Why a Tour?
After spending our first two nights on our own in Beijing, our tour was a welcome relief. Just not to have the exhausting hassle of trying work out how and where to go.
When travelling long term, the mear effort needed to plan your next move takes a lot of research and effort. Add in the extra hurdles of a massive language barrier and lack of your usual tools to find your way, and it soon becomes exhausting. It’s not as if you will have a friendly local helping you out when you need some advice. You’re pretty much on your own.
Travel Budget
Throw the budget out the window! What we have been managing to live on for the past 12 months is mear pocket money. It’s not so much the cost of living that’s expensive but entrance fees are on everything. There is also a very much inflated price for foreigners. We are used to that in most countries but is ‘over the top’ in some places. In fact, there are some services attractions that foreigners can’t access. More of that in a future blog.
Booking on any tour, you are paying for the luxury of security, comfort and basically being looked after.
The main reason for coming to China was that we had a pet sitting assignment just south/west of Wuxi (an hour out of Shanghai by bullet train). We don’t think that we will be back to China anytime soon so we wanted to make sure we made the most of it while we were here.
Travel China Guide
We decided to go with Travel China Guide. There small group tours and flexibility appealed to us. Their communication was fast and concise and they really covered off everything we wanted in a tour.
Our 7-day tour from Beijing to Shanghai cost us $2,440nz for both of us. There were a lot of meal and entrances inclusions so we didn’t have to be faced with too many extra’s on top.
We were limited to certain dates of travel. It was imperative that our tour was from Beijing to Shanghai and started and finished within a timeframe that allowed us to travel to Wuxi to start our house sit. We only had a one month visa so we couldn’t enter China too early. We also needed to take into account the Chinese New Year (or commonly called Spring Break).
Travel China Guide also was very good at helping us with our onward travel plans. They booked trains and flights for us as we planned our solo travel after our house sitting assignment. It did take a lot of the stress out of trying to do all of this on our own. Their assistance also helped when we were standing in the middle of a train station with no English signage!
Travel Warning
It was a steep learning curve finding out what happens in China in the lead up to Spring Break. One piece of advice, if anyone is thinking of travelling to China – do not plan to do it during this time. The actual New Year was falling on the 16 February. It seems that a lot of businesses shut down for at least the two weeks just prior and around this date. Locals start travelling back to their hometown in the lead up to this break. You do not want to be anywhere near China or travelling during the lead-up time. The local tourist industry has really expanded over the past couple of years so they are travelling more in their own country. All tourist destinations are flooded with locals during the Spring Break.
First Day
We were reconciled with our group in our hotel lobby. Our guide Candy was lovely and spoke very good English. She was like a mother hen and soon had us all introduced and filled us in on the days events.
Our group consisted of two kiwis (us), one Australian, two Indians, two Americans and two Lebanese. Nine was a good number and certainly a wide mixture of cultures.
Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City
Tiananmen Square
We had clearly underestimated the sheer size of this. I only knew Tiananmen Square from watching the infamous Tiananmen Square Massacre and the haunting image of the lone man standing in front of the impending tank. This all took place in 1989. Because of this and of the square’s significance in China, it is a prime target for people to stage protests and unrests.
If you wish to visit on your own, you are faced with long queues to get in. Not so if you are in the tour group. Once through the entrance, the area opens up and you are not so aware of the hundreds of other tourists filing in. Thousands of people come to the Square every day. It is one of the most visited sites in the city.
The frozen moat, the large expansive Square and the entrance to the Forbidden City
The Square is located in the centre of Beijing and is surrounded by 5 ring roads. Within the Square is the Tiananmen Tour, Monument to the People’s Heroes, National Museum of China, Chairman Mao Memorial Hall and the Forbidden City.
It was bitterly cold but a clear cloudless day. The wind blowing through the Square really cut you to the bone so we were happy to keep moving and entered the Forbidden City.
Forbidden City
This is also known as the Palace Museum. It was built over a 14 year period and served 24 Emperors. The world’s largest palace complex and covers 74 hectares and has 8,700 rooms. Needless to say, we didn’t see all of them. The cold, the number of tourists and our timeframe didn’t really allow us time to meander this massive structure.
Inside the Forbidden City, someone important was coming!
As luck (or unluckily) we were there right on the same day as an important dignitary was visiting. Tourist definitely takes second place on these occasions and we were unceremonially moved on rather abruptly and shuffled behind roped off sections. We weren’t even allowed to stop but had to keep moving forward. We’re still not sure who it was but we did see on the news that Theresa May was in the city for talks. Kinda of thinking it could have been her coming through. Everyone did seem nervous and on edge (or this could have been how they normally are!!).
If we ever did make it back to Beijing, this is an attraction that we would like to come back to revisit and take our time wandering around and absorbing more of the history of this place.
Temple of Heaven
After a beautiful lunch in rather a posh restaurant (made a change from the usual street food we’re used to), we headed for the Temple of Heaven.
We were fast learning that the history of China is mindboggling. We don’t have the history like this in little ol’ (or should I say young) New Zealand.
This was the place where emperors held the Heaven Worship Ceremony dated as far back as the 13th century. It is the largest sacrificial building in China. Thankfully, we did learn that it was only animal sacrifices made – not human!
It was hard to imagine it was so old as the structure was absolutely pristine. Obviously, a lot of time and money is spent on keeping this temple in a condition that makes it looks like it was built only last year!
It covers an area of 2,700,000 meters and is larger than the Forbidden City. The design reflects the ancient Chinese thoughts that heaven is round and the earth is square (go figure) hence the round temple.
Beijing Hutong and Courtyards
We were treated to a visit to one of the many Hutongs left in Beijing. Hutong is a name given to a lane or small street that originated in the 12th century. Beijing had hundreds of these lanes and stretched out in all directions around the Forbidden City. These lanes connected numerous courtyards in the city. Now less than 1,000 remain and it is a problem keeping them in a modern city.
Our poor rickshaw driver!!
Resembling a chess board, these lanes connect with each other making it easy for local people to keep in touch with their neighbours. It was fascinating exploring a Hutong by rickshaw. We did feel very sorry for our rickshaw man and he worked up quite a sweat by the time he had finished with two solid built kiwis!
Watch out for scooters in those narrow lanes, watching the locals on the frozen lake – love the chair option!!
Through the twisted lanes, we were shown to a local family home and invited in to meet a local couple still living in a Hutong community. He was an artist and I would guess he would be in his early 80’s (always hard to pick ages!). His wife showed us around the tiny, yet immaculate home. He was born in the area and as is usually the case, never left. We spent some time speaking with him through an interpreter and learning a little bit more about how it is to live in a Hutong community. I’m sure there are many more stories to be told but he certainly kept to the specifics.
Kung Fu Show
Our rather full day was finished off by a lively Chinese Kung Fu Show at the Red Theatre. These shows aren’t usually ‘our thing’ but hey, it was an inclusion in our tour. It was actually quite entertaining and had a great story. The acting and theatrics made it an enjoyable evening.
We enjoyed our first day with our tour buddies and were looking forward to our next day, travelling to see the mighty Great Wall of China.
Click on the link below for highlights of our first day of our Beijing to Shanghai tour.