Beijing
After a good flight with the excellent Finnair we arrived relaxed in Beijing, both looking forward to a new travel experience away from our 'comfort blanket' of Europe. We were not disappointed in that we received an experience, some good some not so, and it was with some relief that we boarded the plane four days later to Hong Kong.
Unbeknown to us we arrived in Beijing in the middle of the 60th anniversary celebrations of communist rule. This involved a nine day public holiday with flags up all over the city. The celebrations centred around Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City which, unfortunately, was also about three hundred yards from where the airport bus dropped us off for the supposed simple change onto a second bus.
The crowds delayed our airport bus by an hour as the bus was caught up in the throngs of people. This, as it turned out, was only a minor problem as we failed for over an hour to get on any of the buses that passed due to the melee that erupted each time one pulled up. After a brief 'team talk' at which the use of physical violence as a tool to fight our way onto the bus was discussed, we retreated and started a long but eventually successful search for a taxi.
After a brief relaxation in our hostel, we spent the evening in Beihai park. The park is over 60% water and in the middle is the impressive White Pagoda.
On the second day we headed back to Tiananmen Square using the metro system. This was not as simple as it may have been and involved the help of no less than five station staff and 60th celebration volunteers. They were all so desperate to help that when we had no idea what they were trying to tell us, you could see them getting more and more upset. Eventually two tickets appeared and it was with some relief that we found our train line (we found out later that it had only been open one week) and headed to a station nearish to the Square - the two stations at the Square were closed for crowd/security reasons.
In and around the Square the streets were packed but exceptionally ordered. There were more volunteers, and bus loads of police and army plus some more specialist looking troops. Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City behind it are vast. There were large screens showing the first day of the celebrations when the Chinese leaders were in attendance with a full parade of everything about China; colourful floats, dancers, children, tanks and missiles.
On the opposite side of the vast road, all the floats were lined up and were a major viewing attraction for the Chinese. Amongst the thousands of people we saw less than twenty western faces. We have no desire to make any particular political comment from just being there for four days, but there was no doubt that the Chinese people were delighted to be there and are fantastically proud of their country and what it stands for. It was also interesting to compare what we had seen regarding Communism in Eastern Europe to the very different message that is being celebrated in China.
For our final full day we booked an excursion to the Great Wall. This involved a 6am start and a 4 hour journey in a less than comfortable minibus - it seems that the needs of six foot people are not a key design criteria in China. But when we arrived at the Wall the journey had certainly been worth it. The bus dropped us off and then collected us four hours later and 10km further along the Wall. It is hard not to be completely blown away by the age, scale, vision and construction that went into the Wall. We were also graced with the most beautiful of days.
Next stop Hong Kong, or to give it its full name, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region…