Beijing and some of it's sights

I would like to write more often! However, it is very difficult due to the number of things that I have to do on a weekly basis. Therefore, I will try to post at least every two weeks.

I have been in Beijing for three weeks now, and although the city is huge, and apart from the days I went sightseeing in different parts of the city, I have been doing much of my life in a subdistrict of Chaoyang district called Wangjing also known as Beijing Koreantown due to the large number of Koreans living in this neighborhood. For me it feels like a city within the city! Close to my hotel, and possible close to my future apartment, I have all the commodities and luxuries of the West! On a 5 minutes’ walk distance, there is a Carrefour, wine houses, giant cinema complex, Decathlon, bars, restaurants, 5 star hotels, and so forth so, on the city arrangement level, it feels pretty much like when I was living in Madrid!! However, in contrast with Madrid, there are one hundred thousand different places that even sometimes I do not know what they are and I found myself giving a sneak peek inside in order to discover what can be bought and sold there!

I am still applying for my residence permit and therefore I don’t have my passport and cannot move freely in the country, that’s why I have started traveling close to Beijing rather than flying somewhere else. That will happen and I have many plans to travel within China and abroad, but I will dedicate a post later to my traveling plans.

There is a saying in China which goes like: “You’re not a hero until you have been to the Great Wall”. So, it was clear that one of my first objectives, after arriving here, would be to become a hero (at least according to the Chinese saying) :)!!! Last week, I visited the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall which was built during the Ming dynasty and has been rebuilt recently. Nowadays it is considered to be one of the best preserved sections of the Great Wall. In order to get to the Mutianyu Great Wall site by public transportation, one needs to take 916快 (916 Kuài or “fast”) bus from the Dongzhimen bus station to Huairou which takes about 80 minutes and then, after ignoring the guys who, mid-way to Huairou, start walking in the bus yelling 长城 (Chángchéng, The Great Wall) I managed to arrive in Huariou and from there I took a 20 minutes ride by minibus to Mutianyu. The whole trip costs about 50 rmb (6€ one-way) and it worth's every yuan!

It's impressive! It really is! After waking along the main sections of the Mutianyu Great Wall, I spend about an hour sited in one of the towers just looking around and thinking about the great efforts those man you build this impressive wall had to bear. The terrain is irregular, the forest is dense and the wall is huge. The shape of the wall is realized by enormous blocks of granite placed together just like a massive puzzle.  This section of the Wall is amazing, but I want to hike through the non-restored sections of the Wall and I have made plans to go there soon.

Mutianyu Great Wall View. Tower #8 on the horizon. 

At the Mutianyu Great Wall

Photos from the 708 Art District:

798 Art District Industrial Spigot 

798 Art District Industrial Spigot 

798 Art District Industrial Mess

Moving slowly through the busy streets of Beijing

This city is full of contrasts that can produce pictures like the one on the left which, for me, are just an example of how grateful this city can be when we fix our gaze upon the activity and movement that surround us daily. In this case, I was rushing to meet my contact at the Entry and Exit Bureau to apply for my residence permit and, across the street, I saw two steady and patient men wearing blazers in their three wheeler bicycle. Although this type of sight is common here, what it caught my attention was the fact that the man holding the handle-bar type of steering was so concentrated in carefully guiding his vehicle across the crowd while he pushed hard on the pedals to cross the street as fast as possible. Normally this vehicles are adapted with a battery that moves it using electrical power but in this case, it was pure man power. I wonder, where have they come from? Where are they going? When will they get there?

So many questions!! :)  

Next time I will write about the photos of the 798 Art District that I have posted above and also some funny stories about the perception of value and beauty!

Keep posted!

Cheers,
Ricardo

A week in China!

It was a week ago that l have landed in China! Contrary to all my expectations and weather forecasts, I was received with a beautiful sunshine and mild temperature! As the picture shows below, upon my arrival I was blessed with a healthy air which lasted for a couple of days! :) At the time of the print-screen, Tuesday the 22nd, the air was really nasty! 

