Back to Beijing - Part II

Continued from Back to Beijing - Part I!

The main attraction of Beijing awaited us the next day - the Great Wall! We hadn't made any reservations for a taxi to go to Mutianyu, but once again, we lucked out! Couple of nights ago, as we were finishing dinner at the Chinese restaurant, we met a travel agent who had a van and a guide available for us at a very decent price - a much better deal than what I had got last time! We were to have the van for the whole day, and the guide would take us to the Summer Palace after we were done with the Great Wall!

After a couple of really smoggy days, I was worried that we might not get a good view of the Wall - but surprisingly, we woke up to bright sunshine and blue skies. Not that I was complaining, but where exactly did all those heavy pollutants go - or did we breathe all that junk in, clearing the air??!!! Anyway, it was a perfect day to visit the Great Wall. At Mutianyu, we took the cable car up - don't want a repeat of last time! And what a glorious time we had - we walked and walked, even braving a steep upward flight of over 400 steps! Couldn't believe how great Manasi did - she matched Ajey step for step, both of them leaving me far behind! I did make it all the way up - just took my own time getting there!  And it is not just a walk - every step on the Great Wall resonates with history and a sense of grandeur! A true 'Wonder of the World'!!

Ajey hit a new high with the camera here - these pictures are probably the funnest pictures we have ever taken!

On the way down, another part of the vacation - shopping for souvenirs! Here, we were reminded again why we don't usually hire guides. So far, on the trip, the guide was no value added - and now, he didn't want us to buy anything in the little souvenir stalls, because no doubt, he intended to take us to some fancy place, where we would pay exorbitant prices for almost the same things! He even had a place picked out for us to eat 'Peking Duck' and was visibly disappointed on learning that we were vegetarians, and would prefer a Subway sandwich! He then mentioned that he wanted to show us a couple of places before we headed back to Beijing - red flags going up everywhere!

The first place he took us to was a cloisonne workshop and showroom. Cloisonne is the technique of decoration metal objects - usually copper - with enamel. The design is laid out onto the object with very thin wire, and then the 'compartments' are painstakingly filled in with different colors, and then fired in a kiln. A very labor intensive process to produce vibrantly beautiful pieces! I enjoyed seeing the workers in their shops, and all the different stages of the production - but the showroom left me cold. So obviously overpriced, so much of a tourist trap - luckily Ajey and I are now seasoned enough to walk out of such places without feeling obligated to buy something!! I'll admit that the next place he suggested was something I was looking forward to - a silk factory! This, too, was a letdown however. I don't claim to be an expert on silk, but I do have a general idea on how much a silk tie should cost - and when that is off by a large factor, there is no reason to trust the prices of bigger items like the quilts and bedspreads! The worst part is, the guide refused to leave until long after we were done - I'm guessing that he got his commission only if his clients spent x minutes in the store. Now I'm not against someone making some extra money, I only wish he had been upfront about it!

Finally, we were off to the Summer Palace - this again is a large campus filled with gardens and lakes. The largest lake, Kunming lake, is artificial, and the excavated soil was used to create the Longevity Hill, on which the actual Palace and other buildings are located. The whole structure was meant as a 60th birthday gift for the mother of Emperor Qianlong, who also last renovated the Temple of Heaven. More Chinese symbolism - the lake is shaped like a giant bat, and the hill like a peach (wait, do I have it backwards - can't remember!) - peach for long life, and bat for happiness! By the way, when I say 'bat', I mean the nocturnal animal - not a cricket or baseball bat! As we walked onto the Summer Palace grounds, front and centre, tethered to one side of the lake, was a huge rubber duck. Totally confounded me - wikipedia to the rescue - this giant rubber duck was created by sculptor Florentijn Hofman, and was part of a world tour called 'Spreading happiness around the world'. Supposed to invoke happy childhood memories! I'm not really sure what I thought of this - didn't invoke any memories for me, and it looked a little, well, out of place. I don't really get modern art!

