Jaunted - Tag: Beijing Field Trip

Beijing: The Party's Over at Olympic Park

ced138 — 2009-09-18T13:33:27-05:00

With the 60th anniversary of China becoming a communist republic approaching October 1, Claire Duffett took a jaunt around the country for the month of September, starting with Beijing. Nowhere does old and new China collide than in its Capital, and for the next five days, we'll share with you the most up-to-date tidbits on what to see and do, and how many yuan it will set you back.

The Olympic Park, with the unmistakable design of its main stadium, the Bird’s Nest, is perhaps the best example of Beijing’s frenetic but seemingly misguided development. With a sparklingly-new subway connecting it to the rest of the city, the area is a quiet amusement park where nothing really happens.

Walking around the grounds gave us the feeling that we were wandering through a cluttered living room after the last guest has departed from a really awesome party. The leftover confetti is just a tad depressing. There’s a ferris wheel and some snack vendors, but otherwise, activities in the area involve marveling at the strands of steel on the nest or the fake blue bubbles of the watersports complex. Even the tower, used only to display the rings and elevate people to the top for a veiw of Beijing, is now cordoned off.

Beijing: Seizing the Forbidden City

ced138 — 2009-09-17T17:39:58-05:00

The Forbidden City shows that Chinese penchant for the grandiose began centuries ago. From 1420 to 1624, 24 successive emperors surrounded themselves with concubines and eunuchs, thus populating the grounds of what is really a city in and unto itself with 980 buildings still standing.

On first inspection, it becomes evident how the Ming Dynasty got wrapped up in its self-made cocoon and lost track of what was going on outside those 26-foot-high, red walls, allowing enemy forces to eventually seize power in the 17th century.

Beijing: Mao Groupies Flock to Tiananmen Square

ced138 — 2009-09-16T17:03:54-05:00

Tiananmen Square. For most in the West, it evokes images of a peace-loving student offering a daisy to oncoming tanks. For Chinese, at least outwardly, it’s a combo of Trafalgar Square and the Lincoln Memorial.

Every morning, thousands of pilgrims line up, white carnations in hand, to see the body of Chairman Mao Tse Tung, which lies in preservation in a mausoleum in the center of the cement-tile square, the largest of its kind in the world. The atmosphere is austere though a bit frantic, with armed police monitoring the seemingly-endless line and kicking out cutters.

Crowds and Grandeur at the Great Wall

ced138 — 2009-09-15T17:11:27-05:00

Just 50 miles north of Beijing is the most visited portion of The Great Wall, Badaling. The hordes of tourists on this part of the wall have become almost as recognized as the long, brick barrier itself.

It takes about two hours to drive there by public bus from the city, and costs only 12 yuan (about US$2, entrance to the wall is another US$7 or so) per person, while a tour out to the site can cost upward of US$100—and you’ll be part of a horde of Chinese tourists in matching red hats led by a guide equipped with a colored flag and a megaphone.

One piece of advice however, is to pack a lunch. Whereas 95 percent of the visitors at the wall will be part of a tour that comes with packed lunch, the remainder are left to fend for themselves, and survive off $5 bags of seaweed-flavored potato chips.

Beijing: Visiting The Land of Brown Smoke and Basketball Lovers

ced138 — 2009-09-14T11:18:52-05:00

Post-Olympics Beijing vaguely resembles its former self. Subways are modern, pristine marvels, with train floors cleaner than our own kitchen’s. The cheapness of transportation emphasized its superiority over American and European cities, with subway rides costing about 30 cents in US money and taxi rides up to two kilometers costing less than a dollar.

Beijing: Beijinging: Accessibility Is a Pipe Dream

femmefatale — 2008-05-30T16:45:01-05:00

Our own femme fatale, Monica Guy, has the pre-Olympics buzz from Beijing for us this week.

How many people with disabilities are there in China? It's a tricky question. The China Disabled Persons' Federation say it's 60 million, a recent BBC report says 83 million and estimates based on the World Health Organization's population model are upwards of 125 million. But discrepancies of few million make little difference in a country of 1.3 billion people, and until now at least, nobody has much cared about the actual number.

In fact, when Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson, Britain's Paralympic athlete who's earned 11 gold medals, first went to Beijing, locals would to poke her to determine whether or not she was real.

The expected visit of just 4,000 more disabled people to Beijing this September seems, bizarrely, to have galvanized the Chinese authorities into action over accessibility. In terms of numbers, it's like a pinprick on an elephant's rump. But these disabled visitors are special: They're the Paralympic athletes, and they'll be trailed by 6,000 journalists.

Beijing: Beijinging: Polluted Air (Made in China)

femmefatale — 2008-05-30T11:17:44-05:00

Our own femme fatale, Monica Guy, has the pre-Olympics buzz from Beijing for us this week.

If you want blue skies in your Beijing holiday snaps, invest in Photoshop. If you want to blow your nose in the city and not turn your hankies black, wear a mask. And if you want clean air, take an oxygen tank.

Drastic measures, sure, but they're just some of those being contemplated by Olympic athletes and their hangers-on this summer. Other cities are capitals of culture or cuisine; Beijing has well earned its title of Air Pollution Capital of the World.