Beijing Wild Wild East

When we decided to travel to Beijing on our way back to Europe, we expected a big surprise. We were not disappointed. I suppose our trip from the airport to our friend's place was a great way to start. OK, maybe travelling with a surf board to Beijing was not a great idea. But it was fun arguing with the taxi drivers who of course did not speak English. The language of signs was the only way to go and we ended-up in a tiny taxi with four pieces of luggage and a 2m long surfboard. As you can imagine, travelling through downtown Beijing was a joke. Things got even funnier when we found out about the Chinese way of driving. There is basically no rule in this (not organized) chaos. I already knew that driving in emerging countries can be exciting. But when our tax driver took-over a car already taking over another car (all of this happening a two way lane), we became a bit tense. We eventually made it to the city. A few stops later to ask for our way, we found out most taxi drivers in Beijing have not much of a clue as to where to go. Even if you give them addresses in Chinese ! We got lucky, after more than a hour delay, we managed to pick-up Nathalie, our French Chinese speaking friend who was our host for the rest of the stay. I have to say without Nathalie, our Chinese experiene would not have been as enjoyable (thanks !!!).

Beijing is a huge city under construction. Chinese are getting ready for the 2008 Olympics. Aparrently, most factories outside Beijing have been pushed away inland to decrease high pollution levels in the city. From what we have seen, this is far way from enough, although the sun was out most of the time in Beijing, we only got one clear blue sky day. It is a bit like living a huge cloud of dust all the time, not nice at all. We suspect this is due to the vast majority of the city being refurbished. Unless you like pollution or 24/7 engineering or traffic noise, our first piece of advice is to find refuge in touristic attractions and/or get way from the city from time.


That's exactly what we did and here are some pictures of the Forbidden City (aka imperial palace and the Great Wall. I have to say the Great Wall was the highlight since we left Europe in January. It was just huge, spectacular and challenging. Along with our friend Mike from the U.S., we walked 9 kms in total. This went up and down and passed 30 towers. Anne-Sophie nearly collapased in the end but this was so much fun.





Back to Beijing; we spent a few days hanging around the city. We loved the hutong which are the small streets where ordinary Chinese live. This was an exciting part of the city; where surprisingly we did not see that many tourists.






Now, let me talk a bit about our second highlight in Beijing. This place is called factory 798 and this is where contemporary artists get together. It was refreshing to break way from tradionnal China and get a glimpse into Chinese modern art. Not suprisingly, there are man references to Mao times and this is what makes it so unique for us. Factory 798 is a mosaic of warehouses outside the city, about 15 mns from the airport. Since Chinese art is becoming a hot property, it is definitely something to check out.





That's it for Beijing. We had a great time there and would highly recommend it to westerners. Jus make sure you have a guide or friend to help you out there. It definitely helps !

Stay tune for more pictures from around the world. The next destination is Geneva in Switzerland.