Enjoying Beijing

June 2

I’m really enjoying my time in Beijing. Beijing is proving to be a great city. I’m generally not too much of a city person when I travel but I do like to drop into one from time to time and more often than not it’s unavoidable when relying on public transportation. Also, I feel it to be a necessity to visit the larger places along the way in order to get an accurate impression of all that makes up a country and its society.

Beijing really is like visiting a different country in comparison to the rural areas and countryside that make up so much of China. Beijing is more a less a modern western city riding a wave of rapid change with a Chinese twist. It’s a city where western ways and Chinese culture appear to blend together nicely. Young people from all over China, excited by the prospect of change and opportunity, flock to Beijing for a chance to grab a rare slice of pie not easily found elsewhere in the nation. I have not been to Shanghai but my guess is it’s a similar story there as well.

Thus far in Beijing I’ve visited the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven Park, Mao’s Mausoleum and took a relatively long day trip out of the city to see an authentic section of The Great Wall. My time is passing quickly and I’m taking a relaxed approach towards seeing the sights. Once I leave Beijing I’ll be on the move a lot so there’s no real reason to push it for now. Next Tuesday I’ll board a train for Mongolia and step back into some more adventurous travel.

With nice wide roads, clean streets, and an extensive subway and bus system, Beijing is easy to navigate. However, transit time can be a little lengthy. Also, Beijing has the nicest and most normal toilets I’ve seen in China. It may sound funny but in some ways you can asses China’s progress and change by the quality of public facilities in any given region. Western China and the rural areas have a lot of catching up to do.

The only hitch to staying so long in Beijing is that it’s really eating into the travel budget. I’d say I’m now spending twice as much daily as I was everywhere else I’ve been in China. For example, my accommodation in Beijing is costing around $28 USD. Throughout the rest of China I was paying between $12 to $16 USD for a similar setup. If I really wanted to save I could go for a hostel dorm but even dorms in Beijing cost twice as much as elsewhere in China.

My hotel room is a clean and simple single with bathroom, internet connection, and TV with one English news channel. For a budget oriented hotel the standard is quite high and it’s well maintained. The newly remodeled rooms are done in a European Contemporary fashion and the location is fantastic. The establishment doesn’t really cater to foreigners but foreigners are more than welcome. The staff is nice, friendly, and some speak English. Not all hotels in the city are allowed to accept foreigners as they have to be registered and licensed to do so in Beijing.

Again, I followed my rule of using the Lonely Planet guidebook to find a location then sought out accommodation not listed in the book. You generally find a much better value at places that don’t get overrun by the publicity of being in a guidebook. More often than not when a backpacker joint gets noted in a guidebook the quality goes down and the prices go up.

Well, it’s 11 am so I think it’s about time to rally. I’ll stroll a park or two and am quite curious about the nearby Police Museum. Such is the life of a, “World Traveler and Thinker”. Yes, as always, I am a VERY Lucky Man……..