After walking around Tiananmen Square, I went to the Olympic Area. I had thought about going there in the night, as I had read it is very nicely illuminated, but I discarded the idea when I felt the cold. I would go nowhere in the night, rather than doing sightseeing… :S
The Olympic Area of Beijing is in the north of the city. The main spot is the new Olympic Stadium, also known as Bird’s Nest because of its external shape. Apart from this, I did not really see many more interesting things during the daytime. I was also trying to see something like in Munich or Barcelona, but it is still too early to see the Olympic Area being used by people.
Sooooo… Here I am, in Beijing. Also known by many (foreign) people as Peking. I got a very good located hostel, very nice atmosphere… but freezing in Winter, because it was not that well neither isolated nor heated, and the temperature was slightly low: my first day we had a windy day with -16ºC. The second coldest temperature in my life (the other one was in… out of the scope of this post).
Well, as I was saying, the hostel was really well located, in the middle of Beijing, next to Tiananmen Square. Probably, most of you have heard about this square, famous for the protests which took place here in 1989 (with a great picture of a student stopping a lane of tanks) and for holding a record: the biggest square in the world.
Well, this is the geographical center of Beijing, and they also pretend to place it as the center of China, but it is too eastern… But it does not matter, they have the zero point of the chinese highways there.
In the south of the square, you can see one of the old gates of the city, the Front Gate. Next to this gate to the north, you can find Mao Zedong‘s mausoleum, which I did not visit… because I would have had to queue! And because I am not eager to see dead bodies for free… or even worse, paying!
In the north side, you can find the Forbidden City, but before getting there, the National Flag flutters in front of Mao Zedong’s portrait, guarding the Gate of Heavenly Peace leading to the Forbidden City. To both sides, two stands wait for a crowd ready to see a parade, for example (1, 2, 3, repita otra vez), a militar parade. Anyway, this square was built with political purposes…
And they are doing great, with the combination of flags, Mao’s images, the well preserved doors, the Great Hall of the People, one of the main buildings for the People’s Republic of China and the Communist Party.
I went through this square everyday… and I was always thinking the impression it must cause to see that square full… either with people or with other stuff… Is it possible at all?
I am in Xi’an, one of the ancient capitals of China. I arrived this morning after travelling the whole night by train from Beijing. Pretty good and convenient, as you do not need to waste time by going to the airport and so on, just sleeping in the train, and you get up in your next destination.
I stayed four days in Beijing and was ok. The first day I just walked around without almost any direction (I was about to get frozen), so I visited Tiannamen square, the Olympics area, and walked around some centric areas. The second day I did the Palace day: the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace (I was delighted with both of them). The third day I took it easy (do not forget I am on vacation), so I just walked around, through some Hutong (old neighbourhood), the Bell Tower, and went to Karaoke (I had to make the comparison China-Japan in this). The last day was the Great Wall day. Impressive to see even if you go to the touristic part, as I did. I might have found things to do for one more day, but I am looking forward to getting some warmer weather, so I preferred to skip some shopping and start moving south.
Now, Xi’an is impressing me in a quite positive way… Apart from the famous Terracotta warriors, it has a quite well preserved old city, with a complete wall, some old buildings, and a nice Christmas’ evening happening… I do not know what was it, but people were in the city centre with balloons, playing games, eating sweets, wearing hats, …
Tomorrow I will visit the rest of the city, and tomorrow I will head towards Shanghai.