Our long anticipated trip to Beijing has finally happened!! It was planned (to a certain degree) long before Jamie was born, but definitely included him. Beijing was our choice destination for a number of reasons:
1. You can’t live in China and not go to Beijing.
2. You can’t live in China and not see the Great Wall, and easiest visitation for this is from Beijing.
3. Travelling with an infant to a big city is more sensible than travelling with an infant to a more remote location.
So, Beijing it was!!
We arrived at Beijing Capital Airport, and thought we should catch the fast train into town – seemed straight forward enough, and another vote for doing so was that both kids were asleep in the pram… We mapped out the fast train, and then the Metro trains and changes required and it all seemed pretty easy, and all went to plan until we went down the wrong set of escalators to Line 13 instead of Line 2, at the first Metro station. I’d even managed to buy our train tickets speaking Mandarin!! In Beijing, as in Shanghai, escalators only seem to go one way, and while it is mostly UP, this time they only went DOWN, a long way. So there we were on the platform for Line 13, when we needed to be on the platform for Line 2. I asked the lady guard in a combination of English, a few words of Mandarin and a lot of sign language and gesticulation, if they could turn one of the two escalators around, so we could go back up… alas, although this was understood, it was not possible. However, they were most helpful and arranged for 5 big strong male guards to come and help us with the fully laden pram, our backpack and our carry on bags. As expected, when Jamie was spotted in the pram as well there was much commotion. When we were back at the top, we saw a very clear sign pointing to Line 2, so felt a bit silly. Anyway, we were escorted right to the next platform, and put on the train – ‘Get rid of them’!!
We met up with Wendy, one of the Mums from my Mums Group back home in Sydney. It was so exciting to catch up with her all the way over here in China. Wendy took us for a rickshaw tour of the Beijing Hutongs, and it was great because the rickshaw drivers were very knowledgeable in the history of the Hutongs, but don’t speak English, so Wendy was able to translate it all for us. The Hutongs were very interesting and provided a good insight to the community lifestyle, surrounding a central well, that used to be prevalent. The alleys are very narrow, and in some cases cars couldn’t fit through. The homes of noblemen were built around a central courtyard, and we visited one which although was still being lived in by an ‘ordinary’ family was open to the public. These homes are called siheyuan which means 4 sided courtyards, and I really loved the idea of having a courtyard in the middle of the house, essentially with a main room on each side of the courtyard.
The highlight of the trip was definitely visiting the Great Wall of China – and it sure is a great wall.
We went to the Badaling section of the Wall, which is just 51km from Beijing, and for us was most recognisable as the bit where the Mens Olympic Road Race had circuited, there were a number of bridges, tunnels and other landmarks we remembered from watching the race last year. Badaling is the most accessible part of the Wall, and accordingly was packed with tourists. The scenery was stunning, it was on a very steep mountain and to reach the wall we hopped in a cable car. The wall really does snake off into the distance and was far more impressive than I imagined. Our photos don’t really do it justice! Climbing the wall was hard work, and Mike and I balanced our load reasonably evenly – he carried a 6kg Jamie constantly, and I carried a 12kg Ellie intermittently – she did astoundingly well with her walking and climbing, but did need some regular rests and lots of help as the terrain was slippery and very steep at times.
We had opted to make life easy for ourselves and had hired a private car, driver and guide. This was good for a couple of reasons –
1. Our crying/whinging children wouldn’t upset anyone else.
2. If it all went pear shaped we could get back in the car and go home again, without having to wait for the rest of the tour group.
As it turned out, James slept the whole way there, and back, and overall Ellie wasn’t a terrible passenger, and only cried when she was battling falling asleep – why do children fight sleep so vehemently? Mike and I also managed a few catnaps along the way.
That night, Mike and Ellie went to see the Beijing Acrobats, and Ellie loved it!! When we first arrived in Shanghai we went to see a performance of acrobats with a group of people from Mike’s work, and everyone was astounded at how Ellie could stay awake and enthusiastically watch every act!! She even cried at the end wanting the show to go on. Well 7 months later, she did it again. The show took her breath away. The following morning she could even tell me all about it – her favourite acts were acrobats on bicycles and those jumping on seesaws. Now, even a week later she is still climbing on chairs and when we ask her to get down, declares that she is an acrobat!
We explored the Forbidden City, which is enormous. A number of ‘tour guides’ were touting their services and offering loads of information about the highlights of the Forbidden City, but we decided to go it alone. Having the pram was not going to make going through all the palace buildings particularly easy, especially as even the courtyards were all cobbled as well. The crowd here was also quite large, and mostly was made up of tour groups
– ingeniously to keep the tour groups together they all had distinctive hats – it was funny to see groups of hats, eg colour coded hats and caps, even NY baseball caps and Burberry bucket hats, en masse. The gardens in the Forbidden City were stunning – and with spring having just sprung were resplendent with blossoms and new growth.
On our last day we visited Tian’anmen Square. I don’t think I was prepared for the vastness of this public space, it’s 800m by 500m and supposedly can hold 1 million people. It really is quite spectacular, with the Monument to the Peoples Heroes in the centre, Mao’s Mausoleum at the top and imposing stately buildings on each side, and then the contrast with the traditional (except for the portrait of Mao) Tian’anmen Gate into the Forbidden City.
As usual, Ellie attracted a crowd, and at all these amazing sights, I wonder what was more photographed. Ellie was tolerant initially, but her patience does wear thin when strangers are constantly touching her hair and face, and trying to pick her up. She picked up a new Chinese phrase on this trip – Bu Yao –
which means ‘don’t want’, and learned that she could use it when people started invading her space, and they actually would back off. She became quite definite about when she would and wouldn’t have her photo taken, and would cover her face with her hands. It actually made it a bit tricky for us to take her picture too!! I think our guide at the Great Wall was secretly
really pleased that she had ‘free access’ to Ellie in the course of the day, and was very helpful in discouraging others from mauling the poor little girl.
We were quite the freak show when people realised that our pram was carrying two babies, and little Jamie would get lots of attention too, fortunately due to the hot weather we had the sun shade over the pram and as a result he was well hidden most of the time. It constantly surprises me in China how babies and small children are admired by everyone, but particularly by middle-aged to older men.
The culinary highlight of our trip was having genuine Peking Duck!! It was delicious!! We ordered half a roast duck, and the chef brought a whole roast duck to our table and with elegant flourish carved up half for us. Exactly half, even half the duck head. Mike declared that the brain and bit behind the eye was quite tasty, but I couldn’t bring myself to try the head. The pancakes, scallions and dipping sauce rounded off the meal perfectly, and the duck – well, yum!
We had a great few days, and proved to ourselves that travel with two kids is possible!! Yay – bring on our summer travel!!
Fortunately we were given a lift by a friend who lives in the same complex as us, but getting Jamie and Ellie organised and managed is no small task, especially with only one set of hands!! But as we are heading towards summer now, the kids are waking up with the sun, which is before 6am - I now really appreciate the merits of daylight saving in the morning - so we had plenty of time to get organised, and being methodical helps things happen!!
The service was held in the garden of the Consul General's Residence in Puxi, and we were blessed with a beautiful spring day, mild and sunny. The garden was lovely, with azaleas in bloom and a lovely Japanese maple. The Last Post was played from the balcony and was as expected very moving. Singing Advance Australia Fair was really special, and it actually sounded good!!
