Archive for September 25th, 2009

Thankfully by the time we arrived I had basically recovered, although the weather was overcast and rather gloomy. The station was crowded due to multiple trains arriving at the same time, so it took about a half hour to get out of the station and into the subway station. Beijing was different for me in regards to perspective, since there are few sky scrapers it is difficult to see how large Beijing is. Especially walking around with the city covered in fog, you feel as though you are in a smaller city, especially when combined with large open spaces such as Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City. We had some difficultly locating the Grand Hyatt, the provided “Taxi Card" was useless as only a two streets were labeled. Eventually we did find I way and arrived at the hotel around 7:30am. Rather unexpectedly, they checked us in to our room which was fantastic since this allowed me to take a much needed shower.

We set out for the usual sights, namely the Forbidden City and Tienanmen Square. Our hotel was situated on the same road, so all we had to do was walk 5-10 blocks to get there. Even though it was overcast again, the crowds were still out in force. Chinese tourists stopped by the entrance to get their picture taken in front of Mao, police where everywhere, both uniformed and plain clothed. Once we got into the city itself, the crowds died down quite a bit. Amazingly, only about 3/4 of the ‘city’ is actually open to the public, which is hard to believe once your inside. Next we stopped off at Tienanmen Square, however it was past noon which meant Mao’s body (or wax representation) was not available for display. To be honest there wasn’t much to see anyways, so looked around and continued on. We decided to stop off at the Olympic Green, just to see the birds nest and the general Olympic area. I was surprised at how run down the subway station had become, as well as the area surrounding it. Lines of shops once occupied during the 2008 Olympics stood vacant, the interior gutted. Escalators and elevators stood still, either just turned off or broken. Glass windows were shattered in a few spots, surrounded by rusting trash bins and the occasional inoperable drinking fountain (drinking fountains are rare in China). Outside of the station things looked a bit better. There seemed to be some sort of building to house the TV and station crews during the Olympics, however that was closed and vacant as well.

On our way back to the hotel, we quickly realized we had forgotten it was nearing the 60th anniversary of the communist party. Our hotel had notified us, however we didn’t pay any attention since the preparations were supposed to start the day we checked out of the Grand Hyatt and moved to the Park Hyatt. In good communist fashion, the government decided to close down half the city as its citizens protested. A few subway lines and stations were also closed, and we found ourselves stuck. The road we needed to go down to get to hotel was closed, I attempted to show the police officer our room key but we were just waved away. We ended up going to the Beijing train station to get a taxi, which took forever. Eventually we did find our way to the Park Hyatt and checking in was rather comical. We were both drenched since it was raining again and probably smelled too, and to top it off I had left my passport in my bag at the Grand Hyatt. They asked us if we had any luggage which we did not, so basically we were two bums attempting to check into a 5 star hotel which unbenounced to us had a dress code. Thankfully they let us in and we arranged to have our bags transferred the next day. We spent the evening dining at the China Grill on the top floor which had afforded us a fantastic view of Beijing, partially closed that is. Because of our baggage issues, we were unable to go to the Great Wall which was a severe disappointment. There was just no way it was going to work out, so instead we took it easy the next day until our bags arrived. Most attractions are closed on Mondays, which left us with only a few options. We visited Houhai and a some parts of the Houtongs, and for one of our last meals in China we ate Beijing Duck (and pigeon) at Huajia Yiyuan.

The duck was ok, although the pigeon was surprisingly good, especially with the Pringles used as a garnish. It was rather comical to see the other patrons reactions as we ordered an entire duck for ourselves and had the thing carved table side. We spent our last night in China swimming at the pool, which was surreal experience. We were the only guests there, along with a few attendants who greeted us, brought water and towels, and showed us how to operate our locker. The pool had a great view of the city, and with no one else there it felt rather odd, perhaps even lonely.