"Honeymoon Beijing" a Beijing Travel Page by JBourne

We wanted to go somewhere memorable for our honeymoon and settled on China as the most interesting and unusual place for two 20somethings to choose. Not quite the average sun sea and sand holiday. Unsurprisingly we saw very little of any of the three but it was by far the most outstandingly fascinating and culturally different place I've ever been.

We organised the trip ourselves with no tours or set program, and spent 8 days in Beijing and 5 in Hong Kong. Beijing was heavily polluted and the city was full of vast and impressive towering buildings were in varying states of repair. Many looked like millions had been spent on building them but then they'd been left to rot. The pollution is apparently being dealt with but when you see the way it has eaten away at the modern skyscrapers, you can't imagine its eradication being a quick process.

The main streets were extremely clean, even from spitting which was considered by the Chinese authorities to be the biggest problem and there were posters up everywhere threatening fines for those who ignored the ban.

Western living and affluence was as apparent as the poverty that many still live under. Vegetables patches appeared everywhere including on the roadside strips of land next to the motorways, and we often saw elderly people trawling the roadside for litter, presumably to try to make money from what they collected.

Tian'amen Square had a heavy army presence but we were told that those guarding it were boys chosen specifically for their good looks, and they were not in any way threatening. It was slightly unnerving being in a place where such atrocities had occurred, yet the tourist trade and everyday life was so obviously thriving that it couldn't be a overbearing image for long.
Chairman Mao's preserved body (housed in a mausoleum one side of the square) is a mecca for the Chinese and that along with the Great Wall, is considered to be something that every Chinaman must see before he dies.

Sandy, windy, overcrowded and a total tourist trap but absolutely worth visiting without a doubt. The vista was incredible, you could imagine Mongol hordes surging around a mountainside. To view this feat of engineering is a tribute to the Chinese tenacity and peculiar sense of singularity for a cause. The bodies and bones that lay under these stones are testament to that.

There are trinket sellers by the dozen who will crowd you and thrust their goods under your nose but most are good natured and will be as happy with an attempt on your behalf to utter a word in mandarin as if you spend a Renmimbi on their wares.

The title of City is not an overstatement, it's absolutely vast. We didn't make our way all around it and parts were closed off for renovation, as many things in China are in the lead up to the Olympics. This didn't detract from the experience as there is just so much to see and be in awe of.

The rooftops are burnished gold that in the 4pm murky dusk glowed as if otherwise illuminated. There is room after room of museum style displays although little evidence of how the palace functioned when it was inhabited by the royal family. That element has to be left to the imagination but it isn't too difficult to picture it what with all of the films and books about that period in its history. If it had been permitted, I too would have ran across the central courtyard shouting for my loved ones.

Mao himself lived here and apparently began to style himself as a new breed of emperor. That would not be difficult to imagine as the palaces and gardens are empowering and intoxicating, and could easily affect one's mind (as of course could untreated syphilis but I digress). I would have willingly have hidden somewhere until the gates had been locked up so to be able to explore with more time and privacy. Of course the thought of the old water torture dissuaded and I instead have made a mental note to return one day and spend a lot longer within these walls. Note to any pending visitors reading this - start off here early, you'll need a lot of time!