Beijing First month: More historic places, new Chinese teacher and air pollution

More sweating in Beijing! The second week included climbing some of the remote areas of the Great Wall (they were marked "not open for the public" and had some really nice steps and climbs) and continuing on the equally rewarding & frustrating mission to learn mandarin. We also experienced rather high levels of air pollution (yeah, probably very low on Beijing standards...) on two days of that week, ate some pig brain in the this week and I also managed to visit both the Great Wall and the Summer Palace, as well as the Olympic park grounds.


OLYMPIC FOREST PARK

Week 2 started on a Sunday noon trip to the Olympic Forest park. The park is on the north side of Beijing in the vicinity of the 4th ring road. I was on a mission to find myself the cleanest and best running routes in Beijing and I thought starting at the Olympic forest park where there should be 3km, 5km and 10km marked routes would probably be a good idea. The park is about 40-minute commute from where I live in the north-east of Beijing but for good tracks it's worth the travel. It was pretty, way too warm yet will be a nice place to visit on a  cooler day (35 degrees is not a day for a walk in the park!) The Olympic stadium area will need another visit - the buildings are at their best in the evening when they are lit up.

The Olympic Forest park is huge! Luckily it has very good maps of the area.
I did not even attempt covering all of it. I did a walk around the lake and explored some of the nearby areas.
There are also means of getting around the park without needing to completely exhaust
one's legs. There are both battery operated vehicles (in the bottom left corner of the above picture)
and pedal cars for rental. The running routes and distances are both marked on the map and painted on the pavement.

The actual Olympic Green area is more worth it if you visit it during the night, after dark (after 7.30pm in the summer). Since I wandered there in the middle of the day on a Sunday, we had to return with the classmates for an evening of staring at lit-up buildings. It was beautiful and I really enjoyed it but it may not be everyone's cup of tea considering there are very few sights and it's a long journey. The park is quite far from the centre. If you are taking a subway, getting to the park from the city business district takes over an hour.

From top left to bottom right: The Birds's nest stadium, The pagoda,
The pagoda at around 7.15pm when it was just lit up and the aquatics centre.

NEW CHINESE TEACHER

Since the two-and-a-half year old in the family I live with speaks much better Chinese than I do,
I attempted recruiting her as my new Chinese teacher. He gladly agreed to this - and five minutes
later announced she is not a teacher. Caught here in the act of making her dinner into a dough in her bowl while the grown-ups were engrossed in a conversation. She was extremely happy by her achievement of turning dinner into a mass.

A GREAT HOTPOT AND A DISGUSTING PIG BRAIN

Andreas took us to a hotpot restaurant. The hotpot itself was good fun, but even more so was when he ordered us some special delicacies. Here a video of one of my fellow students, Adrian, tasting some of the local delights. (I used a mobile app adjusted size for the video as bandwidth in China is so small that uploading a full size video would probably take days!)

FAREWELLS AND AIR POLLUTION

At the end of week 2 we also said goodbye to Carin, our Dutch classmate.
We still enjoyed one more sushi lunch together.

Air pollution levels peaked in the second week and although under 300
is not yet a level where wearing face mask is recommended apart from for the sensitive groups,
I decided that after 3 days of over 250 I'll buy a mask and wear it. My respiratory system and my health are
worth the 3 euros that three of these PM2.5 particle certified 3M masks cost me at 7-eleven.
Posing with my Dutch classmate Carin, and in front of the interestingly shaped CCTV (Chinese TV and press) building.

THE GREAT WALL

The Great Wall must b the one sight almost every visitor to Northern China would like to put on their list. Parts of it are extremely crowded and it's hard to see the wall from behind the number of travellers. Our language school (Live the Language) took us to a more remote part of the wall. The are was called "Xiangshuihu Great Wall Natural Scenic area and it was about 30minutes driving from Mutianyu area - I have to admit I am still not entirely sure where we exactly went although I looked the spot up on the map. The area has much less travellers but it also requires reasonably levels of fitness and a bit of ability to climb as many parts of the wall are less restored and partially ruined. Apparently there are longer hiking trails from this area and we saw a few people going up the wall with their sleeping bags and camping mats. A very good idea in July when the temperatures are warm and sleeping outside is rather pleasant (except for the mosquitos). We overnighted in a hostel / farmhouse.

