We spent a month in mainland China (max duration of the visa, but not nearly enough time!). The first two weeks we mostly visited key sights in the North-East part, between Beijing and Shanghai – and here’s a little summary.
Beijing
We got our first taste of China here, and just loved it! Not at all the polluted, industrial, overwhelming city we imagined. The are many cycling paths, and mostly super-silent electric bikes and tuktuks (we were told the pollution is really bad in winter though). At least in the centre, there are many parks and there are still several neighbourhoods of little leafy streets lined with traditional houses – they are called the hutong.
The only picture of a hutong street that we managed to find
I would say that walking in the hutongs was actually our favourite part of Beijing, but somehow… well, we forgot to take any pictures of the streets :-0 They didn’t necessarily have anything special, they were just cute, calm, with some little shops and old people sitting and gossiping outside.
Cute little restaurant in the hutong
Local hutong temple
Our other favourite were the parks, with beautiful lakes, willow trees and pagodas. People seemed to use them like an extension of their living room: pensioners playing cards or singing cheesy 1960s songs on loudspeakers, ladies jumping in elaborate choreographies to stay fit, couples dancing together to some local rhythmic music (we joined in a few times hehe).
Beihai Park: beautiful water plants and willow trees
Cesar cooling down at one of the little pagodas
High bridges in the Summer Palace. Oh, and Cesar hiding in the shade
Pagodas, and more pagodas…
We also just had to go to the Forbidden City, but the heat and the crazy crowds of tourists made it hard to enjoy…
Forbidden City cooking in the sun
Us and the tourists. The photo is crooked and ugly, but when it’s 40 degrees it’s hard to care! Can you see us gritting the teeth and fantasising of that cold lemonade?
Cool turtle that looks like a lion. Oh, and Cesar hiding in the shade.
Our favourite learning of the day – the little magical roof animals that protect from bad spirits. The more animals, the more important the house owner.
The emperor’s roof may be less colourful, but has the most animals of all!
We loved Beijing so much that we decided to stay a week instead of 4 days initially planned. This allowed us to walk around many markets, artsy neighbourhoods, more palaces.
Crazy market where Ieva wanted to buy everything
Choosing the lion that will best fit out house
Hipsterland of Beijing – Art district with many galleries, shops and cafes
Vintage bikes and tuktuks for the hipsters
Mao and the very popular chinese flower pose
And of course we went to see the wall, in Jinshinling which is not very touristy and half-restored. Straddling the mountaintop edge as far as the eye can see, it was even more impressive than the photos can show! The more we walked, the more crumbling the wall – interesting to see both what it looked like back in the day, but also the current state.
Wall – as far as the eye can see. Consider that it’s surrounded by a jungle and steep rocky mountainsides… impossible to imagine how they built it!
At times, it’s almost vertical!
Datong and Pingyao
After Beijing, we visited 2 smaller cities, each a night-train ride away. Problem is… we didn’t book the tickets enough in advance and there were only “hard seats” left, no sleepers. The “hard seats” are not necessarily very hard, but the back is 100% vertical because it’s used on both sides, and the coach is brimming with people (including those with standing tickets, luggage, children, people jumping on and off at each station – basically not good for sleeping).
“Hard seats” where we spent 2 nights in a row… the second night was very, very long!
On the upside, both times we met nice Chinese guys who spoke English and who took care of us, even taking us out for a meal (explaining that they could not let us pay, because of “chinese manners”.
Our new friend
In Datong, we stopped over to see huge Buddhas sculpted directly in the mountain
In Pingyao, our reward after the 2 nights in the train – an amazing guesthouse in a traditional house. Our room is in that little tower at the top!
Pingyao was really a highlight of our China trip – a whole walled city preserved and full of traditional houses that can be visited
Inside the houses, even the furniture has been preserved
Beautiful internal courtyards connected via little passages
Cesar’s personal highlight of the trip – banging the big bell.
A temple with weird chinese gods
Weird chinese god. See, told you. Weird.
Xian
Afterwards we took the bullet train (much more comfortable) and spent 2 days in Xi’an. We decided to skip the famous terracotta warrior museum, to avoid getting into another tourist craze. Instead, we went to the Emperor Jingdi’s tomb, from a previous dynasty – much smaller figurines but very impressive.
The emperor was buried with an army of little 50cm height warriors (originally they had wooden arms and clothes but that has now disappeared)
Each warrior has a different facial expression (and even penis shape! :P). The horse riders look Mongolian.
They also put a bunch of little animals so that the emperor can feed himself after death
We ate at the Muslim street food market – it was very interesting to see the Muslim community having preserved their traditions for centuries, right in the middle of China.
Xi’an mosque
Shanghai
Then we continued on to Shanghai, this time by plane (if you look at the map, Shanghai is really far in the East…). Which was great, because we got a chance to experience the pre-landing fitness exercise: the crew gives instructions and all passengers proceed to banging their legs to improve circulation, stretch their articulations, etc. Wow, that is real customer care!
Thanks to pre-landing exercise, we landed in great physical shape.
Shanghai really does feel much more cosmopolitan and modern than Beijing or anywhere else in China. We saw many westerners everywhere, and overall it just felt like any big modern city.
Shanghai Tower – The highest building in China, and second-tallest in the world after the Dubai one.
Ieva preferred the pink vintage TV tower
Just because he’s way too cute
Marriage market – parents sit in the park and display the key info of their kid (i.e birthdate and height) on an umbrella, chat with other parents and see if there is a match. Most of the time, the kids didn’t ask for help…
Art in the Park
A moment of classiness in our backpacker trip – an evening at the rooftop bar of the Peninsula Hotel
Coming up next > the rest of our adventures in China!