Fall break fell upon us last week and while the majority of the expat population fled the city and headed for beaches in Thailand, Vietnam or Malaysia, or exciting city breaks in Tokyo, Hong Kong or Singapore, what seemed like the entire Chinese population headed for Beijing. As did we. We figured we couldn’t really leave Shakespeare at a cattery so soon after having checked out of one and besides, it gave us a chance to explore our new city.
We started off the week with a visit to Tiananmen Square, rumored to fit 1.000.000 visitors at once. I believe there were 999.996 Chinese visitors and four (4) Swedes around that Monday morning, at least if felt like it. But boy, were we popular. We of course remember the fascination of our pale skin, blue eyes and golden hair but for the kids this was new. But after a few minutes of shyness, they quickly warmed up and posed with whom ever wanted a picture with a REAL laowai. We squeezed ourselves through the underpass in an effort to enter the Forbidden City but to no avail. It was simply too crowded and by now, the kids had really had enough. Not even hot dog on a stick and ice cream helped and we made our way out, trying to find lunch.
And there they were, lovely little street restaurants offering all sorts of local delicacies but what did our kids do? They frowned with their little faces and scrunched their noses complaining about weird smells and sounds. I guess we will take it in baby steps but it will be my mission to have them eat, and enjoy (!), Chinese food before next summer.
Having Mr. Li around to take us home after our exhausting city visit was a godsend; to escape into his clean Buick with crocheted seat covers (and seatbelts!) and listen to Lady Gaga made the trip home so much more comfortable than trying to find a taxi and convince the driver to drive all the way out to Shunyi all the while listening to Chinese theater on the radio and worry about the kids crashing through the window in case of an accident.
Tuesday we headed for Mutianyu. In 1997 this part of the Great Chinese Wall was pretty peaceful and calm; a few vendors selling water and souvenirs, a tiny bar and a very stinky bathroom of the simplest kind. Toilet seats - are you kidding? Doors for privacy -why bother?!
There had been an upgrade in both restrooms (still stinky though) and vendors of food/drink/souvenirs; there was even a Subway! We had packed lunch and headed straight for the gondola taking us all the way up to the wall, with a half-promise that we would look at the nanchucks and Chinese army hats later…as well as the traditional Chinese empress hat…
Even the kids were impressed by the wall, actually awestruck and speechless would be a better word for their reaction. It is so impressive and magnificent and incomprehensible to understand that it is man-made. The kids had a blast and ran off energy climbing up and down the steps, not tiring of the view or the attention they got from the other visitors, again – mainly Chinese. The sun was shining, the sky was blue and as we were sitting down next to a watch tower eating our sandwiches we were having a near perfect moment. If it hadn’t been for the people gawking at us, stopping to take our picture (they eat!) and ask us questions about where we were from, why we were there, were the kids twins and when the answer was no; oh you are so lucky.
We managed to steer the attention away from the nanchucks (I could just imagine the strangling accident) with two samurai swords and traded the army hat for a revolutionary cap (couldn’t get her off the empress hat though) and picked up a few souvenirs for our American friends and later headed home, in Mr. Li’s air conditioned sedan listening to Lady Gaga.
No comments:
Post a Comment