The differences between Beijing and Shanghai were immediately appearant. The airport seemed a little smaller, a little more run down. The airport express train was a little more worn out than what you'd find in Hong Kong. None of these was an issue; however, getting to our hostel was. Having arrived late, we probably didn't get to the main subway line until after 11, at which time it was closed. When we emerged from the closed subway, two foreigners with big bags, the taxi drivers new they could make some extra money. Asking Qu nar? Qu nar? （去哪里？Where are you going, but with a Beijing accent which I was even able to notice), they refused to turn on their meters, and quoted as prices that we knew by that point were too high.Particularly disturbing where the unlicensed taxis, with their tinted windows, which I'd read and been told not to take under any circumstances. Instead, we walked away from the station and hailed a cab exiting the highway. This driver was more friendly and honest, and turned on the meter (though I'll admit to holding my breath a little until I saw that the meter was working right). Another observation I made about China: the taxi drivers are super friendly. They always greet you in and say good bye and thank you. Also, they do this in Chinese, whereas in Hong Kong few people will actually speak to foreigners in Chinese (although this likely boils down to HK drivers speaking English and Mainland drivers not).
The driver got a little lost and had to call the hostel, but we did eventually find it. It was recommended by a good friend, and turned out to be a great recommendation! Designed like a Hutong (traditional allyway house, more on that later), the rooms all faced an inner courtyard, and were clean and nice.
With less time in Beijing than Shanghai, we got right down to business. After dealing with some errands in the morning, we took a cab down Beijing's extremely wide streets to Tiannenmen Square (天安门广场）。 Driving in Beijing is interesting, as most of the highways are ring-roads, which pass many beautiful old buildings and houses (including some temples), as opposed to Shanghai's noticeable lack of history (since it's really not that old). Tiannenmen itself was pretty busy. We had to go through security (in fact, there's airport-style security at every subway, museum, and major attraction we saw in China). It is known as the world's largest public square, and it is indeed large! We walked around a while, taking pictures and look at monuments. As we were taking a few photos before leaving, large amounts of PLA soldiers came and started doing some sort of drill, which made for excellent photos (their outfits are really, really, friggin' cool looking). As it turned out, the soldiers were clearing the square- China's once annual political meetings were about to begin in the Hall of the People, opposite next to the square.
The square is directly opposite the forbidden city, officially called the palace museum, and that was our next destination. It was massive, full of the stately old buildings in which the upper crust of society once lived. Although we thought we'd be spending a full day there, it turned out not to take too long, and we found ourselves heading out to lunch around two (it's important to note that the scam at the forbidden city isn't tea ceremonies but rather "art students" wanting to take you to art shows). (Mixing the old and new, the forbidden city was home to a basketball court!?).
The streets in this part of Beijing are picturesque, surrounded by Hutongs-common courtyard areas in the middle of several houses. We checked out a dumpling shop recommend in the Lonely Planet. It was pretty much empty when we arrived (half the staff was asleep at a table), but the food was great (and the English translation of the Menu provided some mid-day entertainment). Deciding to be adventurous, we gave donkey meat a try (not my favourite, it had a really strong flavour. Plus I kept thinking of the movie Shrek). Having finished our day's worth of plans in the mid-afternoon, we looked through the Lonely Planet for something, and decided to head out to the Olympic Park.
We started by heading to the Bird's Nest, or National Olympic Stadium. The design was fascinating-it was barely shielded from the outside, and none of the seats we tried (and we tried many) provided a better or worse view. Although the action was long over,I did feel a chill go down my spine thinking that this was where Ussain Bolt shocked the world, a few metres away (and unfortunately not open once we got there, save, of course, for the gift shop) was where Michael Phelps set all his records, and that this was the site were China had its massive "Coming out" party to the world. It also brought back memories of how proud I felt watching the Winter Olympics in my own country almost exactly a year prior; I can definitely understand the feeling China must have had.
With the water cube closed, and not interested in any of the strange souvenir army-men, we took a cab back to a street food market we'd passed on the drive up. It was pretty touristy, but a wide range of things were available-including Scorpion, bugs, and "dog" (although my friend tried it, we weren't convinced that it was actual dog meat rather than chicken). There were plenty of foreigners here, and many of them scoffed at the foods, but this made us wonder why bother coming so far in the first place.
We took a stroll around then, through an area filled with nice shops, into another food market (The sign said "model food market", but it was so dirty we figure that it was the model of what not to do. We hope.), some quick souvenir shopping, and then faced the same problems hailing a cab (tip:do what we did and just go to the taxi stand at a fancy hotel. Cabs aren't going to pass up a fair at any major or expensive joint).
To round off the day, as I was checking my e-mails at the hostel computers, some of the staff brought out a guitar and started singing (very beautifully) the song "月亮代表我的心" (The Moon represents my heart. Probably the only Chinese folk song I would recognize, having heard it in Hong Kong as well). It sounds corny now, but a couple of people singing softly to a Chinese folk song in a (beautiful) youth hostel in Beijing was definitely one of those irreplaceable travel moments.
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