Stinky, Crowded, Over-Priced, yet... Marvelous

The Forbidden City warrants a second look. Golden week might not be the right time to check out Beijing’s historical monuments. The rest of China keeps getting there first. Making everything crowded, loud, and occasionally full of spit.

But we can, at the very least, check that off of our list of things to see here.

Not that we have the, been there, done that attitude. Quite the opposite, in fact.

It’s an amazing complex. The intricacies, details, bridges, shingles, and cobblestones come together to paint a picture of what life in the Ming Dynasty must have been like for those privileged few.  You can almost hear the shushing of silk robes, the dainty footsteps of courtesans giggling behind painted fans. Almost. Those wisps of fantasy are drowned out by the hocking of loogies and the shouts of tour guides.

Still, I marvel at the grandeur that the entire palace once obviously held, stood for.

From left to right:

Wonder Wife, Super Husband, Sun Wook, Karl, Jung Hyuk, 

Hento, Etsuko, Ellie

              We spent the afternoon traversing the complex, taking a slight detour to check out the small museum rooms, holding pottery from the Ming and Qing dynasties. We were told that most things of obvious value were looted before someone could step in and preserve the space.  Apparently the guards also live there, which is a pretty enviable position, if you ask me. “So, where do you live?” “Oh, you know, just the Forbidden City.” Although, who knows how comfortable that actually is.

            After leaving the Forbidden City, proper, we went under the street and paid the 2rmb entrance fee to a park ground that boasts the best look out for the Forbidden City. They also have, for the small fee of 25rmb, costumes. One can rent these costumes and take any number of pictures. We declined, but only because the group of friends we were with were markedly less interested in that experience than we were. There will be other opportunities, I am sure.

After making our way down from the top of the hill we walked to Wangfujing. Now, I posted that link about Wangfujing in the previous post, and most of what was said there holds true. Stinky, crowded, over-priced, and yet, marvelous.

Wangfujing is everyone’s picture of China. The bustling people. The trashcans in the middle of a walkway being totally ignored in favor of throwing trash directly on the ground. Scorpions on a stick. Stinky Tofu.

We’ll be going back, for sure.

**Now, future travelers be warned.**

The first stall that offers these… ahem… delicacies, is the most expensive. Prices for the food is generally posted, so it might be best to take a look at a number of the stalls before choosing which best suits your needs.

Everything else can be bargained down. Case in point: Super Husband and I are in the market for name stamps (these things have a name, I just can’t remember what it is… ). The original asking price was quoted as 180rmb for a smallish stamp, just by walking away we got the vendor down to 30rmb. That’s without any haggling, at all. We didn’t buy them, yet again because our group was more interested in other things. Sugar coated cherry tomatoes were among the things that caught their collective eye.

There are a number of photos posted on the page marked “Tian’anmen, Forbidden City, Wangfujing”. I’m working on making the whole blog a little more user friendly, but my decided lack of tech-savvy makes that undertaking pretty difficult. Unless someone has a better idea (and if you do, please, let me know) I’m going to be adding pages with photos, and possibly pages with tips for travelers and those moving to Beijing, as we progress through our year here.

As for the once mentioned vlog (Yes, Boris, this is note is just for you)—We’re having so much difficulty uploading simple photos at the moment that perhaps a vlog is out of our league. Or our bandwidth capabilities. That said, I’m working on it.

We’ve spent much of the rest of the break holed up in my apartment, battling cold induced lethargy. What started out as a subtle tickling of the throat on Saturday turned into a full-fledged cold by Tuesday. Expertly applied ginger tea, and vitamin C have been working their way through our systems to eradicate whatever foreign germs had threatened our immune systems, and now, Saturday again, we are much relieved.

Yesterday we attempted to stream the presidential debate, but after it froze 11 times before they even changed topics, we decided to forgo the debate in its entirety. I am, however, still investigating the Absentee Ballot options. Hopefully I haven’t missed any critical deadlines, and will get my vote in under the wire.

It looks like Vote From Abroad has a simple, and what appears to be reliable way to do this. Yay.

I haven’t figured out how to send mail yet. I know where there’s a mailbox, but not how to deal with stamps...? Postage? Maybe we’ll venture to the bank tomorrow and see if that’s yet another thing that they oversee.

And perhaps we’ll top up the gas and electricity cards, as well.

In China (I’m told it’s the whole of China, but I’m finding out that when Beijingers say “In China” they really just mean here, in Beijing) you prepay pretty much everything. Your phone, your internet, your electricity, and your gas. The only thing  you will get billed for, post-usage, is water. So, everyone has these credit card lookin’ things, and these little meters in their apartments, and you go to whatever bank your card is affiliated with and you put money on your card, and then you go back to your apartment and you put your card into your meter, and it reads the balance on the card, I guess… We have yet to do this, as there was already money in all our necessary meters.

It’s 6pm now, and my wrist hurts a little from the awkward angle of the computer, so I’m going to wrap this up.

Don’t forget to check out the new photo pages.