We did about an 1-2 hour long walk along the wall, and some parts of it only me, Sasha and Mathijs dared. It was good fun - I would definitely recommend this area to anyone visiting the wall rather than going to the more crowded areas of Badaling or Mutianyu.

On Saturday we walked along the lake and garden area
(the two pictures on the left and the one on top right) and on
Sunday we did more climbing of the wall itself.

The weather was a bit steamy, therefore no great scenic shots.
This is the best one I got of the wall.

CONFUCIUS TEMPLE, HUTONG and HOUHAI

The week after we had a walk in the old quarters, or "hutongs" as they are known. We started off near the Lama temple but as it was already rather late in the day we decided to visit the Confucius temple instead. From here we walked towards the Drum tower, had dinner in a small restaurant and still walked around the Hou Hai area before heading home.

At the Confucius temple. The temple is one of the largest in China and
was originally built in 1302 and expanded in 1906. It is a rather peaceful
and quire place and makes a nice stroll to escape from the busy streets.

On our way towards the Drum Tower.

The restaurants, bars and cafes at the HouHai area are colourful and seem like nice places
for a relaxing evening meal or a drink.

SUMMER PALACE

At the end of my first month I went to explore the Summer Palace. Most of my classmates say the Summer Palace is much more interesting and more beautiful than the Forbidden City . I definitely agree! The Summer Palace, covering an area of 290 hectares - a great part of it occupied by the Kunming lake - is a beautiful set of gardens and well restored old buildings.

Although the original site was in the emperor's use already earlier, the current layout was built in the 18th century. The person who made the Summer palace famous was however one of the most powerful women in the Chinese history, Empress Dowager Cixi. who splurged on state funds twice (1860 and 1902). In both cases the palace area was destroyed by western or pro western troops (Anglo-French troops and the Boxer rebellion). Cixi did a marvelous job but in my opinion her extravagant spending and her refusal to modernise the state probably made her also one of the key figures responsible for the fall of the empire. The Summer palace however remains as one of the most impressive sites to visit in Beijing. From things I have seen so far, I've enjoyed the Great Wall Hiking in the remote areas and the Summer Palace the most.

Here is a map of the area I found on an Asia travel site and cheekily copied.
I started from the North gate and
then explored Suzhou street, Temple of the Sea of Wisdom, the Longevity Hill
and its landmark the Tower of Buddhist Incense, made my way down
towards the water's edge, the Long Corridor and the living quarters and
administrative buildings. I finished my tour with a look at the Wen Zhang galleries
and a tour of the north east corner of the gardens.
I did not even make it to the South Lake Island and the Marble Boat!

I started from the North gate,spent five and a half hours in the area (!) and I did not cover even nearly all of the palace grounds.

The tower of the Buddhist Incense or the Tower of the Fragrance of the Buddha
probably draws most of the visitors although the hike up the hill in
a summer's day's heat is a little arduous. 

The view from the top of the Longevity Hill is totally worth it,
and so is wandering down to the lakeside.
The bottom right image is of Suzhou street shophouses.
The shophouses now mainly have small cafes and souvenir shops
but they were also shophouses when the emperor stayed here.

The details of the restored paintings along the corridors are impressive.
No wonder Cixi spent a fortune on all the works! I'm glad this is still being renovated and maintained.

More details from the corridors.

Again an enjoyable three weeks in Beijing. I am down with a cold when writing this (can't do anything more productive with a fever, haha) but other than the cold my first month in Beijing has continued to be welcoming.