Beijing

After a week in Tibet, our bodies have mostly adjusted to the altitude. So, it must be time to leave! We fly down (quite literally, actually) to Beijing. Beijing might be the city on this planet with the longest history. Archeologists have found the remains of an ancient civilization—a great city was located here in 10,000 B.C. The skeletal remains of one of the earliest humans was found here, dubbed the Peking Man (an unfortunate name, but I assure you he is NOT served with pancakes and plum sauce—see below). Beijing has been the capital of China for something like 850 years, and there’s a lot to see.

The emperors of China lived in a huge city within a city within a city, called the Forbidden City. This walled complex has hundreds of buildings, all painted red, with white, blue and green ornate trim and gorgeous yellow tile roofs. These colors were chosen to represent the five elements, red for fire, blue for sky, green for water, yellow for earth, and white for the wind. Fire was a huge concern as the buildings are largely constructed of wood, and Beijing is quite dry. Large metal urns adorn the exterior of most buildings, but they are there for function—they are kept filled with water, to fight potential fires. Can you see the ceramic figures on the edges of the roofs? These are protectors, to ward off lightning and fire. And, it is HOT here. It is around 100 degrees every day of our stay in Beijing.

The Chinese are big on playing. After the day cools some, we spend one long summer evening wandering the parks of the Temple of Heaven. Here we played ping-pong, watched kites sailing far above us, joined a game like hackey sack with a sort of big badminton birdie, we try our hands at this weird giant yo-yo thing the experts whirl about (and find it is way harder than it looks!), we twirl long ribbons, like the Olympic rhythmic gymnasts, we watch Mahjongg, use communal fitness equipment, watch cards, and, of course, introduce them to the Frisbee. Despite the language barrier, we find the Chinese very friendly and lots of fun.

One evening, we take the subway to the Olympic Park. The Bird’s Nest stadium and the Swimming Cube are glorious at night. I don’t know if you can see in the picture, but the Swimming Cube is made of this rippling plastic material, like some giant blue bubble wrap, and the shape changes slightly with the light breeze blowing.

We visit the mediocre Beijing Zoo, where we spend most of our time watching the local celebrities, the Giant Pandas. I gather there is debate in the scientific community whether the panda should be classified as a bear, and we agree that they don’t really move like bears. There are not many left in the wild, and the rest of the world can’t seem to get the hang of breeding these endangered creatures, but the pandas seem to have no difficulty multiplying here. We watch a group of six roly-poly youngsters wrestling. It seems strange that this dilapidated, kind of dumpy zoo can breed them when the more modern facilities struggle with it, but I guess this is home, if a concrete cage can be.

One night, we attend an Acrobatic show. Centuries before there was a Cirque du Soleil, there were Chinese acrobats, diving through hoops, creating impossible human pyramids, spinning innumerable plates, and piling on to this bicycle.

Despite the unrelenting heat, we take a day trip for a long hike. Where in the World are Ethan and Siena? This structure was started in the 3rd century B.C. It stretches for 9,000 kilometers, winding over the most rugged terrain imaginable. Although it was originally built to keep out the northern invaders, it was never successful at doing this. Famously, Genghis Khan said, “The Wall is only as strong as the men guarding it,” before crossing it and conquering all of China. But, it was the world’s first elevated highway and greatly improved commerce and communication throughout its incredible length. Although we had heard this is the only man-made structure visible from space, we suspect this is purely urban legend, as I-75 is almost as long and far wider! This is of course The Great Wall. We hike from one entry to the next, a 10-kilometer slog in some rather hot weather. It is called the “Great Wall” not the great floor, though, and it is tough going. It is steep enough we need to use our hands for sections, and it is crumbling in many others, but it is awesome, truly one of the wonders of the world. The Tsing Tao pijiu (beer) we enjoy at the end of the hike might be the best beer we have ever tasted, and, no matter that the price is inflated because of the location, it soars to the exalted top of the Beattie Beer Index.

The food in China has not been as wonderful as we had anticipated. It has been good, and Siena and I take a cooking class to learn how to make our favorite Dim Sum. The exception to that is the Peking Duck. This bird is almost a religion in Beijing, where entire restaurants are devoted to turning out these bronzed beauties, carving them up tableside, and serving them with thin pancakes, plum sauce and scallions. These are rolled together and the delicacy is eaten like a small soft taco. And, like a taco, it is messy, but delicious. We try it several times during our stay here, to ensure we get the true experience!

We get up early one morning to beat the crowds and the heat and visit Tianamen Square, and we succeed in beating neither! This is the largest square in the world, and Kim and I argue about how many people are here—but regardless of the exact number, there are tons. We wait for almost an hour, with thousands of devoted Chinese, to see Mao’s mausoleum. The guy is looking good, even after 30 years dead! The building is reminiscent of the Lincoln Memorial in D.C. Mao himself is almost worshiped here. Chinese history is taught a bit differently here than at home. Here, Mao had nothing to do with the Cultural Revolution. The decade of mass murders, the burning of priceless cultural antiquities, the ostracizing of the educated was all perpetrated by Mao’s wife, not the big man himself, thus leaving his legacy untarnished. In China, our kids learn first hand about freedom of information (we can’t access our blog in China), freedom of speech (our friend here changed from being a reporter to being a tour guide when he could no longer tolerate lying to people), and just plain freedom, (Tianamen is CLOSED at night.)

This brings us to the end of our trip and we are ready to come home. On the 365th day of travel, I get my new passport back from the Chinese authorities and we head homeward. It has been an amazing adventure. We have enjoyed visiting places we had only dreamed of. We have met some wonderful people, ones that we hope to keep as friends for the rest of our lives. And, we’ve enjoyed being together. It has been such great fun, that, although we are excited to be going home, we are sad that it is over. I hope you have enjoyed reading of our trip. The next big adventure will be adjusting to our lives back home.

Love, in all languages,
Kim, Wendy, Ethan and Siena Beattie