David Grajal

No Beijing visit would be complete without attending Chinese Opera and a Chinese acrobatic spectacles. It was not in the plan to go to both, but we finally did. We didn’t liked the Chinese Opera. It was very peculiar but simple, tedious and repetitive.

Beijing's opera and acrobatic show

On the other hand, the acrobatic spectacule was completely worth it. It involved several different acts, all of them amazing. The artists were perfectly coordinated children doing really crazy stuff.

Bargaining is a skill that you really need to master in order to get a decent price on Chinese markets. The key is to focus on an item and start bargaining with an unreasonable, absurdly low price. The people that work on the markets will yell, cry and they will even speak Spanish to make you feel you are making fun of them. Don’t worry. It doesn’t matter how low did you went, you will be still paying a lot more than what the locals pay for the same item.

Do you want a snack?

It’s crazy how cheap are in China things made in China. It’s even crazier the huge profit that companies make selling the same stuff with western prices in Europe.

Forbidden city

Forbidden city

Beijing is built around the Forbidden City so the palace is the heart of the city. The Forbidden city looks small in a map until you look at the scale. It’s huge, as big as a small town by itself. It was the place where Chinese emperors lived their entire life because they were not allowed to leave the palace. The day we chose to visit the forbidden city was the same day chosen to do the same by half a million Chinese people. The internal tourism on this country is starting to wake up!

I didn’t really liked it because it was more of the same thing. Korea has a huge Chinese influence and the architecture, colors and paintings of the Forbidden City look exactly the same as temples and imperial palaces in Korea. I guess I’m saturated of Chinese architecture as much as of European palaces and temples! Overwhelmed by the huge amount of Chinese tourists and bored of the unexciting buildings, we rushed through the city and went to eat an (amazing) Peking duck.

Summer Palace

Lama Temple

The summer palace was a better experience because it was not crowded and it is plain beautiful. The Forbidden City is full of buildings that look all the same, but the Summer Palace is like a huge park. It has an enormous lake with a small island you can reach via a bridge.

Lama Temple

Lama Temple

Lama Temple is the biggest Tibetan temple out of Tibet and one of the most important Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in the world. The building and the artworks of the temple combine Chinese and Tibetan styles.

Temple of Heaven

Temple of Heaven

The Temple of Heaven is the biggest religious temple on Asia and completely different to other Chinese temples. Chinese urbanism and architecture is based on the square form but this temple is circular and it vaguely resemble the circular peaks of russian churches. It’s located in a grand park with surprisingly green grass. The most interesting highlight of this spot apart of the circular temple were the old locals who where chilling out and hunging around the park, spending their time playing cards, dancing and singing.

We walked 10 kilometers on top of the Great Wall from the Janshaling entrance till the beginning of the Samatai section. This section is not as turistic as the ones you can find closer to the capital. In fact no other tourists were in sight. This section of the great wall it is mostly renovated but there are still some (dangerous) areas that preserve the original construction.

Great Wall

Visiting the the Janshanling section of the great wall was an amazing experience. I felt peace and silence sorrounded by amazing views. It’s a curious experience to walk over hundreds of years of history. A feeling just comparable to the Machu Picchu visit last year.

Jumping on the Great Wall

I visited Beijing for a week last chrismas with Ann. When I was a kid and I hated travelling, Beijing was known as Pekin and I only knew about it because I liked to read Tintin comic books. Pekin was an exotic city on the other side of the world where lots of Chinese people lived and they were all day smoking opium. I finally went there 20 years later, and yes, there is a lot of people but no opium anymore.

Jumping on Tiananmen gate

Beijing’s airport, avenues and Chinese national buildings are built for giants. Beijing’s buildings look like the ones you can find on any other asian big city but the main avenues are wider so you don’t feel tiny sorrounded by tall buildings the way you do in Seoul or Tokio.

Lots of people live on this city. Really a lot. But Beijing’s winter is cold. Really cold. Maybe that’s why the amount of people on the streets was not overwhelmed: Chinese people stayed warm at home! Ann felt the same way, she even said that seems like there are more Chinese people in Toronto!

New year's eve 2009! Ann and I had dinner with some Couch Surfers followed with party on 798 district of Beijing.

The city is very easy to navigate for foreigners, all signs are written at least on Chinese and English. The people speaks basic English but they have a very thick accent. Ann had serious problems with it and I could barely understand anything!