My foot was still aching from overuse, so I planned to take it a little easier today. Once again breakfast had the same basics and one more surprise, fried red bean cakes !
I took the train out to the Olympic district, home of the 2008 Summer Olympics for those who have forgotten already. I figured I would just be able to walk around outside, but then discovered there was a self guided tour for the National Stadium (Bird's Nest). It cost 50 RMB which is a little expensive, but I got a ticket anyway. It was a pretty typical tour, you got to walk around the bottom and top levels, see some of the items used in the opening and closing ceremonies and that's about it. Sadly there was some construction happening out on the athletics track so it wasn't a very memorable sight.
Directly across from the stadium was the Water Cube, where they obviously had most of the water-based Olympic events. Now it has been converted into a water park which sounded like fun if I had time, the entry price was a steep 200 RMB.
I jumped back on to the train instead of walking, and got out again at the Olympic Forest Park two stops away. The park was pretty large, and it had some nice running tracks. I was feeling alright so I took the shortest loop possible around the lake. I thought I might be able to get a good view from the top of the hill, but that seemed to be further away than it looked, so I never made it there. Getting back to the start seemed to take forever because the route had so many twists and turns and kept leading away from the direction I wanted to be heading in.
The next destination was the Summer Palace, I had to spent a lot of time on the train and change lines twice to get there, so I wasn't sure if it was going to be worth all the time and effort. Once I got out at the station there was a long walk around the outer wall of the palace to get to the entrance - similar to the way to reach the Vatican Museums.
Once I got inside my first thoughts were:
I walked over to the tower quickly, then back to the bridge with seventeen arches which is called...The Seventeen Arch Bridge. I had just failed taking a photo of myself with the tower in the background when a Chinese man came over and started asking for a photo. At first I wasn't sure what he meant, but then I figured out he wanted me to stand in next to his young daughter while the mother prepared to take the photo. A little bit weird but I went along with it. Afterwards the dad and the girl both managed to say "thank you" in English so that was pretty cool.
I headed back to the subway after having a bit of a rest at the palace. I made a quick stop at Xidan for some more bakery snacks and then continued on to the Temple Of Heaven. It was already 4pm by the time I got there, and since my feet were in a lot of pain and there was a bit of a line for tickets I decided against going in - it was just another temple after all.
I walked back to the hotel to rest for a while, passing the early crowd heading to the Beijing Guoan soccer match that wasn't due to start for another three hours. The street vendors were out already too, they were all selling exactly one of two things:
I did some research online about buying tickets for the soccer - of course you can't just buy them at the stadium, that would be too sensible. I think you can buy them in advance from some Chinese-only websites, but other than that your only choice is buying them off the street. I couldn't really find any information about retail prices, but I tracked down a few scalpers who were offering tickets for about 150 RMB which seemed like a bit much.
Instead I just went back to the cafe from yesterday for more nachos. This time I got a blueberry lassi drink which was a big let down. I found the soccer live on TV so watched some of that, Beijing won the match 2-0 but there weren't many highlights so I don't think I missed much. The bigger highlight was finding a Will Smith movie "Enemy Of The State" that was just starting !
I finished my packing and planning for travel to Shanghai in the morning, Chinese workers start a bit later which is good - their peak hour only starts at about 8:00am which works out great for me taking a suitcase on the train.
 |
| Red Bean breakfast. |
I took the train out to the Olympic district, home of the 2008 Summer Olympics for those who have forgotten already. I figured I would just be able to walk around outside, but then discovered there was a self guided tour for the National Stadium (Bird's Nest). It cost 50 RMB which is a little expensive, but I got a ticket anyway. It was a pretty typical tour, you got to walk around the bottom and top levels, see some of the items used in the opening and closing ceremonies and that's about it. Sadly there was some construction happening out on the athletics track so it wasn't a very memorable sight.
 |
| IBM at the Olympics. |
 |
| The National Stadium. |
 |
| I guess these were the mascots. |
 |
| The view from the top deck. |
 |
| A drum used at the opening ceremony...or the closing ceremony. |
Directly across from the stadium was the Water Cube, where they obviously had most of the water-based Olympic events. Now it has been converted into a water park which sounded like fun if I had time, the entry price was a steep 200 RMB.
