Beijing – 17 years later

What a cultural shock! From temperature to the hoardes of people… Beijing is a dramatic change, dramatic, from Ulaan Bataar.

People have been helpful. Curious about us having 3 girls. Keen to know where we are from. Surprised that our girls, in particular Kaia, can converse in Mandarin.

I have been to Beijing many times before on business, this was my first time back as a tourist in 18 years. Last time here I was single and gatecrashed a trip a friend was taking with his wife (Paine/Norman).

1. Beijing is still congested. A sprawling cartésien city, large avenues, except for the old Hutong parts. Traffic is maddening.

2. Ubiquitous bikes. Today the modes of transport have become more varied. Cars are everywhere. Moped are a regular thing. Bikes seem to have become electric. Cyclos are electric. And some oddly shaped car/moped which manages well in traffic gaps or in small streets are a regular sighting.

3. Security –  the metro has safety checks. Police are stationed all over with variety of weapons (baton and another metallic semi-circle stick), volunteer police or other volunteer orders. Order is the key word.

4. Food is not as cheap as it once was. You can still get meat or fruit on a stick for 10 Yuan.

5. Métro / public transport cheap and very good. Kids below 1.3m go for free. Bend the knees, kids.
6. Texting and driving is common. Driving vehicles of various types while looking at their phone. Crazy but it’s rampant!
7.  Fashion  / open trousers for kids

8. Fatter chinese. It seems that tourism and the increase of local wealth has also brought with it the increase of calorie intake.
9. Forbidden City – CNY 180 for 5. Loads of people. Lots of pushing and shoving. Toilets (squat or Western) are very stinky. Lots of barriers to keep hoards away from displays. Stores are now on site. Loads of Chinese tourists.

10. Great Wall. Mutianyu. The wall has been restored. 2000yuen for 5 (this includes chairlift and tobaggan). When in Beijing, a bus crash is part of the daily events. And we had ours just as we were leaving our neighbour to go collect other tourists. Minimal damage but a delay nevertheless. Mutianyu was the simplicity option. The drive is 90mins each way and once on site there are options in how to get up on the wall and how to come down. Security is non existant. Based on the kids, we took the chairlift up and tobogganed down. We walked many tranches of the wall and went through some very steep stairs, watch towers… The kids loved it. Although touristy, it was thankfully not too busy. Doug and I have visited other remote sections but still enjoyed this part. The chairlift was a little rickety, Chinese style, but the tobaggan down was awesome!

11. Apartment blocks have cages on windows sometimes 3 floors up or even randomly at higher levels. Security or to prevent young ones from falling out of the window?

We are off to a neighbourhood lake then the snack street. It’s our final day in Beijing.