Day 1
Let the adventure begin...!
I was so excited when I finally said goodbye to my family at the airport, went to the gate, boarded the plane. Everything happened so fast! Even the 9 hours flight went by very fast with all the catering, watching a movie, trying to sleep...I had two seats for myself so that I could sleep a little although not very much because it's still not very comfortable to sleep in an upright position.
A friend of a friend picked me up -lucky me!!- and took me first to the ATM and then explained the Taxi driver where he should go. Good for me because - as expected - nobody speaks English!
Welcome to China! The air was very dusty and you could hardly see anything. After we got to the hostel, where I dropped off my bags, I had my first Chinese meal! So yummy! And so cheap!! I invited Ziying (the girl who picked me up) and paid around 7€ for two dishes with drinks! Incredible! And a ride with the subway costs only 25 Cents.
The hostel itself is located right in the city center and also clean but there is no window in my room. I think I will only be there to sleep anyways, so I don't really care. And with 34€ for 5 nights it was also a reasonable price! After my very helpful friend had left me alone, I decided to explore the city. First I went to Tiananmen square and then to a shopping district.
I was asked around 50 times if some Asians could take a picture with me and everybody kept staring as if I was an alien...crazy! Or maybe not that crazy when I think of the number of other Europeans that I saw...around 10! During the whole day! Now I have to go to bed and get over my jetlag. Hopefully tomorrow the weather will be better. There is so much to see and do!
Day 2
Initially I wanted to visit the forbidden city. I went there, bought a ticket and then read the sign saying that it's only open until 12pm. It was 11am already. So I decided not to go there but rather walk and explore the city. I saw many new things, went strolling through various parks (Jinshan and Beihai), through the hutongs, saw the "real" life in Beijing and was happy to know that I would only stay there for a couple of days! I just can't get used to the smell, the spitting on the street, the crazy traffic, the bad sanitary conditions, the smog. The only thing I really enjoyed was the food! It was so much fun to try different things not knowing what exactly I was eating...everything was great.
That day I went to see the bell tower and drum tower. There I met a guy that I had seen the day before as well and also in the parks only a couple of hours ago when I swore to myself that - if I see him again - I will talk to him. So this is what I did: He is from Switzerland and also travelling by himself so I asked him if he wanted to join me. He did. So we spent the rest of the day together exploring more hutongs, having dinner, enjoying live music and beer in the evening, as well as a shisha (hookah) with a nice view on the waterfront near Beihai Park.
Day 3
Great Wall! I booked the tour from my hostel to Mutianyu - a rather less visited spot. We started early in the morning (7am) and had to pick up several persons from different hotels around the city. The first stop was a Jade manufacture, of course to sell something. The next stop were the Mingh tombs, really boring as the original coffins are in a museum and we only saw grey stone walls. After that we had lunch in a touristic restaurant with view on the great wall. The food was good but very simple. Now finally we could take the cablecar up to the wall and had two hours to explore the part of the wall that is open for visitors. Was not so much time actually but the weather was perfect, blue sky, sunshine, really hot. And the climbing was exhausting because the steps were really steep sometimes. We took a slide (tobogan) down and I bought some souvenirs (fan, poster, carved stamp). First time I learned how to bargain properly. Just walk away and they would go down to the cheapest prices! End of the trip was a visit to a silk factory - of course also to sell expensive blankets and sheets. But nevertheless it was interesting to see how silk is made.
In the evening I was meeting the Swiss guy again for dinner in the hutongs. Very good food and without any English skills we still got something to eat haha.
Day 4
Temple of Heaven, Summer palace with sunset and Olympia center in the evening.
Day 5
Today, finally, on my last day I went to the forbidden city! I went there with my hostel roommate and her Chinese friend! I knew that the forbidden city would be big but I would never have guessed that it's so big! You could spend the whole day walking around the temples and still hadn't seen everything. It took us 6 hours to follow the tour that was recommended by my guide book. We were so tired in the end but still went to the Wangfujing shopping street because I had to buy a new battery for my camera. Afterwards we got back to the Tiananmen square to watch the ceremony of the pull down of the flag by the military. Unfortunately I couldn't see it because I was already late for an appointment with my friends from Paderborn to have dinner together: The famous beijing roasted duck was waiting for us! Yummy! So I went to meet the others at their university and could not only enjoy a great traditional dinner but also see where they will spend the next months. Very exciting! On my way back I experienced for the first time in Beijing a thunderstorm and heavy rain. I was soaking wet! Soon it was time to go to bed as the next morning was already departure day and the alarm should ring at 5am.
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