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China Round Up

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What photo takes you right back to China?

It has to be the Great Wall. It’s such an iconic sight but seeing it snaking off over the hilltops in both directions really was breathtaking. It was also the first day of Mum and Dad’s holiday with us and it was great to see China with them.

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Summarise China in three words.

  • Food – without doubt one of the highlights of our stay was the incredible food, from Peking Duck to noodles in a backstreet cafe and pork rolls from a street stand, pretty much everything we tried was delicious!
  • Imperial – the Forbidden City, the emperors’ tombs in Xi’an, and many of the other sights we visited were evidence of China’s imperial past
  • Scaffolding – everywhere we went it seemed that China was under construction, from the ‘ancient city wall’ in Datong to new high rise blocks seen from train windows in all of the cities we visited.

You really know you’re in China when…

…your feet are aching and you’re engulfed by a group of Chinese tourists all wearing the same coloured caps.

What one item should you definitely pack when going to China?

Your appetite! You’ll definitely want to practice your chopstick skills on the wide range of tasty foods available.

Highlights of Beijing, China

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All told, we’ve spent about a fortnight in the capital of China and we love it. It’s one of those places that we immediately felt both at home in, and very safe in. The locals feel safe too – after yet another delicious Peking Duck and a few beers, this time with our friends Maxime and Armelle, Julie and I were walking back to our hostel at about midnight and a 20-something girl in front of us was nonchalantly spinning her purse in one hand.

Beijing is our kind of town; there is plenty to see and do, and getting around is almost effortless and very cheap. I say almost because finding a destination bus stop is a bit tricky as they’re only in English on the bus company’s route planning website but they’re only in Chinese on all the maps!

Here are our highlights of what may well be our favourite city of the trip so far..

Tian’anmen Square and the Forbidden City

The central public space in Beijing, and the seat of Imperial Power. Two days and we still didn’t see it all!

The Great Wall

Beijing was our base to explore The Great Wall at Jinshanling.

798 Art District

Wonderfully eclectic boutique art galleries, cafes and shops spread over an old electronics factory site.

Olympic Park and the Air Corridor

20130922-153707.jpgUs at the Olympic Park! Outside the Bird’s Nest Stadium! (and yes, the exclamation marks are warranted!!)

A gloomy day in Beijing couldn’t stifle my excitement at visiting the site of the 2008 Olympics – surely you remember the amazing fireworks display..

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4p0isIMzXs]

20130922-163422.jpgClockwise from top-left: Inside the Bird’s Nest stadium; Julie in front of the medals wall – Olympic results engraved to the left, Paralympic to the right; Nice attention to detail – the floor lights are in the style of the stadium; Andrew going for gold; The 2008 Olympic torch

Not only did we get to go inside the Olympic stadium, but for a small extra fee (which I was able to talk Julie into!), we got to go onto the roof. Bizarrely named the “Air Corridor”, it’s a small walkway that takes you to where the massive Olympic torch was unveiled – with spectacular views over the rest of the park and down into the stadium itself.

20130922-164356.jpgClockwise from top-right: Us in the Air Corridor, looking down into the Bird’s Nest stadium; the Air Corridor – it’s a corridor in the open air. I think I get it; The massive Olympic torch that is now sited next to the stadium instead of on top of it.

We visited the park a second time with Julie’s parents Norman & Moira, but this time we waited until it was dark so we could see it all lit up..

20130922-170228.jpgThe Beijing Olympic Park at night – National Aquatics Centre (“The Water Cube”) in the foreground

Temple of Heaven

One of Moira’s favourite places that we visited, the Temple of Heaven is a series of temples previously used by Emperors to pray for good harvests, set in a lovely spacious park.

20130922-171717.jpgThe Temple of Heaven is characterised by beautiful circular temples, like the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests

20130922-192323.jpgThe Imperial Vault of Heaven; Roof detail and ceiling dragon

20130922-192952.jpgBeautiful glazed roof tiles and imperial dragon roof charms

Summer Palace

The Summer Palace isn’t so much a palace as a giant park, and its name in Chinese literally translates into “Gardens of Nurtured Harmony”. Our friends Isaac & Rebecca say they try to visit once a week, but I secretly wondered how a park could hold that much interest. Don’t get me wrong, I like parks and the outdoors – I was raised walking on hills – but every week?

The walk from the East Gate to The Garden of Harmonious Pleasures takes in a nice up-and-down meandering tree-lined pathway. So far, so good..

