To Beijing for impressions!
I want to share my impressions of a trip to China - a country that is a dream for many, about which we have heard and know a lot, but it still remains a mystery. We were lucky to be in the center of this country, its capital - Beijing. The history of Beijing goes back over 3.000 years, and the city has been the capital for over 800 years!
We flew from Vladivostok (at that time we were exactly there and decided that we should take the opportunity, China - here it is, nearby! ).
Upon arrival in Vladivostok, on June 23, in the afternoon, we came to the Vl-th travel agency, not hoping for a trip. The manager quickly and competently developed a route for us, and our plans for a trip for 3 days somewhere near the border (we were limited in time) “just to see China to have an idea”, were replaced on her advice by a trip-flight to Beijing (we really wanted to visit the capital of the country).
The manager promptly phoned her colleagues in China, an invitation was drawn up to come to China, and then a confirmation from the Chinese side.
In the evening of the same day, we received all the documents for the trip and plane tickets.
The next day, upon arrival in Beijing, we were not let out of the plane until the sanitary control came in and measured the temperature of each passenger (flu! ), Bringing the device to the head. Temperature 37 has already caused slight excitement and questions. Finally, everything is behind us and we are at the airport, which corresponds to the best European standards: everything glitters and sparkles, moving belts for passengers and suitcases, small carts from and to the very entrance and exit.
We were met by the company "Summer Garden", we were immediately issued a visa and taken to the guide, a young Chinese boy who introduced himself as "Dima" (so as not to break his tongue over his real name for a long time).
On the way to the hotel, we “stuck” to the car windows and the city delighted us: oriental flavor intertwined with modernity, Chinese architecture with red walls and yellow tiles with concrete and glass of modern buildings. The spirit captures, yes, the capital!
We were accommodated in the Gloria Plaza 4 * hotel, which is located on the 2nd ring of Beijing, i. e. in the center, on the 14th floor, in a beautiful room with a panoramic view of the city, with a bar, tea and coffee facilities, a refrigerator, a plasma TV. Every day they put 2 bottles of water (as a present).
In the bathroom, everything was thought out to the smallest detail: soap, shampoo, gel, body lotions, packed combs and toothbrushes with small pastes (which were replenished every day), bathrobes and slippers. Everything was sparkling clean, and the bed white. In the morning we had breakfast at the hotel (European breakfast) - we did not go hungry.
Our stay was accompanied by mutual smiles and a friendly attitude from the staff. It is interesting that we have left tip money more than once on the bed in the morning; when they returned, the bed was carefully made, and the money was lying on the table, they say, you dropped it, but we found it and returned it...
In the morning, a car drove up with our cheerful guide, and we left for excursions: Tianan Men Square, the Great Wall of China, the summer imperial palace of Yiheyuan, the Tian Tan temple of heaven, the peace park, the pearl factory, the center of Tibetan medicine, the factory of silk, jade, pearls visiting tea ceremony. A lot in 3 days! Tiananmen Square is the largest square in the world.
On its eastern side is the China History Museum, on the western side is the Great Hall of the People. It was on this square that on October 1.1949, Mao Zedong officially proclaimed the creation of the PRC. Now there is Mao's mausoleum on the square, a long line stretches to it in several stages (as well as to the Moscow mausoleum).
There are more than enough attractions in Beijing. For example, the Yonghegun Lama Temple houses the largest Buddha carved from a single trunk of sandalwood. The giant statue is 18 meters, 8 meters of which are underground, the body is covered with gold. As our guide told us, first they built a statue, and then a temple was erected over it... There are several temples in this complex and each has its own Buddha.
Yiheyuan Scenic Park ranks first among Chinese classical parks. It was the residence of the emperor, in 1888 Empress Cixi spent all the funds allocated for the construction of the Chinese Navy to restore the park. It is very beautiful and large - 290 hectares and you can't get around it in a day.
You can walk around the park and galleries where emperors and empresses walked, or you can take a boat and swim on Kunming Lake (which accounts for ¾ of the entire territory), exploring the surroundings. People of any nationality you will meet in this park!
