I figured the easiest way to record all that we did on our vacation to China would be to break it into sections. This first blog is about our time arriving in Beijing at the start of our trip as well as our first day and first impressions of China.
It took us a good while to get into Beijing because we were flying from such a small island to the big city. We had to stop over in Jeju, South Korea and wait for about 5 hours before completing our journey to the Beijing International airport. However, when we finally arrived in Beijing the process of getting through the airport was really easy. We were able to go through customs, get our money exchanged, get our luggage, buy a SIMs card for the phone and catch a cab all in less than 40 minutes. So that part was really easy.
We started our trip adjusting into the fast-paced Chinese culture right away and with the rude awakening of traveling via cab through the big city. The number one thing that both Matthew and I will not miss about China is the overwhelming use of their vehicle horns there. In America a car horn is used primarily as a way to let another car know that you are trying to get around them or that they are being a butt hole. In China the car horn is used for everything from a rude 'move out of my way' signal to a polite 'watch out, I'm coming up behind you' signal. Needless to say the horns were blaring every single place we went. And they don't just beep once, they lay on the horn and don't stop until they get their way. Very impatient in that way, the Chinese people are.
So we took our hour taxi ride into downtown Beijing to our first hotel. During that time we were able to admire some of the sights that Beijing had to offer and come to a few first impression conclusions. First, Beijing is really dirty. There were lots of large flakes of ‘stuff’
floating around in the air and we could definitely tell that the air quality was really poor and there was a layer of smog hanging in the air.
When we arrived at our hotel we were able to check in easily for the one extra night we book before the tour started. This is where we discovered another anomaly of the Chinese culture, they really like their hard beds. The bed in our room was as hard as the floor. Turns out this is common, all the beds that we had in China were the same way. We did a budget tour though so all the places that we stayed were cheap and only had the essentials: a bed and a bathroom with a shower and a western toilet.
Side note: A western toilet is what we all have in our homes here in America and in most western countries. In China their public toilets and the toilets that the locals have are called 'squatters.' That is because it basically looks like a whole in the floor with a toilet bowl center and places to put your feet above the bowl. You have to squat down to do your business and believe me we tried our best to avoid these kind of toilets the whole trip. But eventually you are not going to be able to avoid it forever! As a pregnant woman with a growing belly these toilets were no fun!
It was about 7:30 when we got settled into our room and decided to go check out the side streets by our hotel. We saw a lot of local, small restaurants but we could not tell they were selling because we couldn't read the menus, they were all in Chinese symbols. One of the strangest things that we saw that first night and for the rest of the trip was kids peeing in the middle of the streets
where ever they wanted. They actually have child/toddler pants there that are pre-sewn with slits in the crotch area so that the kids can just squat anywhere they want to do their business whenever they feel like it. We explored for a little bit but didn't want to stay out too late so we would be able to sleep and go out the next day before meeting with our tour group.
Day 2: Visited the
Tian’anmen Square and Forbidden City
We had breakfast at the hotel. Chinese breakfast is very bland, no color, all dough
and strange things like cabbage and bukchoy vegetables. They had soups and
rice and white sausages, boiled milk, cold hard boiled eggs, and even potato salad. We didn’t eat well for that breakfast and made notes to ourselves to pick up food that we would enjoy more for breakfasts. It was a rough start to the day. After breakfast we started our walk to the
square. There were a lot of Chinese tourist in Beijing at that time because it was a national labor day holiday that last all week long. We were introduced to the pushy culture of the Chinese this day when we were in large groups and noticed that if you don’t keep moving, then you will get
pushed around. I am not talking about a light push either, you will seriously be shoved out of the way. There is no concept of waiting your turn in line in this culture. We were herded
like cattle in tunnels and on the sidewalk before we could get into the Square
and the City. We both started to feel
uncomfortable and claustrophobic.
The
forbidden city had absolutely beautiful architecture but we soon ran out of
things to look at and noticed that there is really nothing to do except keep
walking and looking! We were ushered out
of the city before we knew it and were only slightly lost due to the fact that
we didn't know where we were but we knew what direction we needed to go to get
back to our hotel. We walked in that
direction and admired the views and tried to understand the street vendors
merchandise. We also noticed that there are military and
local law enforcement everywhere acting as a prominent 'show of force' during the labor day holiday time. They
have a very strong presence and all conduct themselves very
professionally; walking around in formation all the time.
Food that we felt
comfortable purchasing and eating was hard to come by. I was informed to stay away from street vendors selling food off carts on the side of the road while pregnant. There are no health regulations for those carts and there were a lot of them! They really love their spicy bbq sticks from side carts in China. We were starting to notice that it was going to be a
difficult couple weeks food wise.
Below are some pictures of the Forbidden City and the Square as well as a few others. The forbidden city is where the royals were housed and it is called the forbidden city because the common people were not allowed to enter into the city. After a while walking though the city and the square everything started to look the same and it was hard to tell what was important and what wasn't! :)
Notice the prego bump on Day 2 of the trip. I swear I grew more over this trip than I have any other 2 weeks during this pregnancy. You will notice the difference in later photos!
This was a big shopping street in Beijing that we journeyed down.
We had to walk under the road to get to the forbidden city and this is where we were herded and funneled though the security like cattle.
Here is the 'cattle herding' that I am talking about to get into the city.
Entrance to the Forbidden City.
Streets outside the forbidden city.
Sorry if this seems a little all over the place, I will try to make my next posts a little more organized.
Thanks for reading!
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