Just like at the Forbidden City, a one-way walking path had been created to get to Longevity Hill. Normally, I would have welcomed the chance to walk around the lake through the beautiful gardens - but the thought of pushing through the jostling crowd was not very appealing, so we decided to take the dragon boat. Besides, how pretty were these boats! It had been a long day, so after admiring the 'Marble Boat' - no, it doesn't float, just a pleasure pavilion in the shape of a boat - and walking through the endless, aptly named 'Long Corridor', we were done! Although a pleasure palace, the Summer Palace has a place in history as the last residence of  the 'Dragon Lady', Empress Cixi - the last empress of China! Lots of stories in these whispering woods!

View of the Summer Palace from the lake

Dragon boat to cross the lake

Marble boat

'Long' corridor

The sun was setting right as were leaving, and the sunset was absolutely gorgeous! The outline of a pagoda against the sky, the waters of the lake turning a molten gold - there was no walking away! Also got our last crazy capture - I better watch out - I'm getting hooked too!!

Next morning, before check out, we ventured out for one last time onto Wangfujing Avenue - and found a delightful market just minutes away from our hotel. More souvenirs, yay!! Just a few steps away, the food vendors were setting up for breakfast and lunch. No stinky tofu this early in the morning, but such an assortment of odd creatures waiting to be eaten - what could be more outrageous than entire crabs, you say? How about starfish and scorpions with a side of sea horses??!! I don't really get it - how much meat can there be on that tiny, bony sea horse? Besides, aren't they endangered or something?? Oh well, you can never say 'Now I've seen it all' in China - the next surprise is just around the corner!

And so it was back to Suzhou! Another memorable vacation done! On a personal note, I did get all the posts done - and although I enjoy reliving all the fun stuff as I write, it is a relief to put Golden Week behind me! Signing off now!!

Back to Beijing - Part I

Last weekend of Golden Week - and we were off to Beijing! Truth be told, we almost didn't make it - train tickets sold out at an alarming rate, much faster than I had anticipated - but after juggling some dates and booking plane tickets for one leg of the journey, thankfully, everything fell into place! Flying out of Hongqiao airport is easy - only about an hour away from Suzhou, this is a comparatively small airport - which means less waiting time!

Beijing airport, on the other hand, is vast - it does serve the capital of the nation, after all! As we queued up for a cab to the hotel, we encountered something unexpected - we were five, 4 adults and Manasi, and apparently Manasi doesn't count as a 'kid' anymore - so we had to split up into 2 taxis, which led to a small logistics problem. Obviously, Kaka and Kaku couldn't go off by themselves, and the thought of Manasi and I setting off on our own didn't go down well with Ajey - in the end, I rode with Kaka and Kaku, and Ajey and Manasi took the second cab. Granted this wasn't my first time in Beijing, but I hadn't really taken taxis anywhere the last time, so I was a bit jittery - in any case, we made it to the hotel without incident!

Looking for hotels, I was amused to find that the last Beijing hotel I stayed at - the one which hadn't really made me happy - is actually a 'courtyard hotel', and a stay at one of these is a must for the true 'Beijing experience'! Well, you know what, been there, done that - can I have a nice 'brand' hotel this time around, please? We love the Crowne Plaza in Suzhou, and our stay in Xi'an really made us fans - and since there is a Crowne Plaza right off Wangfujing Avenue, I ended my search happily! True, this CP is a bit older than the our shiny Suzhou one, but the hospitality and guest services remain the same! In fact, as we waited for our rooms to get ready, they kept handing us coupons for free drinks to apologize for the delay - Ajey and Kaka managed to have free beers for all 3 days of our stay here!

After lunch and a short rest, we set off towards Tiananmen Square - an easy 20 minute walk from the hotel. It was curiously foggy - but it was neither cold, nor was it the right time of day for a fog - much to our dismay, the thick soupy air was the infamous Beijing pollution! Seriously? Air pollution that is visible?? It didn't seem to deter the heavy crowds of people on Wangfujing Avenue! Even the brightly lit Tiananmen Square could not dispel the gloomy fog! We did walk around the whole square, though! From gate to gate - Tiananmen in the north to Qianmen in the south - with Mao Zedong's Mausoleum and the Monument to the People's Heroes smack dab in the middle of the Square! My pictures are all foggy - but blame the air quality, not the photographer! Also, at Qianmen Gate, we took the first crazy pictures of this vacation - this soon became an ongoing theme!

Tiananmen Gate

Monument to People's Heroes

Mao Zedong's Mausoleum

Qianmen Gate - and the picture that started it all!

