Christmas Shopping

We were staying in a 4 star hotel, and we wanted to make use of the hotel room more than usual. It was still chuffing cold outside and as Christmas was approaching we decided that we would have a more relaxed day than normal and try to order a few bits and bobs online to get delivered at home in time for Christmas. So we spent a relaxed morning surfing through Amazon and such sites trying to get some inspiration for Christmas presents for our friends and family.

Obviously we needed food, so we left the warmth and comfort of the hotel and went down to the south gate to find one of the markets that our friend Haven had told us about. It was down Calligraphy Street, and it seemed so-called as there were so may brushes and parchments for sale it was untrue. We managed to do a little bit of wheeler-dealering  down there before grabbing some well-earned fodder.

We had visited the main market street on our first day in Xi’An but hadn’t really bought much as we wanted to get a feel for the place first. Now it was our last day in China we needed to up our game a little as I had a long list of things I wanted to get people and only an afternoon to achieve it. We had our fair share of good and bad sellers down there, to the point whereby we walked away in disgust at some of the prices, and to the point where we nearly got spat on and chucked out of the shop when we entered our low opening offer. But we had great success and got pretty much exactly what we wanted and headed back to the hotel with a smile on our face to out the kettle on and warm up again.

Hmmmmm, I just don't understand....

The afternoon was spent checking through all details for our trip to Kathmandu on the following day and packing all our stuff, for we would be setting the alarm for 4:00am to make sure we would get to the airport in plenty of time. We revisited the Japanese place across the road and James still had trouble asking the staff for a fork, and ended up having to shovel the rice and beef dish down with a hefty spoon. We watched the final episode of Catterick (which I implore you to watch) and settled in for a few hours of sleep before the alarm would be bleeping us into consciousness from across the room.

The Terracotta Warriors

The plan was to wake up at the usual time, sneak upstairs for some breakfast and then walk the half hour to the train station and get the bus out to the Terracotta Warriors. It didn’t exactly go to plan. With my watch alarm set for 8:00am pretty much every day, somehow neither of us heard it go off in the morning. However, we were woken up by someone knocking at the door repeatedly. This has happened a couple of times and it seems to be people who have organised a tour which leaves early in the morning but the tour person has got the wrong room. James jumped up and told whoever it was to get lost and we settled back in to sleep. The next thing I know James has thrown off the duvet and exclaimed “it’s 10 to eleven!” whilst rushing into the bathroom. Oh dear.Looks like we would have to get our own breakfast.

Even though we had a late start we managed to get ourselves ready and down to the bus stop for just after midday. It was a very chilly day, something that we hadn’t really expected after Haven had said that Xi’An was generally warmer than Beijing. We soon identified our bus, number 306, and jumped on board. The fare was 7 Yuan and we couldn’t help but shake our heads at the people who paid well over the odds to have a private car/minibus take them there when it is easy to get the bus and save your hard-earned.

At the back of the bus, for the legroom!

It took us a while to identify the ticket booth as we walked round in the cold surrounded by people selling all manner of Terracotta Warrior tat. Just to ruin the image further there was a KFC standing proudly at the entrance. Gnnnnngh! With our tickets purchased and the numerous offers of guides refused we headed back up the road to the entrance.

Inside it wasn’t quite what I was expecting. It seemed to be much more of a museum-style arrangement with fresh new buildings presumably housing the warriors. We found the biggest building (Pit 1) and entered with all the other tourists keen to see the clay feast that awaited us. I did my “Grand Canyon trick” of looking at the floor until I knew I would have full view of the army and then lifted my head to see them all laid out in front of us. It was a fantastic sight. There are hundreds of them, all unique in their design, and it is hard to believe that they are well over 2,000 years old.

The Terracotta Warrior army

We wandered round Pit 1 taking numerous pictures and marvelling at the army of clay soldiers that stood below us. We made our way through to Pit 2 and Pit 3 and saw many more of the warriors and learned some of the history behind them. It was still pretty darned cold out there so we were happy to climb back onto the coach after the few hours we had seeing the army. Again, another 7 Yuan back to Xi’An and within 45 minutes we were back at the train station.

Pit 2... I think 

After another power-walk back to the hotel we decided to try out the ramen/noodle place over the road from the hotel and I was thoroughly pleased with the place. Nice and cheap, some English on the menu, but absolutely none spoken by the staff. Still, it didn’t matter to me, I was well away with my chopsticks and dumplings, etc, but it was a different story for James as they didn’t understand “fork” in English. It looked tricky eating duck noodles with two thin spoons.

Nom nom nom!

I Want To Ride My Bicycle...

It had felt bloody ruddy good to sleep in a nice warm and comfortable room after the Beijing hotel so we woke refreshed and ready to nip upstairs for a bit of brekkie, included in the price for our stay. It was a great spread too and we sat and wondered why we didn’t pay a couple of quid extra to stay in somewhere nice in Beijing too. Maybe we have been getting a little soft as our travels have gone on.

There was only one real thing on the agenda for the day – cycle the Xi’An city walls. It is supposedly the thing to do in Xi’An, when you are not visiting the Terracotta Warriors, of course. And also it is best to do it on a tandem bike. Well, we were well up for it, until we actually saw the tandems.

To get to the bikes we needed to trek the few km to the South Gate where we would be able to hire said bikes. It is a pretty impressive sight when you come face to face with the big grey walls that surround the inner city. We paid for our ticket to get up onto the walls and mooched around trying to find the bike station. As I said before, we quickly turned down the opportunity to do a tandem ride – mainly because of the bikes, but also because we knew how uncoordinated we would be on it.

