Well, this has been an exciting trip so far. Unfortunately I don't have access to the pictures at the moment, but I will provide some as soon as is possible. EDIT: I NOW HAVE SOME PICTURES!
Well, first leg of the trip was delayed - admittedly not a terrible sign in most cases, however, it was a fairly good event foreshadowing what the future held.
I will admit I was quite nervous at the gate - it is, after all, a big step to go into the unknown by yourself for the first time. Once I was through, all traces of nervousness had drained away, I milled through like all of the others and boarded my flight.
There wasn't much to speak of on the flight - it was standard - I did sit next to another first time lone traveler, but for the most part it was a matter of reading and watching some in flight movies (meaning I finally watched the second Hobbit movie).
The fun really started once we landed in Beijing - our flight, having been delayed significantly meant that it was impossible for anyone to make their connecting flights to Europe - they had already left two hours earlier. I'm not one to complain about this kind of thing - I understand that sometimes, our best laid plans go awry, we are forced into scenarios that are less than favourable. Poor customer service is inexcusable, especially when the customer is not themselves at fault - I do not fly the aeroplane, therefore it is inconceivable that the company should decide that we should have to fend for ourselves in Beijing international airport. After literal hours of delays, we were able to reclaim our luggage and head off to a hotel which was eventually booked for us.
My flight was not until late that night - so along with a group of others in the same predicament, I decided to explore China. We didn't really have enough time to head to the Great Wall, so instead we went off to Tiananmen Square.
Photographs cannot do this place justice. It is enormous - I could not get a photo which captured the entire majesty of the place, so I opted to take some smaller photographs, especially of the most well known aspect of the place - the giant portrait of Chairman Mao.
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| Tiananmen Square. The two guards pictured could give the British Royal Guard a run for their money in their stillness. |
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| A closer shot of the famous portrait. There were barriers in the way preventing me from getting closer, but the portrait itself is at least the size of a human. |
After this, we decided to move on to the Peace Gardens nearby. Prior to walking in, we stopped inside an art studio right at the entrance to the grounds - The art was nicely done, and we had some calligraphy created to showcase how it was done - they did, unfortunately have a no photography rule, so you'll just have to take my word on this one. One of the group purchased their name written in calligraphy, however, the visit here was short, yet also insightful as to the symbolism employed in some traditional Chinese art. We headed out after this, as it was getting late in the day, we missed out on the inside of the temple there, however, we were allowed to walk around the grounds - the trees were oddly textured - different to any I have seen before, they appeared to have been engraved with a series of parallel lines, sinuously winding their way up the trunk. It was incredibly relaxing inside the gardens with plenty of space and greenery - it was a huge contrast with the bustling metropolis just outside, something of a sanctuary.
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| The entryway to one of the temples. Given the age of these buildings, they are being incredibly well maintained. |
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| Fish pond at the temple. There were fish in the water, which we could see, you will just have to imagine them unfortunately. |
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| The grounds before the temple. Again, the Ancient Chinese decided to not do things by half measures, this was absolutely enormous in scale. |
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| Hand crafted columns on the stairs leading up to the temple. |
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| So this is what the temple was used for. Apparently human sacrifice was all the rage in the ancient world, no matter where you were. |
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| This carving was between the two flights of stairs which led to the hall entrance. |
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| As was this one. |
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| Would you believe me if I said this one was as well? |
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| One of the temples we could not enter. |
Following this, we decided to check out Beijing and the culture of city life there. If you are from Australia, Beijing drivers are...interesting to say the least. Some of the road laws which you may find a bit different to the norm include:
1. Red lights - whilst legally having the same meaning as they do internationally, are deemed to be optional to obey by drivers. This is especially true of the taxi drivers, many of whom are driving private vehicles, and thus look like other regular road users.
2. Pedestrian crossings - these follow the same general rules as the red lights - slowing down for pedestrians who are either about to cross the road, or may in fact already be doing so is a courtesy which may be ignored if the driver is in a hurry. They will always be in a hurry. Pedestrian crossings should only ever be ventured across is if in a large group, as drivers will slow down for groups of 5+ people, if not completely come to a stop.
3. Speeding is also not only socially acceptable, but expected. This is so prevalent that the police do not even bother to pull people over for this.
4. The road's shoulder is a lane when you need it to be. We had quite an adventure in our taxi, our driver, Lucas, used this particular maneuver many times throughout the short ride from the hotel to the city, but in the end, he did get us there in amazing time. This is most often used to overtake trucks, however, we also had seen this trick being used to overtake other cars that were not speeding nearly enough.
5. Seat belts, like speeding, is an option.
6. The rule of the game is to pack as many passengers into the car as possible. While we had only a meagre five passengers in the vehicle, it did make for an interesting ride when combined with the other aspects of the trip.
Beyond the road rules, there was a lot of things which could be considered unusual by Western ideals. While the idea of a street market might not be so foreign, some of the foods being sold certainly were - namely those of the arthropod varieties. I feel telling you what was on offer would ruin the fun, and after all, a picture is worth a thousand words. Behold:
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| Most of these are precisely what they look like. But in the interest of accuracy, starting from the top left, we have coiled centipedes, top right we have spiders, bottom left there are some form of insect and bottom right there are centipedes on a stick. |
Of course, this was not the full extent of the food on offer - there were foods which were much tamer by Western ideals, however, there were also scorpions on sticks, skinned raw snakes as well as starfish. As you could imagine, no one was game to try any of these, especially because we all had further destinations that we had to travel on toward.
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| The street market - this stretched on for a good 300 metres with merchants trying to sell their wares to every single passer by. |
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| Also of note - the majority of the people shopping here were local - this is not a tourist trap designed to capture the imaginations of travelers. |
Following this, we headed along to a street pub for a beer. The local brew wasn't too bad, a bit weak, but with the minuscule price, it was to be expected. While here, a street artist offered to draw on a couple of our number. The results were really quite spectacular, however, I do not have the photos at this stage, nor the person's permission to post them here.
Beyond this, we called it a night - we had to return to the airport, pick up our things, and head on for the next stage of our adventure, taking us our separate ways (to London, Barcelona and Vienna).
That's it for now, stay tuned for the next update, all about my day in Vienna.
