views. Some of the watch towers had really steep steps in them (a complete contrast to the tiny shallow steps on the main part of the wall) and they were quite difficult to clambour up. I found it difficult just walking up there I cannot imagine how they managed to build it so high up and can see why nobody bothered to attack it! We got a tobbagon chute down which was lots of fun and much quicker than going up! They sold us insurance for an extra yuan (there are about 15 yuan to the pound) but it was lucky we didnt have an accident as I doubt the payout would be very high!!

Well I could go on but I'm sure everyone is sick of reading this and to be quite honest I lost my first version so I've had enough of writing it!

Love Carly xxx

Hey Everybody! (Adam): Thu 30/11/2006 9:36 AM

Hey everyone,

Hope everything's cool back home and you're all enjoying yourselves.

It's been a while since my last email back in Beijing. Since then we've had 5 days in Tokyo and 5 in Hong Kong and are now in Seattle! So I'll try to cover as much as i can about the past few weeks in a few emails now. The rest of Beijing was great. We went to a Chinese art gallery and saw works by some of their most respected artists. We visited the People's Assembly which is a humongous hall built by the communists in just 10 months! It has an auditorium that seats 10,000 people and a banquet hall that can feed 5,000! Pretty impressive and there are several other large halls used to welcome important visitors to the Chinese capital.

The Red Theatre puts on a kung fu show every night and we went along to see what the little monks there can do. I have never seen anything so nuts in my life. There are little kids no older than 10 who do back flips using their heads instead of their hands. Monks break metal bars on their heads and break wooden sticks over each others bodies. In an insane finale the hero of the story lies on a bed of nails and a board with nails sticking out both sides is put on his chest, another monk lies on this and a concrete block is put on top of the whole lot. A third monk then breaks the concrete block with a sledgehammer and somehow nobody dies. There are also monks that balance on spears sticking into their stomachs and a monk that balances a stack of chairs and a small child on top of his head! I felt tired just watching this. It was a bit of a shock when the head monk shaved a kid's head and then burnt him with incense sticks but i guess it's just all part of the fun.

Our last day in China was spent at the Summer Palace where the Emperors used to go for their holidays. We started by exploring the Four Regions which is a group of buildings built on the top of a big rocky hill. It was good fun climbing between the buildings and avoiding the occasional loose rocks but i have the feeling it won't stay this way for long what with the Olympics coming this way. The Chinese are starting to have a sense of health and safety tho: although we could climb all over the rocks on the edge of a huge cliff quite freely there was a yellow line painted on a step down by the palace so we wouldn't trip over it. The palace grounds are huge and there is enough there to spend a day and not see everything. We saw all the major attractions including the Tower of the 9-headed Buddha which is built on top of a 20 metre concrete platform and can be seen from anywhere in the grounds. There is also a big ship built out of marble at the edge of the lake which was supposed to symbolise the idea that the Qing dynasty would
never 'sink' - at least the boat survived. (continued on Tokyo page.....)

Another continent (Carly): Thu 30/11/2006 9:45 AM

Hi everybody.

I hope everyone is well and looking forward to Christmas! I have not written in age not only have we been to Tokyo and Hong Kong we have swapped continents and are now in Seattle. But anyways I guess I'll start from the beginning and tell you a little bit about the end of our stay in Beijing!

Well the rest of our time in China great. We went to lots of temples including a Taoist temple which contained a folk museum where we learnt lots about traditional Chinese festivals. We also saw the People's Assembly which was absolutely huge. The Banquet Hall could seat 5,000 and the Auditorium was big enough for 10,000. Surprisingly event though it was so big they had managed to decorate it in such a way that it was still welcoming rather than imposing. We found a park based on a novel and decorated with lots of pavilions, rock gardens and water features, but I think it probably would have been better if we'd read the book. At the Red Theatre we managed to see a Kung Fu show which was really impressive. Tiny kids did back flips across the stage using their heads rather than their hands to land on in between! They also broke wooden poles and metal bars on their bodies which made me cringe!

The clear highlight of our final week was our day at the Summer Palace. It was huge - probably even bigger than the Forbidden City with a huge lake in the grounds. We climbed up the hill of longevity to a group of pavilions and churches. We had a good explore in these pavilions and through tunnels made in the rocks. The most impressive area was around the Tower of Buddhist Incense which was built on the side of the hill. Inside the tower there was a Buddha's statue with 3 heads each with 4 faces and 24 arms. As we descended from the tower we kept finding more and more buildings and at each new level the view up of the tower seemed more impressive. At the bottom we decided to buy a map and it was a good plan as the palace grounds were much bigger than we had expected and we never would have found half the stuff without it. We went on a "Walk through a Picture Stroll" which was very peaceful and then found a Marble Boat. Then we discovered a traditional shopping street with lots of pretty little shops! The shopkeepers all new the word "beautiful" and used it liberally to describe all of their products! We somehow managed to resist the "beautiful" chime bells and the description made us chuckle. It probably would have been better to visit the palace in summer as the ponds were full of dead floating plants but we got an idea of how beautiful it must get. (continued on Tokyo Page.....)