On second thoughts........no!

We paid the girl for the bikes and clambered on. We would have 100 minutes to do a full circuit of the wall. No problem we thought, we used to always be out on our bikes when we were young, just like Karl Pilkington was. And we were off!

Much better! 

It was a very bumpy ride along the wall and we stopped numerous times to check out the scenery and generally muck about, as you do when you are cycling along an ancient city wall in China. There were a few others on top too, but nothing like how many there would be in summer, so it was nice that we almost had the place to ourselves, even though it was jolly chilly up there!

Hello! I'm riding a bike!

We made it round in plenty of time and even had a few minutes to spare as we handed the bikes back. Thankfully there had been no accidents so we wouldn’t need to be calling up the insurance arm of Barclays anytime soon. It certainly got the old blood pumping, which is something that hasn’t happened for quite some time so it was definitely a positive experience. After the bikes we tried to find the Great Mosque but got lost in the maze of narrow streets again. We did find our way out (obviously) and ended up in Lianhu Gardens. There was a small lake and a group of people gathered round a karaoke machine with some “Bez” dancing around like a fool, but he seemed to be enjoying himself. The outdoor karaoke seems to be quite a big thing over here as we saw it in plenty of other places on our travels through China.

Back at the hotel we took the weight off our feet and James had a little snooze through an episode of Catterick. I tried to do a bit of Christmas shopping online, but didn’t really get anywhere. We did manage to find one of the restaurants that we had been researching, but it was one heck of a walk! All the way down to the south-east part of the city, about a half hours walk. It was decent enough grub, but I doubt we would go back again. Especially as on the way back we saw a place right next to our hotel that looked like it would be just the job for the next night, after we had been to see the infamous Terracotta Warriors.

China vs Google

It was an early wake-up call…7:30am to be precise. We hadn’t been disturbed throughout our entire trip, apart from clunking into the occasional train station, but we were getting used to that by now. We would be arriving at just after 8am so we collected our things and readied ourselves for another cold morning start.

Jumping off the train and beginning to arrange the straps on my luggage to clamp it to my back I thought to myself how nice it was now to get off a train and not have a taxi driver rush up to my face and ask if we needed a taxi, as per Thailand. No sooner had I thought it someone came up to me and did that exact same thing, but I managed to pass him off explaining that we were walking it to our already-booked hotel.

We have been able to use a combination of media to track down our accommodation when we first arrive in a new city, but due to China vs Google my Maps application just wouldn’t function. In addition to that we hadn’t been able to use Google Maps in Beijing to see where it was anyway due to the same problem so we were almost working in the dark. Thankfully the hotel was on the main drag so it shouldn’t be a problem finding it.

As usual, whenever I utter those immortal words we had trouble finding it. It turns out that we had walkd right past it without noticing, but in our defence the only indication was some small writing on the handles of the doors. And a gigantic sign up on the side of the building, but as we were walking under it we couldn’t see it. Anyway, we entered and were pretty pleased with our choice. 4 stars no less……a slight step up from a cold, smelly fish-pond-containing, putting-your-waste-paper-in-the-bin farce of Beijing. The room was just what we needed when we got in, and rivalled the LVH in Las Vegas and the Angkor Pearl in Cambodia for Best Hotel Of Our Trip……so far. In dire need of some extra sleep and a shower I flaked out on the bed for an hour or so and then jumped in the shower. A hot shower. A shower that didn’t mean that the entire floor of the bathroom was wet. A shower that was powerful enough to rinse the shampoo out of your hair. A shower that did not pulse freezing cold/scolding hot water onto you every 10 seconds. It was bliss.

4 star luxury...?

And then we needed a wander. Xi’An was at our mercy so we headed out and south towards the Bell Tower. This stands proudly in the centre of the city and has a smaller, similar tower (The Drum Tower) nearby, but that was under lots of scaffolding getting repairs done. We were essentially heading towards the Tourist Information centre so that we could get a better map than the one the hotel gave us and then have a snoop round the place proper.

The glorious Bell Tower

We found the information centre and got the map. Then we found a small market street and had a snoop. There was one item I was searching for, a three-legged toad, but nobody had any small wooden ones, just huge brass ones that weighed a ton! The search would continue. Before we knew it we were lost with no idea where the heck we were and how to get back to the main road. After a wander through the maze of tiny roads we managed to find the main road through the city and made it back to the hotel.

Very nice, but how about a road sign guys?

It was late by the time we made it back out, mainly because we had tried to identify somewhere good to go and eat, as the first night in a new place is always a little troublesome. And without Google Maps we were struggling. We never found it in the end, but we had a contingency plan; we always have a contingency plan. But we couldn’t find that one either. So by the time we stumbled into a shopping centre that had a Pizza Hut it was gone 8:00pm and James’s belly was starting to overpower him. After one look at the menu we turned away in disgust and found a traditional Chinese place just down the way. With no apparent English spoken we were a little wary at first but then they ushered us in and sat us at the swanky table at the head of the restaurant, the one that was closed off and no lighting in until we were shown inside. We felt like kings! But then the ordering process was a little tricky as the young waitress spoke very little English, but we managed to get the message across as to what we wanted and we sat back and waited for our grub to arrive.

Living the good life! Kinda....

