Late in the morning, we went to see the Forbidden City. Before that, we had gone to the Place of Heavenly Freedom. All these locations are full of history and, compared with Europe, the dimension is totally alien.
After having seen the Forbidden City, we drove around a small lake towards a “leisure park”. It was also very touristy: many restaurants, lots of live music, many bikes and boats. We rented a rickshaw for one hour – some way or other, we felt that our legs needed some rest. Everything was very touristy, but still very impressive. Life in this city emanates some special kind of harmony.
Here are a few more experiences:
It is very cheap to go places by taxi – if you manage to get hold of one. It is nowhere near as easy as it looks. Because many taxi drivers try – at least for tourists – to drastically break the price regulation. That is quite easy: since taxis are rare, the drivers work together with sales persons. They stand around on attractive locations and offer “taxi, taxi” to non-locals. If you give them your destination, they will come back with a fixed price, for instance 50 RMB.
If you then manage to find a taxi driving with the (official taxi) metre, you will discover that the distance was actually worth 17 RMB, instead of the 50.
Instead of the equivalent of 2 €, you pay more than 6 € which, basically is not really tragic for a “rich European“.
Since, however, you want to take a closer look at all of Peking – which extends over a huge area- , you have to take quite a few rides by taxi. And that adds up, doesn’t it?
And it seems that at least at those places where tourism is abundant, the “fixed-price taxis” are decidedly the majority. So you want to be careful.
The (late) breakfast was typically Chinese and excellent. Green leaves (by now my favourite), noodles and diverse pasta dishes that remind me a little of (filled) yeast dumplings. The same is true for dinner. We ate a hotpot. In Peking, the first-class restaurants are overbooked. You will find tables where you can play Halma while you are waiting until you get the signal that there is finally a vacancy.
Before dinner, however, we went to visit a fake market. It is even bigger and more sparkling. Just like a real mall. You really start wondering if the difference in price between a true and fake Gucci bag is justified or if, perhaps, quite a few buyers are cheated – which perhaps is exactly what they want.
And after dinner, we strolled through some kind of night market. In the food section, you can find everything: scorpions still wriggling at the skewer, barbecued beetles and snakes (small ones). Occasionally even some kind of huge cock chafer grub. Bon Apetit!
But on the whole, I found the food delicious so far. And tomorrow – quasi for recovering – we will see the Summer Palace; before tackling “The Great Wall” on Wednesday.
RMD
(Translated by EG)
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