Asia Holiday 2014, August 07 (Let's ROC)

Despite the very long day of travelling I got up early for the free breakfast because I was starving. At first it looked like it was going to be mostly weird Asian breakfast stuff, with lots of hot foods such as rice, vegetables and other weird things. Doing a bit more searching I found the cereals, yogurt, toast and croissants, as well as some very weird looking porridge and a "grains" steamed bun which upon eating did not appear to have any filling inside it.

I was still pretty tired, even after eating a big breakfast, but got ready for the day and headed to the closest subway station at Dongzhimen. I spent what felt like forever walking around trying to find out where to buy Beijing's version of the transport smart card, which like every other smart card on the planet, is much better than Myki. I found the line to buy tickets, and just handed the woman a 100 RMB note (between $15 and $20) and managed to get across that I wanted the smart card which requires a 20 RMB deposit, along with 80 RMB credit to be added to it.

The transport costs in Beijing are quite impressive once you have a smart card, you can go as far as you want, making any number of transfers between lines, and once you finally exit you are deducted just 2 RMB (about 33 cents). It's not all good news though, at every subway station they have x-ray scanners for bags, and of course just about anyone travelling on the subway has some kind of bag, so there's always a big queue.

The first stop for the day was Tiananmen. My first experience with the Chinese subway was alright, I had to change lines once, and both trains were jammed full, but I was able to get on the first train that arrived each time. I got out of the station and the whole area was totally full of people - I didn't know if this was just the standard for Beijing or there was something special going on. I wouldn't even describe what I was doing as walking, it was more just shuffling your feet and trying not to trip over anything or anyone along the way. There was a big line to cross the road to get across into the actual Tiananmen Square, and it looked like there was also a security checkpoint where you needed your id card or a passport (which I didn't have on me), so I decided against waiting around any longer.

Instead I walked down to Qianmen and passed some signs saying there would be large crowds around due to an upcoming flag raising festival or something, so that explained it. When I got to nearby Qianmen it was actually nice and peaceful, it turned out to be a remodeled shopping district which looked a lot like The Grove in LA - it even had it's own tram that ran from one end to the other. I found a food market where they were selling cronuts ! - I've always wanted to try one, it was alright but I think I'd rather just have one donut and/or one croissant instead. I had a quick look in a Uniqlo store where I saw umbrellas, then realised I had forgotten to pack an umbrella so I got a cheap one that will probably turn inside out by about the second time I use it.

Qianmen.

Donuts ! Also cronuts.

I walked back over to Tiananmen Square, this time from the west side of the street instead, and discovered that either the crowds had died down significantly or all of the suckers were lining up on the east side - actually a bit of both. I was able to gain access to some of the square, but really all that did for me was provide a view of:

• Mausoleum of Mao Zedong
• Monument to the People's Heroes
• Tiananmen Gate entrance to Forbidden City

Beijing Art Museum, or whatever was over the other side.

Entrance to Forbidden City.

After taking a few photos I crossed the street and went in to the Forbidden City. This place was huge, and there was crowds of people walking in every direction. I didn't go inside any of the buildings - I think some required tickets and some were free, but I walked almost to the top and then exited to the west and kept going until I reached Xidan for lunch. The Xidan area had a few large shopping malls such as Grand Pacific and Joy City, I found a place selling smoothies in one of them and then went to a bakery where I found a fantastic loaf of bread which had chocolate chips inside.

Some place inside the Forbidden City, could be almost anything...

I took the train down to Beijing South Railway Station where I hoped to get my ticket to Shanghai sorted out, but it all looked a bit too chaotic and time consuming so I figured I'd do a little bit more research and come back another time. I was going to transfer across a few trains to visit the Lugou Bridge next, only when I looked at the map I realised how far away from the closest subway station it was and really didn't want to do such an extreme amount of walking on the very first day.

Instead I went to Beijing West Railway Station and set off looking for the Nike Factory Outlet. The details of the outlet were sketchy at best, I only had a vague street name found on a random internet site, so I really wasn't certain that the place even existed. I continued walking along the streets which at least now matched the name I had written down, but was about to give up after walking two blocks with no success. Then, hidden out of sight behind a larger sports outlet building, was the Nike Factory ! The shoes weren't particularly cheap and only went up to about size 10 usually, but I wasn't in the market for any more shoes anyway. The clothes were better value and they had some additional discounts if you bought multiple items, so I got a few t-shirts for about $25 each, some socks, but forgot to buy a pair of shorts on the way to the register.

It really does exist.

My last stop of the day was Wangfujing. The station exit came out inside the Oriental Plaza Mall, where I found another bakery selling red bean buns and donuts ! I eventually found an actual exit out onto the street, which would of course be Wangfujing Street. This street is a long pedestrian mall - so a relief to not have to deal with the Beijing traffic for the first time all day. After a while I found the Wangfujing Snack Street, an alley off to one side. It was very popular, they were selling all kinds of weird food, such as things that look liked scorpions - usually fried and stuck on a skewer. I didn't see anything I could categorically say was 1) vegetarian and 2) looked tasty.

Snack time.

Not sure what these guys are selling, and I probably don't want to know.

After way too much walking for the first day of a long holiday I got the train back to Dongzhimen. I didn't see any good options for dinner on the way back to the hotel, and all of the places I had researched were a little too far away after the day I'd had, so I just grabbed some food and drinks from the convenience store nearby and had an early night.