Birds Nest Beijing

When you arrive by cruise ship into Tianjin - which is actually not Tianjin, but the port city (they are all cities here!) of Tanggu - itself an hour from Tianjin.   So to back up a bit, we arrive at Tanggu, which is an hour from Tianjin, which is the name of the port (and inland I might add!), which is in turn 3 ½ hours from Beijing.  No wonder the Americans are confused.    Regardless, it is very definitely not Beijing, and not even close.

We berth alongside a massive, new terminal built to replicate a ship, and it does.  Inside it is cavernous and empty.  On the other side, our bus awaits, and we commence the long drive to Beijing, first speeding across what has to be the largest tract of reclaimed land ever.  It goes on for miles and miles.  We are told by our guide that this is to be a new port development of condominiums, resorts etc., and I imagine within a very short time, that's exactly what it will be. Interesting to note that wide boulevards are in place, complete with elaborate plantings, and underground power - all ready for buildings, when the reclaimed land is fully in place, of course.    We see several massive freeways under construction, and all kinds of other development.  The drive is essentially dead boring - miles of freeway, several toll plazas, and endless plantings of poplar trees.

Eventually we reach outer Beijing - there are six ring roads, and the metropolis begins at number six.  We pass miles and miles of condominiums, shopping malls, and home maker centres, and eventually arrive at our hotel for tonight - the charming Peninsula right in the centre of the action.   It is the second last day of the National Day week of festivities, so crowds have dissipated, and we are told the traffic is slight.  Right!!   It is a typically smoggy Beijing day, and all of us feel it in our breathing.  How people live here and wake to this day after day escapes all of us.

We visit Tiananmen Square - Mao's Tomb is closed, so the usual long queue to see him is absent.    The square currently "boasts" two enormous LED screens, each spewing forth nationalistic scenes and messages to commemorate the National Day - a large picture of Dr. Sun Yat Sen separates the screens.   We cross Chang An Avenue - by subway - to reach the Forbidden City.  It has been 21 years since I visited.  Clearly some things never change, but many things have - the number of visitors for a start!  Most of the pavilions I remember visiting are now closed, or at best, viewed from open, but barricaded doorways.

By the time we get back to the hotel we are exhausted, but congratulating ourselves that we were smart enough to leave the ship for a night and stay in town, to avoid two 3½ hour commutes in one day.   We encountered an American couple at the hotel who were checking in, having been under the impression that Beijing was only an hour away!  They were blaming the ship by the way, for not telling them!!

A change of shoes and something to eat charged our batteries, and some of us braved the Yashow market for a spot of shopping - but not without blood sport bargaining.    I am astounded to see an adjacent, massive shopping/entertainment complex which was not there last time I visited about 3 years ago.

Today, we were up early for our trip out of town to the Great Wall.  It's early, but the smog is worse than yesterday and truly awful.     We open the curtains in our hotel room, and can barely see across the road.  Our drive out of town is via the Olympic Green area - we wanted to see the Bird's Nest (completely unused since the Olympics by the way!), and the Water Cube.   We could not see the Water Cube - despite the fact that it could not have been more than 500 metres from where we were driving.  The Birds Nest was closer - right beside the road, and I have one hazy photograph!     We drive through the countryside near Mutianyu, and learn that this is where Beijingers come to spend weekends at holiday houses, golfing, fishing, picking fruit, and generally relaxing.     Compared to the city, it's pristine, but there is still that layer of smog, and the sun we can't see.  It's so sad, and clearly an ecological disaster.

We negotiate the alley of souvenir vendors which leads us to the cable car station - flanked by two enormous blow-up red and gold dragons!, and we take a long gondola ride to a long section of the wall - on a distant mountain top.   This is not a part of the wall which we have visited before, and is very much less developed than the other at Badaling.  Not sure about the cable car - it is certainly not attractive in anyway, and definitely spoils many a photograph.    There is also a toboggan run built for those wishing to descend in daredevil fashion (Barry, Tony and Amy our guide did so).     We spend some time climbing and photographing, before hopping back on the cable car for the journey down.   

For several years in late 70's and early 80s I escorted group tours to China for Travman.  Tours operated pretty much year round but the general consensus was that September/October was the best months to visit - for clear blue skies, rather than the damp haze of the summer months.     Indeed, if I look back at my photos from those days (printed and in albums by the way, and taken by, or featuring a Size 10 "me" I scarcely recognize), I see lovely blue skies, and some of my Great Wall pics, taken during those Autumn months are very good indeed.      

We fast forward to today, and I know we did visit the Wall because there were signs, and we did climb onto the wall, and marvel at its construction, and preserved state, but you can forget those wonderful pictures of yesteryear with the wall snaking into infinity.    Visibility is simply dreadful, and I remind myself that we were in a comparatively pristine part of the countryside - i.e. no industry close by; it was early in the day; and it was a fine, sunny day - technically anyway.  You see they never see the sun in/around Beijing any more!  It's up there, but the thick layer of smog underneath prevents it from bursting through.  The authorities term days like today "blue sky days" but the sky is only blue if you are above the smog!   Sadly, our guide told us that the only place she has ever seen sun in China is in Tibet during winter.

We shop with the vendors.    My favourites were those selling all manner of local fruit - everything available fresh or dried (the latter delicious).  I bought some dried wild cherries, strawberries, and dates and some walnuts which had kind of been pickled.  Lovely.  As we walk to the car park to join our driver I see a restaurant boasting "Freshest Italian Tea and Coffee" on a big red garish sign, and shuddered a little, but that was before I turned a corner and there was  Subway!!!!!! with its green and white awning poking out from an old brick structure.  Can you believe it!

Our lunch was the antithesis of that, at the very special Schoolhouse - an abandoned school which has been restored and turned into an award winning sustainable tourism project.  It employs and trains local villagers, to create and serve superb contemporary western dishes, entirely made from home grown produce.  It was fantastic.  We dined al fresco in what would have been the old school playground.  During lunch our guide received a call from her boss to say she had a place in the finals of the Best Tour Guide contest, and was required in another city (three hours by bus) for an event last night.  A new replacement guide was dispatched to take us back to the ship, and we wished Amy well for success.  When we asked what she had to do to win, it was explained that in the lead up to this event, she had had to do a presentation on the Great Wall, and also compose and sing a song about her home town!   She feels her chances were enhanced because she has a good voice!!!

It was all downhill from there - or uphill if you consider we were escaping polluted Beijing to return to our lovely Silver Shadow, albeit by way of 3½ hours of retracing our steps of yesterday along the poplar lined freeways.  The sight of our lovely ship was a very welcome one indeed.

For many years, I have often been asked for, or have offered impromptu comparisons between Beijing and Shanghai.  I have always said that Beijing "has to be done" - it is home to the icons - Great Wall,  Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and several others.   Five or six days is necessary to cover those, and to have time to discover modern Beijing.

Shanghai on the other hand, could not be a more different city in look and feel.  It is infinitely more fun, modern and stylish.  It's very pretty - with the Bund and views across the Huangpu River to Pudong, among the great sights of the world.     It has pollution too - all of China seemingly does however, it is possible to see the sun in Shanghai, and the breathing is easy!