Beijing Air Quality From Friday the 18th to Tuesday the 22nd of October 2013

When I travel to a new country, either for a couple of weeks or to live for a period of time, I try not to get much information about it. This may seem an odd approach to one that travels, but I prefer not to receive biased information which can influence my expectations and opinion about a place that I have never visit before. Usually, I read about the geography, the history, and the most important places and sometimes I draw a sketch map (e.g. My Morocco travel plan Ago. 2006) with my preliminary travel plan but I always avoid getting to know in advance about the food, or the people, or our beautiful is the scenery and so forth. If I’m traveling to a place, for sure I will get to know all these things and they will be based on my own experience.  That is why I love this feeling of getting out of the plane in a country for the first time and feel the knowledge emptiness, just like a tabula rasa although full of questions to be answered. From the very moment that one starts to disembark from the plane (boat, car, bike, etc…), everything that happens, everything that one sees and experience is written in that blank slate and then transformed into our journey history. Is from that moment, which we start to gain knowledge about that unknown place and from that we formulate our perception and opinion.

This time is no different, I arrived in China Saturday the 19^th of October, and I have so many questions to be answered about this country, fortunately, l also have the time to discover it! 

First walk through the streets of Beijing

A journey ought to start by feeling the place where we are; no matters if it is a city, or the country side or a mountain we should exposure ourselves as much as possible to our surrounding. That is why, I like to walk and dwell through the city streets so I can feel and grasp with all my senses the places where I’m in. Last Sunday I did an ambitious walk that took 9 hours; almost 37km from my hotel to Chaoyang Parkt, Tiananmen Square, Drum Tower, Confucius Temple, and then back home!

It was the perfect start and I had a good glimpse from this huge and impressive city. According to the UN Statistics Division data, Beijing is the 7th biggest city (according to the concept of city proper) in the world which means that everywhere you go you will see a lot of people!! And its definitely like that, when you cross a street you must not look only in two directions rather, you need to do a 360º view before daring to cross the street because cars, buses, bikes, motorbikes and all kind of vehicles can appear from anywhere! It is amazing how many types of transport vehicles there are and how much stuff people need to move around the city. You can see old bikes, homemade three wheel electrical bikes, motorbikes, wheelbarrows, you name it, carrying stuff/goods from one point to the other. It's beautiful staying at a crossroad just looking to the maze drawn by the people crossing it.

There is much more to tell but I rather leave some photos and continue to describe in my next post!

Forbidden City Tiananmen Gate, Beijing

The Hall of Supreme Harmony, Forbidden City, Beijing

Fresh Pomegranate Juice, Beijing

A door at Dongcheng Street, Beijing 

Beijing Temple of Confucius

Several Street Cookers at Wangjing West Metro Station, Beijing

There is so much more to see, keep posted!!

Cheers,

Ricardo

How I ended up in Asia?

 “We actually have an opening …. in China at the moment but would you be prepare to…”, it was what I read, when I opened the email that sunny afternoon of the 4^th of July 2013 while in Madrid trying to find what would be the next step for my life. That simple sentence was what I needed to read, what I wanted to read and it was there, written just in front of my eyes in the screen of my laptop! I just love these moments where, from one day to the other, we have the opportunity to make a striking change in the course of our life. In these moments one can experience the dialectic of emotions, on one hand the happiness and the enthusiasm of a new adventure, on the other hand the melancholy and fear of leaving the certain for the uncertain and the known for the unknown. But I have always believed that the development of one’s character is built with the strength and will of facing the unknown and not by accepting the certainties of life. For this, the answer to that email was obvious. Of course I was prepared to take the opportunity and move my life to the east. I wanted to feel the thrilling of the unknown and let my imagination dream about what I would encounter in Asia. The answer certainly change the course of my life and tomorrow I will board in that adventure.

During the last seven years, I had the opportunity to live in many countries and to experience their culture. However, I always had a fix place where I would eventually return and that was close to my hometown. This time is different, I cannot simply decide 10 minutes before setting myself driving for 5 hours until I finally reach home. But what initially can be seen as a drawback is indeed an opportunity when we see it from the right perspective. An opportunity that will bring me closer to 49 different countries populated by 4 billion people! I want to discover it all….

My next post will be written from China. Next Sunday, I plan to dwell through the 15 km that separates my hotel from the Forbidden City and start vibrating with that culture. 

Check the blog next week for the post about my first impression of Beijing!

中国见!

Ricardo Queirós