 |
| The Water Cube. |
 |
| Some tower near the National Stadium. |
I jumped back on to the train instead of walking, and got out again at the Olympic Forest Park two stops away. The park was pretty large, and it had some nice running tracks. I was feeling alright so I took the shortest loop possible around the lake. I thought I might be able to get a good view from the top of the hill, but that seemed to be further away than it looked, so I never made it there. Getting back to the start seemed to take forever because the route had so many twists and turns and kept leading away from the direction I wanted to be heading in.
 |
| Olympic Forest Park. |
 |
| Olympic Forest Park (R). |
The next destination was the Summer Palace, I had to spent a lot of time on the train and change lines twice to get there, so I wasn't sure if it was going to be worth all the time and effort. Once I got out at the station there was a long walk around the outer wall of the palace to get to the entrance - similar to the way to reach the Vatican Museums.
 |
| Trying to find the entrance to the Summer Palace. |
Once I got inside my first thoughts were:
- Much bigger than I expected
- Impressive tower
- Do I really have to walk all that way ?
I walked over to the tower quickly, then back to the bridge with seventeen arches which is called...The Seventeen Arch Bridge. I had just failed taking a photo of myself with the tower in the background when a Chinese man came over and started asking for a photo. At first I wasn't sure what he meant, but then I figured out he wanted me to stand in next to his young daughter while the mother prepared to take the photo. A little bit weird but I went along with it. Afterwards the dad and the girl both managed to say "thank you" in English so that was pretty cool.
 |
| The Summer Palace hill. |
 |
| Seventeen must be a lucky number too. |
 |
| Bridge crossing. |
I headed back to the subway after having a bit of a rest at the palace. I made a quick stop at Xidan for some more bakery snacks and then continued on to the Temple Of Heaven. It was already 4pm by the time I got there, and since my feet were in a lot of pain and there was a bit of a line for tickets I decided against going in - it was just another temple after all.
 |
| Luo Song Bread out, Super Chocolate Loaf in. |
I walked back to the hotel to rest for a while, passing the early crowd heading to the Beijing Guoan soccer match that wasn't due to start for another three hours. The street vendors were out already too, they were all selling exactly one of two things:
- Beijing jerseys that actually looked real, or a good imitation
- Huge cups of soft drink, since you can't take bottles or cans into the stadium
- They literally turned up with hundreds of two litre bottles of soft drinks and pour them all into cups for a tidy profit
 |
| Soccer street vendors. |
I did some research online about buying tickets for the soccer - of course you can't just buy them at the stadium, that would be too sensible. I think you can buy them in advance from some Chinese-only websites, but other than that your only choice is buying them off the street. I couldn't really find any information about retail prices, but I tracked down a few scalpers who were offering tickets for about 150 RMB which seemed like a bit much.
Instead I just went back to the cafe from yesterday for more nachos. This time I got a blueberry lassi drink which was a big let down. I found the soccer live on TV so watched some of that, Beijing won the match 2-0 but there weren't many highlights so I don't think I missed much. The bigger highlight was finding a Will Smith movie "Enemy Of The State" that was just starting !
I finished my packing and planning for travel to Shanghai in the morning, Chinese workers start a bit later which is good - their peak hour only starts at about 8:00am which works out great for me taking a suitcase on the train.
- Beijing Summary
- 7 out of 10
- Good
- Cheap drinks and ice creams
- Eastern side of city was much nicer
- Generally seems pretty safe
- Good bakeries
- Lots of things to see and do
- No rain
- Bad
- Cars don't really care about pedestrians
- Crowded at some tourist attractions
- Google was blocked 99% of the time !
- Lack of credit cards
- Lack of English
- Limited fast food vegetarian options
- Pollution
- Subway x-ray scanners
- Missed Out
- 798 Art District
- Beihei Park
- Beijing Guoan soccer match
- Beijing Zoo
- Lama Temple
- Lugou Bridge
- Temple Of Heaven
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