Thankfully the order was bang on, but my chicken dish came on-the-bone which I cannot stand. It’s just such a pain to have to pick your way around the bones and gristle. And that’s not even mentioning the salty coating and the chillis! My gosh were there a lot of chillis. It was OK for a first attempt in Xi’An but we couldn’t help feel that the First Night syndrome had hit once again.

Can I have some chicken with my bowl of chillis, please?

Bye Bye Beijing!

This was getting a samey by now, and you probably know what is coming next. Yup, we were packing up our stuff, leaving the big bags behind reception and heading off for a few hours before returning to collect our things and get on our way to the next destination. The next destination was Xi’An, home of the Terracotta Warriors, and I think I can speak for both of us when I say that we were pretty glad to be getting out of the hotel in Beijing. The city itself was great, apart from the fact that if you wanted to get anywhere around Tiananmen Square you would have to go via the underground walkways, which were just a pain in the backside after 4 days!

According the rather sketchy map that the Beijing Leo Courtyard had given us there was a market nearby that might be worth exploring, so we set off in the general direction and hoped that there was something interesting to be found there – we had almost 6 hours to kill, and not much to do. When we entered the indoor market we saw little sign of the electronics that were supposedly housed within. Instead it seemed to cater more for women and/or hairdressers/beauty salons. No matter though, there were 6 floors to check out. After 4 floors of beauty equipment, accessories and products we decided to get the heck out of dodge and leave it all behind. Maybe it was an old map…

When we got outside and I read out the market name to James it seems that there had been a mis-communique and we had gone in the wrong one. But it looked there was another just down the road, so we poked our heads in there hoping to find something that would be more interesting than scissors, shampoo and hairdryers. It was, but only just. There was more variety at least, but there was just loads of stalls selling home appliances and shoes. Again, not really our thing so we cut our losses and bowled out the exit.

Anyone need some shoes??

We returned to Helen’s for lunch and then chilled out with a few rounds of cards. I have lost count of how many games we have had on this trip but it must be into the thousands by now. And don’t ask me what the score is either! We both assume that it’s pretty much even…

The clock was showing gone 2pm so we were making our way to the nearby park for a wander when James remembered the Museum Of China was nearby, and hopefully affordable. So we hung a right and went through the underground walkways (again) and then through security (again!) to get into the museum. Thankfully it was free and we just needed to show them our passports to prove who we were – two travelling English gents and not two home-grown radicals intent on staging a protest, or worse, inside.

It's big inside the museum...

Our first investigation was through the Ancient China exhibition. Detailing all about the early history of the country and the warring states back in the day there were amazing collections of art, stone-age and bronze-age artefacts and even a couple of terracotta warriors, but we tried no to look at them as we would be enjoying them in Xi’An in a few days time.

Ol' Big 'Ead

We needed to get a move on as it was 4:00pm and we had only done the one floor, and briefly at that. We wanted to try and squeeze in the flag ceremony at 4:50pm or thereabouts, so we would need to speed our way through the other floors in order to get a good viewing point on Tiananmen Square. We did just that and then took our place by the flagpole ad waited in the cold.

The ceremony only lasted about 10 minutes, if that, and was a little bit underwhelming. Haven had told us that the morning ceremony at sunrise (something that we definitely wouldn’t have seen!) was quite enthralling and made her feel proud of her country, but the afternoon one was just taking the flag down and marching off back into the Forbidden City.

We finally saw the flag ceremony

After we had picked up our luggage we attempted to hail a taxi from the main road nearby. It took about 15 minutes and not the best if you are standing outside in Beijing in winter. But we arrived at the station in plenty of time and it only cost a couple of quid. Inside we found our waiting room and tried to find a spot in amongst all the other passengers, of which there were many! The only two incidents of note are a Chinese girl coming up to James and asking him what we call the big pot noodle jobbies in English (as we were both having our tea sitting on the floor) and a middle-aged guy (who I later saw downing a small bottle of 56% rice wine) coming up to both of us, holding 4 fingers up and not really saying much – I shrugged my shoulders and said I couldn’t understand him about 5 times before he moved on to James and tried the same. We were very grateful when he remained seated when our train was called for boarding.

A very crowded Beijing West station

I had been a little excited about getting on the Z53 train to Xi’An as supposedly it was a pretty nifty bit of kit. Not the fastest or the most expensive but it had carpets, curtains, hot water taps, a TV for each bed, climate control, power points, you name it! We were first in to our 4-bed booth and thankfully nobody had joined us by the time we pulled out of the train station. We were very comfortable and settled in for a nice 12 hour journey through to Xi’An, where hopefully it would be a little warmer than the chilly capital.

Mopping Up

So we had done Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and the Great Wall Of China. What else was there to do? We should just pack our bags and get on the next train to Xi’An. But no, that just wouldn’t do. We still had the opportunity to see the Mao Mausoleum for starters, and then pack the rest of the day with other little bits around Beijing.

We weren’t allowed cameras in, or so we assumed, and we left our bags at home so we wouldn’t have to go through the drama of putting them in the correct-sized lockers and paying the relevant fee. We queued up with the masses of people also wanting to get a look at Chairman Mao and we noted that it seemed remarkably busy, much more so than on the day before when we had tried to get in. Then we realised that it was Saturday. Dagnabbit! There would be every man and his dog trying to get in and see the man. But it didn’t take very long to get through the queue and security (obviously) and then line up ready to pass through the mausoleum.

