A Peek at Peking: The Highs and Lows of a Week in Beijing

Caitlinepstein415/ November 20, 2019/ Asia, Study Abroad/ 0 comments

Oh, Beijing. I visited the capital city of China back in 2012, and looked upon it with the eyes of a 13-year-old that had never traveled outside of the United States. Last week, I returned to Beijing with LIU Global for a week. There, we visited the typical tourist spots, visited international organizations, and listened to lectures from local professors. It was…a time. Hangzhou, comparatively, is what we have come to refer to as ‘China lite,’ while Beijing is the boss level. Beijing was incredibly frustrating with some wonderful bits thrown in. Here’s a look at my recent experience there – the highs and the lows, the pretty and the ugly.

The Great Wall of China

To start with a high – the highlight, in fact – I’ll kick things off with our visit to a beautiful section of the Great Wall of China. We visited the Mutianyu scenic area of the wall, located about two hours north of Beijing. We climbed many, many stairs to get up to the wall, but it was worth it for the views of the incredible, ancient structure winding through the fall foliage of the mountains.

We spent about an hour and a half walking from watchtower to watchtower, marveling at the sheer size of the wall that went on forever in both directions. The wall was blissfully uncrowded and the views were clear and tranquil, an experience far from the one I had in 2012. When I visited the Great Wall back then, I went to a different section in the height of the summer, when the wall was jam packed with people, the air quality was terrible, and it also happened to be pouring rain. This year’s trip left me with a much, much better view of the Great Wall of China.

Another fantastic part of the Mutianyu section of the wall is that you can get down from it via slide! A slide!!! A metal slide that you get to wind down on your own personal toboggan controlled by a lever that makes it stop and go. I felt like a child on that slide, and I loved every second of it. Sliding down from the Great Wall of China? I mean come on.

Between the unparalleled experience that is walking on the Great Wall of China on a lovely fall day and then the pure unadulterated joy that came from sliding down from said wall, it shouldn’t be a mystery why this was the best day of our trip.

Transportation in the City

Now that I’ve shared the highlight of my trip, it’s time for a low. Beijing is massive. We stayed near Tiananmen Square, and often found ourselves spending a great deal of time traveling to other parts of the city. Taxi rides were always upwards of an hour, and almost every single metro journey required two transfers.

Now, I typically enjoy taking public transportation – it clues you in to the local culture, it is better for the environment, and it is often more efficient in cities with a great deal of traffic. I did prefer the metro in Beijing to taxis, except for one instance.

One night, we found ourselves making our way back to the Tiananmen Square area during rush hour. In a city of almost 22 million people. When we reached the stop where we needed to get off, the doors opened, and a colossal wave of people shoved their way onto the train, practically lifting one of my classmates off of her feet and forcibly moving her several feet backwards. This wall of people refused to budge so that more people could not get on the train.

And boy, did this make me mad. Cue me throwing elbows, kicking out at anyone in my path, and screaming in English and bits of Mandarin as I tried to force a path for me and my classmates out of the subway car. One of my classmates that made it out before me and saw me emerge from the car described me as being a red-faced ball of rage. Accurate. I was seething at the idiocy of it all, and I feel like I lost a couple years off of my life. To make matters worse, our two staff members and one of our classmates didn’t manage to make it off, and we had to wait for them to get to the next station and turn around. It was a frustrating experience to say the least. Common courtesy goes out the window during rush hour on the Beijing subway.

Visiting the United States Embassy

One of the places we trekked out to on the subway was the United States Embassy in Beijing. There, we listened to a briefing from a young U.S. diplomat on United States and China relations. The diplomat that did the briefing did a remarkable job of explaining complex issues in a very engaging manner, and he left me with a much better impression of the State Department than the one I was left with after visiting the U.S. embassy in San Jose, Costa Rica. That diplomat described the San Jose embassy as “fugly” and said that “Pakistan has nukes, y’all.” The Beijing diplomat was relatable in a more professional manner, and he may have me convinced to at least apply for fellowships that would pay for my grad school and guarantee me a job with the State Department. We’ll see…

Seeing Dr.Jane Goodall Speak

Later in the week, we made our way back to the U.S. embassy for an event they were hosting – a showing of a National Geographic documentary on Jane Goodall followed by a Q and A with the woman herself. The event was very cool. It was amazing to see this living legend of scientific research in person. She gave calm and collected answers to annoyingly long winded questions from primarily Chinese guests that were asked despite constant reminders to keep questions brief. Anyways, she was stately and sharp at the age of 86, and I really enjoyed hearing her perspective on environmental efforts and chasing dreams.

I am very thankful that I made it into the event, because my experience leading up to the event was a complete and utter shit show. Through mishaps in the school trying to feed my classmates and I, we left for the embassy incredibly late, and I ended up in the last taxi. I was in a taxi with my director and a student from another U.S. university, and it took us over an hour to get to the embassy after leaving late due to insane levels of disorganization.

When we finally arrived, it was to a darkened entrance to the embassy manned only by a lone Chinese soldier that did not speak English. Ticket in hand, I fruitlessly tried to explain to the soldier that I needed to get in for the event. With the help of some Chinese people that were also trying to enter, I found out that they had shut down the entrance a while ago because the event was in full swing, and that no one else would be able to enter. I informed my director of the situation, and she gave a go at yelling at the guard in Mandarin, exclaiming that I was a U.S. citizen and should be let in my own embassy.

To no avail.

At this point, I was super cold and dead tired from standing out in near-freezing temperatures for over 20 minutes, so I asked my director to call us a taxi to take us back to the hotel. It was that moment that a classmate texted us that the diplomat from the other day agreed to personally come out to get us.

