October Tours

After about one and a half weeks here, the weather turned magnificent with sunny, clear days and temperatures in the low 70s and high 60s. Perfect for taking walking tours in and around Beijing. Now I will try to share with you some of the tours I've taken either on my own or with a group.

Sunday, November 5th, Peking Man Site and Marco Polo Bridge




This was a Chinese Culture Club (CCC) tour to the UNESCO-listed site of the caves where the first group of Beijing people lived from about 500,000 to 125,000 years ago, and the museum of Peking Man Site. Many fossils were found here including four skulls which were lost in the 1930s during transit. However, there are other fragments and evidence that the Peking Men knew how to build and use fire.

Then we drove to the Marco Polo Bridge, built in 1192, and saw the marvelous carvings of lions on the bridge as well as the bullet holes from the bloody Sino-Japanese war still embedded in the walls of the nearby town, Wanping. The bridge is called Marco Polo because when he visited it he was very impressed with it. You can still see part of the old road worn deep with ruts from wagons passing over it over the last 900 years. There are about 500 carved lions and each is unique. It is also built on beautiful arches but I couldn't get a good picture of them. The bridge is now over a dry river bed. It leads into the city gate of Wanping.

The old walled town of Wanping was charming and we had a nice quiet walk through the town. There were no other tourists there. Another nice thing is that there is no commercialism in these towns. One would be hard pressed to find any kind of souvenir, just local merchants selling to local townspeople. It was also a respite from the crowds and noise of Beijing.
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Tuesday, October 31, Red Leaves at Fragrant Hills Park
This was a major disappointment. Crowded, noisy and over commericalized. One of the few places I've been to like that. Luckily I hooked up with a woman from New York city. We had a lot to talk about and it saved the day! We rode the chair lift up the mountain (the others had elected to hike up and down another part of the mountain), took a couple of pictures, got shoved around by other tourists, had a bit of lunch which we had packed and turned aroung to take the chair lift down. It turned out we had to wait on line for one hour and we were a half hour late for the bus. Not the way to be the most popular in the group!

Sunday, October 29 Cock Crow Post Town
This was by far the best trip I've had. We were a small group of about 16 and had the whole town to ourselves. We had a private guided tour with a local woman taking us into temples, courtyard houses and the local school. Lunch was freshly cooked by the locals and was refreshing and delicious. I am including a description from the World Monument Fund.
Cockcrow Post Town (Ji Ming Yi or Station of Rooster Crows) was recently listed for the second time by World Monuments Fund (WMF) in the 2006 World Monuments Watch List of world 100 most endangered sites. (It was firstly listed by WMF in 2004). The Ming-period Cockcrow Postal Town (Ji Ming Yi), located at Huailai County, Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province, approximately 145 kilometers northwest of Beijing, is the largest postal town of its kind in China, and the only surviving example of its era.
Ji Ming Yi was a major post office and an important location for travelers and workers alike to change horses and pass on transport duties between Beijing and western areas of China and beyond; as a result for some time this small village prospered. Dowager Empress Cixi stayed here one night as she fled the invading forces attacking Beijing.
The largest town on the former postal road between Beijing and Datong, Cockcrow was constructed in 1420 to protect the military and public post stations that served the northwest region of the Chinese empire. Although the town suffered during the Cultural Revolution, locals managed to preserve a number of aristocratic houses as well as carvings and wall paintings within temples by covering them with mudplaster and newspaper.
Cockcrow (Ji Ming Yi) is still inhabited with temples, offices, schools, and a wealth of courtyard houses, all surrounded by a massive rammed-earth-and-masonry town wall. The brick surfaces of the town wall have begun to decay, exposing their clay inner structure to damaging rains. Seven out of 17 remaining original temples in the town are in danger of being lost. To date, the government has provided little funding and few solutions to these problems. The Hebei Province Institute of Urban Planning in conjunction with Tsinghua University has developed a masterplan for the site, which would include removing plaster from murals and carvings as well as several major pilot restoration projects. Despite Cockcrows listing in 2004, financial resources are not yet available to implement the conservation plan, and the inhabitants of the town are steadily leaving the area as the physical deterioration of the town accelerates.(Above is the description from the web page of the World Monument Fund).

Saturday, October 28 Royal Canal Tour


This was a half day trip on the Royal Canal route to the Summer Palace. On the way we stopped at some temples that are off the beaten track for most tourists and at the Purple Bamboo Forest where we saw locals practicing martial arts and gathering together for a group sing a long. Beautiful day.

Thursday, October 26 Art Tour
Here is the description CCC gives of this tour: The tour start from visiting the porcelain exhibition in the Forbidden City, you will see typical porcelain wares in different dynasties from various kilns. Then transfer to Beijing Art Academy for traditional masterpieces of Ink & Water Painting, then finish the tour at 798 art zone, which are the loft style studios and galleries featuring contemporary Chinese art. You will have a rest in the middle at lunch table, savor and learn the knowledge of Chinese food, cooking materials & condiments and skills.
However, it was more than the description. We took a lovely walk in the Forbidden City, through some of the back alleys often off limits to tourists. The art zone was a great surprise and very enjoyable to see. One could take a full day here and not see everything. Lunch was lavish and fabulous, giving us ex-pats a chance to get to know each other better.

Wednesday, October 25 Temple of Heaven
This is a tour I took on my own using an audio guide. It is quite near my apartment. Again, it was a beautiful day and the site itself is quite amazing, despite the plethora of tourists, mostly Chinese. It is south of the Forbidden City and is where the emperor would go to pray for a good harvest. It was not overly crowded, however so the day was quite pleasant. If I get a good weather day, I may go back again to see some of the things I missed on my first visit.

Sunday, October 22 Sunday in the Park
This was my first Sunday where the weather was nice and I was completely on my own. I went to a local park and was surprised to find how beautiful and peaceful it was right in the middle of the city. No cars or bicycles, just local people taking a stroll and enjoying the beautiful weather and scenery. Just what I needed for my soul! On my walk,I met a lovely young couple who greeted me in English. They both spoke English and we strolled around together learning about each other. Their goal is to pass the English test and go to university in Australia.

Friday, October 20 Back Street Beijing
On this tour we saw the White Pagoda Temple, strolled through a hutong (an alley with couryard houses). They are fast disappearing in Beijing, being razed for new development and with them goes a way of life that has been around for centuries. Notice the barber pole in the picture. The houses have electricty but most share a public toilet as they do not have indoor plumbing. The public toilets are pretty modern but are of the squat kind. We also visited a pet market. The pets were the typical dogs, cats and rabbits. Also, crickets in cages, scorpians and other creepy crawly things and plenty of worms and maggots to feed them. Here you can see turtles and snails.

Wednesday, October 18 Shopping


On this day, one of the Y staff, Laura, and I went shopping to find some things to hang on the walls of my apartment which is quite bare. We walked through some shopping alleys, near Tiananmen Square, much frequented by the locals and, thanks to Laura, we succeeded in bargaining a good price for some cheery wall hangings to liven up the place. Had delicious dumplings for lunch and wheat soup similar to farina.



Monday, October 16 The Great Wall

I've written about this in a previous update.

Now that the cold weather has arrived, I don't expect to have as many tours packed in to such a small window of time. Most likely, I will visit indoor venues and explore some shopping areas.