Next stop is…BEIJING!!!

 

 

Today, my friends, I will tell you a fairy tale…a new one, real one, that happened with me just recently, about a month ago. Actually, it’ll be an opening for my Asian story that I promised to write about. I’ll try to tell everything briefly (don’t trust myself when I say such things)), that I won’t become like Scheherazade with her thousands stories (even though they were interesting and helped to save her life and become a happy woman). 

And so…the first part of my fairy tale is dedicated to Beijing, because it was the city that opened my astonishing voyage.

Obviously, the city has a great history behind it, that makes it a bit difficult for me to write today, because omission of certain historical facts may be perceived as a lack of respect from my side. But at the same time, my blog is not unlimited ​​and going into details of the story doesn’t fit my plans (not today, at least). Therefore , as an aperitif to our big lunch/dinner (as it’s more suitable for you) I will say that “Beijing” is composed of two Chinese characters ‘bei’ (北), which translates as ‘north’ and ‘jing’ (京), which translates as “capital”. Literal meaning of Beijing – northern capital . For us, Russians, it’s Saint-Petersburg is a nortern capital, sorry Beijing)) 

Beijing National Airport is the second bussiest airport in the world (after Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta ( U.S. state of Georgia)) for passenger traffic and congestion. According to the official 2006 census (I believe the statistics has not changed incredibly for the last 7 years) the most popular surname among the inhabitants of the town was the surname Wang . I don’t think it’s historical facts, that can really illustrate the power and greatness of the city, but my blog is not about that  anyway.

And now, after a short introduction, lets back to a fairyland of Cinderella. So, I arrived in Beijing. I should mention that I wasn’t alone, but with a cute lady in her early 25s)) , who I like to call “Mum”, but even though my blog is pretty personal and sincere, I still try to avoid writing much about my relatives and friends, and, consequently, as this story goes on, I will use more pronoun “I” (instead of “we”) , simply because my family – it’s personal for me, that I would like to leave unsaid , not open to the public gaze of curious, beautiful eyes. Maybe I am a bit strange but I am who I am))

The language barrier 

So BEIJING … I have an impression that I am about to start writing my article for the third time today and it’s only an endless introduction going on here))) 

Being such a positive person I want to start with the fly in the ointment))) to the city’s residents. And I am really sorry about it, in advance. My problem is that I was able to visit the only one attraction during those 8 hours that I was there, and I’m not a turtle, I move quickly. Especially when I have a very busy schedule I am like a meteor, but how difficult it was to navigate in Beijing, while almost nobody could speak English (though we have pretty same situation in Russia). As I jokingly (with a big exaggeration) say ” I speak English perfectly “) ) ). Anyway, I am always sure that I’ll find what I am looking for because I speak English, but it was different in Beijing…When I was asking: «Excuse me, could you please help me? Do you know how to get to the Great Wall of China?” I usually got an answer like this: “Oh tse, nishou sama uate emputo nor HuaShen chyuon na kul.” I know, it’s a bit strange that I could not understand what was said to me. I was asking myself: “How?? How does this city host the Olympic Games in 2008?” Or, perhaps, the whole world speaks Chinese, and the problem is just me. Anyway, I was amused by the situation and, according to a statement “people who laugh more live longer”, I extended the life on this trip quite a lot (while laughing), so thank you very much for the people I met in Beijing. At some point I felt like a Hoax-show’s participant  while asking the Chinese a way. They couldn’t really say anything but were showing me the direction with a hand and, just in case, after a few meters I was asking the same question and direction another local resident, and he/she was showing me the opposite direction from where I had just come. Perhaps it was funny and I must say, I did laugh. From this story I can make the following conclusions, contradictory to each other. The first one is that  my experience illustrated that knowledge of English is not a big advantage while travelling in China, therefore it’s maybe better to visit other countries or even to learn Chinese. The second conclusion is quite a contrary one. I know a lot of people who do not speak the international language at all and feel all right going abroad, using only gesture language, which means that you do not get deprived of any benefits (that English-speaking travelers have), so welcome to Beijing! Although, who knows – maybe there are only 100 people out of 20 million living there, who don’t speak English and I was lucky enough to meet this hundred))) 

The Great Wall of China

My big wish was to go to the Great Wall of China in Beijing. Of course, I wouldn’t mind to  capture the EiffelTower in the same touristic plan, but apparently “nothing is impossible” doesn’t work always. What’s more, Beijing and Paris are still to be different cities) ) ) .