It didn’t take long to go from start to finish. Most of the other people around us bought flowers and laid them at a statue of Chairman Mao and then we moved through to where he was, lying in a glass enclosed coffin with a single light shining on his face. Very spooky, but we weren’t in there for long as the line was constantly moving, but it’s another thing to say that I have done whilst on my travels.

We had heard that the Silk Market/Silk Street was a good place to visit when in Beijing so we climbed aboard our favourite metro train, changed twice and emerged in a new part of town. We were also running low on funds, but James had identified a China Construction Bank that we would be able to get some more from (least charges to withdraw from). It wasn’t far, but it was closed. It was Saturday. It looked like we were going to have to take a hit on withdrawing from another bank until I spotted people entering the building to the left. We entered and manage to do enough gesturing to the chap on reception that we just wanted to use the ATM and bingo, we were in!

The balls and the banks

With fresh Yuan in our wallets we found the Silk Market and headed inside. It reminded us of the infamous Chungking Mansions in Hong Kong with its small aisles and sellers shouting at you as you walk past. There was nothing there for us really, nothing that we hadn’t seen before, and we were saving our next shopping spree for Xi’An where it is much cheaper, according to Haven.

No silk, t-shirts, suits, hats, scarves, or any tat thank you very much!

Our next item on the agenda was the Temple of Heaven. Another couple of stops down the metro and we were there. We didn’t know much about it but as we hadn’t gained much from the Silk Market we wanted to salvage the afternoon with a visit there. It was quite similar to the Forbidden City with various buildings dotted around the site, with information boards along the way to tell you what you were looking at.

The Temple Of Heaven, in the background

We only had an hour to look around as the place would be shutting at 5:00pm sharp, so we bombed through the place to see as much as we could before getting kicked out. We never got to see it all, but had a good stab at it and it meant that we would definitely sleep well in the night!

Another smoggy sunset in Beijing

The metro ride back to our district was horrendously crowded and I kept a close eye/hand on all my possessions in the cramped carriages. We were pretty tired from the last couple of days so we made it a hat-trick in the restaurant downstairs for dinner and even got both cats sitting with us again. This time it was my kung pao chicken that the cheekier of the two felines went for, but it was way too spicy for him! I had laced it with two lashings of tabasco sauce to rid myself of another cold, probably brought on by close proximity to sneezing Chinese people on cramped trains…and the cold.

The Grrrrrrreat Wall Of China

Phew! Everything was OK and it turned out that Haven wasn’t a knife-yielding scam merchant. Everything was still where we left it, including a sleepy Haven, when James ventured back into the “living room” room. We all got up and dressed, and went down to the hotel restaurant for a slap-up breakfast. Ironically both me and James plumped for the American breakfast whereas Haven went for the full English! It was a cracking breakfast too, one that we would need to give us energy for the next little tick on our to-do list – the Great Wall Of China!

Big breakfasts all round!

We said our farewell to Haven and promised that we would all keep in touch and we made our way to the metro (again) to get to Beijing North station, where the train would leave for the wall. We toyed with the idea of taking a tour from the hotel or checking online to see if there were any good ones, but we would have to pay much less than the £6 or so that it would cost us to go via train. Plus we wouldn’t have to get up at an un-Godly hour for a hotel pick-up at stupid o’clock in the morning. But it wouldn’t be as simple as we had thought, or at least as simple as The Man In Seat 61 said it would be. For some reason we always get stuck behind someone who is refunding tickets or their credit card doesn’t work or they don’t understand Chinese/English/Chinglish, and in this instance it was the former. Added to the fact that when we got to the front, and had stopped some cheeky gits trying to squeeze in from the side (which is always the case too I might add…) the lady behind the glass informed us that we needed to buy the ticket from the booths upstairs. Great.

So when we finally got our tickets we found our train and climbed aboard. It was a pretty good train, as they go. Masses of legroom, which put a huge smile on my brother’s face. Plenty of room and spare seats, but the occasional wail from the child in the seats to our left, but you can’t have everything. It would take about an hour to get to Badaling station whereby we would jump off and walk up to the entrance to the Great Wall.

Leg roooooooooooom!

After some tunes, lunch, an episode of Mid Morning Matter and a nap we arrived at Badaling station. When we got off the train we were greeted not only by the crisp, cold air of the Chinese winter but also a number of touts flogging gloves, hats, scarves and socks. We were already pretty well kitted out so we ignored them and pushed on up to the Great Wall.

It wasn’t expensive to get a ticket, only about £4.50 which in the grand scheme of things is pretty good. It had already been an impressive walk up from the station, apart from the Subway and KFC that were nestled amongst the souvenir shops. When we were through the gate we had the choice of North or South wall, and we chose North, as the South was blinding us with the sun directly behind it.

They're everywhere!!

It was unbelievable to be there, standing on the Great Wall Of China. Typing it out now it still feels odd that I can say that as it is without doubt one of the most famous “things” I guess you can use, in the world. It is truly stupefying when you stand there and see the swarms of people hiking up and down it, and the sheer scale of the thing is just unbelievable.

There are no words.....

