Beijing City Break

Four days in the Imperial Capital

Recommended days	4
Budget	££
Difficulty	Medium

This was another trip done before I kept proper notes so there is very little info, more of a photo gallery. A Beijing city break is now pretty accessible for those from the West and is just another huge and bustling city, albeit with stricter laws and different customs than we’re used to. The trip was booked with On The Go Tours.

There is a huge amount of history and the Great Wall is an easy day trip but my impression of the city was that it was dirty and noisy. Hygiene standards (toilets, spitting in public) are different to what we’re used to. We didn’t really have much interaction other than the guides so I have no idea what the Chinese are like as people!

Tiananmen Square

Tiananmen Square was a bit anti-climatic. It was nice to say we’d been there but it was really just a big square with lots of other bemused people in it. There were the obligatory pictures of Chairman Mao but the whole thing was pretty low key really.

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Forbidden City

The Forbidden City is the classical image of China and Beijing in particular. When we visited it was very crowded and we missed a lot of bits I’d like to have seen – a circuit of the moat and also Jingshan Hill for the panoramic views.

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Temple of Heaven

My favourite site with Beijing itself was the Temple of Heaven. This is a complex of temples and shrines used by the Imperial family. None of the building we saw in Beijing were that old, most were post 14th century, which was surprising as there has been a city here for 3000 years. I guess the Mongols have a lot to answer for and maybe the Boxer Rebellion and Cultural Revolution too.

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Great Wall

The Great Wall is probably the biggest tourist draw to Beijing. There are various parts that can easily be visited in a day trip from the city. It is an incredible structure but I was amazed at the way it is sited. It doesn’t follow a ridge line or the best defensive line, it’s almost random as it dips and climbs through the hills. Some bits were so ridiculously sleep you had to climb up them like a cliff face so moving troops along it couldn’t have been easy!

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We saw some incredible sights on our Beijing city break but it wasn’t somewhere I’d want to spend to long due to the pollution and it was also a culture shock in a negative way. It would be interesting to revisit and see what’s changed since 2009 as well as catch up on the sights we didn’t get to see.

Flights are cheap now and it is always wonderful how travel breaks down cultural barriers, for both visitor and visited. From here we took the train to Xi’an.

2009