The walk back to the hotel felt like it was miles - of course, we still had to figure out a place for dinner. We had earlier toyed with the idea of finding an Indian restaurant, but nobody was in the mood to brave the Beijing traffic and air once again! In a pinch, McDonald's is acceptable for a quick lunch - but for, dinner? Nah! We decided to gamble a bit and headed to the lantern festooned Chinese restaurant right opposite our hotel - well, it was either that or McD's...so there weren't many complaints! Most unexpectedly, this humble restaurant served us a vegetarian feast - dumplings, noodles, fried rice and fried potatoes!

Manasi with her audio guide

Another culinary surprise awaited us in the morning - the breakfast buffet included idli-wada-sambhar and chhole-paratha! Unreal, right?! Indian food for breakfast at a American chain hotel in China! Needless to say, my foodie husband was the happiest person in the room! We headed back to the Square, this time to walk through Tiananmen Gate into the Forbidden City. The crowds were unbelievable! I remembered standing in line at a single counter to buy tickets. This time around, to handle the large number of visitors, over 50 ticket counters had been opened up - and there were people queuing at each and every one! Inside, too, large sections had been cordoned off, creating a sort of one way street- no backtracking!The air quality wasn't any better today, and the sheer number of people a bit daunting! Still, we did make it to the other end! First check mark on the list!

I was determined to visit a couple of places I had missed on my first visit - so after a quick trip back to the hotel, we set off to another iconic site in Beijing - Temple of Heaven! This is an ancient garden complex built in the 15th century by the Ming Dynasty - the layout that can be seen today was established during the reign of Emperor Qianlong in the mid 18th century. Themes of the union of heaven and earth can be seen throughout this complex, for instance, 'circular heaven, square earth' - the outer northern wall is semicircular, whereas the southern is rectangular, 'blue heaven, yellow earth' - all the buildings have special glazed dark blue tiles on the roof and the inner tiles are yellow! Quick lesson in Chinese symbolism!! The entire park is planted with ancient cypress and pine trees - the air is much fresher here, and not surprisingly, this is probably the best place in Beijing for a morning run, or an evening walk, or some tai-chi!

Temple of Heaven

The 'Temple of Heaven' or the 'Hall of Prayer of Good Harvests' is built on a 3 tier marble platform and has a distinctive 3 gabled roof. This is where the 'Son of Heaven' prayed to the Gods for a bountiful harvest. A little south of here, is the Imperial Vault - similar to the Temple of Heaven, but smaller with a single gabled roof. This is surrounded by the famous 'Echo Wall' - 2 people standing at opposite ends can hear each other clearly due to the reflective properties of the perfectly circular wall. In theory, that is - and not when there are a hundred people shouting at the wall, and then looking over their shoulder to see if their friend heard them! Further south is the Circular Mound Altar - presumably, this is where sacrifices were made to appease the Gods. The center of the altar has a small marble platform called the Heart of Heaven - speaking from here creates a strong resonance with the entire structure - all the better for prayers to reach high, high up!

Of course, the innovative pictures continue - Ajey tapping his creative inner photographer!

And here's one of the ingenious photographer and his very charming model!

I was hoping to wrap up the vacation in a single post - but I'm only about halfway done at this point! So I'm going to stop here with this photograph of my 2 favorite people, and carry the rest over to a second post. Part II of Back to Beijing coming up very soon! Don't go anywhere!

Exploring Suzhou - Tongli Water Village

It seemed like a good idea at the time to write separate posts about all our different activities during Golden Week! More than a month later, and I'm only about halfway done! Meeting deadlines and perseverance have never been my strengths, but even for me, this dragging off feet is almost a record! Well, what can I say - except, better late than never - I'm seriously considering making this my motto! Anyway, here goes - Tongli Water Village!

Suzhou is often known as the 'Venice of the East' - numerous canals criss-cross across old Suzhou, quite beautiful with weeping willows planted on either side, and picturesque little bridges! Today, I don't think these canals are of much use other than being tourist attractions - but once upon a time, life in Suzhou revolved around these canals. To get a better idea of exactly how a water town functions, a short 18km drive away is Tongli, a perfectly preserved water village! Tongli is a very popular tourist destination - another must-see for visitors to Suzhou!