I had made a comment the day before, something along the lines of “why did we choose Beijing in winter” as it has been the coldest part of our trip to date. I think visiting the Great Wall in winter has gone someway to softening that blow as it was just beautiful in the bright blue sky and sunshine beaming down on us. We were thoroughly wrapped up so after a few minutes walking along/up the wall we were peeling off the layers to get some cool air onto us. The wall just kept going on and on and on. And then it stopped. There was a flimsy “Police” ribbon across the wall that meant nobody would be going any further. I assumed that it was because there was still snow on that part of the wall and people may injure themselves trying to walk along it. So it was at that point that all the hikers turned round and headed back to the start point.

Even better with the snow on it

By the time we got back to the start it was getting lateish and we had the choice of two trains to catch – leave then and catch the early one, or do the South Wall and catch the later one. We went for the latter option and set off onto South Wall.

It was indeed getting late, and the sun was starting to fall on that lower part of the wall. As we began our climb up the South Wall we noticed that there were far fewer people climbing with us. In fact, we noticed that there wasn’t anyone at all! As we looked back to the start point it seemed like there was nobody else on the South Wall and that most people were heading home. Would it be possible that they were closing? Would we get “locked in” on the Great Wall Of China?

Where is everyone???

No, we wouldn’t. We saw a few other people round the corner, and a few more clambering up behind us. We pressed on through the cold and fading light. There was a lot more wall to see, and many more mountains surrounding us that would surely give some fantastic photos. In some areas there was still plenty of snow; snow that had fallen over a week ago that had caused the deaths of a number of people in the Beijing area, and it wasn’t about to melt just yet. We reached the end point of the South Wall and waited for the sun to finally set behind the mountains and boy was it worth it! Sunrise at the Taj Mahal is fantastic and sunset on the Great Wall Of China is just as breath-taking.

Simply breath-taking

It was getting cold as the sun had set so we power-walked our way back to the start point. We managed to get our train back to Beijing with no problems at all and got back to our hotel later than originally planned, but still in time for us to nip across the road to “Helens” a backpacker hostel-cum-restaurant. It had been a long day so we retired back to the Leo Courtyard and had a relaxed evening. I began my search for accommodation in Kathmandu, but due to China vs Google it was a very stressful process.

T'is Forbidden

So we had arrived in Beijing and already seen one of the most famous things in the capital, if not in China - Tiananmen Square. It was time to see another, the Forbidden City, which thankfully for us was not too far away from our hotel. But before that we had a couple of other things to sort out. Number one on the list was to purchase the train tickets to Xi’An from Beijing, another overnighter. We also wanted to see Chairman Mao lying in state, but this would be shut at midday so we would need to get a move on.

There was a rail ticket office near to the hotel, but they had no hard sleeper beds left (cheaper, but with 6 people instead of 4) so we would have to take a little trip to the main train station or try and get to Beijing West, where the train leaves from. But before that we wanted to go to the Memorial Hall to see Chairman Mao. We have got used to security checks whilst staying in Beijing and this was no different. No bags allowed, so we would have to leave them in lockers over the road and get a ticket, etc, etc. We decided that we would do it another day, without our bags to save the complications. So we hopped on the metro and made it out to the train station.

Our local roads

There is usually one ticket booth that states it is English-speaking, but we couldn’t see one out of the 20 or so booths that had many, many people queuing at each one. We joined a queue that had some other Westerners in it and by sheer luck it was indeed the English-speaking line. We managed to get tickets sorted, but it seemed like all the hard sleeper tickets had gone so we would have to pay for the more expensive soft sleepers. No matter, it would be a little luxury in our journey down to Xi’An.

After lunch we headed to the Forbidden Palace. It was reasonably cheap to get into, but as soon as we did we were set upon by people asking us if we needed a guide. Naturally we batted them away with gusto and marched on under the arched entrance. Inside it was pretty majestic. But it was also pretty damned chilly! Make that “ridiculously chilly” as there was a howling wind that screamed through the complex. We wandered round the place and were impressed (largely) with the buildings and history of the place.

A rather chilly Forbidden City

We may have experienced a slight lack of enthusiasm for some things, however, as we have been travelling for over 5 months now and have seen a lot of spectacular things, so it is inevitable that we experience an underwhelmed feeling to some things. It may also have been that James was struggling with the cold, but I was pretty toasty with my layers, hat and two hoods. It was much bigger than I initially thought and we spent a good couple of hours searching out all the small areas with interesting little information boards and wishing ponds.

Inside the Forbidden City

Once we were done with the Forbidden City we made it back to the hotel and had received an email from the girl on the train, Haven. She was free that night to meet up and experience some “bars” as she hadn’t done so before. We were tired, but still keen to venture out into Beijing and see what the bars would offer us, especially having missed out in Shanghai and Hong Kong. To be honest though, my spidey senses were still tingling a little bit – not just from the scammers in Shanghai, but also the girl on the train from Hanoi to Nanning, who never replied to our attempts to get in touch (the one who had a hotel that we could leave our bags in if we wanted to go an explore…). Was she a genuinely nice girl who just wanted to have some company with two English gents who were visiting for a few days? Or was there a bar/hotel scam lurking round the corner…?

We sampled the delights of the hotel restaurant once again that night, as we were going to be pushed for time otherwise, and once again we were joined at our table by the cats that seemed to have free reign of the place. There was a bunch on Finnish lads on the table next to us who were playing cards and trying to determine which was the best club to go out to in Beijing. I wondered if we would be bumping into these lads later on in the evening…

James with resident cat, before it went for his pork

We met Haven at one of the metro stations a few stops down from our own and it was great to see her again, still with that massive smile on her face and the aura of enthusiasm surrounding her. None of us knew exactly where to go (which was a good sign as we had read that many of the “bar scams” involve going to a specific bar, much like the tea scam, as the owners are in on it) but James had done a little research on the right area to head to so we set off in the cold and blustery Beijing night.

