Beijing Surprises

A small view of the Beijing mega city.
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Beijing Surprises

Yes, our first week in China has been full of surprises and to be honest, we are still a little befuddled. Is this really China, we ask ourselves?

“Be warned,” fellow travelers had told us, “Thailand and Vietnam are just a warm up for China in terms of culture shock”.

We are entirely surprised by the lack of culture shock here in Beijing. “Be warned,” fellow travelers had told us, “Thailand and Vietnam are just a warm up for China in terms of culture shock”. So, being a bit travel-fatigued already after 8 ½ months traveling we rested up in Hanoi and gathered our strength for this last country on our round-the-world odyssey. Arriving in Beijing, therefore, we were prepared for a big city (Beijing definitely qualifies) crowded with people, vehicles and buildings. Beijing has a population of over 16 million people; about half the population of Canada in one city! We expected a very crowded, congested metropolis. There was our first surprise. The city is massive; the map in our Lonely Planet guide cannot convey the vast distances between the different tourist sites. What looks like a walk around the block is actually a 3 km hike. The buildings are immense but so are the streets and highways. So big, in fact, that the cars and buses on the roads seem miniature and insignificant in comparison. No motorcycles! No honking! No jockeying for position in intersections. There are stoplights and cars actually stop at them. Traffic here is civilized and with the few exceptions, the roads seem less than crowded. Even the sidewalks are orderly, in good condition and not crowded. Not at all like Hanoi where it was easier to walk on the street rather than dodge park motorbikes and impromptu sidewalk food vendors and their customers on the crowded, broken sidewalks. Hey, so far so good!

A typical sign at most of major tourist attractions as the buildings are all under renovation of the 2008 Olympics
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Our second surprise; Beijing is still in winter! We thought we’d miss winter this year, but this is colder than Vancouver ever gets. There is still a little snow on the ground and the trees are bear and stark. A biting wind tears through our thin layers of t-shirts and windbreakers as we head to the hotel from the airport. First on our agenda, after checking into the Jade International Youth Hostel (another surprise, it’s great and reasonable accommodation) is to buy gloves, scarves and a few warm layers of clothing.

A early morning walk in Ditan Park with Carl (far right) and Brynmore (residents of Beijing) as our guides.
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And that brings our next surprise. Shopping is not the thrilling bargain-finding experience we expected. All we need for our short stay in northern China is a pair of cheap knitted gloves like the kind you buy for a dollar at the Dollar Store in Vancouver. Easy to find in Beijing? No. With focused and well-directed hunting, we eventually throughout the week find a few good deals in warm clothes, but the idea of cheap good deals has become a myth. Why, we wonder? Isn’t everything made in China these days and aren’t things supposed to be cheap here? Instead, we find shopping centers with high end stores selling expensive name brands at expensive prices. Those stores must be for the western tourists, you say. Next surprise: we don’t see a lot of tourists. At least, that is, western tourists. There are many groups of tourists from other parts of China, but a western face is not a frequent sight. The occasional westerner becomes so noticeable as to stand out in the crowd of Asian faces and becomes quite easily recognized. We notice the same couple that we saw at the Great Wall at the Summer Palace the next day! David comments that I am often more the center of attraction to the other Chinese tourists than the tourist attraction we are visiting.

Karsten and Steff still friendly after all these months travelling together
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Beijing is a tourist’s mecca because of all of the historical sites it has to offer. The grandeur of the ancient and more recent Chinese civilizations are to be explored in Beijing. They are very grand. The Forbidden City, the Summer Palace and the Great Wall, to name just a few, are absolutely mind-boggling in size and construction. But here again, we were surprised. After paying full admission for these sights we were surprised and disappointed to find that the major buildings and most important things to see are often totally under wraps for renovation. The frenzy to polish everything up for the 2008 Olympics has created a construction and renovation boom in Beijing that is amazing but disappointing for those of us who would like to see these things now! Being somewhat super-saturated with UNESCO world heritage sights by now, we are not as disappointed as we probably should be. Thus, instead of seeing the Hall of Benevolence and Longevity, the main building at the Summer Palace, we wander about the beautiful classical gardens and around the lake enjoying the crisp cool air in our warm winter woolies.

Exercising early in the park with fans as props
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Those are only a few of the surprises we have encountered in Beijing. As we leave for Xi’an today, our curiosity is piqued. What will we find in other parts of China? Have we let our guard down too soon or will China truly be a lot easier than we had anticipated?