20130922-202135.jpgJulie, Moira and Norman at a gate on the path to The Garden of Harmonious Pleasures

20130922-204928.jpgThe Garden of Harmonious Pleasures. I could sit here all day

I mentioned earlier that I like parks, but I sat here and just looked out over the pond with the moving shoals of golden Koi and the pattern of rain on the waters surface and realised that I actually love parks. I decided that there would be more parks in my life from now on. And now I understand why Isaac & Rebecca visit every week.

As we’d bought the “access all areas” ticket, we made our way to the Court of Virtuous Harmony, and we’d timed it perfectly for the Chinese variety performance and the onset of the rain. Fortunately the rain was light and the performance of dance and music all but outlasted it.

20130922-203857.jpgMartial Arts performer before he takes the stage

The centrepiece of the Summer Palace is the Temple of Buddhist Virtue, which takes quite a climb to reach.

20130922-210510.jpgMoira & Norman with the Temple of Buddhist Virtue behind them. That’s where we’re going next!

20130922-210131.jpgView from the Temple of Buddhist Virtue over Kunming Lake

We left the Summer Palace from the North Palace gate that turned out to be closer to the Metro station than the East entrance we walked to. On the way, we dropped below a footbridge into Suzhou Street which looked intriguingly like Venice from above..

20130922-211340.jpgSuzhou Street. Turns out it’s full of gift shops!

Tian’anmen Square and the Forbidden City, Beijing

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You’ve probably heard of Tian’anmen Square already, and seen part of it in the most famous photograph of Beijing outside China..

20130901-222017.jpgThe “Tank Man” halting advancing tanks north of Tian’anmen Square on the 5th of June, 1989. Tian’anmen Square is to the left of the rows of parked tanks in the background. Photo credit: Stuart Franklin

Nowadays Beijing’s central public space is ring-fenced and encircled by busy roads, CCTV cameras, and almost as many police as there are visiting tourists. Access is by underpass and through X-ray bag searches like you’re about to board an aeroplane (incidentally, the Metro has the same security checks).

20130901-082235.jpgTian’anmen Square today. The column is The Monument to the People’s Heroes, and the top of Mao Zedong’s mausoleum is in the background to the left

The square is flanked by two imposing government buildings that were designed and built in a Soviet Russian style in 1959; The National Museum of China to the east, and The Great Hall of the People on the west. To the south are two beautiful and imposing gate houses that are almost all that remains of the old Beijing city walls.

20130919-200122.jpgUs in front of Qianmen, the inner of the two city gates

To the north, beyond the smiling portrait of Mao facing the square is the Forbidden City. Built in the Ming Dynasty by the Yongle Emperor Zhu Di, and home to his consorts, concubines, visiting officials and successive Emperors, it was forbidden for ordinary folk to enter under penalty of immediate execution. The rules have been relaxed considerably since it became a museum in 1925, and now it seems only feather dusters are forbidden.

20130914-123540.jpgThe Gate of Supreme Harmony, the first of the many palaces, courtyards and temple-like gatehouses inside the Forbidden City

The Forbidden City is aptly named for its sheer scale, it is immense. We visited twice, firstly with our new friends Maxime and Armelle whom we met in Mongolia, and their new friends Julia & Jõan and A.C. whom they met on the train into China, and again with Julie’s parents, and we still didn’t see it all.

20130901-130344.jpgFrom left to right: Me & Julie, Maxime & Armelle, Julia, A.C. and Jõan on Tian’anmen Square in front of the Meridian Gate, the main entrance to the Forbidden City

20130914-121513.jpgNorman, Moira, Julie & I in front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony

The buildings are beautiful with their curved-edge roofs adorned with glazed figurines, and each one has a delightful name, such as The Gate of Divine Might, The Hall of Mental Cultivation or The Palace of Tranquil Longevity.

Right smack in the centre of the city is The Hall of Supreme Harmony which marks the border between the outer (southern) and inner courts and where the space and scale immediately shrinks. The buildings beyond are just as intricate but are more varied in their design. Vast open spaces give way to walled corridors leading to intimate courtyards where we found trees, rocks and metal animal statues. This makes sense as the inner court was the home of the Emperor & Empress, and where the administrative functions of the empire took place, while the outer court was used for ceremonies.

20130919-130446.jpgThe inner court, much more intimate (and just as busy!) but still as splendid

The Forbidden City is officially known as the Palace Museum, and its collection is huge. Here’s an excerpt from Wikipedia:

Today, there are over a million rare and valuable works of art in the permanent collection of the Palace Museum, including paintings, ceramics, seals, steles, sculptures, inscribed wares, bronze wares, enamel objects, etc. According to an inventory of the Museum’s collection conducted between 2004 and 2010, the Palace Museum holds a total of 1,807,558 artifacts and includes 1,684,490 items designated as nationally protected “valuable cultural relics.”

