Beijing is about 17,000 sq km (Manila is only about 636 sq km) with 13.9 million people. A couple of travel friends invited me to go with them to one of asia's megacities. I would've wanted to go to China longer but beggars can't be choosers. (We got really cheap tickets!) So three of us, off we went to conquer Beijing for four days.
This is my detailed account of Day One.
First impression, this city is huge, dusty and cold. I was prepared for tolerable cold weather. I saw the weather forecast, temperatures ranged from 10 to 23 degrees Celsius. I asked a friend who was based there and he told me to bring a light jacket. So I did bring one light jacket. (turned out it was not enough to ward off the cold cold spring in Beijing)
We knew it was going to get cold. But it was already spring so I anticipated Baguio-like temperatures. but I didn't expect the windchill that felt like cold cold winds of Siberia blowing. Seriously, it felt like winds coming from melting ice blowing on my entire body.
We were picked up from the airport by our hostel taxi. I reserved accomodations at Happy Dragon Hostel, which had good reviews in Trip Advisor and Pinoy Exchange. When we got out of the airport, there was a guy holding a placard with my name on it. He was standing just outside Terminal 2 so it was hard to miss him. We managed to get to our hostel solely by using sign language with our driver.
My first night at the hostel didn't go well. Despite having made reservations in Happy Dragon but we were informed that we are "temporarily booked" at their sister hotel.
The sister hotel wasn't at all nice. It was old and there were all sorts of clutter in the corridor. I could've given them an earful but it was at 2am and I was too tired to argue and I just wanted to sleep.
So we slept in their sister hotel and got picked up the following day to transfer to Happy Dragon.
Happy Dragon turned out to be quaint backpackers' place with character. There were writings on the wall. And the rooms were tidy and they have clean bathrooms.
So we just dropped our bags in Happy Dragon and zoomed our way to the nearest train station, Dongsi.
We bought train cards which was quite a challenge to look for.
What I discovered and liked about Beijing trains is no matter where or how far your destination is, you'll just pay 2 yuan or around 14 pesos.
So off to yuyuantan park we go, to see the cherry blossoms. People usually flock to Japan to see these elusive flowers but in this small park in Beijing, they were abundant too. The trees were actually a gift from the people of Nihon.
There were only a few tourists in the park. Most were Chinese walking around and hangin out in the park. Once we felt hungry pangs, we ate at the food booth in the middle of the park. We shared fried crabs, dumplings and chicken or something that resembled chicken.
After getting our fill of the rare blosoms, we proceeded to the Summer Palace. We had a hard time figuring out the summer palace's entrance since it was so huge. Once we got in, I borrowed an audio guide which was gps-controlled. It activates once I go near a landmark.
Summer Palace was huge. Most of the big palace structures are overlooking the huge body of water. We also climbed a hill to one of the huge structures. Afterwhich we walked a very long corridor with ceiling and columns filled with paintings with very intricate details. The corridor was almost a kilometer long. (They say this is the longest corridor in the world)
After leaving Summer Palace, we decided not to take a rickshaw with the word Subway on it just outside the exit. Instead, we walked for a half a kilometer in a street where we were the only ones walking. After asking a chestnuts vendor where the nearest train station is (thanks to BB translate), we figured we were walking in the correct direction. Then we transferred train lines several times to get to the Olympic Village (to see the nest and the cube). Despite transferring train lines countless times, we only paid 6 yuan for a journey that lasted for more than an hour.
While we were marvelling at the bubbles of the water cube, we met a photographer from National Geographic. After chatting with John for a bit, we called it a night.
Meeting John was a nice day to cap day one in Beijing.
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