Hey there readers, let me first begin by saying how sorry I am that these other entries are coming out so later. However, if you think this is late, just wait till I try to finish the entries for my last few days in Argentina back in June! As is probably obvious from the less than stellar quality of these entries, I don’t have any sponsorship, so these travel blog entries can be seen either as an act of love or a simple act of insanity. Keeping this in mind, I just write these when I have the time.
So anyways, as those of you who are regular readers will remember, I was staying in Shuyin, for my recent trip to Beijing. As I understand it, which may be completely inaccurate, Beijing is built on a ring system, and Shuyin is on the 6th ring. In lay person’s terms, if you are coming as a tourist, this is probably not the best place to stay, since it is quite far from the city center, but when staying with great friends like I was doing, it was a perfect location. Alex and Melody, like pretty much everyone else I knew in Beijing, regularly recommended me to just use DIDI (the main Chinese ride hailing service, sort of like Uber). However, I strongly suspected it would not work properly for me. Furthermore, I like to use public mass transport systems while travelling if it is at all feasible. This helps me both get a better idea of what “the average person does” and also forces me to walk more, which means I see more and also get a bit of exercise.
Thus, having had plenty of sleep, I left the villa at 10:19 AM and started walking towards the nearest subway station. It was a beautiful clear day, and the temperature was a comfortable (with the sweatshirt Melody had lent me) 14 degrees C. Both the street and the sidewalks were very clean and at least at this time of the day were not very busy.
Alex had warned me that it was not a short walk, but at 10:46 AM I was near the turn in which would lead to the China International Exhibition Center subway station.
At 10:52 AM I was in the station, quickly going through the security check and then trying to figure out how to buy the ticket. I had earlier used the Moovit app, to figure out my destination of Xidan and the associated subway transfers, so that part at least was already sorted. Seeing that there were no human ticket sellers, but rather a bank of machines, after much trial and error I finally discovered that the small machine on the end was the only one that I could get to work for me, despite even having money loaded onto my WeChat wallet. Still, I was not in a hurry today, so I didn’t mind that it took me twenty minutes to finally figure it out. Armed with my single use, plastic subway card, I was safely waiting at the platform at 11:15 AM.
It was a short wait, and at 11:20 AM I was in the first train which was clean, quiet and comfortable. I appreciated that the upcoming subway/train stations were listed in both Chinese and English.
I know that for my day 1 entry for Beijing I said that I would try to be more concise than I had been with earlier trips, but I think that some of these details about subway transfers could be useful for a first-time traveller subway traveller in Beijing, so bear with me as I give you way too many details. At 11:37 AM it was time to transfer from line 15 to 16, but this time around I forgot to note down the station. There was very clear signage which I could tell was also appreciated by Chinese visitors who might not be regular users of these subway lines.
At 11:44 AM I was on the next train and was even able to get a seat until it was once more time to transfer to the Red line at Dawang Lu at 12:06 PM. As mentioned earlier, using the Moovit app, it had also been easy to see which platform to stand on even though there were trains going both directions. Again, at Dawang Lu it was easy to follow the signs, and by 12:11 PM I was in the next train. As a side note, up until now, I had not seen anyone who did not look “East Asian” but at the same time, nobody seemed to think it was of particular note that I was in the subway. Finally, at 12:28 PM I exited the last subway car of this trip and was quickly outside at 12:32 PM, having exited from the Xidan north F1 exit. While it had earlier been my plan to walk to the Temple of Heaven from here, once outside I noticed that this was much farther away than it had appeared on the map, so after a few minutes of consideration, I decided to try to walk to Tiananmen square, which seemed much closer.
So far, things seemed to be going well. Then at 12:43 PM there was an ID card check which seemed to apply to anyone on the street. As such, I was glad that I had brought my passport, but it didn’t seem to be a big deal, since the official only seemed to glance at it before waving me through. Then again there was another check just four minutes later at 12:47 PM. This did not seem to make sense to me since the sidewalk mostly deserted and I didn’t even see how anyone could have entered the sidewalk from the last check. Then much to my surprise, there was another check at 12:49 PM! I started to wonder, was I in some sort of a high-security area? This seemed unlikely since they didn’t seem to care about me walking there, but once more it happened at 12:53 PM. Still, the ID checkpoints were quick, and nobody seemed alarm that I was there, so I kept going.
Then at 12:56 PM I saw this interesting looking building. However, with all the guards outside, I was cautious about approaching closer. They weren’t particularly intimidating looking, but I didn’t see anyone else going that way, so I figured that despite outward appearances, it probably was not a “tourist attraction”.
Then guess what happened at 1:00 PM . . . that’s right, another ID check. While these checkpoints did not seem particularly onerous, I had to wander at the point of it all. I mean there were already CCTV cameras. But when in Rome, or in this case, when in Beijing . . . Interestingly, at 1:02 PM a random woman asked to take a selfie with me; this was the first time during the day that anyone had seemed to even notice that I might not just be a regular part of the scenery. Also, around about this time it started to become clear to me that I was definitely in the Tiananmen square area, which was also where there seemed to be some other standard sites of interest, but for the life of me, I could not figure out how to actually get there. Every way seemed to be blocked, but at the same time, in the far distance I could definitely tell that there were apparent tourists.
