China – May 2014
Booked a 6 night package to Beijing and surrounds for $AUD999 from Scoopon which included flights, accommodation, buffet breakfast, a Peking Duck dinner and all the tourist entrance fees and transfers. We don't normally do the group thing but thought we would take a chance seeing that the price was right.
Well, as luck would have it, there were only 15 people in the group and 6 of them left after 3 nights to go to Shanghai. Everyone got along famously. Could not have asked for a better crew.
Stayed at the Double Tree by Hilton Hotel and found it to be really nice. Close to some local shops and restaurants which made for some entertainment. More about that later.
Tip: If you don’t want your partner to witness what your are doing in the bathroom or on the toilet at this hotel, be sure to put the motorised blinds down to cover the floor to ceiling glass wall into the bathroom. The switch is located just inside, around from the bathroom door. For those that hadn’t found that button, made for some entertaining dinner conversation.
We covered the main tourist sites except the Summer Palace. Everything looks as spectacular as they are portrayed in all the glossy magazines and documentaries. Obviously a very congested place but the people seem to deal with it quite comfortably. There are a lot of people and a lot of traffic. Get used to it.
A few highlights stay in the mind from this trip.
The Great Wall
Even though the basic tours take you to just the beginning of the wall just outside Beijing, it is still spectacular. You cannot imagine how they could conceive of this let alone build it so long ago. Admittedly, manpower was in abundance and obviously many people would have died during its construction, but the sheer enormity of it is breathtaking. Has to be on everyone’s bucket list. We were lucky to make it to the top of this part of the Wall. Started to hurt a bit at the top end but we made it.
Hutong Tour
Really enjoyed catching the local afternoon bus out to the suburbs in Beijing and taking a street walking tour tasting local sweets and strolling through the markets. We then went in to a lady’s home where she taught us how to make dumplings from the produce we purchased at the markets. Strolling down the laneway to the community facilities and mingling with the locals was wonderful (there was no bathroom or toilet in the lady’s house.) Although she did not speak English, we really enjoyed the rapport with her. The guide assisted greatly with the translations and many laughs were had.
Beijing Zoo
The next morning, my partner and I went on a separate tour to Beijing Zoo. The pandas are as cuddly as they look in the documentaries. Yes, there are other wonderful animals there. But trust me, it is all about the pandas.
Tip: If you go to the zoo, get the earliest tour you can get. We were at the zoo by 8:30 and the pandas were outside chewing happily on their bamboo. If you go later, you may not get to see much of them because after they have finished eating, they go inside their huts and sleep most of the day. Cute to look at, yes, but not a lot of movement.
Local dinner
Around the Hilton Hotel, there were the usual fast food chains but also a street that had a number of local restaurants. We had ventured out to have a look around when we had some free time one afternoon and found a few that looked like we might be able to make ourselves understood.
One night our group had to find our own dinner so someone suggested that because we had already had a look around, we should take a group to the area we had previously explored. So 8 of us ventured out and in to one of the local restaurants and were immediately confronted with a complete lack of spoken English. We decided to stay and tough it out and enjoy the experience anyway.
Even though the menu had lots of pictures of lovely looking food, we were still facing a challenge. One of our group had a business in Australia that has an office in Shanghai so he called up his Manager there to ask him to speak to the waitress to see what we could order. Unfortunately, the Manager had been out with a client for a very long lunch so we weren’t sure what we were going to get. The sight of our waitress on the mobile phone, speaking to a guy in Shanghai and ordering our food at a restaurant in Beijing was something we will always remember. Suffice to say, the food was excellent, there was plenty of it and all for a very reasonable price. We tipped accordingly and left to a sea of happy, smiley faces.
Until, as we were walking down the street, our waitress and others from the restaurant came chasing down the street yelling at us. We had no idea what they were remonstrating about but luckily a couple of local girls were just leaving another restaurant, spoke good English and explained that we had given the restaurant some counterfeit notes. What had happened was that one of the group had caught a taxi earlier that afternoon back from a market and the cab driver had snuck some counterfeit notes in the change. We sorted it out and gave them some good notes and many smiles were had again. We had been warned about the counterfeit notes doing the rounds, but fell in to the great tourist trap.
Even though overall we were following the basic tourist trail, it is these unique experiences with the local people that make travelling such a great experience. I’m glad we don’t like eating in hotels.
This trip turned out to be one of unexpected surprise. Short at only 6 nights, we wanted just a taste of China to see how we would handle it. We felt that having someone look after us the first time would take a lot of the hardship away and allow us freedom to just enjoy the experience. It did that and more and certainly has us wanting to do more in China.
Would recommend the trip and company to anyone who may be afraid of trying to get around in China by themselves. Dip your toe in the water. You may just be pleasantly surprised at what you get.
Following is a movie I made of the trip showing the basic highlights. Unfortunately the camera I was using was on its last legs and ready to pack it in. However, it gives you the general idea of what the trip was about if you can see it through.