One of the reasons to visit Beijing is the Forbidden City. To tell you the truth, when I was a child I did not really know what was this about. I knew it was in Peking, and that was some kind of palace (I was right with this) but I thought the entrance was really forbidden. Some years ago, I realized it is just the name it got because the entrance was forbidden for many people when the emperor lived.
Now, it is the one of the biggest and well preserved palaces in the world, and its visit in a normal not too busy winter day takes a good couple of hours. This has been for me one of the most interesting sights in the trip, and a must in Beijing, although some people I met were not specially surprised for this…
To end with the first day in Beijing, I went to the Lama Temple just before the sunset, and they closed it… The Lama Temple is the best known buddhist temple outside Tibet and lies in a quite centric area of Beijing. Some emperor whose name I do not recall, and you do not really mind (I guess) also used this as his official residence, so you can imagine… and see.
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 will start the trip from the beginning, so I also refresh my mind and do not miss anything… I will try not to to bore you… 😉
I already wrote part of my first impressions of China in this post. I flew to Hong Kong and crossed the border to Shenzen to benefit from the cheap internal flights in China. Hong Kong area is full of islands, and the ferries are a common transport there. So, I found the fastest way for my purposes to reach an airport in Mainland China using the Turbo Jet Sea Express ferry linking Hong Kong International Airport and Shenzen Airport. Really easy way to go to Mainland. Just remember that you have to pick up your luggage before the customs, and that there is a free bus from the pier to the airport (just 2 km).
The first image I got when I jumped off from the boat was this one:
Nice sunset, isn’t it? It is a pity that it was cloudy… Cloudy? No. China is the most polluted country I have ever been (ok, I have only been within Europe, Canada and Japan, but anyway…) and that could be seen at simple sight. The “cloud” is always present: in Shenzen, in Beijing, in Xi’an and even in Shanghai. But, of course, this was just the beginning, in one of the most industrialized areas of China, also called Special Economic Zones, where more factories are placed, and where tougher controls are carried out to avoid an overpopulation around it.
So, after this shock and the issue with the taxis, I took one of the last flights to Beijing, where it was snowing during the night… Nice image, but bad omen for the rest of the days there regarding the climate… Thanks to God, I was prepared. 🙂