Where to now then, James???

We arrived at a bar that seemed quite good from Wikitravel, apparently, but it seemed a bit loud inside and the beers were a bit too pricey for our liking. The problem with a loud bar is that Haven would have trouble understanding us and we might have trouble explaining things, so we were on the lookout for a nice quiet lounge bar or something. We ended up in a place called Youth Club (I think!) as it ticked all the boxes. We grabbed three beers (Haven was to join us in a Tsingtao beer) and got settled in an upstairs “box” that looked out over the rest of the floor below. As we were getting comfortable we were shifted out of there as to sit there we would have to be spending over 200 RMB, and that certainly wasn’t going to happen! So we left the VIP box and grabbed a table on the ground floor and got chatting. Well, we tried; each table had a cup with a set of dice in and the other patrons seemed intent on rattling the dice as hard as they possibly could before chucking them out onto the table.

It was quiet, but very dark in there!

We had a great time with Haven in the bar, but as soon as the time hit 10:00pm they cranked up the music which meant that we couldn’t really hear each other. Our last train back was just before 11:00pm so we tried to find another bar that was nearby. We couldn’t find one that was suitable so we called it a night and set off back to the metro station.

It turned out that the people she was staying with at the university had neglected to tell her that they close the doors at 11:00pm so she would get locked out if she made her way back to the university. That left her with an option of finding a hotel nearby , or near ours, or coming to ours to either get a separate room for herself or to sleep one of the two spare twin beds that we had. Hotels often don’t let you bring guests in so we weren’t sure how it would go down, but they were more than happy to take her money and chuck her in our room with us.

A room at the Leo Courtyard you say?

It needed a bit of a tidy as we had just dumped everything out of our bags on the first night but we cleaned up, apologised for the cleanliness of the bathroom (not our fault) and sat down to continue our discussions. Alarm bells were still ringing in my head when she said that she wouldn’t be able to stay at the university as in my head I imagined that she could be trying to get back to our hotel and then try and rob us at knife-point or something! Very much implausible but after Shanghai by spidey senses have been on red alert, and probably over-analysing every little situation.

As the clock neared 12:30am we were all flagging a bit so we made sure Haven was comfortable in her room and we settled down in ours. It had been a strange night, but much fun too. Now we just had to make it through the night and check to see if our luggage would still be at the end of the bed in the morning…

BOGOF

It took a while for me to get off to sleep that night, I don’t seem to be able to sleep that well on trains. And it doesn’t help when the same old fogies that told us to be quiet at 9:30pm start having a loud chat amongst themselves at 3:45am!! I was absolutely livid and huffed, puffed and coughed loudly to let them know that I was awake and not enjoying the middle-of-the-night chit-chat. Eventually they quietened down enough for me to get back off to sleep. But then we were woken by the ticket lady thumping on our beds to give us our paper ticket back (they give you a plastic one to keep on the train, for some reason). So we were pretty much up and ready for when we pulled into the station nice and early.

We had gotten a shock when we alighted from the train from Hong Kong in Shanghai to find it rather chilly. Certainly not what we had been used to for the past…well…4 months really, on and off. So when we stepped out of the carriage and onto the platform in Beijing we were not shocked to find it even colder, but a little bit pissed off. Our new companion, Haven, had waited for us to get off the train so that she could show us where the metro station was. She was also meeting her classmate outside so we could all jump on the train together and we wouldn’t be left to fend for ourselves in the madness of Beijing city centre.

Tim, Haven and James outside Beijing Railway Station

Her classmate (who has no English name) met us in the square outside the station and we all bundled into the metro. We were only going two stops and they were going the long way round so we said our goodbyes on the train and jumped off at our stop. We had exchanged emails and agreed to meet up later that day or the next for a drink or something (sound familiar?). And then we had to find the hotel. As Google is banned in China my Google Maps app on my phone was having trouble identifying any roads in Beijing so this lead to us following a labyrinth of tiny roads before coming to a stand-still where we dumped the bags and regrouped. I sped off up and down the street to see if I could see a road name and triangulate where exactly we were. But I couldn’t. Most of them were all in Chinese or were not listed in the directions to the hotel. I managed to find the Leo Hostel (which I thought might be ours, but our one was the Beijing Leo Courtyard) and they pointed me in the right direction. We weren’t far away from it but it had taken almost an hour to find the flippin place thanks to China vs Google.

It seemed like a nice place, but I had heard some sketchy reviews of the place. We were given a choice of two rooms, neither of which really grabbed us, until they showed us a third , which we jumped at the opportunity to stay in. It had two rooms and within each room there were two single beds. Two TVs, two heaters, two desks, everything but two bathrooms, but that didn’t matter, we would have a room each for our tour of Beijing!

Looks nice, don't it!

Or so we hoped. The larger room that I was to be stationed in had a broken heater/AC unit, and it was cold, oh so cold. We managed to work the other one out from a lot of button-pushing and guess-work, so we had one room with heat at least. Also, in my room there were no functioning plug sockets, even though there was the much larger TV in there. Odd. So unless we got the heater fixed it looked like we would be having a sleeping room and a storage/living room. And then there was the bathroom. Cold, dark, not really clean, and with a big sign by the toilet that advised us under no circumstances to put anything in the toilet…all rubbish “etc” was to be put in the small waste paper bin. Oh dear…

So in an effort to get a good feeling from Beijing after a shaky start we headed out near Tiananmen Square and wandered down a pedestrianized shopping road. It was nice, not a single person came up to us and bothered us to buy any tat. Beijing was starting to look better already. With the chilly daylight fading we headed back to Tiananmen Square to have a mooch round.

