Our GREAT CHINA sojourn

Just back from an amazing trip to China, our first to the country. The sight-seeing, infrastructure, food and shopping surprised on the upside and we are definitely planning on returning to savour the other parts this vast country has to offer. For now, let me give you an insight into our maiden trip…

We decided to kick off our China adventures with a 4-day stay in Beijing and we couldn’t have chosen a better hotel at which to do that. The Fairmont Beijing was amazing - especially the extremely helpful concierge staff who helped book taxis, provided good tips, etc. Despite arriving well before the check-in time, the room was ready for us so that we could rest and freshen up before starting to explore the city. We headed to the Forbidden City - the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming dynasty to the end of the Qing dynasty, which now houses the Palace Museum - on Day 1 itself being a Friday, as this attraction gets absolutely crazy on the weekends, with millions of people descending on it. The place was massive to say the least, covering an area of 72 hectares and housing the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world. It is said to be the most visited art museum in the world. The view of the Forbidden City from the highest point in Jinshan Park is well worth the effort. Spring is the best time to visit with the flowers in full bloom adding to the magnificence.

The Temple of Heaven was my favourite in Beijing though (apart from the Great Wall, of course) with the geometry and colours very impressive. The temple grounds cover 2.73km.sq. of parkland and comprise 3 main groups of constructions: The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, The Imperial Vault of Heaven and The Circular Mound Altar. The centre of the altar is a round slate called the Heart of Heaven (天心石), where the Emperor prayed for favourable weather. Thanks to the design of the altar, the sound of the prayer will be reflected by the guardrail, creating significant resonance, which was supposed to help the prayer communicate with Heaven. We did try our luck at the Echo Wall but it was impossible to test given the loud tour guides and crowds 😊 Next up on the list was the Laoshe Teahouse, great for experiencing Chinese tea culture. However, be prepared to pay a decent sum . Following that was the Da Dong Roast Duck restaurant to try the city’s most famous dish, Peking Duck. However, the service and the duck disappointed greatly with Singapore’s Imperial Treasure Super Peking Duck restaurant doing a far superior job.

We kick-started Day 3 with a visit to the Summer Palace, which is an essential on every tourist’s ‘must-do’. It is a vast ensemble of lakes, gardens and palaces, dominated by Longevity Hill and has been declared by UNESCO as "a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design”.  Do try to visit on a weekday to avoid the crazy weekend crowds. A boat ride on the Kunming Lake is a great way to get shots of the palace from a different perspective. 

In the latter part of the day, we took a tour of the hutongs in Beijing and it was very interesting. 
Hutongs are alleys formed by lines of siheyuan or traditional courtyard residences. Since the mid-20th century, a large number of Beijing hutongs were demolished to make way for new roads and buildings. More recently, many hutongs have been designated as protected, in an attempt to preserve this aspect of Chinese cultural history. The pedicab ride through the hutongs was the highlight with our driver quite crazy and having us thoroughly amused throughout 😊

We left the best for last, a visit to the Great Wall at Mutianyu. While hordes of tourists descend on the Badaling part of the wall, I would highly recommend people do Mutianyu as it is less crowded and way more scenic. We had a lovely guide to take us there by car and we opted for the round-trip cable car ride to the top to spend more time exploring the wall itself. The more adventurous might choose to climb to the top of the wall by the stairs. While I explored only a few watch towers, hubby climbed to the highest permissible watch tower on the left side (number 23) where he was pleasantly surprised to be able to buy a chilled Tsing Tao to reward him for his effort 😊 (FYI, Tsing Tao the most popular Chinese beer) He swears to be back with Anand to run the Great Wall marathon. All in all, left Beijing very impressed with the beautifully maintained sights and efficient infrastructure.

It was on to Shanghai by the high-speed train for the second half of our trip. Would highly recommend this mode of transport wherever possible in China as opposed to domestic flights for its punctuality and comfort, though it is often more expensive. One can choose either first class or second class seats and both make for a very comfortable journey. In Shanghai, we were focused on spending quality time with family and shopping. A heartfelt thanks to my cousin Nika and her family for filling our sojourn there with wonderful memories to last a lifetime. An evening walk at the Bund and a visit to Yu Garden was all the sight-seeing we managed to squeeze in there.

When in Shanghai, day trips to Hangzhou and Suzhou are highly recommended. In fact, the former was the highlight of our entire trip for me along with the Great Wall. It is the 4^th largest city in China with the West Lake its best-known attraction. However, it was walking in the old part of town, eating traditional food at a local restaurant and visiting the grounds of the beautiful Four Seasons Hotel that contributed in equal measure to the whole experience. Having lovely MinMin as our guide of course made all the difference. She even took it upon herself to be our photographer, getting us to pose for romantic shots wherever possible, making us feel like we were on our honeymoon! 😊 Hubby was super impressed with the bike paths everywhere and who knows? We might be back someday.

Suzhou meanwhile is famous for its gardens. The guide took as to The Lingering Garden which was beautiful, more so because of the various traditional Chinese performers throughout the park – a flautist, a lady playing the pipa, a Chinese opera performance, etc – taking one back in time. Tiger Hill – a Leaning Tower of the orient of sorts – was impressive too and the walk back to the entrance through the canopy of trees, watching numerous egrets tending to their nests, was delightful. Then it was on to the highlight of the day, a trip to the water town of Tongli. Truly like experiencing an ‘oriental’ Venice. We took a gondola ride to get a feel of the town and then spent an hour rambling through the quaint streets and shops, watching the local people go about their lives. The most intriguing was seeing a fisherman getting his cormorants to fish for him.

The food in China was fantastic and we got to savour cuisines from all over the country. While we did hear a lot about the pollution, especially in Beijing, we lucked out with decent weather and pollution levels throughout the trip. We’ll be back for sure.

April 2017 - Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou (China)