The West Commences: Day one in Beijing

It’s Sunday, September 22. A week ago today Jay and I were walking the streets of Beijing on the first day of what I’ve come to think of as our ‘shanks mare’ tour of Beijing. My parents often used that expression to mean walking, and we certainly walked in Beijing. We arrived at the Beijing airport in time to see a brilliant sunset from the windows of the cab that drove us to The Peking Yard Hostel in Wangzhima Hutong of the Dongcheng North section of central Beijing. We unpacked Jay’s backpack, if that is the verb you use when you take a minimum of clothing and pile it on a bedside table and desk. The room was very clean, the beds comfortable and the bathroom a good size, but there were no dresser drawers and only 2 hangers on 2 hooks. Then we went back to the main living room and front desk area, bought 2 cold beers and a bag of crisps, took them up to the rooftop garden and relaxed for a while. The hostel is well named because the front door is right on a narrow, busy street, but as soon as you enter, you are surrounded by plants and flowers. The rooms are off a labyrinthine path, lined with bamboo and full of flowerpots, that extends quite far back into a yard. Consequently it is very quiet in the rooms. After that we went on the first of many walks, along the narrow street in front of the hostel to a bigger street lined with small stores and restaurants and finally to a big avenue, bright with Moon Festival lanterns and full of people and restaurants. Groups of older men were gathered around tables playing a board game with big wooden checkers, younger men were playing cards, many men surrounded each group, watching and commenting loudly. There were also many people sitting on rickety chairs around odd tables eating long sunflower seeds and dropping the shells all over the sidewalk as they waited for tables to become available in the various restaurants. It was a lively scene. We slept well that night and on Sunday morning decided to have a good breakfast at the hostel and then try to get an overview of the central area of Beijing. This is where Jay showed that he is the legitimate grandson of a WW2, RCAF navigator. Using the small map of Beijing from the Lonely Planet guidebook and the compass on his iphone, he got us without a hitch from the hostel to Beihai Lake, through the park there, down the west wall of the Forbidden City to Zhongshan Park and through it until we came out, through the Gate of Heavenly Peace and directly into the vastness of Tian’anmen Square. It was a thrill to see it like that because although we knew we were walking toward it, we hadn’t expected to see it at that exact moment. We had walked for hours, along streets, through parks, around a lake and right to our destination. It reminded me of the time Jim and I entered France from Belgium and decided to spend the night in Reims. We were walking on our first night, turned a corner and there was Reims Cathedral right before our eyes. We hadn’t seen it at all from a distance as we approached the city. Jay and I then walked around and through Tian’anmen Square. Seeing the huge portrait of Mao that dominates it was impressive no matter what you think of him or the horrors that have occurred on that spot. We saw the huge National Museum of China that extends almost the entire length of the east side of the square and decided to spend one of our days there. A woman I bike with in Vernon who had taken a 3 week tour of China a few years ago told me that you will discover more about the country and see more of its real artifacts in that museum than you will on a tour. By that time, we were ready to head back. Jay found a more direct route paralleling the east wall of the Forbidden City, taking us through the upscale area of the city, past Whangfujing Cathedral where some teenage boys were doing very energetic dancing and back to our neighborhood. We settled down, starving, at a local restaurant and ordered cold beer and food. It was all good, but the best thing was the eggplant. We each had one, a long oriental eggplant split in half, topped with oil, salt and tons of finely chopped garlic and then broiled. It was delicious, but I thought as I ate it all that the garlic was not overly cooked and might be hard to digest. It was. We both had a restless night and vowed never to eat that again.