How many unforgettable impressions and how many photos! Beautiful, colorful parks and pagodas. By the way, visiting parks for Chinese pensioners is free. We learned a lot of interesting and new things about the country from our talkative guide and rediscovered it! For example, the Chinese are not afraid of the number 13, as well as cats, which are practically non-existent (I won't say where they are. . . Alas. . . ).
The Chinese believe that a dog is faithful to its owner both in poverty and in wealth, and a cat lives only with the rich, and leaves the poor, and therefore does not deserve respect and affection. The Chinese consider the number "4" unlucky, they laugh at the number "2", and the happiest number is "9". Numbers are announced every month and cars with these numbers in the numbers do not drive on certain days (as I understood from the explanations of our guide) in order to unload the roads. Therefore, there are practically no traffic jams in Beijing.
China has a one-child program. The first child studies and is treated free of charge (studying at school costs about $500 and the state pays extra), but the second child will have to spend a lot, more for a boy than for a girl.
It turns out that the best chefs are men, they often cook, and women cook worse (from the life experience of our guide). Food is a special moment. They love fruit salads and season them with fruit mayonnaise, watermelon, banana, pineapple salads. Very tasty crumbly biscuits with a sweet egg yolk in the middle. It was interesting to hear a story from our talkative guide about how the Chinese look after a wedding, get married, and raise children. In summer, children study, and holidays in winter, we saw schoolchildren in the same uniform with briefcases.
I will not describe the excursions in detail - it is a must see, but standing on the Great Wall of China, you experience special feelings! Just for the sake of this Wonder of the World it is worth coming to China! It is not easy to climb the steps, as they go up very steeply, they are very wide and you must constantly hold on to the railing so as not to fall back. Not everyone makes it to the first top flight.
The Chinese say that every real man should go upstairs. I should note that both the men and the women turned out to be real, who, puffing and sweating, climbed up to the top flight. I sat down in the shade (+38) and examined the panorama - like a snake, the wall went far uphill, immersed in greenery, no end or edge is visible. Most sections of the wall were built on high mountains. The current great wall was built during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), a grandiose fortification 10.000 li (over 8.000 km) long.
And what buildings, unlike one another, avenues, highways in Beijing! And in the form of chess, multi-colored, of various shapes and configurations. There are many cyclists and there are special paths for them (however, this practice exists in many European countries). Skyscrapers of 75 floors, 350 meters.
A lot of facilities were built for the 2008 Olympics. Especially impressed by the stadium in the form of a bird's nest! Glass, concrete, 8-lane roads with beautiful interchanges. Roads are mostly paid, 2 km of the road - 1 yuan.
The people are striking in their diligence - everyone is busy, digging, watering, planting. No one sits idle and speaks of their country like this: "We have the best, we build better than anyone else, we have the best cars, " etc. !
Our guide (a 22-year-old guy), for example, worked as a guide during the day, as a translator in the evening, sells pizza in the winter, has his own shop in his homeland in Shanghai, and at the same time works with his father in a small construction company (about 100 people)! There is a lot to learn. . .
In each underground passage, on bridges and viaducts there are law enforcement officers. Everyone needs a job! When a peddler of some announcements approached us on one of them, the law enforcement officer immediately shouted at him and he disappeared. The people are friendly and when we asked for directions in the center of Beijing to a pedestrian street, people who even knew little English (and, as we noticed, they “know” it not very well), tried to direct us on the right path and explain something. Returning in the evening on foot to the hotel, we walked under the rainbow - Fuxingmen Gate at night - for good luck!
From the very early morning, when there were no cars in sight yet, from the window of our 14th floor I saw that the Chinese workers were already working: they were laying, scrubbing, washing something. However, I would not be surprised that they work all night and sleep right there on the lawns. The people are very unpretentious. Everything is clean, well-groomed and in flowers that are constantly watered, so it is not surprising that in the 40-degree heat they are fresh and beautiful, and the grass is green!
The symbols of China are pink oleander and panda. Images of this flower and bear can be found quite often in drawings, toys and souvenirs. We received a lot of positive impressions both from the country and from the wise Chinese people.
This is a great country and a great people that have remained a mystery and I want to return again to try to solve it!
