Beijing Day Three

Our third full day in Beijing was a free day. We planned in two days over the trip as days free of travel or sightseeing so that we would have time to rest and contemplate what we had seen so far, and to simply have some downtime. This turned out to be a very good plan - I don't think either of us had expected to have the days quite so full!

So we had a lazy morning with no alarm, a late breakfast and then packed up the bags ready to check out. We then went down to the hotel spa and took a dip in the pool. After checking out and leaving our bags in the safety of the hotel reception, and after a second abortive effort to change some travellers cheques into Yuan, we braved the public transport system and took the subway back into central Bejing and the Hutong area for lunch and to buy some gifts.

Note for future travellers to China: when travelling in China, use a credit card to withdraw funds, and if you absolutely must use travellers cheques, get them in Stirling or US Dollars, not Chinese Yuan as the Chinese refuse to believe that such things exist...)

Chinese public transport is cheap - Taxis have a fixed tariff system, with anything up to 3km being 6 Yuan, with 2 Yuan for every km over that - though we were warned to ensure that the driver turns the meter on, as they will try to sting tourists for far more. This made our Taxi ride to the nearest subway 12 Yuan - around £1.20. The subway was clean, new and busy, with 10 lines. Possibly due to the 2008 Olympic games all of the stations were written in both Chinese and Pinyin (the romanization of Chinese in western characters), and most signs were also in both Chinese and English. To get to our stop, which involved a couple of line changes, it cost 2 Yuan each - just 40p for two tickets!

The subway station once we got to our destination was on the edge of the Hutong. The signs here were nearly all in Chinese, and it wasn't obvious how to get to the market we were looking for. In any case, we were hungry, so we ventured into a small restaurant in one of the side streets, and with a combination of gestures, pointing at menus and covering up of the parts of a noodle dish that William didn't want (effectively everything but the noodles!) we ordered some sort of spicy sweet and sour dish, a bowl of plain noodles in a clear soup, and some tea. The food was delicious, and the price an eye opener. So far we had paid around £45 and £28 for the two hotel meals (the first was the one where I over-ordered). The Duck had been £18 but had been a good local restaurant for locals - no English on any of the menus and I had to gesture and point to get what we wanted, and take the waitress to the bar to show her what drinks we wanted. At this restaurant in the Guilin, just a normal café for normal people, the price was 46 yuan - £4.60. Much more reasonable!

After eating we wandered around until we found ourself at the bell tower. Traditionally, Chinese Cities have a pair of towers in the center, a bell tower which rings at 6am, and a Drum tower which beats at 6pm. We had a map of the city, but it was not detailed enough to navigate the warren of streets that make up the Hutong. We bumped into a pair of Western ladies also walking toward the bell tower, and struck a conversation as we braved the traffic to get across the road.

"Hi, where are you from", I asked. One had sounded American, the other English.
"I'm from the South of England, Chichester", said the British one. I replied that I was from Brighton.
"I live here", said the other. Typical yank - not "I'm from Wyoming, but currently live here" or similar, but, "I live here" like she was practically a native!

We established that they had been wandering through the Hutong looking for the Bell tower, and I took the English lady's advice on the way to the market. "She's very good!", said the American, referring to the other's map-reading skill. We spotted a Tourist Information office and picked up a more detailed map of the area. I'm glad we did, as after 10 minutes of walking down the road suggested by the English lady, we realised that none of the streets matched up, and that she'd sent us completely the wrong way!

Note to prospective tourists: ignore the advice of other bemused tourists, however confident they come across! The fact they'd been "cutting through" the Hutong should have been a giveaway.

Back on track and following the map, we arrived back in the Hutong, and bought some gifts. Here was a good lesson in haggling. The key seems to be to show some initial interest in something you want, but then back right off. In the first shop, I was looking at a Chinese Chess set. The assistant typed 90 into the calculator and showed it to me. I hesitated, and she typed 80. I took the calculator and typed 60, and we settled on 70. In the next shop, I spotted a pair of small lions in bronze. The lions were everywhere in Bejing, and so I thought they'd be good to get. When I looked at the price ticket though, it was 380 per lion! £74 for a small pair of lions was ridiculous, and I put them back. The shopkeeper had clocked that we were interested, but I said no. She brought the price down to 240 each, then 200, then 150 and finally 150 for the pair. I thought this reasonable, so got my wallet out to pay, but only had about 60 Yuan left. I told the girl this, and she came down again to 120 Yuan if I'd pay on the Mastercard. I suspect that the price could have been brought down even further...

We took the subway and a taxi back to the hotel, had a meal in the hotel, tine being short, and were met by a friend of our tour guide who was to take us to the station for the sleeper train to Xian.

A note about tips: The previous night as the tour guide left us, she was talking about how we didn't need to tip her friend who was meeting us to take us to the station, as she'd already paid her for the favour (Regina had another tour group during our free day), she also started talking about how tour guides were poorly paid and she shared a flat with two other girls, and was curious as to how much the average salary was in England. She seemed to hang around for a while before leaving. Now, as Helen will tell anyone, I'm not so good at picking up on subtle hints. But I started to get the feeling as she walked off that perhaps she was angling for a tip. We ended up chasing her to the door and giving her a tip - though I had no idea how much we should give. I think now that I probably gave too little - but hey, I'm new to this stuff!

The sleeper train was as you might expect. Small rooms with four beds. William and I had the bottom bunks, which have a table, and a couple of Chinese lads had the top bunks. The beds were comfortable enough, and duvets and pillows were provided. The Chinese lads went to sleep shortly after William at about 10, and I stayed up an hour longer to write some of this. I woke at 7 the next morning, and left William asleep until about 8:30 to give him time to get dressed before the train arrived in Xian at 9.