Beijing – China!

Day 1:

The day we have all been waiting for has finally arrived. On the 23rd of June at 10:45 we departed on our long trip to Beijing. We gathered at Perth domestic airport a couple of hours earlier than the flight. All my teammates and their parents came to say goodbye for the last time. My mum, being my mum was extremely worried but we managed to say goodbye.

I began my journey through the airports and flights. First was a 5 hour flight to Sydney and then a 12 hour flight from Sydney to Beijing. It was very long and tiring but I made it to Beijing.

Beijing is one of the most populated cities in China. Beijing is a very busy city, there are constantly many people walking in the streets and the restaurants are open late. Beijing is a very industrialised city, each building looks as if it was made to serve a purpose rather than to look good. Most of the buildings have a grey colour because of the concrete.

Although Beijing is very polluted and grey, there are many trees planted everywhere to try and compensate for the damage to the environment.

The cultural differences between Beijing and Perth are huge. It is like being in a totally different world.

After collecting our bags and going through customs we were finally able to check into our hotel. The hostel – Beijing Peas hostel has an extremely small entrance. If you happened to be walking by you would never have guessed that it is a hostel. I shared my room with the year 10 boys (5 of us).

The room consisted of 3 bunk beds, a locker cabinet and an air conditioner. It was a very tight fit between us and the bags as well but it was definitely a different experience.

Once we settled into our rooms we left to have dinner. It took us a while to find a restaurant because of the language difficulties and also the price. We entered many restaurants and tried to communicate with the staff but they could not understand. After entering many restaurants we found a small place that could understand enough English to be able to order a dish for each of us. I ordered a beef noodle dish and I really enjoyed it. The flavour was definitely unique and you wouldn’t come across it in Australia.

 

After dinner we headed back to the hostel and had a good sleep after the long flights that we had previously

Day 2:

We woke up early in order to catch a tour bus to go to the Great Wall of China, a jade factory, a tea shop, the Olympic stadium and Tiananmen Square.

As we walked outside to catch the bus we could see the thick smoke in the air and we were hit with a shock when we breathed in the air. We boarded the bus and went on the drive to the Great Wall of China.
Along the ride we got to experience first hand the traffic in China. Let me start by saying it is very hectic. There are thousands of cars constantly changing lanes, cutting in front of people and honking their horns. We came close to being hit many times but somehow the talented drivers of Beijing were able to dodge one another. Another strange feature on the roads is that many people drive electric bikes, motorbikes and even small 3 wheeled cars. All these small vehicles drive in a seperate lane to cars and at traffic lights all types of vehicles cross which seems crazy but somehow they manage.

After an hours drive we made it to the Great Wall. Just as we were coming up through the mountains we were able to spot some of the towers and walls belonging to the Great Wall. We were dropped off at tower number 7 (The Great Wall of China has many seperate Walls). I climbed with some of my friends to the highest point we could get to which was tower 12. The view from some of the towers along the way was spectacular. The smog along the mountains added to the surreal landscape. The steps on the Great Wall range from small to big, sometimes you find yourself taking small frequent steps or trying really hard to climb the bigger ones. I was very surprised how steep the wall is, my legs are quite sore now. Near the top of the wall we climbed was a souvenir shop where I bought an old Yuan (Chinese currency) coin. Just as we had to climb our way up we also had to climb back down. This was worse than climbing up because one wrong step and down the wall you go.

Our next stop was the jade factory. We were taken through the process of how jade is found, mined and crafted into jewellery, animals, shapes and much more. They took us into a large room filled with jade accessories for purchase and the amount of jade used to craft items was amazing.

Our tour guide took us to an authentic tea shop and we were able to go through a tasting ceremony. One of the staff at the shop prepared the 6 main types of tea in China. All of which have various flavours, colours and smells. It was very interesting and tasty. My favourite was the fruit tea which has a combination of many different fruits which creates a sweet and rich tea.

On the way to Tiananmen Square we stopped at the Olympic stadium (birds nest). Although we didn’t go inside the size of the stadium and the aquatic centre is massive.

From there we went to Tiananmen Square to take some photos and retrace past events that have occurred in the square. The final stop was the shopping mall where we stopped to relax a little bit and grab something to drink.

On the way back we caught the public train. The train is completely different to the ones in Perth. There are gates guarding the sides of the railway and once the train stops they open to let you onboard. The train is usually filled with people but this is balanced out by the frequency of trains that arrive at the station.

We got back to our hotel and went for dinner at the same place as the night before. This day was very busy but totally worth it because of the amount of once in a life time experiences we were given.