It only took us three hours to get out of the airport in Beijing. 6 o`clock in the morning is definitely not the best time to arrive in China`s capital city….
Very soon it became clear to us, that English is not a very commonly spoken language in China. Taxi driver waved us away, laughed at us in misunderstanding and young girls just started giggling as soon as we tried to ask them for directions. We also understood quickly that the dense smog in China is more than just rumours and that Beijing gets freezing cold in wintertime. Thanks good we kind of expected it to be cold and had brought our thick winter jackets. (a really good plan, if only all our luggage had arrived…).
Extremely tired and exhausted from all the flying, carrying and queuing we finally found our pre-booked hostel right in the middle of old Beijing. What a relief! The first few hours here we used for a nap and only in the late afternoon we went out for our first stroll in the neighbourhood.
It did not take long until we found a small teashop in one of the very narrow sideways. When the owner popped her head out and asked us in a quite understandable English to come in, we went met Alice. A middle-aged Chinese Lady who welcomed us with a beaming smile and an invitation for tea. It was fascinating to watch how the traditional Chinese Tea is served: A good amount of dried tealeaves is put in a teapot where it gets poured over with boiling water. After just a few seconds the tea is poured into the drinking cubs and only when the first round of tea is drunken, the already used tealeaves get poured over again. This procedure is repeated up to four times. Chatting with Alice gave us the first insight impressions about living in China and Beijing. She talked about her kids and how all the young Chinese prefer to move away from the countryside to find work and possibly a better future in the big cities. She also explained to us a few things about life in the old city of Beijing. The small and simple houses have been owned by the families for many generations and even though there is no running water, no electricity and only shared toilets the people generally choose to live there.
We really enjoyed just to walk around and discover all the small and big differences. Low quality gift shops, interesting food in the small stores, houses looking like made up China Town, gross locking food in big jars, jummy streetfood (the crepe!) electric scooters and a intense smog that covered that scene in a mistic grey…
Das Aufwachen am nächsten Tag war fantastisch! Der Himmel war blau! Wers nicht glaubt schaue sich die Beweisfotos unten an. Perfektes Wetter also um den Platz des Himmlischen Friedens, die verbotene Stadt und die nähere Umgebung zu erkunden.
Nach einigen Sicherheitskontrollen standen wir schliesslich auf dem geschichtsträchtigen Tiananmenplatz. Während ich diesen Ort vor allem mit grausigen Taten während des Kommunismus (und danach) assoziiere, scheint er heute vielmehr ein beliebter Platz für Selfies, Familienportraits, Spaziergänge und ähnliches zu sein.
Direkt vom Tiananmenplatz gelangt man durch ein grosses Tor (und eine weitere Sicherheitskontrolle) in die verbotene Stadt- das historische und geografische Zentrum von Beijing.
Der Raum der heiligen Ruhe- Halle der unendlichen Ehrlichkeit- Palast der ewigen Selbstkontrolle- Haus der strahlenden Sonne waren so ungefähr die nächsten Destinationen auf unserem Spaziergang. Ziemlich beeindruckend, ziemlich gross, ziemlich alt, aber auch sehr steril fanden wir.
So richtig beeindruckt hat uns aber die gigantische Aussicht vom sogenannten Kohleberg nördlich vom Palast. Dank des ausnahmsweise Smogfreien Tages kamen wir in Genuss eines fantastischen 360° Panoramas. Während das Innere der Stadt erstaunlich grün ist, wird Beijing von einem Gürtel aus Hochhäusern und schliesslich den Bergen eingerahmt.
Ein weiteres Highlight war ein kleiner Markt, wo die Einheimischen Nüsschen, Gebäck, Kuchiges und Salziges einkaufen. Natürlich probierten wir so einiges von den unbekannten Knabbereien und entdeckten dabei interessante neue Geschmackskombinationen. Den Rest des Tages verbrachten wir mit ein bisschen random U-Bahn fahren, einem Abstecher an die Top Einkaufsmeile und
Denise
Selfiestick for president:-D