Back in Beijing

As part of this series about my month-long backpacking trip around China, this is what we got up to in Beijing!

We flew from Edinburgh to Beijing via Paris and arrived at around 6am. We headed straight to our hostel and arrived just in time to get some food and start a day of exploring and adjusting. We found some xiaolongbao 小笼包 around the corner from our hostel in the Qianmen area. 

We explored Qianmen, which wasn't far from our hostel. 

We then decided to walk from Qianmen to the Temple of Heaven. We had been on planes and trains and wanted to steer clear of any more transport. It looked quite close on the map, but it was in fact not close at all. I think it took us an hour to walk there. We also didn't have SIM cards yet, so we had to keep stopping and ask people for directions. It was also really hot, which was quite a shock coming from Scotland. 

The Temple of Heaven was one of the main tourist spots I missed on my last trip to Beijing. I'm glad I got to see it. Though I think the Forbidden City, Summer Palace, and Temple of Heaven have all been repainted recently and look quite similar. I'd say you don't have to go to all of them.

There's a really cool museum about what the temple was used for. Hint: there was a lot of sacrifice. 

The gardens around the temple are surprisingly huge and really lush in summer. 

After walking around all morning and into the afternoon, we went back to the hostel and completely crashed. We made it out for dinner around the corner from the hostel and then barely made it back - we were so exhausted. 

The next morning we sought out jianbing 煎饼 for breakfast. They are by far my favorite breakfast food in China - perhaps one of my favorite foods in China. 

We also stopped at a 7-11 and found a pretty interesting flavor of potato chips...

We dropped Louisa's cousin Catriona off on a Great Wall tour and Louisa and I spent the day arranging train tickets for the rest of the trip, SIM cards for the two of us, and a bunch of other really boring stuff. 

In the evening I went to visit a family friend, who lives in Beijing. I went to their apartment then we all went out to have Korean food for dinner. It was so good! And the view from their place is amazing. 

The next morning, we went to the Forbidden City to help Catriona buy tickets and get started. Louisa and I had been before so we felt like we could skip it. 

We went to Beihai Park instead, which turned out to be really nice. The weather was good and there were a lot of interesting people out and about. There was one woman whose t-shirt dress had 'doner kebab' printed on it. 

We walked around pretty much the whole park before returning to meet Catriona. 

When we met Catriona at the exit of the Forbidden City, we tried to get a cab. First, none would stop for us. Then, when we did get a cab it turned out the road was blocked. We didn't have enough time to cycle back - we really needed to take a taxi. We started walking down the street that was blocked. We found some taxis parked there, so we asked if we could get in. The driver said yes, but that the traffic would be bad. He said we would make it. 

It turns out the national university entrance exam was taking place. At that very moment it was letting out for the lunch break. All the parents were waiting to take their kids to lunch. Not only that, but it was the school where all the government officials send their children. So security was tight. 

And on top of that, it was also about the time that Putin was arriving in Beijing and we had to pass the place where government officials are formally received. That was all blockaded. 

It was kind of a comical series of events but we made it back to our hostel with enough time to buy food and collect our bags to head to the train station. We got on a train in the afternoon to arrive in Xi'an the next morning. 15 hours on a train! The next post will be about what we did in Xi'an!