From the past to the present - Post-Olympics Beijing

After visiting the Forbidden City, Tiananmen , the hutongs, and the Great Wall from the past , we came back to the present . We were brought to the Olympics Park to visit the Bird's Nest , the 2008 Olympics' main stadium .

This is the pride of millions of Chinese all over the world . Here it is , to enter, your bus  need to pass through this place like this :

The  'auto gate'

Then , the great achitecture stood proudly in the hazy sky :

 

The steel work at a closer look 

The neat , numbered seats in the stadium

The ladies 

Water Cube - the stadium built from donations by overseas Chinese , used for water events

The Torch Tower

This is a different feeling looking at these achievements !

   

      

The Great Wall of Badaling

I remembered our first visit to the Great Wall eight years ago . It was this feeling that " finally I stepped on this great wall that I have studied in history books ". It was GREAT ! For my two young kids, they have not studied as much in their history books , but they were as excited as I was to step on it. We didn't know what to expect actually , before we stepped on it .

And I remembered as we climbed up, the narrow steps were uneven in heights, and coming down is more frightening than going up .

This time, I was more at ease . However, we had a bad start at the public toilet . The cubicles had no doors ! We had to pay 50 cents RMB to enter and the cubicles had no doors ! The locals just do it openly, naturally ; while we hide at the last cubicle , and takes turn to take care in front .

Then the journey to the Great Wall started here .

Near the entrance . See the walls in the background ?

 We were given one and a half hours to hike up to the 4th station and down . Starting now from this gate :

This part of the great wall had been renovated , making it easier for tourists to hike up . No more unproportioned steps , look :

With these flattened paths, one can easily reach the third stations . Look at these :

The target : to reach the top station in this picture . Look at the number of  visitors on this Friday morning .

This is after second station from the entrance.

This is the path after third station . Here the steps were maintained . Not too far to reach the fourth station from here . There is a toilet up there, not sure if there are doors .
The Great Wall was built so long ago to protect their land from invaders . It was so strong that it stood there till now . It was a great piece of work left by the emperors & people of yester years.
However, I was disappointed to find these pieces of work left by the present generations :

Do we need to carve our names on the heritage of the past just to show that we had been there ?

Walking down is a bit strainous at certain parts of the long paths.
Anyway , all of us were back at the starting point on time ...... except for a few who hike up to the sixth stations ! One who conquers the Great Wall is a great man ........gotta get a certificate to prove  it ? Just pay 10 RMB !

Beijing Hutong Tour

Beijing Hutong is an important significant in the development of modern Beijing city. Hutong means small streets or lanes , and there are hundreds of such lanes in and around Beijing through the years. These days , according to the  local tour guide , some parts of the hutongs had been renovated, upgraded and opened to tourists, while others though upgraded still occupied by the local senior residents . The senior residents would rather stay in the square courtyard houses in these hutongs than to stay in the concrete highrise apartments with modern facilities.
This is the part of hutong we were taken to on the hutong transport , the trishaw .

The Bell Tower 

Tourists on the trishaw , ready for a ride through the hutongs

Renovated hutong houses , like this one with the air-conditioner unit .

Hutong residents' daily recreation - gambling  , in public !     

A visit to the square courtyard house & spoke to the owner , a 4th generation resident of hutongs.

Some of these ' siheyuan ' or square courtyard houses are opened to tourists. They will stay at home and receive tourists from all over the world . Tourists can snap photos with them or their house, or ask them any questions , through interpreter most of the time.

At the exit of the hutong, we came out to this junction . 

The hutong tour took about 10 -15 mins on the trishaw. It was at this exit when we had an unpleasant encounter with the trishaw peddlers . They demanded that individual tips be paid even when the tour guides told them it had been paid .
Lucky that the bus was near , and picked us up fast .
Pheeewwwwww !!

The street delicacies of Wangfujing

It is popularly introduced in TV about the finger food you can find in Wangfujing . I wanted to see it during our first visit eight years ago, but we were short of time and could not find the street. This time I was happy to find the place .