I was a bit surprised to find out that there actually was an entrance fee of 100 RMB to get into the ancient town - just appeared to be more commercial than what I was expecting! We did manage to get a good information booklet about the sights in Tongli - in English, upon request - but still, an entrance fee? It's like charging people to go to Sadashiv Peth in Pune!! Not a very good start!

One of the water canals

The canals form the first impression of Tongli - granted the grayish-green murky waters are a far cry from the Venetian canals - but, nevertheless, it is definitely a 'water' town! A short walk along this canal will bring you to the 3 most famous bridges in Tongli - Taiping, Jili and Changqing. Crossing these bridges is said to bestow blessings and good luck! I'm usually not superstitious - but in instances where there is no harm done, I like to cover my bases! So all 3 bridges were duly crossed! There are over 55 bridges in Tongli - no, I did not count, got that little nugget from wikipedia - so it's a good thing that only 3 of them are special!

I don't know if it was because of the vacation - but as we walked further, Tongli was starting to look like nothing more than a huge fairground! People thronged the narrow walkways, and restaurants lined the entire length of the canal! With the numerous souvenir and handicraft stores and street vendors, this was not exactly what I had been hoping to see! I was looking forward to a boat ride in the canals - but once again, the crowds had me turning away. For one, making the most of the busy day, the ferries had an additional cost. Secondly, there were so many boats in the water - it was clear that the ride would be as relaxing as being stuck in bumper to bumper traffic on a Shanghai expressway!

There are a couple of ancient structures in the village - Chongben Hall, Jiayin Hall, Gengle Hall - these are all in the Chinese style of architecture - courtyards following other courtyards with displays of wood carvings and scrolls. What sounded most promising was the Pearl Tower - following the often confusing map, we found our way here - no tower, just the residence of Censor Chen. A Chinese guide was expostulating at length to a group of tourists, so I know we were missing something! Our information booklet had a terse line - 'The Pearl Tower was the place where the story Pearl Tower taken place' - now that makes absolute sense, thank you! I looked this up on wikipedia - and more surprises - there exists a model tower made of pearls, but we never got to see that either! Oh well!

As we walked further, we ran into an actual fairground - absolutely not kidding here! Complete with candy floss and fairground games, this place did bring a smile to Manasi's face! She did try her hand at a couple of games, and ended up winning a couple of stuffed toys - enough to keep her happy for the rest of the day!

We were looking for the Tuisi Retreat and Reflection Garden - makes me relax to just hear the name - when, unbelievably, we lost our way. Well, not lost per se - we just stepped off the tourist track for a bit - and stumbled onto the most interesting part of this village - the actual village! The cobblestone alleys, narrow doorways, old houses - all real with real people! Women sitting by the water - cleaning vegetables and fish for lunch, children playing little street game, older people enjoying the sunshine - a wonderful glimpse into the simple life, just minutes away from the overly touristy side of the village! The best part of the day was walking past a tiny, cramped little hole of a room - what's so special about that? - well, a mahjong game was in progress!! I was so happy, I almost asked if I could join in!!

When we finally found the Tuisi Garden - and this is the one place that would make me want to come back to Tongli - absolutely beautiful! A classical garden, it consists of many lakes, and the buildings appear to almost float on the water. Even with the large number of people, there was a serene quality to the garden, the trees and bridges reflected in the rippling waters, goldfish playing in the shadows. A place to sit quietly, to collect your thoughts, to rest the senses. Totally worth the admission price, I would say!


This post would be incomplete without a word about the delicacy of the day - fried crab on a stick! Hairy crab is traditionally eaten during Golden Week, and almost everyone at Tongli was eating this snack - three entire crabs skewered and deep fried! I'm wondering how long I have to stay in China before I stop getting surprised by these 'delicacies'! Goes without saying, none of us were adventurous enough to try this - especially with an egg curry lunch waiting at home! I wouldn't rate Tongli as must-see, but I have to admit that the huge crowds didn't exactly add to the appeal. I found it a tad too commercial for my taste - catering almost exclusively to tourists. I would like to go back during off-season, maybe that will be a better experience!

That's it then - a day at Tongli! With this, I have just one more post left about our October staycation - and won't I be glad when I'm done! Signing off, for now!