The China Diaries: Day Eight

I woke up around 7:00AM, which was much earlier than I wanted to be awake. I looked outside and it was raining lightly. I got myself a hot coffee and jumped back into bed. I realized after doing nothing but sulking for two days, I didn’t really have a game plan for Beijing. I had a list of things I wanted to do but knew I wasn't going to get to see more than half of the things on that list. I would need to choose wisely and carefully!

I decided to get showered and head out for the morning as the rain had stopped. The weather forecast suggested it would rain in the afternoon. I was staying beside the Forbidden City, so I went there first.

The place was absolutely packed with people. It was overwhelming. My first thought was that I did not want to go inside with all those people but then I thought I couldn’t come to Beijing and not go into the Forbidden City.

Lining up and waiting to get into Forbidden City

I picked a line and waited in it and when I got to the lady at the counter and tried to hand her money, she told me that if I didn’t have a ticket for the day, I couldn’t go inside. I had never even considered that. The people behind me were pushing to get in so I stepped out of line and walked back to the end of the lines. There was a security guard there so I asked him where I could get tickets to go inside thinking I must have misunderstood the lady. He confirmed that the tickets were sold out for that day and that they were closed on Mondays. He said I could buy tickets for the following day. I had train tickets out of Beijing on that day, so ... so much for that.

I wandered over to Tiananmen Square and had a look around there. The day was hot, people were everywhere and it seemed to me that there wasn't really anything to look at only long lines to wait in. I was walking around in circles so I went back to the hotel.

I decided to go to the Summer Palace for the afternoon. I took a walk to the train station thinking I’d take the train there. There was a long line up waiting to get into the station. Once I finally got in, I went downstairs and was overwhelmed by the number of people hording around the ticket machines. I had no idea how to use the machines and there wasn’t anyone around to help me. The information booths were empty. I turned around and went back upstairs and out the exit. I couldn't deal with the chaos. I planned to catch a taxi instead.

I was finally able to find a free taxi and when I told the guy where I wanted to go, he told me it was really far, like 20KM. I told him I knew that but I wanted to go anyway. He said it would be 200RMB. I said no. I told him that I saw on the Internet that it should be no more than 100RMB. He told me that wasn’t enough. He then proceeded to tell me that I understand Chinese and he’s not trying to cheat me and that this is the price that everyone pays. It’s not a foreigner price. I told him it was too much money and started to walk away. He drove beside me and asked me what the highest price was that I was willing to pay. I told him 100RMB. He said that was impossible. I told him I’d take the train. I went back to my hotel and asked them to call me a taxi. The fare was 65RMB. That guy was totally trying to scam me and I am glad he didn’t accept my100RMB offer as that was cheating myself. Ha! 

I paid 30RMB to get into the Summer Palace. It was lightly raining. That didn’t stop the masses. I was beginning to realize that everything in Beijing required waiting in line. Waiting in line to buy tickets. Waiting in line to get through the entrance. Waiting in line to get through security. Ugh. It was making Beijing very unpleasant. And waiting in line didn’t mean waiting in a nice, straight, civilized line … it meant staying crammed as close as possible to the people around you so others can't cut in. And even then, people would continually push. It’d be my turn to go through a turnstile and an arm would come out of nowhere in front of my face so the person about to take my ticket would take their ticket first. And it was like, there’s one turnstile, so even if the worker took the other person's ticket first, that person was not getting past my body. Seriously, people. Oh. My. God.

The Summer Palace

I tried to enjoy my time at the Summer Palace but it was hard. Most of the time I was lined up, walking slowly behind the person or people in front of me. It’s hard to enjoy places when you are continually herded like cows and if one were to want to stop and take a picture, you’d hold up the entire line behind you. Beijing was quickly becoming my not so favorite place.

The Summer Palace was impressive but I took very few pictures because of all the people and the rain. I spent a couple of hours there before heading back to my hotel. The train station was very near the Summer Palace and there was no line to get into the station, so I decided to brave it. When I got to the ticket machine, there was a lady there to show me how to use it. Perfect! Navigating the train back was easy and it took me about forty minutes to get to the station near my hotel.

When I exited the station, it was pouring buckets. I pulled out my rain poncho and set off into the streets. What I didn’t know is that Beijing floods every time it rains. The drainage sewers around the city either suck or perhaps there aren’t enough of them. There were very few people on the streets and the few that were seemed to be under awnings waiting out the rain. By the time I got back to my hotel my feet were soaked. I wasn’t wearing my waterproof hiking boots, though I was forced to go through so many huge puddles, like ankle deep, that waterproof shoes probably wouldn’t have helped. I did enjoy the emptiness of the streets and put my arms out a few times to enjoy the space.

I ordered room service and then went downstairs to see about booking a tour for the next day. The weather forecast wasn’t looking great but the whole reason for coming to Beijing was to set foot on the Great Wall of China. I booked a bus tour for 320RMB. It wasn’t the way I wanted to see the wall but the tour I wanted to go on by myself was quoted at 1300RMB. With the weather forecast showing 90-100% chance of rain for most of the day, I couldn’t justify paying the money.

I went back upstairs and went to bed early hoping that the weather forecast for the next day was wrong.