Clock Exhibition Hall

Easily worth the additional ¥10 entrance fee (which works out at about £1 each), the hall of clocks was one of our favourite exhibits in the Forbidden City, not least because the majority of the ingenious clocks on display were made in England!

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20130918-100434.jpgIt’s hard to pick just a few from the vast and varied collection. Clockwise from top-left: gilt copper clock decorated with revolving waterfalls and figures striking bells; Astronomy clock; one of the 5 England clocks display cabinets in the main hall; Gilt copper clock with figure writing Chinese characters with a brush (Williamson of London, c.1790)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnu8NGiVam8]Twice a day, at 11.00 and 14.00, 3 of the clocks on display are wound up and demonstrated

20130918-182402.jpgOur favourite clocks of the exhibition: Gilt copper sunflower (French c. 19th century); Copper steamer (French c. 20th century); Giant Copper clepsydra (water clock) from the workshops of the Qing court (c. 1799)

Treasure Gallery

The other additional cost exhibition, also ¥10, is the Treasure Gallery, and we certainly got our money’s worth.
The courtyard of the Treasure Gallery contains a vibrant 9 dragon screen. It’s not as big as the one we saw in Datong, but that made it easier to photograph!

20130919-131716.jpgThe 9 dragon screen in the Forbidden City. Smaller and busier than Datong

The Treasure Gallery itself displays some of the rarest and most valuable items in the Palace Museum collection. Some of the more popular pieces are a little difficult to see if the halls are busy, and we found Indian-style queuing to be in effect. Patience was definitely needed.

20130919-142000.jpgOne of the Treasure Gallery Halls. Clockwise from top-left: One of the two busy trinket halls; Small jade figurines sitting around a box; Lion; 3 stamps joined by a chain made from a single piece of jade (!!); Sachet of gold filigree (Qing Dynasty, 1644-1911); Martin court hat with pearl inlay worn by empress (Qing Dynasty, 1644-1911)

Opposite the jewellery and precious stones exhibits, are the impressive sounding Stone Drum halls (sounds impressive to me anyway, as I used to play the drums). And while the exhibit is nicely laid out and the drums themselves are very important given that their inscriptions recount social events from almost two centuries ago, they weren’t actually that impressive.

20130919-144228.jpgThe Stone Drums – no queuing in this exhibit. The inscriptions invariably recount a visiting official, a hunting trip and a feast. Kind of like the Facebook status updates of the day

Continuing up the eastern side of the inner court, the Treasure Gallery also includes the inner court’s theatre, and halls containing beautiful court seals, bells, and huge carved stones – sadly all covered with a layer of Qing Dynasty-era dust (hence my earlier quip about forbidden feather dusters).

20130919-150053.jpgThe Forbidden City’s theatre stage

20130919-151934.jpgGold Imperial Seal from the Qing Dynasty

20130919-152240.jpgThe Bell Hall

20130919-152432.jpgClockwise from top left: Centrepiece of the carved rocks exhibit “Jade Terrace”; the exhibit hall; close-up of “Lapis lazuli hill carved with landscape” (Qing Dynasty); “Da Yu curbing the flood, a Jade Mountain”, close up; and the whole thing to give you a sense of scale

The western side of the Forbidden City consists of lots of smaller buildings and quaint courtyards, culminating in the central gardens before the northern exit.

20130919-154414.jpgRock garden, Qing Dynasty style – here you can walk through the rocks!

Jingshan Park

Immediately north of the Forbidden City is Jingshan Park, and we just about had the energy left in our legs after a full-day of sightseeing to walk up the steps of the highest of the five peaks in this man-made park. Feng Shui says its favourable to site a residence to the south of a hill, but Marco Polo had the same thought I did when I got to the top and looked down on the centre of (what was) the imperial capital – it’d be a good place to attack it from.

Nevertheless, the views back over the Forbidden City are astounding:

20130919-155722.jpgView south over the Forbidden City from Jingshan Park

And then we looked down at our feet to find we were in the very centre of Beijing!
20130919-155944.jpgUs in the the centre of Beijing!

Pingyao, Shanxi province, China

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We only stayed in Pingyao for two days but we have loads of photos. Its city centre is a well preserved maze of narrow streets and traditional courtyard buildings surrounded by a city wall that you can walk on, so it’s very picturesque. A single ticket covers 18 different sights in the city as well as the city walls. We didn’t manage to see everything over two days but I think we got a good flavour (if you happen to be over 60 remember to carry your passport as entry is then free – there are some advantages to getting old…).

