“Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting….” Beijing

This political home of China is full of wonderful and controversial things to experience from the magnificent scenery of the Great Wall to the notorious history of Tiananmen Square.

We arrived with the snow and brought the blistering cold with us from Xian. It was strange to think that while we’re bundled up that sand storms invade this metropolis at other times of the year. Sands from the Gobi Desert are creeping towards the capital at a rate of 2,460 square miles/year, about the size of Delaware. The dust doesn’t help the already polluted city either. In 2005, Beijing had the world’s highest nitrogen-dioxide levels. However, since feeling the pressure of hosting an Olympic event, Beijing has started to clean up, and while there is still a ways to go they are having more blue sky days.

Wondering what the city must have been like before the Olympic overhaul we got a small taste after exploring the Hutongs, or alley neighborhoods. Little shops and homes line the street as locals zip by on the bicycles and electric scooters bundled in scarves and hats while smoking a cigarette. Later we caught an Acrobatic show, just like in Ocean’s Eleven, and then retired early for our 8 km hike on the Great Wall of China in the morning.

The hike, while slightly treacherous in some spots, was amazing as the walls were delicately covered in fresh powdery snow from the previous days. The path, however, had turned into a mixture of ice and snow, making the Jing Shan Ling to Si Ma Tai trek interesting as we navigated up and down the slippery rubble. Sweating and freezing all at the same time, we decided that “The Great Stair Case of China” was a much more fitting name. After a snowball fight and some “sledding” (not always voluntary) we made it back down in one piece with some unforgettable sights to take back with us. That night we went to the Kung Fu Show, while more of a show than much Kung Fu it was still entertaining.

The next day we prepared ourselves for the tourist circuit of Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, Mao’s Mausoleum, and the Temple of Heaven. With Obama’s visit to China, streets were packed and busses overloaded as we spilled out into the square. It was interesting to see the American flag flying when we entered the square thinking about the infamous history it held. Things change quickly in China and it was only 20 years ago where we were now standing that students went on protest to mourn the death of pro-democracy diplomat, Hu Yaobang. It lasted seven weeks until tanks arrived June 4th, 1989. The number killed on either side remains a mystery today as numbers wildly vary depending on source.


Next was a structure that lives a little deeper in history, the Forbidden City. This massive walled palace was home to the ruling Emperors for almost 500 years. We recognized scenes from The Last Emperor as we hurriedly walked through the masses with our hands frozen. At the exit we bargained for some mittens a pair of ridiculously awesome panda hats! We were just two pandas out on the town for the rest of the day. Later, morbid curiosity got the best of us as we strolled along Mao’s Mausoleum (Mao-soleum for short) and decided to see the 33 year old preserved man himself.

Mao was an interesting character who holds much respect by the Chinese people as they feel he turned China into a world power, currently the third largest economic power, in spite of all the horrible things that happened. Such reforms, like the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, are thought to have resulted in 50 to 70 MILLION people’s deaths. Mao was 82 when he died and had wished to be cremated, but the new powers to be preferred a Mao on display. A wax replica was produced as a backup in case the preservation process didn’t go well, as embalming technology had not been performed in China. So whether we saw real Mao or replica Mao we’ll never know, though he did look like he belonged at Madame Tussauds.

The street lights came on and we made our way to the Night Market. Calls of “Hello, penis” chant through the air. Now you may be wondering what kind of market is this, well it’s the Dong Hua Men food market, where all kinds of strange delicacies await the willing palate. From the bizarre to the disgusting they serve starfish, urchins, snake, kidneys (not sure who’s), sheep penis, and a wide assortment of crispy insects on a skewer. For dinner we had a little bit of everything. We begin our three course meal with some donated baby bees, (guess you could say they were free-bees….) then followed with fried silk worms for an appetizer, snake with a little centipede on the side for the main course and scorpion for desert. The scorpion actually tasted like fried chicken! However, the next night we had a much tastier meal consisting of Peking Duck and scallion dumplings.