We weren't that lazy that we had to get the tram!

It was quite a strange place as it looks spectacular, but it is of course tinged with sadness due to the tragic events in 1989. We had walked round for about 5 minutes before I caught the eye of a young Chinese girl who struck up a conversation with us. Not this again! So with an “offness” that she must have noted she left us alone after she had asked if we wanted to go somewhere for a coffee. At least they were mixing it up a bit. Maybe the next one will be a milkshake. The sun was setting, through the smog, and there is a flag ceremony at sunrise and sunset, so we waited around to see it. But it never happened as the sun had only set behind a building and not set properly, and we were cold so we made our way back to the Leo Courtyard.

Tiananmen Square at sunset

We were still pretty beat from the train ride so we just grabbed a bite to eat from the restaurant in the hotel; pizza for me and a Chinese for James. We were accompanied by one of the hotel cats who took an immediate interest in my pizza when it arrived. It seemed like it could be a lively place at night if the other guests were around, but that would have to wait for another night.

Beijing Bound

No more Shanghai for the Gray boys. And on the morning after our little scam fiasco that would have been fine with me! But now we had got to like the city again but it was once again time to move on. Our next destination was Beijing, but before we left we had time for one last browse through the street markets to see if we could snare a bargain.

But first off we tried to find the Yu/Yuyan Gardens as it was supposedly very nice there. Then again, it was one of the scammers that had told me about it so I didn’t hold out much hope for the place – it would probably be chock-full of scammers! When we left the Yuyan Gardens metro station we were approached within the first 30 seconds by another set of tea scammers. We batted them away very easily as we know the drill by now. As we searched around for the gardens it seemed like we were in the wrong place, or that the gardens were actually pretty poor. So we continued our wander through the streets and ended up in the Old Town area, where we had now walked down the same market street about 6 times already. But this time we were on a mission. This time we would be getting the ol’ wallet out and bagging some stuff.

Our favourite market street......in Shanghai

I managed to find a shop with a few decent coats in and began the search through the chaps stock. I was on the lookout for one of those puffer-style jackets that everyone has out here; one that will keep you warm and toastie, while at the same time being very light and that will shrink down nicely to fit in my bag when needs be. The guy didn’t like my haggling technique at all, but then again he didn’t speak a word of English so it was pretty heavy going. I wanted under 100 RMB (£10) but just couldn’t get him to lower his price. Never mind, plenty more out there, so I left him to it and he muttered something under his breath.

I managed to grab a cheap scarf and a thick warm hat as it was already quite chilly in Shanghai so we knew that it would come in handy up in Beijing. James had wandered off when I was struggling with coat-guy, and I eventually spotted him (not exactly hard in China) in shop nearby trying on a jacket himself. He managed to haggle with them more successfully than me, as they spoke good English, and he bagged himself a bargain. Feeling rather pleased with ourselves, and at the end of the market street, we retraced our steps through the throng of shops and touts. As we were passing a row of shops on the other side of the street my eye was caught by a couple of coats I was after so stuck my head in for a closer look. The young girl inside spoke some English and I managed to get it down to the 100RMB mark and sealed the deal. She wasn’t very happy, but we have come to love that unhappy look on traders faces as it shows that we got a good deal and haven’t paid over the odds.

We collected our luggage from the hotel and hot-footed it to the railway station where, as usual, we had to go through the usual security measures before getting onto our train. Once we were in we reached the waiting area and were astonished at the level of comfort and sophistication there. Proper armchairs and nice tables, probably carpets too if my memory serves me correctly. And then we realised that our waiting room was upstairs. We were treated to a little less luxury than downstairs – metal seats like at a bus stop.

Soon we were on our train and packing ourselves away up the top. We had 4 middle-aged Chinese people below us, but they didn’t seem like they would cause any trouble. We settled in quickly, had some dinner and got playing some cards to pass the time. As we played, a young Chinese girl sidled up to us and asked if she could watch us play. We obliged, obviously, but were wary of any more potential scams that may be lurking around the corner. It didn’t seem like it as she was very polite and not at all like the usual suspects that have come up to greet us so enthusiastically. With her watching over my shoulder I talked her through what I was doing to try and beat James at rummy (in the what felt like the millionth game) and she caught on very quickly. Soon she was playing me, and then James, and then all three of us in one game. We also taught her how to play beggar-my-neighbour, which again she picked up straight away.

James and Haven, our cards buddy

We were chatting as well as playing cards and it got to the point where we were chatting more than playing cards, and the old fogies who had climbed into bed already (at 9:00pm) were muttering that we were being too loud. US being too loud?! What about the two guys on the next table down who were shouting at the tops of their voices and playing around on their phones for ages?! Anyway, we felt that we should turn in for the night so as not to disturb them as they slept; I mean, who would knowingly make noise around people who are trying to get some sleep…?

