My first time in China
My latest holiday in China was an eye-opening trip for me. It was my first time in China; the destination for this trip was Beijing. The trip was quite short (about 3-4 days for me). So I would only be able to visit a few tourist destinations. However, we lived in Airbnb apartment in the residential areas. Thus, there were a lot of interesting things to explore and observe.
I arrived at the airport with exhaustion around 5.30am. Then we took a taxi to the flat. The flat is 6th floor duplex penthouse. Yet!! There is no lift… so we need to climb up to the 6th floor to get the shower and be ready for the 1st day tour.
Before rumbling on my first day experience, I wanted to note about the lift. I was complaining about my no-lift situation with one of my aunties. She mentioned that, as she know, in the past there was a regulation in China restricting the lift implementation for the building with no more than 6 floors. I am not sure if this true? Could anyone share the experience or knowledge about this? It might be true as the building we stayed was an old-built. Thus no lift!
Beijing Trip – 1st day:
We started the day with our lunch at Jin Ding Xuan, a dim sum palace near Yonghegong Lama Temple subway station.
The Dim Sum Place
The dishes were good, would have been better if served hotter. It might be their style because almost of the dishes were served at room temperature or a bit hotter. Or might be that the place is too busy and too big so the dishes got cold before reaching us? We sat in a nice room set for dinners coming in a group (there were 7 of us so we got a room). The price was really reasonable. Some of the staff could speak English, but they were not really keen to…
After wandering around Lama Temple, we went to see the acrobatic show at Chaoyang Theatre. The show was amazing. Never got bored during the whole hour! Highly recommended – better to book tickets in advance (will get cheaper price with better seating).
We finished the day with Peking duck at Quanjude Wangfujing Roast Duck Restaurant. It is quite different from Peking duck I have in Thailand or in the UK. Personally I do not like the duck here as it extremely oily and the taste/seasoning of the duck is not strong enough. This place is huge and has a long history in serving ducks… Despites my personal dislike for the dish, it might be worth a try yourself. There are set menus, which relatively expensive. The waiters were trying to sell us the set menus, but we did not know what were included in the set and had read reviews about the set menu that the amount of food was too much and not really worth it…So we decided not to go for the set menu and picked the dishes we wanted to try.
I survived the first with extremely fatigue legs!!! We walked about 8-9km for the first day!
Beijing Trip – 2nd day:
Here come the Great Wall of China … We planned a trip today to visit the Great Wall. With the help of our Airbnb host, we hired a man and a van (who cannot totally speak English). We were told we needed to leave at 6am to avoid the queue and crowd at the Great Wall. We were there quite early. Still there were queues from some tours and the early birds.
I took us about 5 minutes or so to reach to the top Wall with cable car. When on the wall, there are a few food vendors selling marked-up price. Most people prepare snacks, water, food for their snack break or lunch.
Although extremely windy, I did enjoy the view. I also enjoyed the walk, but most of the Chinese people visiting the place literally pushed people in front to walk forward (even though they did not have too). And… They did a lot of spitting without caring that their spits might hit other people. Besides those, the view was priceless.
Half morning was spent at the wall. Then we went to the Ming Tombs. The area is very green and pleasant to walk around. Weather was really good. The only thing ruined our enjoyment was a “shitting kid” … Literally shitting. The kid was pooing at the garden in front of the entrance of the place with the help of his parents holding him up. We were resting in the shade with the nice wind flowing to chill us…Then the smell of “you know what!” coming our way…It’s time to say goodbye to the place and move on to the next.
In the evening, we decided to have hot pot for dinner. It’s a chain restaurant called Hai Di Lao. Services were amazing…if you order a raw noodle, they will stretch the pasta at your table (only 4 yaun for the pasta). Food was good. Really enjoy the place; would love to go back again.
I finished the second day with 10km walking, and with the hope that the next day I would walk less…
Beijing Trip – 3rd Day:
We went to see Forbidden City / The Palace Museum. It’s an imperial palace with a rectangular shape – 961 metres from N-S and 753 metres from E-W. It is massive and has so many rooms and antique collections. We booked tickets in advance because we heard that the number of visitors per day is limited to 80,000. On the day, we just picked up the tickets at the ticket house on the right hand side of the entrance. And also can enter in the group tour entrance, where the queue was significantly shorter than the individual entrance.
The place is amazing. I enjoyed the visit/walk. However, it took us whole day to walk around the palace … We were extremely drained and exhausted!! We left the palace around 5pm. So 9-5pm walking literally!
Then we need to wait for the booked dinner at Black Sesame Kitchen at 7pm. So we were wandering around the area, and found a small nice coffee shop called Alley Cafe, where was happen to be near our dinner place. The coffee shop was small, but cozy and played good music. We had a good rest there before dinner time. The waiter and waitress here speak very well English and provided us a great welcoming services.
Then it’s time for our awaiting dinner. At Black Sesame Kitchen, the dishes are fixed. It costs 300 yuan per head for the meal including choices of drinks along the meal (table wines, beers, apple juice, ginger ale). Tap and sparking waters are provided throughout the meal. It is like “dining in the chefs’ house”. Yes…It is literally their house. There are two dining rooms (one accommodate the lived kitchen so you can see them cook. We booked quite late and for a big group of 7 dinners. So we got the seating at the second room with no kitchen. The place can accommodate around only 24-25 dinners per meal.
We shared a long table with other 6 people (coming in pairs). We had a great time meeting new people, sharing experiences and exchanging thoughts about things. Great night, great atmosphere, grant services, and good food. It’s relatively pricey, but worth a try. I would definitely go back there again… Especially for the desserts!!! (I think they change regularly, but we had homemade sesame ice cream and toffee fried bananas). We finished the meal around 9.30pm and left the place at 10pm. And ending up walking about 12km during the day!
To sum my Beijing Trip …
Beijing is a diverse city. You can literally find anything and “any type of people there” (my Chinese friend in Beijing said). I think it a great place for tourist but they might need to keep in mind that a lot of Chinese people here do not speak English, and they are not really bothered helping if you do not speak Chinese. We survived this difficulty because my partner’s dad who travelled with us can speak Mandarin (not 100% native, but he was our life saver). Pre-booking tickets and planning are important for sightseeing some tourist destinations in Beijing because everywhere is packed with the Chinese and tourists. I have got a lot of people asking me whether to bring a mask to wear in Beijing for pollution protection. I would say yes. I used the mask regularly along the trip, especially when walking along the street and being in the train. Also, prepare your toilet tissue. Even in some department stores, there is no toilet tissue provided. Lasting, but more importantly, make sure you wear proper comfortable shoes because you really need it to survive Beijing.
Thank you Beijing for giving me this experience … will definitely go back to China, but next time might not be Beijing 😛