As I said earlier, finding that cherished wonder of the world wasn’t that easy and it is not because cherries and miracles were in shortage. No, everything was fine. However, it would be much better if only I knew Chinese language (although I think it would have provided several years of torment before, if I decided to learn this really hard language). I can imagine – Cinderella, speaking Chinese. That would be fun) )

I want to make a point here – if you are an independent tourist, you’ll better be prepared to go to the Wall, like, for instance, knowing which route to take, varieties in prices, how to get there, which part of the Wall you need, etc. I had a slightly sad experience in search of the wall as a local taxi driver himself was not sure exactly where to go and even when we came to the most coveted and popular attraction, he could not drive up to the gate, so I was offered to go there on foot. Well, thank you for this help, at least.
The walking way to the Wall also didn’t  inspire much as it was laid along kind of forest, trails, some strange terrains and the thought was no longer about getting to the miracle of China, but about how to then find a way out of this miracle and catch flight at the airport. Anyway, at some point in time, all the stress was left behind, and in front of me appeared the Great Wall of China! It was doubly beautiful, partly because of the difficulties that have been experienced earlier in the search of this miracle place.

I’ll tell you a little about the mind-blowing experience I had there. Obviously, the wall itself was stunning and powerful. But it looked even more beautiful due to the recently awakened in the morning, nature, and slightly enveloping the landscape misty haze. It was magical! It became even more powerful while adding the feeling that you “touch”  the ancient, cherished, world-famous miracle. It was too much written, said, shown about it, and now you are a piece of history, past and present, now and then. It is unbelievable!

And some facts:
– The Great Wall of China was built about 2000 years ago in order to protect the land (particularly agriculture) from enemies as well as a barrier to local residents’s movement from the empire;
– there were over 1 000 000 people (prisoners peasants, soldiers) who attended the building process of  the wall’s structure. About 1,000 of those people were killed during the construction of buildings;
– Earlier this wonder of the world referred to as “The Ten-Thousand-Li-Long Wall” that referred to the structure’s length (1 Li = 500 m);
– Today the Wall divided into 4 sections: Badaling, Mutianyu, Simatai and Juyongguan.
I was lucky to visit  the part called Badaling (as it was planned). It is believed the area is good for tourists named Natasha (or Cinderella), who arrived from Siberia and who also loves ballroom dancing … (kidding, of course).

Of course, I was struck by its beauty (the wall I mean), majesty and length, as well as … curvature. The thing is that the stage which tourists used for descending from the wall were really crooked, angled, somewhere even erased. Thus, the parting with the object of great beauty was a bit complicated (maybe it’s a special trick by the Chinese sages that prevents tourists from leaving this popular place. The photo above proves my words, where you can see a girl sloping down the stairs and as her feet bent. Imagine how I risked my life, when taking a photo during the descent. It’s all for the blog and my loveliest readers!))

I also noticed that many bricks of the wall, were inscribed with some characters, words, signs. Alas, I did not have free time for leaving my own ” footprint” in the form of an inscription “Cinderella of Westminster was here “))

In general, the impressions of the seen were incredibly awesome! This is a must see and for sure it’s better to experience yourself than to read many times from different sources. 

The way back, from the wall’s part called “Badaling” to the city, took about an hour, maybe a bit more. I cannot say exactly now, but I know that it was not as short as I would like it to be (especially when you can spend less than a day in the city and each second becomes priceless). By the way, this touristic attraction (meaning the wall) has its own bus station and you can easily reach the city from there, at the same time you buy a ticket on the bus, which, in my opinion, is very convenient.

Another important point of “I love Beijing” programme was tasting Beijing duck, but, alas, when there are scales appered in front of my eyes, where there is a world-famous dish (duck) on one half, and on the other one is a flight (in addition with Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong), the second option outweighed and the duck remained live… ( I want to believe so ) ). Thus, the airline saved an innocent soul!

Also, on the way to the airport, I was able to taste a fruit skewers (unfortunately, I have no idea how it’s called there, in Beijing) . The dessert was consist of some pieces of kiwi and sour red apples (probably local harvest), caramelized, skewered on a wooden stick (the photo above). I would advice to try it! (Of course, if you don’t have that difficult choice between the food and an aircraft) ) ) .

In conclusion, I would like to say that I, personally, didn’t like Beijing as much as I liked other cities that I visited in December 2013, but I can convince that it is wrong to judge a city (or even a country) by only 8 hours spent there (4 hours of which were spent on transportation anyway). I should also consider how tired I was after a long flight when arrived to China. Anyway, sincerely apologize to Beijing and people who love the city ! In my case it happened this way…

I may sound a bit sad and pessimistic but it’s not like that! I am still to be very happy and will then provide some colourful and lovely posts here! See you soon, dear readers!