This diplomat that ended up hosting the Q and A session with Dr.Goodall herself walked out to the front of the embassy in the cold, in the middle of the event, to let me and the other student into the embassy for the event. I was so overwhelmingly grateful.

I missed pretty much the entire documentary showing, and I had to find a place to stand in the crowded room, but I saw Jane Goodall speak in the U.S. embassy. An experience that was very nearly a very low low turned into an experience like no other.

 

 Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City

The center of Beijing and China is Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. The Square is a powerful symbol of the Chinese Communist Party that rules the country, and it is the site of many protests over the years, the most notorious of which being the June 4th crackdown in 1989, where the government ordered the massacre of hundreds of people protesting for democracy, many of whom where students.

Now the square is locked down with intense levels of security. We had to go through metal detectors, put our bags through X-ray machines, and present our passports. I don’t currently have my passport because it is off at immigration getting a visa extension put in it, so I have a single piece of white printer paper to use as an official document.

When I handed it to the guard, he took one look at it and said 这是什么. I know enough Chinese to know that he said “what is this?” The piece of paper was then scrutinized by a large group of baby-faced guards and a supervisor before I was let into the square. Can’t blame em, though, because the paper does look super sketch despite being issued by the Chinese government.

Anyways, we wandered the square for a bit and then continued on to the Forbidden City, a former palace that served as a residence for emperors and the seat of the Chinese government for almost 500 years. It is large and wondrous in its scale and splendor.

Squatty Potties

Whew boy, do I dislike squatty potties. In Beijing, just about every public toilet is a hole in the ground with a ceramic rim around it that has grooves to place your feet on. This is about to be a grumpy and whiny diatribe about Chinese bathrooms, but here we go. They smell bad. There’s typically pee on the floor due to splashing. And I just don’t like squatting to pee. There.

A rather extreme experience with squatty potties was at a public school we went to outside of the city while visiting a migrant worker community and museum. The school’s girls’ bathroom was a line of holes in the ground with no partitions between them. Some of my classmates went to use it and had a gaggle of young Chinese girls surround them while they had their pants down. I managed to make it through the experience unseen, but I can’t say I enjoyed peeing in the hole.

To avoid the squatty potties, I stupidly deprived myself of liquids throughout the week do I’d have to pee less. Not my brightest idea. Forced dehydration is never the path.

Yonghe Temple

Construction began on this temple in 1694 as a residence for the 4th son of the Kangxi emperor of the Qing dynasty, but it became the national center of Lama (Tibetan Buddhist) administration following the son’s death in 1735. It is now an active Buddhist Temple.

We spent an hour or so wandering around the temple’s halls and admiring the many statues and artifacts inside them.

The Food

Beijing food didn’t astound me most of the time – the local cuisine left me missing the flavors of Southern China. Hot pot is one of my favorite meals back in Hangzhou because it is both delicious and fun. In Beijing, however, the “broth” that the unseasoned meat is cooked in is merely water with a couple dates and such thrown in for good measure. Still a fun group meal, but it left a bit to be desired.

However, there were some culinary highlights during the trip:

• Peking duck – the crown jewel of Beijing cuisine. It is a roasted duck that is cut into slices and served with wraps, veggies, and a plum sauce. It certainly lives up to the hype.
• Burgers from Great Leap Brewery – oh man, have I missed Western food. I’m not really a bar food person in the U.S., but I thoroughly enjoyed my burger, fries, and the veggie platter and cheese dip we all shared. That one meal really gave me life.
• A Japanese salad from TimeOut Restaurant and Bar – this was the first salad I have had in China. I don’t come across them often, and when I do, they tend to be sad bits of iceberg lettuce. This salad, however, was a lovely mix of dark greens with tofu, radishes, beets, cucumber, and a wasabi dressing that had my nose burning. I can’t explain how much I enjoyed the simple act of eating a quality salad.
• Group dinners – this is more about the experience than the actual food, but I really enjoy the experience of eating a variety of dishes with my classmates around a big table with a lazy Susan in the center. It’s a part of Chinese culture that I greatly enjoy.

Sickness

One night towards the middle of our trip, I came across an article about two individuals who had been diagnosed with the PLAGUE. The honest to goodness pneumonic plague, close cousin to the bubonic plague. Ya know, the one that wiped out a good chunk of Europe back in the Middle Ages. The people were diagnosed with the plague in – you guessed it – Beijing. Fortunately, we did not contract the plague. Unfortunately, one of our classmates was out for the count at the foot of a toilet for a full day with a stomach bug. Getting sick like that abroad, and in a city like Beijing no less, is one of the worst things I can think of.

Others in the group battled colds, and and all of us dealt with simply feeling like slugs dragging ourselves around the city, exhausted. Beijing is a tough city, and it can really take it out of you if you’re not careful. Shout out to one of my classmates, Sara, that periodically dosed us all with Vitamin C tablets so that we wouldn’t get the plague!

The 798 Art District

And now, to end on a high note, a bit about the 798 Art District. This area of Beijing is a former industrial zone that has been transformed into a space for galleries, studios, and a heck of a lot of trendy and pricey coffee shops.

Sara and I ventured out to this district on our last day in Beijing, and it ended up being a lovely way to spend a few hours of a free day in the city. It took us an hour and fifteen minutes to get out there on three subway trains and a bike, but it was worth it to be able to wander several free galleries and admire Chinese contemporary art.

At the end of the week, I was more than ready to head back home to Hangzhou, where life is a bit easier than it is in Beijing. The madness of China is amplified in its capital, and that madness was not something I enjoyed for long. I don’t think I’ll be making an effort to go back to Beijing, at least not anytime soon, but I was glad for the opportunity to see it with new eyes, rather than the rose colored glasses I viewed the city with at the age of 13.