Beijing, Day One

My plane arrived in Beijing at 8:00 last night. My hostel said someone would be waiting for me with a sign with my name on it, but when I walked out of customs, I saw lots of signs with lots of names but not mine. I looked around, waited for a while, looked around again, and then asked the people at tourist information to call the hostel for me. They said the driver was there looking for me and told me where to find him, but I suspect that he had been running late and just arrived, because when he handed in the parking ticket, the meter showed that he had been in the parking garage less than 20 minutes, and I had definitely been waiting longer than that. No harm, though. I found him, and before long, we were on our way to the hostel in downtown Beijing.

The most obvious difference I noticed between China and Korea is the language. I realized that even though Korea is a foreign country to me, I more or less have daily life there figured out. I know what to expect. In China, I don't. This is most obvious in the language. Unlike Korean, which I can read, frequently understand, and occasionally speak, Chinese is completely incomprehensible to me. Even my first couple hours in China revealed to me that Korea has become more familiar, more like home to me, than I realized. Being in such an unfamiliar setting in China made me remember those days when Korea was a stranger to me, too.

We arrived at the hostel, and I got checked in. I'm staying in a 5-person room. Last night I shared it with three German guys--David, Jörg, and Joachim--who live in Shanghai and are visiting Beijing. I had a great conversation with David but just met Jörg. Joachim didn't even return to the room until long after I had gone to bed. The whole co-ed dorm concept is requiring a little adjusting on my part.

After claiming my bed--top bunk--I decided to walk around the neighborhood that the hostel is in. It's located in one of Beijing's many hutongs--neighborhoods of small, cinder-block houses along a network of narrow alleys. This particular hutong is kind of funky, obviously catering to the Western backpackers staying at the hostel. It has a lot of cafes, restaurants, bars, and unique and slightly off-beat shops. Interesting character and not at all what I expected Beijing to be like. I walked around for about an hour, then returned to the hostel, chatted with David, and went to bed.

I slept in until 8:00 this morning. David, Jörg, and Joachim were still asleep. I got up and ate breakfast in the hostel's little cafe in the basement. Then I consulted a map and set off on foot to the Forbidden City. It wasn't yet 10 AM when I arrived, but it was really crowded. I decided to forgo the audio guide and just walked around. The palace was beautiful, but the interpretive signs were cryptic at best, so while I got some great photos and thoroughly enjoyed looking at everything, I didn't learn much. It was really crowded inside the Forbidden City--lots of tour groups speaking a great collection of languages . . . and lots of "art students" wanting to practice English and get tourists to visit small exhibits and buy things. I had been warned that those were often scams, so after being approached 10 times in my first hour there, I started pretending I didn't understand English. It wasn't difficult since I've had lots of experience not understanding what people say to me. It didn't keep them from approaching me, but it did keep them from following me in attempt to persuade me to change my mind when I walked away.

At the Forbidden City . . . From the Forbidden City, I headed south through the Gate of Heavenly Peace to Tianamen Square to soak in some Soviet-inspired architecture and pay a visit to Mr. Mao. Unfortunately, the mausoleum is closed on Mondays, so I might have to make a return trip. There's some controversy over whether the body is real or not. I've heard that they've had to reattach his ear a few times. Apparently he wished to be cremated. Why anyone would want to be mummified is beyond me.

The Gate of Heavenly Peace, with Mao's portrait hung in the center:Three photos stitched together to form a panorama of Tianamen Square, as seen from the Gate of Heavenly Peace:Countdown to the 2008 Summer Olympics--319 days, 7 hours, 37 minutes, 10 seconds--in front of one of the government buildings at the east end of Tianamen Square:Statue in front of Mao's mausoleum :Mao's mausoleum:EMH at Tianamen Square:From Tianamen Square I was hoping to catch the subway north to the Lama Temple, the largest Tibetan Buddhist temple in Beijing, but it turns out that the subway line on my map is still under construction, so I walked, stopping along the way for a few bottles of water and something to eat. It was hot and smoggy today, and I'm coming down with something.

I passed this sign with the 2008 Summer Olympics mascots on the way. Yingying, the yellow one, is my favorite.The Lama Temple was beautiful. It was interesting to see the many differences between Tibetan Buddhism and Korean Buddhism. I stopped in the main hall for a while to listen to the monks in ornate robes chanting and smell the incense burning outside. After the crowded chaos of the Forbidden City and Tianamen Square, the peace of the temple was welcome indeed.

The Lama Temple . . .From the temple, I negotiated my way through hutong alleys back to the hostel. I walked about 10 miles today, and I was tired, but I had signed up for the hostel's excursion to an acrobat show, so I cleaned up, changed out of my sweaty clothes. David, Jörg, and Joachim have gone, and I now have three new roommates--Jysk from Denmark who came to Beijing on the Trans-Siberian Railway and a couple from France who don't speak to other people and only whisper to each other.

I caught the bus to the theater to see the Chinese National Acrobat Troupe. I was surprised that most of the performers were teenagers and children, some looking as young as 7 years old! They were incredible, but I had to wonder what kind of life those young performers have. The show was much different from the North Korean show I saw a few weeks ago. There were more flaws in the Chinese show--the North Koreans were more precise, thought that may be because of the very young age of the Chinese acrobats.

Now I'm back at the hostel, very tired but more than satisfied with my first whole day in China. Tomorrow I'm hiking the Great Wall. Well, not all of it.