Trans - Siberian Part 3 - Beijing (ii)

Jet Lagged

"I Collapsed asleep, but not before greeting another new arrival, an Italian girl, a student of anthropology, here in China to work on a "stage" as she called it, that is, a study of the population,

Nice chat.   But then I was out like a light til 4.  I rose, showered, changed, then met Jonas, another dorm mate.  We got chatting and he left - I went for coffee downstairs where he joined me.  He was heading for the forbidden city so I said I'd join him.  It was closed but the hill just too its north 'Jingshan park' was not - and was only 2 yuan to get in - it was dark so we laughed at our absurdity as we clambered up the wooded stairs in the black - its a very steep hill with a classical Chinese building on top, and on the 4 sub peaks surrounding the main one at its corners, the hill itself in the middle of flat Beijing. - My feelings tell me its a burial mound and - lets check - Oh, no, apparently, according to Feng Shui it is necessary for places of residence to be south of a hill - since none was present for the Forbidden City they built one using material extracted during the construction of its moat.

 So there you go.
Seems silly to me - I mean defensively - from the top you can see right into the city - over the impressive walls - still."

More Journal extracts.  Here the thing has the advantage of hindsight, written that night once my wandering for the day was concluded.  Some details I wish to remember are left out, the coffee I had in the hostel was mediocre but still mana from heaven, the cafe itself, white, shining, high ceilinged with palm fronds settling in the artificial heat.  Very western.

I'll continue with the journal.

the view

"The view was pretty great, though forbidding. Beijing stretched all about us - Major arteries in flowing gold centered on the Forbidden city in front of us, its vast courtyards dark behind its floodlit red walls - skyscrapers to all quarters their lights smeared by the chemical filled air.  All very Blade Runner, and somehow disturbing.  Theses last clusters of nature in a city made of smoke and concrete.  The Chinese.  The future inheritors of the world - yet seemingly so shortsighted, so polluting.  It really is extreme.

We returned to the Hostel via various Hutong, the alleys that used to make up most of Beijing until the 1950s when they were demolished to make way for motorways and tower blocks.  They were nice homely affairs, bikes whistling through, all manner of bric a brac bolted to walls, safe.

The most common establishments in the Hutong's appear to be hairdressers and public toilets - which seemed to be on every street - you could pass as many as 3 in 5 minutes.  Most had heavy leaden drapes for doors and, at knee height, various caution signs :

Toilet Etiquette

The Safety harness appeared to be a scaffolders one - so it tied in with the fall warning.  But what? Are public toilets in Beijing positioned over vast chasms?

Back at the hostel Jonas went for a shower whilst I started my diary entry - as I said, my social life took off - we went to meet Tom (Scottish) and Johan (Swedish) who Jonas had met that day on the great wall tour, we headed to a pub with noone but ourselves, the staff, and a looping film of the 'Victoria's Secret awards' projected up on the wall.  After a drink we found a more atmospheric place "Pool Bar" it was called.  Very dodgy looking but as as I said, very atmospheric - pool table and a bar on one lever, a wrought iron staircase leading up to a moody second level filled with couches and tables.  Very pokey and fairly gritty, like something from a film or Max Payne, but quite awesome.

In the toilet was the sign

 I quite enjoyed this.

So Tom is an IT guy living in Cambera traveling home on the Trans Siberian in order to get to Edinburgh for Christmas.  Jonas just finished studying - he works as a free lance reporter but is still thinking about it.  Johan is a geologist specialising in peat. 

All in all they were good companions and helped lighten my mood considerably.

They stopped for food on the way back, Johan and Tom had 'Surprise Fantastic' - which seemed to be spicey pork - other options included 'squid's neck' and 'Big Big Big'. Funny.

A drink store next door sold a drink called  'signs of milk tea' all very good.

Anyway meeting them all again tomorrow to do the forbidden city, but as of now I am cold and tired and tucked only halfway into bed.  Looking forward to tucking in fully.

Long day.  Good, bad, mad.  Long."

Which finally ends my first day in Beijing!
I wouldn't end up meeting the lads in the Forbidden City in the end.  But thats a story for another time. Sunday maybe.  Or later today. Dunno yet.