Beijing September 7 – 21 Travelogue

On September 7 Maggie and I departed for Beijing to visit our daughter who’s currently under a 6-month secondment to her Beijing office. This is my wife’s first visit to Beijing and my first trip since 1981. In the early ’80 I’d visited the place thrice in 1980 and 1981 for business.

During my thirty years’ absence the city has transmuted from an austere and monolithic city to a modernistic bustling metropolis. In the old days there was hardly any traffic. When I went to Yuanmingyuan (Old Summer Palace 圓明園) in 1981 I needed my hotel concierge to order a taxi for round trip since it would be nil possible to find one on the street. Now it has got six ring roads and a large mass transit underground railway networks (MTR). Traffic jam is the order of the day. The MTR is very cheap at RMB2 per single journey but one has to subject to security check at the entrance and enjoy the jam packed condition. Nevertheless we used the MTR most of the time during our stay in Beijing.

High rises are aplenty and new ones seem to be budding everywhere every day. Certainly it’s an ideal ground for the creative architects. The old favourite tourist spots such as the Forbidden City (故宮), Summer Palace (頤和園), Heavenly Temple (天壇), Ming Tombs (十三陵), People’s Hall (人民大會堂), the Great Wall (長城 I went to a different sector this time though) etc. remain more the less unchanged. Nevertheless the authorities now barricade some sections. There’re just too many people. Thus one could no longer enter the various palaces inside the Forbidden City or touch and shout at the Heavenly Temple’s Echo Wall.

The weather during my visit is relatively nice except for some showers towards the end of our stay. Pollution is a big problem with no cure in the foreseeable future. With a few exceptions the sky is always grey and cloudless.

September 7 (Tuesday): Beijing (北京)

Despite certain delay in take-off (not uncommon for inland flights) we arrived about 10 minutes late in Beijing at 12:35. And it took 40 minutes+ and RMB86 taxi ride from the airport to the Ascott Service Apartment in the Jianguo District (東三環建國區). We spent the afternoon familiarised ourselves with the neighbourhood - Jianwai (建外) SOHO and the shopping centres at the basements of China World Tower 1 & 2. Then we’d family dinner at the Beijing Dadong Roast Duck Restaurant (大童烤鴨店團結湖老店), reputedly the best in town for the crispy, lean and delicious bird. We were not disappointed. Afterwards we’d drinks at the Atmosphere Bar, 80th floor (just 37 seconds elevator ride) of the recently opened China World III.


Camera Equipment:
Camera: Panasonic LX3