"Beijing - City of Many Faces " a Beijing Travel Page by aussiedoug

What to title this page has been bugging me since I was half way through my week in Beijing because every time we went out different images imprinted themselves upon my brain, in my consciousness & in my heart.
Here are some of my observations that could lead me to changing the above title.

City of World Heritage listed sites (is it 4 or 5?)

City of long big roads many with trees on either side - Avenues

Logically following on from the above - City of madness motorists' maelstrom

And therefore the next has to logically be - City of few road accidents just missed by a couple of coats of paint

City of rampant captialism politically ruled by a communist government (interesting paradox eh?)

City of different streets for different purposes - Restaurant (Ghost) Street, Antique Street, Bar Street (north & south), Culture Street & I'm sure there are a few more too.

Yes, I should have remembered this one of my observations b4 Vicky (sugarpuff) reminded me - City of so many different uniforms , but for what purpose?

City of cranes - constant destruction & reconstruction

Cit of massive newer buildings - yes not tall in the western skyscraper sense, but massive & impressive in size

City of late afternoon/early evening summer outings by locals doing different activities

And so on.

Now, for the above photo. I'm going to change it each week as I have some 500 photos to choose from.

This is one I took the first afternoon I was in Beijing. Here you can see a fairly typical bit of Beijing Summer weather. Sunny, but hazy so the blue sky isn't exactly blue. I like the juxtaposition in this photo with the greenery & flowers in the foreground & the buildings showing the Chinese style of modern architecture.

I've said it once before & I have to say it again. You VTers are a sharp bunch with the right questions.

I'll say this again too! "Funny how the wheel of life turns". If you check my wish list you won't find China or Beijing on it, but now I'm already dreaming/loosely planning for my next visit. The sleeping giant is slumbering no more, but fully awakening & I'd like to see more of this awakening

Now for the story of how I ended up here. In one of our local Saturday newspaper travel sections I see a cheap deal to Mumbai with 4 night accommodation & return airfares for $999 + taxes of about $130. So all up around around US$800. Anyway rang the travel agents concerned a couple of times for no response. So, happen to be on the way to the gym & going past one of the local travel agents who are advertising a number of specials on a big poster in the window. One of which is Beijing, return airfares, 6 nights accommodation & 4 full days of tours & meals from $1 499. It was actually from $1535 (Aviation fuel surcharge) plus single supplement of $275. So for just over $ 1800 (Australian so about US$1250) I picked up a package with the following:

Return airfares to Beijing entering via Guangzhou

6 nights accommodation at Beijing International Hotel - 5 star rated & very good indeed

Breakfast every day & lunch & dinner on the 4 full days of tours.

4 full days of tours with a local guide which included;

Day 1 TiananMen Square, the Forbidden City & the Temple of Heaven

Day 2 The Great Wall of China, the Exhibtion Hall of the MIng Tombs & the Sacred Way

Day 3 Pandas at the Beijing Zoo (could've happily done without that), the Summer Palace & Beijing Acrobats

Day 4 Buddhist Lama Temple, rickshaw/pedicab tour of hutongs (& some walking too) with tea ceremony at Bell Tower

Had the previous Sunday free when I caught up with VT friend sugarpuff (Vicky) originally from Gibraltar now working for CCTV9 & living with her French Canadian boyfriend Charles in Beijing close to Restaurant Street.

Also had a couple of hours free on the last Friday before heading to the airport around midday. Vicky took me up to Le Petit Gourmand in Sanlitun (just into the north part of Bar Street)

So now you can see why I just had to take advantage of this incredible value package. That's how I've come to add Beijing to my travel map.

Going on an organised tour for a person with my degree of hearing loss (caused by otosclerosis - an hereditary thickening of the stapes bone which causes conductive hearing loss) makes travel to countries speaking another language a lot easier. However the disappointing aspect of this for me, who has always been happier doing my own thing whenever I want to, is that I didn't feel as if I got see much of the "real" Beijing.
I think there were a couple of reasons for this. Firstly our itinerary was fairly busy trying to fit a lot of the 'big' historical places in so time wasn't exactly on our side. Equally though I believe that the Chinese government must have an agreement with foreign tour companies binding them to visit at least one government owned store e.g. Pearl Palace, Jade Factory etc, per day which meant we didn't get the opportunity to explore the interesting little shops owned by real Beijingers. This was most noticeable when we wlked through Pipe Tobacco Alley where there were some fascinating little shops most of us were just dieing to get in & have a look at.
Having said all that I found Beijing a great experience & would love to go back again. I hope I do go back again & sooner rather than later.