Around Beijing

Sleep didn't last very long last night. We were both ready to go at 1:30 a.m. We managed to stay in or around bed until 5:30, but it was no problem getting fed and ready to go by 7:30.

Beijing is even more crowded than usual this week. It's National Holiday week, 7 days to celebrate the founding of the People's Republic of China. Most people have time off work, but it looks like everyone in the outlying provinces makes a pilgrimage to the capital for this week. So, taking advantage of the jetlagged condition of our group of tourists, we got underway early.

First stop was in one of the hutongs. There are a few of these neighbourhoods left in Beijing, mostly (I think) for tourists. They're very Turkish-feeling warrens of narrow streets and low houses built around courtyards. We were driven around one by pedicab and visited the home of a retired lady who makes a little money on the side talking to tourists about life in the hutong. She seems comfortable now, although in the bad old days of the Cultural Revolution there were an awful lot of people jammed into her group of three homes.

Then we headed for Tiananmen square, along with half the population of China. Main impression: thousands and thousands of people in a square ringed with incredible flower displays. I could tell that people came from many different parts of China; they looked as different from each other as Scandinavians look from Italians. Most were dressed in fashionable, Western-looking clothes, but a few still wore more traditional clothing - Mao suits, sort of. We all found ourselves the objects of curiosity. Several families wanted us to pose for pictures with them. These, our guides said, would be people from small towns and remote regions who weren't used to Westerners yet. They were lovely people. Laughter crosses all language barriers.

Lunch was at a restaurant with another remarkable washroom. Going up to it you just noticed a large mirrored wall facing the stairs. The back wall of the cubicles (or the wall behind the urinals in the men's room) turned out to be the transparent part of this two-way mirror. The oddness continued in the sink area, shared by both genders. The sinks had female legs.

No time for admiring such things, though. There was serious tourist work to be done. We had to explore the Forbidden City, the home of the emperors from the 15th to the early 20th centuries. Gorgeous. Vast. Beautifully restored and maintained. Utterly spotless and litterless grounds. Really, really beautiful. And very crowded. We need more time there; we couldn't go inside any of the buildings or do more than get shepherded through the mobs, following our fish flags faithfully. I'm glad we saw it, but it was (necessarily) just like looking at a gourmet meal through a restaurant window.

Just time enough back at the hotel to freshen up, and we're off again, this time to a Peking Opera performance (shortened and simplified for tourists). Another appetizer experience. This isn't your Italian nonna's opera. It's a combination of martial arts, acrobatics, and music that is utterly foreign and totally entrancing. I could have watched all night, but first I would have liked to have known more about what was going on. Maybe next time.

Back to the hotel for a small bedtime snack and our first experience of "kung fu tea" (I'm not sure if that's the proper name for it). A young man in traditional costume poured hot water onto leaves in a teacup from a long, long, long-spouted pot using a variety of extraordinary positions - over his shoulder and behind his back, among others. Good tea; great show.

And so to sleep (hopefully).

First day in China

So we finally got to Beijing! We left Canmore on Monday the 29th and stopped over in Salmon Arm so we could enjoy our new favourite Barley Station Brew Pub. Tuesday we had lunch with Ron's cousin Rae, catching up after years and years. We were in Vancouver in time for dinner with Rachel - Chinese dumplings at her favourite place (and now ours) on Broadway. And Wednesday we caught the plane.

Flying is not the best way to spend half a day, in my opinion. Especially not when you're crammed in between two families with toddlers on their way to visit grandma. The problem with little kids is they're not civilized enough to pretend that they're enjoying something as dreadful as flying. At one point I was managing to drift into sleep when the kidlet behind me decided to lay some mighty kicks on my seat back. I don't know what happened - maybe I have a secret kung fu warrior within - but my arm whipped out around the seat and whacked her on her precious little legs. She stopped. The guy in the seat across the aisle gave me a thumbs-up. I was very embarrassed.

So we staggered off the plane into mid-afternoon Beijing, and this is what we saw through the airport windows:

It was a sunny day. Really.

We made our way through the passport check (very politely and efficiently done), and found the baggage carousel. I visited the washroom while we were waiting and was greeted by no fewer than 4 attendants. When I was done one hurried into the cubicle to wipe everything down and refold the toilet paper while her colleague ushered me to the sink. When my hands were properly washed another lady handed me a paper towel while the fourth wiped the sink. That was one clean washroom.

The redoubtable Jessie met us as we emerged from the bowels of the airport and, together with guides Kevin and Eric, introduced us to our new standards, the red fish and blue fish we'd follow for the next 12 days. We UBC and University of Saskatchewan alumni followed Kevin with the blue fish into one bus; the University of Alberta grads were in the red-fish bus. And soon we were in our comfy room at one of the four Hiltons in Beijing. We had just enough energy left to go to the welcome reception, learn the basic ground rules from Jessie and meet a few of our new friends. Then - crash! into bed.