The Forbidden City is Not a Cool Place: Pagodas, Parks, and Recreation

This was a busy weekend, probably because this past week following our long trip was surprisingly light in terms of work. The realization that I only have three weeks left at PIB before returning to the states and Yale (note PIB ends relatively late compared to other programs) has sparked somewhat frantic sightseeing around Beijing. PIB tends to avoid the standard tourist sights in Beijing, so it's largely up to you to see things like The Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven Park, the Summer Palace, 等等。But first, we decided to visit the Beijing Language University 北京语言大学 to visit a few friends and see how the other half lives.

My friend Rain (Zhengkuan) organized the meetup, and I discovered for the first time the mystical 331 bus line (at least I think it was 331) that goes straight up to HBA. (Incidentally, the next stop on that line is Wudaokou 五道口, but more on that later).

This place had free watermelon so of course I ate like 30 slices.

We ended up eating some nice hotpot with some nice Harvard students (that other cultural exchange). Apparently, half of PIB was eating dinner at Pyro Pizza, which is the restaurant a floor below where we ate, though we didn't run into anybody. 

Afterward, while standing around the entrance of a club deciding what to do for the rest of the night, I met this surprisingly nice bouncer. He was like, "Of course entry is free! Yeah no cover until 5AM. You guys look around; come back if you want." Right now I much prefer Wudaokou to Sanlitun / Houhai (if you're looking for nightlife-ish things), since it's really geared more toward students (especially in terms of prices).

There was also this aptly-named coffee shop. Supposedly, the ridiculously 

high prices for drinks reflects the fact that these places are often used 

as dating locations where the guy can't come off as stingy.
As a side note I love the "+" after "twosome"

The place we eventually went to (Wu club) was quite good and not at all sketchy (which I guess is my standard for stuff like this). There was this Peking University student hanging around us asking all the Harvard and Yale kids for their phone numbers. I don't think any of us really knew much about masters/phD programs though.

Innocuous glowing red bar or ingenious solution for masking Asian glow? (click here for science)

Though many students might not consider Wudaokou a worthy way to spend their precious moments in China, I find that it's actually a good way to spend time in good company and listen to some really loud (western) music in a Beijing environment. After all, "must-go" tourist sites aren't always that great.

The sky was pretty cool that day though.

It was blistering hot the day we went to see the Forbidden City, which by Beijing standards is pretty average. The actual Forbidden City (故宫) was, in my opinion, not super-impressive either. To be fair, I've been there before when I was little. Visiting for the second time, I realized why my memories of the place are so sparse - the buildings are essentially all the same, exaggerated wooden structures glazed in red with golden roofs. The actual rooms are mostly empty, since the KMT ran off with most of the things - so most of it's in Taiwan.

Typical Gugong

The expansive squares and maze-like corridors between the smaller buildings on the side are worth a look if you've never been before - but be sure to go early. It opens at 8, and although we got there at 9, there were still quite a few visitors. Around 10/11, the crowd became absolutely ridiculous. A good chengyu to describe this is 人山人海 ("people mountain people sea").

The garden near the exit of Gugong. +1 Majestic pigeon

A good part of the non-central area was closed off that day, and we mostly just kept moving forward through the complex, which I would recommend given the traffic.

Jingshan 景山 park borders Gugong to the north, and I would recommend a visit if you decide to see Gugong, since the entrance to the park is one under-highway passage away from the exit of the Forbidden City.

Generic flower photo

Jingshan is great if you're like me and prefer green to shiny red and gold paint. Potted bonsai trees, lotus flowers, and an array of tree-lined trails up a steep hill compose this small-ish, pleasant area. You'll find elderly folks dancing in sync in the shade, and tourists clustered in the temple at the top of the hill, snapping pictures of the Forbidden City below. Its was the best view of Beijing I've had in my limited experience here.

Group dance activities: a common sight in China's parks

A photo from the top of Jingshan. Gugong kinda feels like Beijing's 

Central Park from up there

The west exit to Jingshan leads straight to the southern gate of Beihai park, where we didn't spent all that much time since some of us were really freaking tired, and the sun was beating down, etc. There was a great breeze by the expansive lake, lined with willow trees and filled with people operating all manner of boats (including this weird circular lotus flower thing). 

Beihai Park

Beihai's great, but don't pay to see the cave. Nothing but a small passageway lined with cheesy statues. It was actually surprising how bad it was.

Another PIB excursion that's worth mentioning is the Silver Mountain Pagoda Forest (Yinshantalin) 银山塔林 in the rural outskirts of Beijing. Things that this place offered for us that day included: rural Beijing food (not much different from regular Beijing food), an impressive array of Jin Dynasty towers, and a mountain (Silver Mountain) with a large bell you can ring.

Not pictured: horde of students yelling about how these chickens are crossing this road

That Saturday was rainy and humid. The mood of the towers, looking all stoic in the mist, stood in stark contrast to the horde of PIB students snapping pictures.

茄子！(Chinese equivalent of "cheese")

The mountain itself was a decent climb. On the way up, our group walked past a couple of girls carrying this big, Costco case of soda. Every few steps bottles would fall out of the plastic enclosure, and both girls would stop to pick them up. It felt weird to hear them chatting and laughing, dragging that thing up the slope, as we stepped around them like a parade of ghosts.

Indiana Jones-y kind of

Despite the recent rain, the waterfall along the way was depressingly dried up. We arrived sweaty to the platform with the bell other students had been ringing before. It was too foggy to photograph the view. That said there's something very appropriate about fog and mountains in China. At the base of the mountain, a small group of elderly ladies in clear competition with each other were selling ice cream, dried fruit, and water. I bought a green-bean ice cream bar for 3kuai and stood there talking and wondering how street vendors manage to keep these things from melting in their garbage bag lined cardboard boxes. Maybe one day I'll ask.