The entrance gateway to the street 

Food stalls of popular Beijing finger food

The side lane with stalls selling noodles & kind 

A tour to this street would not be complete if you don't see these delicacies : live baby scorpions , crystalised fruits, cow's stomuch , smelly tofu , etc .

These skewered  baby scorpions were very much alive before you buy them. If you wave your hand near , they will all be moving.
Then the stomuch delicacies ........

The stomuch  10 RMB

The smelly tofu

Sweet temptations 

And the tour of Wangfujing has completed .

Wangfujing , Beijing

Wangfujing is as famous a trademark of Beijing as the Great Wall to tourists . It is actually just a shopping street consists of old and new shops .

  It is a modern street now . There is even a KFC outlet here , which provides the ideal toilet to tourists like us. The street is full of people , both locals & international tourists, even on a Friday afternoon .

one of the side lanes where we enter 

One of the gift shops

What shop is in the background ? No prize for that .

 

The young generation Chinese singing in Wangfujing .The background is a chopstick specialty shop .

These are the two pairs of chopsticks I got from the specialty shop . 

What's so special about these chopsticks ? It has our surnames endorsed on it !

There are two popular side streets in Wangfujing. One sells old Beijing specialty , another sells all kind of food in Beijing, including skewered deep-fried baby scorpions .

Entrance to the food street .

Entrance to the old Beijing specialty street
Let's see what they sell at the food street in the next post .

Tiananmen Square

If you are walking out from the south gate of the Forbidden City, you will have to pass through the Tian an men . The ' men ' simply means door or gate , here in this scene it is the door to the Imperial Palace. Since 1949 , it is Chairman Mao's photo on the gate .

Facing the Tiananmen today, is an area of 440,000 square meters known as the Tiananmen Square . It is now accessible by subways too .

Security was tight . Upon entrance , all baggages and tourists have to be screened .

Tiananmen Square, the building in the background is Chairman Mao's memorium .

I remembered when we were there in 2002 , the local tour leader was so careful that he warned us not to ask any questions about the student movement. Today, the tour leader admitted that they are still cautious but not as restricted to answer questions now.

When I asked why were tourists not brought to visit the Mao Memorium , she answered that firstly it was too time consuming . It was not worthy to line up for an hour before you could enter the memorium , and only spent 3 minutes inside. Besides, she said these days only the older generation respect him much . To the younger generation ,  he was just another leader of the country . Besides, she introduced him as Mao Zhe Dong and not Chairman Mao .

 In this sense , China is different now .

Back to the Tiananmen Square . There were thousands of people there , even on a Friday . It was said that the square was even bigger than the Red Square in Moscow .

Clear evidence of autumn....look at the yellow leaves, nearby the square.

To visit the Tiananmen Square, half an hour would be sufficient unless you are visiting the memorium & the museum .
So, this is Tiananmen Square .

Forbidden City revisited

We woke up to a cool Beijing on a sunny Friday morning . This was 8am at a road junction .

Streets being swept in the early morning by the worker in this machine .

We were to visit the Forbidden City this sunny morning .

I remembered the first time I visited the Forbidden City eight years ago. We were marvelled at the size of the palace museum and was excited to look at it ourselves.
This time around , having known the gigantic size of this magnificient heritage , I was trying to look for things I missed the last time. We entered from the north gate this time, which is actually the rear gate.

So we first entered the imperial garden backyard .

A more than 300 year-old tree in the Imperial garden .

 

It was explained that the Forbidden City was twice burned down to ashes in the history . So, what are the measures taken to protect the building now ?

Look at the wiring on the roof 

Preventive measures like this had been installed on the palace roofs .
From the Rear Palace where the women folks stayed , we walked through the Centre palace which was the administration palaces.

Parts of the Palace were repainted before the 2008 Olympics , especially the Front Palace . Look at the huge number of tourists in the venue , and this was said to be the low season of tourism .

It was estimated that there are at least 50,000 tourists here each day 

The red wall had been repainted...behind this wall , the women's palaces

Familiar movie scene ? But none of the movie scenes were taken here .

Emperor Qian Long's writings

Forbidden City revisited ...... still refreshing !