As amazing as it may be, my brief Beijing encounter lasted roughly a dozen hours. I don't want to pretend like I know or experienced THAT much of Beijing, or even China for that matter, but the mere hours I spent walking around Beijing was well...amazing.
If you ever have a long layover in China and want to get out and explore, but are deterred because you don't have a visa, worry not. China allows you to leave their airports for up to 48 hours in some cities. Beijing had a 24 hour policy, which worked out well since I had less than that to get out and site-see.
I landed in Beijing a little before midnight and had to board my plane to Incheon around 3pm. That gave me enough time to catch some sleep, catch an early cab into the city, and make it back in time. After striking out at the airport's hourly hotel, I dropped off my backpack at the luggage storage, had some Chinese girl write down "Forbidden City", "Tiananmen Square", and "Airport" in Mandarin, and took a rest on an airport bench alongside fellow wanderers.
My buddy Scho had previously recommended I catch the sunrise at Tiananmen for a flag-raising ceremony so my slumber was short-lived. I grabbed a cab around 4:30am to make it there in time. I had forgotten to take into account the fact that China operates on 1 timezone (they had 5 up until 1949). Yes, that's right. A landmass much larger than the continental US is the same time no matter where you are. The sun rises and falls much later in the West than in their Eastern counterpart. In other words, the Eastern cities (e.g. Beijing) experience earlier dawns and dusks relative to the rest of the country. What I'm trying to allude to is that by the time I arrived at Tiananmen at 5:15am, the sun had already set. I made it just in time to catch the flag ceremony though. I didn't think that many early-rising tourists would make the journey, but I was wrong.
I had to fight for a clear view of the guards raising the flag in the distance. Once the flag was up, the crowds dissipated. From my understanding, hundreds (even thousands?) of local Chinamen get up early, catch the flag ceremony, and go to work. Nothing quite like a big bowl of Communism to start the day. The ceremony was cool though. Afterwards, everyone was free to walk around the Square. I spent the next hour or so people-watching (a truly wonderful activity in China), taking photos, and talking to Chinamen who wanted to practice their English.
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| Tiananmen Gate to the Forbidden City |
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| Chinese bros flying kites in Tiananmen at 6am.....what else? |
After Tiananmen, I made my way towards the Forbidden City. Not really knowing where I was going, I followed some signs towards the famous Tiananmen gate to the Forbidden City with the iconic image of Mao on it.
I walked through Zhongshan Park to get to the Forbidden City and couldn't help but notice the sheer amount of [old] people working out at 7am on a Monday morning. It was very similar to the countless ajummas and ajusshis in Korea you see hiking, stretching, and using outdoor public exercise machines at all hours of the day , but in China (minus the bright ajumma clothing).
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| Ajummas in Korea |
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| He was running backwards, which, appropriately enough, sums up how I felt about much of China |
After soaking this park up for a few hours, I ventured into the Forbidden City before saying Zàijiàn to Beijing. Here are the final pics of my brief time in China...
And finally, what's a post on Beijing without some Beijing Cooldown action? If you're curious what Chinamen do when it's real hot out, here you go. The one and only...
For more photos of my brief time in Beijing click here.
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