Coralie & Salah

Sep 26, 20193 min read

First days in Beijing

September 18-19, 2019

After a first day of resting and adjusting to jet lag, here we go to discover Beijing!

We took our time in the morning, hanging around our neighborhood, did our grocery and ate for almost nothing in a local restaurant. The order was funny as there was some "lost in translation" moment, but we managed to eat some very good dumplings, which are the girls' favorite.

In the afternoon (after a well-deserved nap 😴), we headed to Tiananmen Square.

Our appartement is well located, between 2 subway stations and it only takes about 15 minutes to get there.

FYI, the subway ticket price depends on the distance, it only costs us 3 yuans (less than 50 cents). Buying tickets is quite easy on an automated machine, as everything is translated in English.

You might remember that our eVisas were cancelled due to a military parade of some sort. Well actually, October 1st is the 70th anniversary of Popular Republic of China proclamation by Mao Zedong. The whole country is preparing for it so the authorities might be controlling activities a little closer. We won’t know what’s normal and whether controls are more extensive because we will leave China at the end of festivities (mid-October). But it feels like if anything were to happen, the government could nip it in the bud.

Once we got to Tiananmen, we were overwhelmed by its immensity (440,000 sq m, making it the largest square in the world): to the north, the gate of Heavenly Peace, in the middle, Mao Zedong’s mausoleum and to the south, the Zhengyang gate formerly part of 9 gates ringing the inner city under the Ming dynasty.

Here, 70 years ago, Mao established the Popular Republic of China. And here, Mao Zedong is omnipresent: his picture at the north, his mausoleum in the center of the square surrounded by three massive sculptures of glorification of people.

Two huge red dragon-shaped metal structures decorate the north corners of the square (for the festivities?) which is flanked by soviet-style buildings, including the National Museum of China.

Next stops, Jinfeng, an old train station, now filled with souvenir shops and local pastries stores then Qianmen, a charming commercial street that was renovated recently. A tramway route runs in the middle. We branched off through an animated street: restaurant callers were crying out the dishes offered by the restaurant (of course we could not understand anything), and most restaurants' kitchens have windows so we can see the chefs in action. It made us want to stay but we were heading to Li Qun, supposedly the restaurant where the Peking duck was invented. We had to wait 30 minutes in the courtyard to get a table (the girls played cards in the meantime) but after we ordered a two-persons meal, we were flooded with food. It was delicious and we could see on the way out that it’s a popular place with politicians.

The next day, we headed to the Forbidden City. Located to the north of Tiananmen, we took a long detour to avoid a huge line at the security check leading to the Gate of Heaven. Once again, to get in, there were security and passports checks. The entrance is 60 yuan (8$), and free for Lana. We took an audioguide that quickly became useless as it wasn't synching well and stopped working a few times. Luckily, we had our Lonely Planet guide to complement information.

A bit of history here: The Forbidden City was built between 1406 and 1420 AC, under Emperor Yongle (third of the Ming dynasty) and more than a million workers were needed. According to the legend, the City counts 9999 rooms (in reality 8704). A total of 24 emperors lived there. The “Forbidden City” name was given because until 1924, only the emperor and his entourage were authorized to access it (and even to look at it).

The city is magnificent, each building was more beautiful than the previous one.

The site is quite big (72 ha) and we stayed there until closure. A full day would not be enough to explore all its aspects.

At the exit, there is Jingshan park. It is on an artificial hill that was built with earth excavated to make the Forbidden City. We went up and enjoyed a nice view of the City at sunset.