Day 4 - Farewell Beijing


Today was our final day in Beijing. We had a free morning before we caught a train to Xi’an. We slept in a little more today (5am instead of 4am). We got up went through our yoga flow and ate breakfast. I took a picture of my typical breakfast here in Beijing. I don’t really eat anything China-related, but the hotel here is surprisingly good and makes omelets and crepes.


As soon as we ate breakfast we walked to Tiananmen Square. I thought we should visit the mausoleum of Mao Zedong while we were here. Who knows if we will ever make it back to Beijing and I wanted to see the Chairman. Alison was not as thrilled about this idea. She is totally opposed to eternal viewings. When we came to the square on our first day the line to see Mao was so long. Visiting hours go from 8am to 11am. We arrived right at 8am and the square was not nearly as busy as the last time we were here. The line to see Mao’s body was not too long either. We stood in line for about 35 minutes start to finish. It worked well because Alison was able to call her parents and check in while we were in line. While we waited in line I observed the other people standing in line. There were easily thousands of people in line and we were the only people I could see who were not of Chinese descent. In most places, we go Westerners are the minority (1-5%), but here in line I did not see any. At one point in the line, there was a cute little girl in front of us. She couldn’t have been more than 5 or 6 years old. She kept looking back and staring at us. Her eyes filled with wonder and curiosity. I could just see her questioning who we were and what were we doing there.



Waiting in line to see Mao 




We had to leave our bags at the hotel because no cameras or bags are allowed in the mausoleum. All we had with us are our phones and passports. We had to go through security and the only time the line really got bad was right after the security check. There was a lot of pushing and jostling as people tried to reunite with their groups and get a better position in line. Other than that point in line our experience in queues and with crowding in China has been much better than we expected. I took a few pictures outside while waiting in the queue, but I did not take any inside the mausoleum. It seemed like that was very much against the rules and in China, it is best not to push the boundaries.

When you enter the mausoleum you go into a large room with a giant white stone statue of Mao sitting in a chair, behind him is a beautiful mural of Chinese scenery. In front of the statue was a large container where people would place white flowers. The Chinese people would purchase flowers outside and when they entered they would bow and lay the flowers down. Alison and I noticed that as the pile grew there were workers who would pull some flowers off the container and set them down behind the container. Alison whispered to me, “I bet they resell those flowers”. After you pass through this room you enter a room with a large glass container in the center of the room. On a pedestal in the container is Mao’s body (allegedly) draped with the flag of China so that only his head is visible. We were given just a minute to gaze upon him before we were shuffled along to make room for the masses of people behind us. I am very glad we stood in line and saw Mao. I do not know if what we saw was actually his body. There are rumors that when he died the team preserving his body botched the procedure and that the body was replaced with a wax replica. Either way, the devotion and love we saw in the Chinese people around us was quite fascinating. Millions of people from all around China make the pilgrimage to this location to pay their respects to a man, who for better or worse, set China on the path to becoming what it is today.



After seeing Mao we planned to go over to the National Chinese Museum. It is right there in Tiananmen Square as well. We made it to the museum, got through security, and were about to enter when a Chinese lad ran over to us and started trying to talk to us in Chinese. We did not know what he was saying but he kept gesturing at our shoes. A kind lady who spoke both English and Chinese stopped to help. She explained he was telling us our shoes were not allowed and that we would need to leave. We got out of line and through a study on it and apparently open-toed shoes are not allowed in the National Chinese Museum. It seems like an odd rule, but we did not have other shoes with us so we found another activity.


Instead, we walked over to Zhongshan Park. This is a park right next to the forbidden city. It was beautiful. All parks in Beijing seem to be beautiful and you can enter for a nominal fee. This one cost 3 yuan per person or less than $0.50. It had a few buildings and lots of trees and flowers. There was an area called the fragrance gardens that was full of roses and smelled divine. People in Beijing love flowers. There are so many beautiful flowers everywhere. Today was an exceptionally nice day in Beijing. The sun was shining and the skies are blue. Susie told us that blue skies in Beijing are a rare occurrence that only happens a few times a month. We were glad we got to experience it.






We had a nice morning wandering through this park. As the appointed time to go drew closer we wandered over to the other side of the forbidden city where we found the Working People’s Cultural Palace. This area cost 2 yuan to enter and had buildings that were similar to the forbidden city (just smaller in scope). This area was practically empty, the only people we saw over here were couples taking wedding photos.









