WE LOVE CHINA! Why?
Maybe because of it was just so much better than we'd expected. Seriously. Other backpackers we'd met travelling up through SE Asia were so negative about it, the few who we met. The general concensus was that China is dirty (it's not), difficult (it's not), expensive (it's not) and lonely (definitely not!).
We've found it probably one of our favourite places so far! People speak less English than elsewhere, true, but you can get by easily enough, and you also get soooo much less hassle than elsewhere as people aren't constantly after your money, so it's nicer that way. And we've met more English backpackers here than anywhere else!
So yes, China has definitely surpassed expectations, and well wonted that two day train journey from Hanoi (I learnt A-F of Spanish dictionary, it was very productive). Why else do we love it so much?
THE FOOD!
Omg, the food is amazing here. Proper, hefty portions, you damn well get your money's worth! Street food especially. Rice that tastes like turkish delight? Deep fried cheese with sugar? Tomato and sugar? Soy Milk? Seaweed? Tofu in abundance? Tea and baked goods as far as the eye can see? It's HEAVEN! Amy is now a dumpling fiend, it's a sight to see, her and a plate of dumplings.... Scary even. And AT LAST I am a dab hand at the chopsticks, it's so cool using chopsticks for every meal here without even thinking about it, I feel very proud indeed. :) It's actually very easy to eat veggie here, although you know... "When in Rome do as the Romans do.... When in Peking, eat crispy duck". Yumyum, I've got this animal cruelty thing down.
So yes, I admit that I am completely biased by my stomach and would base my love of China on it's cuisine regardless of all else. But we would have loved Beijing even without the food! Honestly. Even if it was bloody freezing our first day there. I bought thermal leggings. And we reached Tianemon Square and just retreated back to subway and hostel to recover. It was horrific. Sadly Mao's mausoleum was closed! No dead embalmed Communist leaders for us after all! (See Hanoi blog for more details on our embalming (non-) adventures). But we did see the Forbidden City, but preferred the Summer Palace, which was lovely, even if Chinese people did keep acosting us to take our photos. o_O
The Pearl Market was awesome! Thankfully we only arrived an hour before closing, so had only a limited spending time. Definitely a good thing. I now have a scarf (which I needed). And a batman belt (which I NEEDED). And anyone who says that nobody could EVER need a pikachu pocket watch or hello kitty ring watch is a person I do not want to meet. The way I see it, I'm pre-empting all the crap I'll buy at vastly inflated prices in Japan, so really it's very shrewd buying on my part ;) Also it was really good arriving at the end because they were desperate to make last minute sales and so we could haggle everything down ridiculously. Excellent.
My personal favourite sight in Beijing had to be the Tea Ceremony at the Laoshe Teahouse though. It was surprisingly impressive, and good value! For six quid we got unlimited refills of green tea as well as these little Chinese seed things that it took us embarrassingly long to work out how to eat, and the matinee performance of traditional arts. There was a very bizarre shadow puppet performance about a monkey's quest to save his master, apparently through music and kung fu... And then a traditional naxi orchestra while a woman sang a long ballad about Tea and Literature, with lines like:
"Wandering poets and literators love drinking tea. TEAAAAAAAAA!". As you can imagine, I loved this. This was proceeded by plate-spinning acrobats, and a comedy double act, which, being in mandarin, was sadly slightly lost on us.The face-changing part was amazing too, it's this stunt used in the Sichuan opera, and at first it didn't look that impressive, this man in robes came on stage and danced around a bit waving his arms, wearing a mask.... then suddenly BAM! it's a different mask! He flicks his head ever so slightly and BAM! it's changed again! He's shaking hands with an audience member and BAM! How was he doing it? Whatever he was doing, it was done so smoothly it was amazing.
But the best bit was the finale- wait for it- a:
KUNG! FU! TEA! CEREMONY!
Let me just clarify. A tea ceremony. Utilizing kung fu. Confused? Yes, it does sound like some kind of awful exaggeration of the stereotypical Chinese charicature, doesn't it? It goes something like this: two men wielding these bizarre long-spouted weapon-like teapots around their heads in ever more impressive martial arts moves, so that the tea inside does not spill out due to the speed they're spinning the teapots, until they are very aesthetically poured, with each move being called something like "Meloncholy Dragon Regrets". Why isn't all tea in Britain served like this? Starbucks could definitely justify its high prices with stunts like that!
But the best sightseeing in Beijing, kung fu tea ceremony and pikachu pocket watches aside, had to be the Great Wall. We managed to get there for half the price of tours by finding a cheap bus deal to the Simitai section of the wall, which is less touristy but also incredibly steep. We had such a good time. We went with four other girls we were sharing a dorm with, and it was such a good day. We all wrapped up in about six layers to face the freezing cold, but due to the climbing were quickly shedding clothes all over the wall. Mao Zedong said "He who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a true man". As a true man therefore, I can completely agree with him. That thing is bloody steep! Death! Argh! Effort! Haha, but worth it, definitely. Seriously spectacular. At the final twelth watchtower I ate lunch rather than ascend the final "stairway to heaven". How can heaven involve a 70 degree incline? Lunch definitely the right choice.
To top it all off, on the way down I discovered that I didn't have to walk down again like a fool. WHY WALK WHEN YOU CAN ZIPWIRE?! Great times.
We had many fun times with girls from our dorm. Sanlitun nightlife for instance. "Nonononononono. NO!" And my getting accosted by pancake saleswoman. Worth it for the pancakes though. And good to see we've left our legacy in the hostel, in the form of the new notice on bar door: "No outside foor or drink". Oops. Surpised it didn't add "No musicals" but there you go.
Beijing :D
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