China Days 1-2
Welcome to our latest adventure! For those of you who aren’t aware, Abby and I are currently on her “senior trip”. What? Abby is a senior in high school ?? Yes. Yes she is. And she has been dreaming of coming to China for probably 10 years. We found and booked a “heritage tour” that will include a visit to the Children’s Welfare Institute where she lived for four years between the ages of 2 and 6.
We are currently in Beijing having arrived last night after a 14 hour flight from San Francisco. The flight was looong. We had planned to go to sleep on the plane just as soon as we finished eating the hot meal. That pretty much worked except for the LOUD talkers in the row behind us. I’ll refrain from telling you their life stories - but you wouldn’t think that 2 strangers would find SO much to talk about. At one point they were using the map to ask each other if they’d been to this country or that country and then telling stories about their trip there. Even with noise canceling headphones on I could still hear them!
We definitely didn’t drink enough on the plane and only went to the bathroom once on the flight. Eeeek. So of course I woke up in the middle of the night with a headache last night. Thankfully I had my medicine and it went away.
Speaking of medicine…. In my exhaustive research before the trip I found lots of warnings about bringing prescription meds into China. They require a doctor’s note, the original containers etc. Well, they didn’t even slow us down at the customs check - just waved everyone through. Oh well. I was prepared anyway.
We met our guide and driver and then stopped at a convenience store in the airport to get snacks, bottled water (Can’t drink the tap water here or use it to brush teeth even), and most importantly make sure my Alipay was working well. It was. Whew! Also, I’m using an Holafly eSIM/vpn. It seems to work well, but we’ll see if it slows me if I use too much data.
It took about 50 minutes to drive to the hotel. We’re staying at the Novotel Peace Hotel. It’s pretty close to a famous shopping street (more on that later), and in what used to be a HuTong neighborhood.
We were pretty tired last night but a little hungry so we ordered a plate of beef and rice from room service to share. It cost 108yuan which is a little over $15 - which is exorbitant by Chinese standards. But we were tired and hungry and it was delicious!
We both took showers (Ahhhh) and I washed our travel clothes in the sink and hung them up to dry. We’re going to be in this hotel until Thursday, so plenty of time for them to dry.
Abby slept 11 hours and I slept 10!! (Told you we were exhausted!). We had stayed up basically all night Friday night to try to start adjusting to the time change. So we hadn’t had a good night’s sleep since Thursday night and it was Sunday night.
This morning we were ready to explore! Our main goal was to just get out and get some sunshine. We had breakfast at the hotel which was pretty carb heavy. We had a mix of Western and Chinese things: I had a crepe with peanut butter and honey, a small youtiao, a Chinese pancake (https://omnivorescookbook.com/chinese-scallion-pancakes/), a steamed bun, some noodles, juice and tea.
After breakfast we asked the front desk about riding the public bus. They told us which bus to take and that we needed cash. (They were wrong about which bus was closest, but the Amap app saved us!) I had brought some Chinese yuan from home - leftover from previous trips. I had about $20, some of which was in teeny tiny amounts worth about $.01. Abby and I started walking and soon came to a bank. I got some larger bills out of the ATM so that I have cash to tip our guides / drivers. Then I went inside and there was a young lady who helped me exchange those teeny tiny bills and coins for some merely ‘small’ bills. Mission accomplished!
Next we walked to the bus stop and took the bus to JingShan (Bright Mountain) park. The main attraction there is to climb to the top of the hill for an excellent view of the Forbidden City. We took our time climbing up the hill and really enjoyed the view from the top. Again my extensive research had told me that this wasn’t a good place for a wheelchair, so Abby walked the whole way today. (My phone says we walked 4.1 miles today!). The “ramp” up the hill would’ve likely killed me if I’d tried to push her up in the wheelchair! It was NOT OSHA approved. She even slipped on it in tennis shoes. After that, she switched to the stairs which were safer.
View of Forbidden City from the top of JingShan Park:
Abby with the steps she climbed to see the view:
From JingShan park we walked to BeiHai (North Sea) park. BeiHai isn’t really a sea, but a man made lake. The dirt that they took out to dig the lake was used to make an island.
View from the bridge out to the island in BeiHai Park:
On the island is a Stupa / temple. We didn’t go up to see it, but it features in the pictures we took.
We walked around the lakeshore on the island until we came to the dumpling shop. You know I’d already scouted for one from Texas! We enjoyed a plate of dumplings and beef. The beef had potatoes and carrots and a tomato sauce. I really wasn’t expecting tomato based sauce, but it all worked together.
After lunch we walked on around the island until we came to the boat dock. This brings me to the topic of “things I didn’t quite understand”. Thing number one “that I didn’t quite understand” was that going into BeiHai park, Abby’s ticket was 100% refunded. No idea why. Maybe because she’s handicapped?? I paid for 2 tickets and when we presented them to the ticket man, he immediately took us back to the ticket office. On the way I told him in Chinese that Abby is 19 - I thought he was going to swap hers for a child ticket or something. Nope. he spoke to the agent and then handed me the cash refund. Still no clue. Abby says it’s that she got the “cute kid” discount. - well, I mean - sure. Let’s go with that!
“Thing number 2 that I didn’t quite understand” was purchasing tickets to take the ferry across the lake. We had walked to the island across a bridge on the east side. Now we were taking a ferry back to shore on the west side. They kept telling me I could buy the ticket on the boat. O.K. The boat came and unloaded a full load of passengers. We were the only 2 going our way. Hmmmm. Then when we reached the other side, another full group got on. Why were we the only ones going that way?? No idea. Also, you could NOT buy tickets on the boat, but they directed me to the booth where I paid (for a round trip??). It was less than a dollar each, (5Yuan) so whatever.
View from the boat ride:
We walked to the Nine Dragon Screen which involved a perilous (for Abby) uneven stone walkway. She didn’t complain much, but it was super difficult for her. We stopped at the end and had a long sit down. That was probably the 7th or 8th time we’d just chosen to sit and rest for a while.
Near the exit of BeiHai Park
From there we walked on around and tried to go visit Prince Gong (aka Prince Kung)’s mansion. It was a half mile walk from BeiHai, so we took our time and sat down often. We also stopped for ice cream! BUT upon our arrival at the mansion my extensive research had failed . The mansion is closed on Mondays. bummer. So we experimented with Didi (Chinese Uber) and it worked perfectly although I nearly forgot to pay the driver because I’d been told that using Didi through the Alipay app meant it was automatically deducted. It wasn’t. I guess he thought I was going to stiff him. Eventually (after we got up to our room) I turned my phone back on and saw “please pay now”. Oops!! But still, it only cost 11yuan ($1.50 ish) for a 25 minute ride. Awesome!!
“Thing number 2 that I didn’t quite understand” was purchasing tickets to take the ferry across the lake. We had walked to the island across a bridge on the east side. Now we were taking a ferry back to shore on the west side. They kept telling me I could buy the ticket on the boat. O.K. The boat came and unloaded a full load of passengers. We were the only 2 going our way. Hmmmm. Then when we reached the other side, another full group got on. Why were we the only ones going that way?? No idea. Also, you could NOT buy tickets on the boat, but they directed me to the booth where I paid (for a round trip??). It was less than a dollar each, (5Yuan) so whatever.