A little before noon we headed back to the hotel. Susie met us right at noon and took us to the train station. I will be one hundred percent honest and say I was not excited about this portion of our journey. We have heard horror stories about the train stations in China. Most of which involve crowding. We arrived at the train station and Susie came inside with us. She showed us where our train would leave from and advised us to get food prior to boarding. The food on the train is not good according to Susie. She also explained how to tell which car and which seats would be ours based on our tickets. We were relieved to find out we had assigned seats. She recommended we eat at McDonald’s, KFC, or Starbucks at the train station. We decided to follow her recommendation and get some cheeseburgers from McDonald’s. They tasted exactly like McDonald’s cheeseburgers and fries from the US. The waiting area was very crowded (there were no open seats so we ate our food standing up), but it wasn’t bad. When the time came to board everyone got on the train in a more or less orderly fashion. We found our seats, stored our luggage, and we were on our way. It was much easier than I expected. We were on the speed train between Xi’an and Beijing. It took us between these two cities (1500 km) in approximately 5 hours. We averaged around 300 km/hr. It was an enjoyable ride. We passed the time looking out the window at the countryside and talking about our experiences in China.


Waiting for our train

One thing we have noticed about China is the way they mobilize their greatest resource - their people, to beautify and clean. Even as we were boarding the train there were dozens of people washing the windows and sides of the train. As we would walk the streets we would see people everywhere picking up trash and taking care of the plants. Also every time I went into a bathroom there was also someone in there keeping the floor or counters or toilets clean. China has employed its people to control crowds and keep China clean. This helped make our visit to Beijing a great experience.

We arrived in Xi'an and disembarked in this huge train station. We got off and we did not see our guide. Alison was immediately ready to call the tour company to find out where our guide could be. It has kind of become a reflex after our experience in Jordan last year. It was a huge station with people running all over the place. Most of the signs were in Chinese so it was easy to feel overwhelmed. We felt lost in a sea of people with no idea of which direction to go. At this moment I was grateful for the many opportunities that we have had to travel. While this was a completely foreign train station it did not feel all that different from Penn station in New York. Both are huge with people running in all directions. I stayed calm and took a second to look around. I saw a sign that showed the exit was to our left and suggested we walk out toward the exit first. It was good we did because after a few moments we saw our driver standing with a sign with our names. He did not speak English, but he gestured for us to stay put while he made a phone call. Before we knew it our tour guide, Kenneth, came over. My initial impression was that I was not as impressed with Kenneth as with Susan. He seemed harder to understand. Our car is also not very nice in Xi'an. It is an old van that is kind of dirty and a little smelly. It has AC that appears to function well and it gets us around so we really can't complain too much. Also if this would have been the first car we had in China it would have been right in line with my expectations. We were spoiled in Beijing with a nice car and in comparison, this one seems not so nice. Kenneth quickly grew on us. While he is a little bit more difficult to understand than Susie he is also much more passionate and engaging. He is also way more knowledgeable. I think we will learn a lot from him. He shows a genuine interest in getting to know us and is happy to tell us about his life. He told us he has a 5-month-old daughter at home and showed us some pictures. 

As we got closer to our hotel we asked Kenneth if he could recommend somewhere for us to eat dinner. He told us about these special dumplings he thought we should try. He said they were very good and they were kind of shaped like ducks, fish, etc. He then offered to take us to dinner at a restaurant that is very popular with the locals before they dropped us off at the hotel. We went to this place and they fed us a feast of food. There were four cold appetizers to start (although we didn't eat too many of these, and Kenneth kept asking if we didn't like cold appetizers). They then brought out four plates of dumplings, a plate of sweet and sour pork, a pot of soup, watermelon, and some sweet dumplings. It was so much good food. We gobbled it all up. After dinner, we checked into our hotel. This hotel is nicer overall than our hotel in Beijing. The room is smaller but of better quality. Although the bed is very hard (this is quite common in China as they believe a hard bed is better for you). We are very excited to see what adventures we will have in Xi'an. So far it seems like an interesting place.

Lotus root 
Taro
Cucumbers and shrimp
No idea what this is



Do you see the duck?
Maybe a fish?
Sweet dumplings 

Do you see the pig?

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