Tuesday 27 July 2010

1 July Beijing markets and Temple of Heaven


Morning in Beijing, we wake up in the 4 bunk bed dorm. I hope she is in a better mood than last night. Last night, I wasn't sure whether she was angry at me at how i managed the situation at reception or just angry because of what happened. I may be more relaxed at all this, but this is maybe a lack of assertiveness from my side, but then this is because if something really bothers you you (i) do express it. Anyway, between checking our emails and a quick walk around the amazing, noisy and busy market which closes at 9am on the dot, we kill time to sort out about our double, and we leave it sorted before we hit the streets towards the Temple of Heaven.
That market was something! from 6 to 9 one of the most fascinating, colourful market I have seen takes place right 100 feet away from our hostel. The husstle and bustle, the foods on display, women and men alike around, the food being cooked, fried, boiled, steamed, the dough, the skillfulness of those making it, how tasty it was! we tried a number of things, each was about 0.10€ and nothing gave us an upset tummy, it was all delicious, a pleasure for our taste buds.
We really enjoyed this morning scene on our second last day in China, before our departure.
We sit down while we sip our canned white coffee while eating their instense flavoured foods, canned coffee and breakfast food in China probably is a rare, unusual sight for them, a bit of no-no thing for them, but what the heck, we needed that bit of a kick our system is hooked to.

We managed to them them free breakfast and then when we paid, and extra discount for the hassle...trying to speak to the girls we liked most nicely but determinedly about how disappointed we had been after being so pleased with the service before we left for Mongolia and all. Change money, I buy another 2GB memory card for 180yuans when the first price was 490 i think.
Well off we go on foot to the do the sights. It all seems a bit easier now! straight down the shopping street...Change money. We saw a chinese decorative door leading to what looked like a food market on our right. The right we take to find food, brightly coloured shops and souvenir stalls. As you walked past the tenders grabbed you by the arm to stay at theirs. All of them had very attractive items, really cool dolls, mao zedong stuff, chopsticks, decks of cards with communist pictures, teapots and tea sets, cups... lots lots of things, carved stone stamps...i have to push her out of there because she would have remained there and bought the whole market! hahahaha. Carry on walking, we make a right, reach Tiananmen Square, make a left and straight down. and straight down, a left at another left...posh, recently built shopping street.
off we go to Temple of Heaven
ever-longest wall i have seen, Zara is there, beautiful and classy chopsticks shops, tea sets, decorations, food, ...
youths with very unusual hairdos in a what looked an old hutong neighbourghood in the process of renovation (=turn it into high rise buildings and destroy the tradional chinse housing)
a labyrinth, we must be very very close but there's no way we find the way to the temple. We stumble upon this very long wall i said, never-ending wall on the right, never ending wall on the left. We were desperate for an entrance to what must be the Temple of Heaven grounds but no gate to be seen!

street foot in beijing. http://www.lonelyplanet.com/mexico/travel-tips-and-articles/77162?intaffil=lpemail
takoyaki (japanese)

rickshaw 2 yuans with his fingers, asks for 20 at the door,
Temple of heaven, Beautiful
girls in imperial costums, friendly and smily.
throngs everywhere, a handful of tourists too, a handful proportionally to the chinese visitors makes a nice figure!
Tornem en taxi, molt de trànsit. posen el taximetre. mira la guia al revés! Se'ls ha d'ensenyar el nom en xino pq sinó no entenen els caràcters llatins.
it was 5ish pm when we got to the shopping street food market, amazing food, I was starving, we hadn't had any lunch
...

2 comments:

  1. Very interesting blog! Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Y, thanks for your comment! I am glad you liked it. As I say in the introduction, I love reading other people's travel blogs and I thought it was about time I did one. I am still completing it, there's so much to say about a trip like that for someone from Europe.

    ReplyDelete