By sheer chance, at 1:15 PM I arrived at what I thought would be another negligent security check which led to some place called the temple museum, but I was made to understand that I could not pass since I did not have a ticket and there also was no way for me to get a ticket. Interestingly, it did seem to be open, despite it being a Monday, and everything online said it was closed on Mondays. I continued with this fruitless wandering for the next hour, going down into tunnels, trying through alternative exits, and even attempted to ask several people for help, but I don’t understand Chinese and at least around here (as would make sense), people also did not seem to understand English. Oddly, I even ended up inside the National Center for Performing Arts. Needless to say, it was a bit of any adventure, and I had no clear agenda for the day, so it was fine.
I will admit that while I had no fixed agenda for the day, by 2:12 PM I was starting to get just a tiny bit disheartened. I was open to seeing random sites, but I seemed to be trapped in an endless maze of blocked sidewalks and tunnels which appeared to lead to nowhere new. Then finally at 2:15 PM, after trailing after a few people walking down the sidewalk, I saw a place which seemed to be selling tickets to enter, so I decided that I may was well give it a go. It was only 3 CNY ($0.41 USD) to enter, and at the point, despite the pleasant looking mostly empty streets, I was game to try anything different.
Once inside I discovered that it was called Zhongshan park. It really was very nice inside, and for $0.41 USD you can’t really complain about anything regardless. Like other places I had seen on my earlier trip to China, a big draw of this place seemed to be for women to rent period costumes and the services of a photographer. The goldfish pond was a bit sad, and there were several buildings which looked like they might be interesting inside, but all were blocked off, so it’s hard to say.
At 2:45 PM I came across a large plaza which as far as I could initially tell, served no purpose, but then closer inspection revealed that this was the “Altar of Land and Grain”. It’s hard to appreciate in the pictures, but the altar has a symbolic pattern laid out with dirt which naturally has five different colors. It’s hard to read on the sign, but the colors evidently represent the different types of soil found throughout China.
This was clearly a very large park, and as I wandered around, at 2:53 PM I reflected on the fact that steel must be rather cheap here, since they seem to put barriers made of it around countless items. I had earlier noticed this out on the street, but oddly inside the park I saw that there were even steel barriers around certain trees, despite the fact that those trees were already in a clearly roped off area. More intriguingly, other trees which at least to my eye looked identical, did not seem to merit the same protection.
Then at 3:15 PM there was an unexpected memory triggered as I entered an area of yellow Ginko trees. This reminded me of the Autumn sidewalk outside my residence hall my first year at Truman State University. I also tried to sneak a couple of pictures of two middle-aged women who had clearly identically dressed the same for the purpose of taking pictures together; for some reason I liked this idea more than the ones I had seen who were wearing period costumes.
I easily could have spent a couple more hours here, but at 3:40 PM I started looking for the way out, as I had scheduled to meet a friend and former coworker at 5:00 PM. Again, using the Moovit app, it wasn’t that difficult to find my way out and then once again find myself in the TianAnMen Dong subway station, quickly buying a 3 CNY ($0.41 USD) ticket. This time I remembered to take a picture of the type of ticket machine which seems to be the best option for foreigners. Things went well, with a well-marked transfer to line 10 at 4:37 PM, finally arriving to my general destination at 4:56 PM.
My friend Csilla offered to book me a DiDi to get to our meeting space, but by using the Amap app I thought that I would be able to manage it walking without too much trouble. Yes, it was still a bit of a challenge since the map is entirely in Chinese, but I was up for the adventure. Sure enough, things worked out fine, and at 5:08 PM I arrived at The Local.
The place itself was “fine” and the food was “decent” but not outstanding. The real treat of course was once again meeting up with my wonderful friend Csilla Szabo, who is currently working as a Drama teacher at an international school in Beijing. Csilla and I are friends from when we used to work together in Mumbai, and while we were both in India, I always greatly appreciated that whenever she would come to Bengaluru, she would make a special effort to see me, even though distances and traffic in the city can be quite a challenge.
Despite having had an amazing visit, by 8:20 PM it was time for Csilla to head home and me to head back to Shunyi. The total cost of our shared meal and drinks was 468 CNY ($64.57 USD). Due to the distance and the late hour, I was a bit cautious about trying to take the subway back at that hour. Thus, I tried to use my DiDi app, which disappointingly but predictably didn’t work; this however seems to be a “me problem” since most foreign visitors have no issues. Fortunately, DiDi allows you to book a ride on behalf of someone else, and that’s what Csilla did for me. The car arrived at 8:30 PM, and at 9:10 PM I was already back to Melody and Alex’s place, with a total bill of 75 CNY ($10.35 USD).
And that was the end of my first full day in Beijing. Yes, there were some challenges associated with transportation and finding places, but all in all it was a very satisfying day. Looking back, I could have been very frustrated with regards to my derailed attempts at independent tourism, but I still had plenty of time left to my visit. Additionally, as long as I don’t feel in danger or under unrealistic time pressure, figuring out how to do things in a new place is in itself part of the fun. So, did I manage day 3 better than day 2 or did I get stuck in another maze of blocked streets and tunnels? If you want to find out, you will have to wait for the next entry.
As always, thank you for reading along, and don’t hesitate to leave your questions or comments in the section shown below.
Travels with Jay 