Different sides of Beijing

When I saw Beijing on my January 2019 roster, I was not particularly excited. Of all the different cities I have visited, there are only very few which I didn’t really like and Beijing was one of them. “Was” indeed, because the forst visit was quite short so I didn’t have a great experience. The next layover was longer and this gave me the chance to explore some more areas. This proved me that some cities just need more time to actually have a real opinion about it. They say the same about Buenos Aires, because it is such a massive city, you need more time to fall in love with it.

Not that I actually fell in love with Beijing.. To be honest, I don’t think I will ever fall completely in love with a Chinese city. Simply because it is so hard to get around and communicate with the people due to the language barrier. Anyway, let me show you what I did during this layover, to change my mind.

Day 1 in Beijing

After a long night flight without rest, I was pretty exhausted when we reached the hotel, so I needed a little nap before heading to the city. Later that afternoon I planned to meet an old schoolmate in the city for dinner and drinks. She is living and working in Beijing, which was great for me because I could just follow her as we wandered through cute little streets. We also ended up in a neighborhood I probably would never have found by myself!

We bought some Chinese sweets at a street market (she speaks some Mandarin), had a yummy dinner at a local restaurant followed by a coffee to heat up in a cozy place called Grandma’s Kitchen Garden. We ended the evening in a popular bar among expats and apparently also drag queens who are participating in contests and shows now and then. Say whut?! Yep, very interesting turn of the night.

Day 2: Summer Palace winter wonderland

I got up quite late as I was awake half of the night (##&$@$& jetlag), but this didn’t stop me from visiting the Summer Palace. This is not just any palace but it’s surrounded by an enormous garden with hills and colorful monasteries, temples, art galleries, museums, teahouses and to top it off, a huge lake behind it. It was beautiful!

The lake and the canal were frozen when I got there (It was -8C) so it was full of people ice skating, tubing and even biking on the lake.

After spending hours walking around, I wanted to visit the Prince Gong Mansion, but once I finally found it, I was welcomed by closed gates. Unfortunately everything closes around 5PM in Beijing. As I continued my journey towards Beihai Botanical garden, I  got distracted by twinkly lights and lots of activity at a lake across the entrance of the park. I asked the woman at the counter what was going on and what the name of this area was, but she thought I asked her for the ticket price of the park….. ok never mind.

I gave up and decided to have a look myself. The frozen lake (between Houhai and Qianhai lake) was divided in different sections; one for fun ice skating with chairs, tubes and other colourful creations to use on the ice; one for ice-hockey skaters, one for speedskating, and then there was a black hole in the ice for the hardcore swimmers. A bunch of people was recording and supporting them and until today I’m still curious whether there was a reason for this or if it is just a winter hobby of middle aged Chinese men. And no, I didn’t ask anyone because I couldn’t handle another failed attempt for a conversation.

As I continued my evening stroll along the lake, I ended up in a brightly lit street full of tiny shops and eateries, offering many typical delicacies. I did not have the courage to try anything as it didn’t look nor smell very appealing.  Oh well, eating chicken feet has never really been a bucket list item for me anyway. After being refused by several taxi drivers, I eventually found a guy kind enough to bring me back to the hotel.

Afterwards I found out this is quite a popular historic area called Shichahai.

Day 3

My creative friend Keiii advised me to visit the Beijing 798 art district, which was definitely another highlight of my already pretty successful layover! It is a huge industrial area that has been turned into a site full of art galleries, museums and street art. I could talk about all the different galleries I’ve visited but to be honest I forgot to write down the names so instead I’ll just show you some photos I took.

The shops and cafes I passed only accepted cash and I didn’t have enough with me to pay for food and a taxi, so Becks was hungry and decided to head back to the hotel for food and a nap. If only this was done as easy as it’s said.. As always in China, at least 10 taxi drivers refused to take me. They don’t just open the window to give me a chance to show the address I need to go to (in Mandarin), they just make a big cross with their arms. Amazing.
I found a hotel on the map, walked there, dramatically told the reception nobody wanted to take me and asked them politely to order a taxi for me. They couldn’t really say no as I had become pretty hangry by that time and I think my face showed it. 🙂

Beijing may seem like a very polluted and grey city, but it does have some pretty cool things to offer, besides the well-known forbidden city. Give it a chance.