Long Live Hooky Street

After celebrating us beating the scam artists we had one more day to kill in Shanghai. We were in need of some cold-weather gear for heading north into China and for Nepal afterwards. We heard there was a locals-only market on our side of the river so we got up reasonably early (for us!) and got the metro out there. We considered ourselves seasoned travellers/market hunters by now so any haggling with hard-nosed locals would be easy street.

The metro station had an exit that lead into the market and as soon as we approached the entrance two pushers came straight up to us and began to harass us. They wanted to know what we wanted, where we were going, how much we wanted to play for things, but we just weren’t interested. We tried valiantly to ignore them and browse at our leisure, but they just wouldn’t leave us alone. They would try and lead us down one row of stalls towards their shop(s) but we would do a quick turn down another to try and lose them. Sure enough, after about 20 seconds they were tailing us. They were persistent, I’ll give them that. So, in an effort to get them off our back I made a slight deal with the girl – we would go to their shop, but if we didn’t buy anything they would leave us alone. “Yes, yes, of course” came the response and she sped off with me following, just to get the crazy woman away from us.

We ended up outside a market stall that seemed closed. Maybe it wasn’t open after all. But then she swooped aside the curtain and heaved up a roller shutter to reveal the shop. Inside the small, cramped shop were coats, shoes, jumpers, and about 4 other people, that had previously been having a nice relaxing time of it. I begrudgingly entered and had a look round, aiming to look through quickly, say “thanks, but no thanks” and then get the hell out of dodge. But then I noticed a coat that I was after, and I reckoned that I could get a good deal out of them. But I played it cool; I didn’t want them to know what I was interested in. James had followed me into the shop, and I think that both our spidey-senses were tingling a little. The one by the door began to pull down the shutter and pull the heavy curtain across so nobody could see we were in there. Alarm bells! Ringing loud and clear. Just what was this scam we had walked into? Was it a robbery? Was it stolen goods that they didn’t want the police to see? Either way James blurted out that he wasn’t happy with the situation and bundled out of there under the shutter. I had one eye on the coat and one eye on the exit, and it was the one on the exit that won. I managed to squeeze my way through the sellers, all still asking what I wanted and that they could do me a very cheap deal, until I made it back out into the open. After narrowly avoiding another potential scam we made a swift exit, to the next floor up.

No surprise there was another hawker straight onto us as soon as we breached the staircase. We tried our best to walk round and browse at our convenience, but it just wasn’t possible. As soon as we batted away on hawker another would soon appear, as if taking it in turns like a relay team to wear us down. It was academic anyway as the prices of the items were all too high for us anyhow, so we made the decision to head over to another market, this time across the river. A similar situation as the one previous; out of the metro and into the market. But this one seemed much more relaxed than the other, after we had got through the first couple of entrance guardians. They all seemed to be selling the same kind of things, but not “tat” exactly, more souvenirs and clothes. We had a look round a few places and got an idea of prices and what was on offer but nothing really grabbed our attention. James did do a bit of nifty haggling for a jumper but the only thing I got my wallet out for was for a KFC for lunch!

Ooh, suits you, sir!

Once we were done with the market we tried to get into the nearby Science & Technology Museum, but it seemed closed. If it were open we still wouldn’t have gone in, not for the price they were asking - £20! So we watched some skaters try to fill a guy doing a very simple trick, which we couldn’t achieve in all the time that we watched him. Next up was the nearby Century Park that looked quite good. Only because it was a green patch on the map and we had some time to kill. When we saw that we would need to pay an entrance fee to get in we turned on our heels and marched out of there. I know we still have plenty of cash, but we’re not crazy.

Nice! But pricey...

And that left us with a little walk down Century Avenue to get to the Oriental Pearl building (the one that looks like a space rocket) and the opposite side of the river to The Bund, to see what it looked like from the other side. Well, I say “little walk” but it actually took ages. It was a nice wander though and we were free from touts and hawkers alike. Some of the buildings along the way were astonishing in their subtle beauty, and how massive they were yet nobody would know about them as they are not along the river front next to the Oriental Pearl et al.

The view from Century Avenue

We arrived at the Oriental Pearl and had a decision to make. It was getting late in the afternoon and we could try and hit the riverfront and potentially miss out on the Art Museum, or do the Art Museum for sure and miss the riverfront. Having been to The Bund twice already we went for the latter.

The Oriental Pearl

We would have a problem finding it however, as it was located near the territory of the crazy tea scam girl, and we certainly didn’t want to run into her! We also assumed that our other scammers may also be in the area as there are plenty of tourists hanging around there. We skulked about on the other side of the road trying to identify the building, which we had no idea what it looked like. As we searched for the Art Museum and scammers we saw a Western tourist talking to three locals. We watched in interest to see if he would take the bait, we couldn’t just stand by and let him be fleeced. But then, we didn’t want to cause another scene like last time. Thankfully he turned and walked away, and we breathed a huge sigh of relief that the scammers didn’t get another mug for their tea shop.

Scammers at work

We found the museum not far down from the scammers nest and wandered in. It was another freebie too! We were happy, and the exhibition was all about Mario Testino and his portfolio of photographs of celebrities on a different light. Some of them were truly fascinating and I made a mental note to check his other work out when I got home.

Art.....innit

Speaking of home, that is exactly where we went after the museum (well, our Shanghai home, of course). It had been a long and hectic day and as it was our last night we thought we would head back to Grape to have a guaranteed cheap and tasty night out. We noticed that on the way back home it was getting rather chilly, so we would need to step up our search for winter clothes on the morrow, before we left for Beijing.