20130914-222350.jpgWe arrived at the train station at 5.20am. Fortunately, the guesthouse sent a taxi to meet us.

20130914-170204.jpgOur guesthouse, like many in the city, is situated in one of the traditional courtyards

20130914-170219.jpgBustling Nan Dajie, the main street in Pingyao’s old town

20130914-172023.jpgThis procession of ladies walked up and down the main street several times a day with music playing

20130914-172043.jpgThe city walls on an overcast afternoon

20130914-223820.jpgPingyao was a banking centre in the early 19th century. Some of its banks are now museums with mock up rooms.

20130914-222404.jpgWe were constantly surprised by how many courtyards led off from the first one.

20130914-172010.jpgOne of the more interesting museums was dedicated to martial arts, of course we had to have a go in the practice area – the guan daos were very heavy (it’s quite possible that I have misidentified these weapons – if you know better please leave a comment!)

20130914-172107.jpgStreet life. These shopkeepers were playing cards in between serving customers

20130914-232700.jpgSeveral temples are included in the city’s attractions. The oldest building in the city is Dacheng Hall which dates from 1163 and is found in the Confucian Temple

20130914-222430.jpgBack to school in the Confucian Temple

20130914-224159.jpgOne of our favourite sights was the City God Temple – some of the depictions of hell were quite graphic, but not all of the statues were so gruesome

20130914-225210.jpgThe City God Temple shows a short play twice a day. We had no idea what was going on but it was interesting to see the costumes.

20130914-225222.jpgLots of Chinese visitors were throwing coins at this pot in the middle of a pond. Most of them missed…

20130914-170241.jpgThere are lots of rooftop dragons on the temples

20130914-222417.jpgIf all that sightseeing is a bit too much you can treat yourself to an hour long foot massage for just £3! Highly recommended, but be warned they’re definitely aiming for unknotting the muscles rather than relaxation.

The Great Wall

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If we asked a 100 people to name something they associate with the country of China, like they do on the UK gameshow Family Fortunes, our survey would definitely include “The Great Wall“.

Started in the 7th century BC, and extended and fortified to the defences we see today largely by the Ming Dynasty in the 14th century, The Great Wall is not actually a great wall for 2 reasons… firstly, the Chinese name for it literally translates into English as “the long wall”, and secondly, it’s a continuous defence only because it incorporates natural obstacles such as hills and rivers.

But, it is Great..
20130825-222153.jpgUs on The Great Wall of China with Julie’s parents, Norman and Moira. The Sīmatái section snakes over the ridge of hills in the distance

There are 7 well-trodden and accessible sections of The Great Wall that vary in their proximity to Beijing by how much they’ve been restored, and how popular they are. In order of popularity:

We picked Jīnshānling because of our preference for quieter spots, and the description in our guidebook:

Jīnshānling marks the starting point of an exhilarating 10km hike to Sīmatái. the journey – through some stunning mountainous terrain – takes around four hours as the trail is steep and parts of the wall have collapsed; it can be traversed without too much difficulty, but some find it tiring.

Getting to Jīnshānling was straightforward, but our helpful local bus conductor woman ushered us off the bus at the first stop in the town rather than the bus station which meant we had to negotiate with a taxi driver who just happened to be waiting for business. Were they in cahoots? We’ll never know…

Having bought our entrance tickets, we then started along a very nicely kept and recently laid stone stairway up the hillside to The Great Wall – it hadn’t really occurred to me that we’d have to walk up to the wall before we could walk on the wall!

20130829-215502.jpgThe hiking trail up to The Great Wall

20130829-215813.jpgThe view teasing us through the forest as we climbed – “East Tower with five holes” in the foreground, and “Qilin Tower” behind

The climb to the wall was pretty tough going, but the reward was simply staring in awe at the wonder of this mammoth human achievement once we’d reached it.

And we needed the rest, because these walls aren’t at all like those in Datong, or the ones back home in York – they follow the highest ridge of the hills which means a lot more steps!

20130829-222327.jpgA very steep section of the Jīnshānling Great Wall – the “steps” up to the tower are over knee height

20130829-222847.jpgThe descent into “Flowers Tower”, the furthest point Julie and I reached before we had to turn back

20130829-223032.jpgNorman and Moira had stopped back to do a spot of bird watching

20130829-223454.jpgThe birds were too quick to photograph, but there were plenty of insects, including a giant grasshopper (there’s an ant by its foot to give you a sense of scale – can you see it?)

As you can see from our photographs we were fortunate with both the weather and the tranquility to enjoy The Great Wall by ourselves – I think we saw more people on the trail up and back down than we did on the wall itself!

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