Webby's Travel Blog - China
Written 5 March 2010, 11:47 by PaulFinally I am getting around to clearing the backlog of travel blogs. Back blog if you will. I will start with my trip to Beijing, China. Back in November, my friend Paudi and I decided to go to Beijing for our next holiday. Some of his friends were going and we would meet up with them there. We had nothing planned and knew very little about the city we were going to. We organised for our hostel to pick us up at the airport, if you are going to Beijing I would recommend you do this. It can be a bit of a culture shock as nobody; especially the taxi drivers can speak English.
After recovering from our seven-hour flight, we went straight to an acrobatics show. I have to say I was really impressed by the performers. It was so well put together, and the stage and costumes were so well designed. Seeing such a large group of talented and skilled performers at work made me realise why the Olympic Games opening ceremony was such a huge success.
After this we decided to go for a few drinks, this turned into quite a few drinks. I have to give this night a special mention as it was one of the most random nights out I have ever had. There is a street called Bar Street, which has about ten bars in a row. So we bar hopped for the night, each bar stranger than the last. The first one was a trendy kind of karaoke bar. Here we all got our portraits sketched for about euro each. We then went on to the next bar, which had a female and male pole dancer onstage. That’s right a male pole dancer. However this was not really a seedy affair and I wouldn’t like you think that Beijing is full of sleazy strip bars as these are actually illegal in the country. This was just more like a small-scale acrobatics show in a bar.
When they were finished another guy and girl got up to sing some songs. The guy started rapping Hit ‘em Up by Tupac in Chinese, very strange. We met some lovely Chinese people who showed us a drinking game that involves throwing dice. A lot of the bars have dice and a cup on every table for these games. The next bar had a Michael Jackson tribute act. By this stage we were in love with the nightlife in Beijing.
This is partly due to fact that we were not expecting it. Drinking was not a big part of the culture here. However since the country has opened up to western influences, the young people have really embraced bar and club culture. There are great bars and clubs here playing brilliant music. Their beer is much lighter than ours, which meant we drank many, many Tsing Taos (the local brew), which is a lovely, light, crisp beer.
Now it was time to explore the city by day. It was very cold at this time of year so we had to wrap up warm, something we were not used to doing. To get anywhere we had to get the nice people working in the hostel to write out the address in Chinese to give to the taxi driver. Trying to learn any Chinese was very difficult because the drivers could not understand our accent. They did not even know what I meant by Tiananmen Square, which is the main landmark in the city. However the metro system is fantastic and very easy to use once you get used to it, especially since the Olympics as everything is in English now.
Tiananmen square is amazing. It is huge square in the middle of the city. There’s lots of history here as Chairman Mao is buried here and the student’s revolution of 1989 kicked off here. There are lots of universities around and students like to come up to tourists and practice their English. This was great but we were told to be wary of them as they have a reputation for bringing tourists to bars and leaving them with the bill.
Beijing is a great city to just walk around. There are so many beautiful parks and you never know what you will find. The retirement age in China is surprisingly young, 55 for women and 60 for men. The older Chinese folk seem to have a great time. They spend their days in parks, playing cards, singing and generally having a laugh. There was a craze sweeping China when we were there. Everywhere we went people were playing keepy uppy with this colourful, feathery thing. I ended up playing with this lovely old couple in the park.
Next was a trip to the Great Wall of China. I’m not going to tell you too much about this as the picture speak for them selves. We did a 10km trek along the wall. You have to be careful, as there are some steep parts with loose steps. People break their legs here all the time. It was nice to get out in to the country. The air was so fresh and clean compared to Beijing, the most polluted air in the world.
Out of all the places I have been to, I would probably recommend Beijing the most to other people. It is such a great city. There is so much history, the people are brilliant, food is delicious (dumplings especially) and there is so much to do. I can’t wait to go back to China and see some of the other cities.
— Paul
Class. That’s some night out!
— Dara · Mar 5, 05:38 PM · #
Absolute win Webby, excellent blog!
— Paul Random Numbers · Mar 5, 06:13 PM · #
Some amazing photos there, Webby. Bringing the Fake Dog t-shirts to the Great Wall of China, that’ll take some beating!
— Gearoid · Mar 5, 11:20 PM · #
Very nice!
— Rob2D · Mar 6, 04:41 AM · #
That is an experience you will never forget. The Great Wall must be so impressive and almost unbelievable. Do you know how to use chop sticks?
— THE FUTURIST! · Mar 8, 07:25 PM · #
I still haven’‘t mastered chopsticks. Very tricky. Yes the wall has to be seen to be believed.
— Paul · Mar 9, 03:13 PM · #
That’s it, I’m going there!
Sounds fantastic Paulo, Beijing Tourist Board should give you a job
…I remember Tsing Tao, it goes down mighty nice if I recall…
— eamon · Mar 12, 03:43 AM · #
Cheers Eamon, yeah they are very tasty.
— Paul · Mar 12, 12:17 PM · #
I love Tsing Tao, lovely beer!
— Nick · Mar 14, 04:22 PM · #
Great blog and great pics
Paul. It looks like an amazing place to visit
— Marian · Mar 16, 02:28 AM · #