Now some point as you travel this far East, you will experience the time stealing fairies. They will rob you of time whilst in mid air and all of a sudden it will be the next day and you'll be extremely confused and possibly eating breakfast at 2pm. Say what?
Once off the plane you face customs, which is likely to be a doddle, despite the long queues. They don't really want a lengthy conversation in English, so you're unlikely to get the third degree which you might expect at US customs. Beijing airport is huge and depending on where you fly from it is highly likely you'll need to take the shuttle to baggage claim and the exit.
The easiest and cheapest way to get into the city is the Airport Express. From baggage claim you follow the red arrows on the floor. There are signs in English as well as Chinese characters but sometimes they are a little sporadic, so just watch out for those red arrows and prepare for your first bag scan. You will get used to this as your holiday unfolds.
Waiting for the Airport Express. Another futuristic, doming, reflective place. It's out of this world.
The train is so cheap 25RMB which is around £2.50 for a forty minute journey, though I have to say there is no where to store baggage and so there is slight chaos, with bags everywhere and bags on seats. Seems a bit silly as most people travelling through a major capital, international airport, are likely to have more than a handbag. Just a warning.
The afternoon fog as we speed from the airport towards Dongzhimen Station.
The train starts at Terminal 3, then flows through Terminal 2, Sanyuanqiao and finally Dongzhimen. The latter two stations have transfers to the subway. In order to reach our accommodation, we had to change the subway using two lines. It is relatively easy to navigate, with signs in English and Chinese and each line with it's own colour, though some of them are quite similar. For more in depth subway advice and ticket information, see The Beijing Survival Guide: http://thesarkytraveller.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/beijing-survival-guide.html
First impressions of the subway. Ahhhhhh! People everywhere. Mega busy. Mega rude. Pushing, shoving, fighting for space. They don't let people off first, it's just a fighting match. Whoever wants it most, wins. But after a couple of journeys, you get the hang of it. It was actually sort of fun in the end. In London, you have to be so polite - of course, not everybody is, but there is a certain etiquette to the tube in London that most people adhere to - but in China you make your own rules. It's like extreme underground travelling. You never know who's gonna barge you or take your legs out with a suitcase. All part of the fun.
As I mentioned in the Beijing survival guide, when using the subway you will be asked to place all bags through a scanner. There are guards at every station manning the various entrances.
Our closest station was Dongsi and just a short walk around the corner, located in the Lishi Hutong was our accommodation for the next five nights: 161 Hostel. http://www.161hotelbeijing.com/
Cheap, cheerful, cosy and considering that dreaded hostel title, very nice. The only slight issue we had was that they had overbooked on double rooms and so when we got there we couldn't have our booked room, we had to have a twin room. But they did carry our luggage up for us; push the beds together and hoover. So we did let them off, eventually.
Once settled, we were of course knackered from the hefty journey, loss of time (damn fairies) and general travel swirl of sleepiness, but we were determined to make the most of our first night, exploring Hutongs, eating amazing dumplings and finding night markets with gross things to eat. We did all this.
I've mentioned Hutongs a few times. These are a famous part of Beijing's charm. Think Victorian cobbled alleyways and you'll be close to the feature of these warren style labyrinth of narrow interconnecting streets. They give a real flavour of 'old Beijing'. They are still inhabited and small shops, businesses and eateries line the Hutongs as well as many a public convenience. (A lot of the housing in the Hutongs do not have toilets.)
You can spend hours wandering up and down, passing rows of washing hung up to dry in the most bizarre nooks and crannies; passing people playing games or gambling with one another; and street sellers laying out their wares. At night you pass many neon signs indicating certain food, usually lamb skewers, made here. They have a completely different atmosphere to the wide, traffic filled streets beyond them. There is a certain cloaking that happens, a feeling of being encased in something different; that the walls of the Hutong can keep out the noise and traffic and chaos, though the Hutongs in many places can be just as chaotic, especially as bikes and carts and cars are allowed through too.
Once exiting the Hutong, we turned onto the main road; Wangfujing Dajie and followed it North until it became Meishuguan Houjie. Be careful crossing the road here, we risked death a few times in order to cross. Now we were approaching a hidden gem, a Beijing secret which we had incidentally found in the Beijing App: Beijing on a Budget. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/beijing-on-a-budget/id440431617?mt=8 The name of the restaurant is Zuo Lin You She. Here the speciality is rectangular dumplings with all manner of fillings. When they look like this what more could you possibly want?
Mmmmmmm dumplings.They are served with a bowl of millet porridge, which you are given on arrival and is free and refilled if needed. We were handed an English menu, yes they have the menu in English which is phenomenal! Then they ran away and giggled behind the counter, especially when we started taking pictures. Beer is cheap, the dumplings are ridiculously cheap and whilst they keep the door open, so you keep your coat on, it was a very pleasant dining experience.
We chose Pork and Green Beans; Beef and Onion; Spicy Beef and Coriander; and Lamb with Carrot. For each filling chosen, you get three dumplings for 7 RMB, which is £0.70 (70p). Say what? All in all, with a large bottle of beer the meal came to £3.40 (34 RMB). Oh and yes, they do have vegetarian options.
Zuo Lin You She
We then decided to walk to the Donghuamen Night Market, through Beiheyan Dajie Park, which is a thin straight strip of grass and trees in between two roads. We took it South and were parallel to the Forbidden City. This is where you really gain your window into the Chinese culture. People are out walking, exercising, playing card games under dim lights. They are dancing in groups, practising Tai Chi and playing checkers on foldable tables that they take themselves.
The lovely tree lined, almost infinite line of the Beihayan Dajie Park, a corridor of tranquility.
At the Dong'anmen Dajie, there is not only a crossroads but some archaeological remains. If you are heading to the night market, you turn right here and it's a short walk until you hit the stalls of the Donghuamen Night Market, famous for it's treats both savoury and sweet; grotesque and just plain weird. Put it this way, I wasn't going near most of the stalls. I kept a hefty five foot away for fear of things on sticks suddenly waking up to attack me.
Don't let me put you off though, I am a culinary wimp in terms of sea creatures and bugs. Oh and the scorpion stall, with various types of scorpion on sticks, really freaked me out. Too many legs. Of course they have relatively normal things too, like various types of round dumplings, with all sorts of fillings and meal worms and fried ice cream. So I'm sure you can find something, though it could never live up to those dumplings we just ate.
Continuing along the road we came to Wangfujing Dajie, which was a huge shopping street, with malls and an apple store and more lights and people than we'd seen all night.
Inside one of the malls.
After taking the chill off a little in the mall we started to head back to the hotel. As it turns out we had worked ourselves round to being only around 20 minutes walk from the hostel, so we walked back, passing a laser choir concert at St Joseph's Church and people playing keepy uppy with massive shuttle cock type things. Illuminating.
Join me next time for our second day in Beijing, where we tackle the alien egg, countless security scans, climb our first of many structures and brave the biggest public square in the world. Oh and we also take in a show of the martial arts persuasion.
Until then.
The Sarky Traveller
