Last weekend, we had flown over to Beijing, just over three hours from our home base in Hong Kong.. the trip was supposed to be nothing more than a break from humdrum work-home-eat-sleep routine. We didn't have too many expectations from the city - this was our first tourist trip to a big city actually.. all our vacations so far had been focussed on getting as far away from cities as possible!! We had heard so much about the language problems we would face (after three years in Tokyo, that didn't fuss us too much), the pollution, the scamsters fishing around for guileless tourists.. but Beijing exceeded all our expectations.. and how!On the exterior, it looked like any other city, its wide tree-lined roads and low rises a refreshing change from the voyeuristic sky scrapers of Tokyo and Hong Kong, but a modern, pulsating and seemingly drab city nevertheless.. but then suddenly, you notice pretty, multi-eaved, traditional roofs peeking out from in between the modern buildings.. wonderful smells of roadside food stalls waft by and directly invite your stomach.. strains of traditional music are heard in a distance and an old man practices water calligraphy in front of a centuries old temple.. and Beijing begins to absorb you into itself.
We spent the first day strolling around the magnificent Forbidden City and the cheerful Summer Palace, enormous palaces both of them but so very different in the emotions they evoke.. The Forbidden City is pure grandeur, with its rows of opulent halls and paintings and gardens. The Summer Palace on the other hand is playful, wearing its wealth and beauty very lightly.. you can actually imagine kings and queens of yore gambolling around the picturesque Kunming Lake. We lunched at the lively snack street in Wanfujing, and returned there again for hot pot in the evening. And then we discovered the night food market, which was far more superior to anything we've had in Hong Kong so far.. so on for a second dinner! (Needless to say, food forms an important part of our vacation!)The next day was reserved for the greatest among all walls, the Great Wall of China..
and man, was it huge!! It felt like an honor just to be standing on the wall, overlooking the undulating hills and more of the wall.. Apparently, it took them 2000 years to build the entire wall, which stetches for some 6000km, and employed thousands of workers, many of whom lie buried beneath it.. Standing there on top, I felt so small, so insignificant - it was a humbling experience. Apparently, there is a saying in Chinese that if you haven't climbed to the top of the Great Wall, you are not a hero.. well, we wanted to be heroes, so we did climb all the way to the top of the wall (the one at Badaling at least), but unfortunately, way too many people had the same idea.. and the top most section of the wall looked more like a Sunday morning fish market in Kolkata rather than the hallowed portals of a celebrated wonder! Grandeur, beauty, immensity - all of these define the Great Wall of China.. but those looking for solitude, go find another wall! This place aint for the misanthropes!
We also saw and admired a marvellous acrobatics show, the communal Temple of Heaven, walked through a few hutongs, ignored quite a few touts offering pedicab rides around the place and made another trip to the yummy night market..Our sojourn in Beijing was not without its irritants.. throughout the trip, we had to wade our way around hawkers hardselling their wares, "guides" promoting themselves, fraud students advertizing equally fraud art exhibitions.. and we actually got duped twice.. once by a rigged cabbie whom we ditched as soon as we realized his meter was running twice as fast and another time on the Great Wall when someone stole our tickets for taking the trolley down - they weren't selling tickets any more and our bus back to town was leaving shortly.. enough to drive me to hysterics!
But a few weeks days down the line, I doubt if we'll even remember these blots on an otherwise perfect trip.. After a few months, we'll probably forget exactly what the Forbidden City looks like, and a year later, maybe even the Great Wall. But what will always stay with us are the feelings - awe, wonder, curiosity, satisfaction - and the flashes of a city standing at the crossroads of existence.. welcoming the future with open hands but nurturing its past with a fierce pride. In Beijing this weekend, I saw where Delhi would be in a decade or so, where India as a country is heading towards in a few more - pleasantly schizophrenic.
XieXie, Beijing! Thanks for a great weekend!
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