Okay – heading off for a week in China with my family I had lofty plans to get out the old sketch books and capture the locals sites and atmosphere. Traveling with a 4-year old son (my 4-year old son, for the record) made this pretty impossible, so I humbly offer up some photos I took on my travels instead.
Don’t worry – not going to bore you with pix of me posing in front of various touristy sites (especially as I was wearing shorts for much of the trip). Instead, I’m focusing on the sites of around Beijing, ancient and modern, that I found photo-worthy.
For a really well drawn Beijing travel guide I’d check out this offering from Sarah McIntyre.
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- Impressive looking church in Wangfujing
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- Outside the church near our hotel folk gathered in huge crowds to do a kind of synchronised dance exercise. All social boundaries seemed to be broken down as teenagers, danced their routines alongside pensioners and everyone in between.
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- This person carried us on a taxi motorised bike thing. After we got off at our destination, police pulled up and arrested the driver. We figured out later that all non-official taxis were illegal.
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- I was wondering how much Beijing would be like another big Asian city Tokyo, as I’d lived there for 9 months (a while back!) Very different vibe to each place, but both had lots of cute creatures everywhere, like this rabbit thingy.
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- Cool monster with boy hiding
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- As we were traveling with our young son we had to blend historical sites with kids’ stuff, like going to this play center called “Fundazzle”. One serious ball pool there!
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- Despite our 4 year old not being the most serious culture vulture, we squeezed in a few historical sites. This is the old imperial Summer Palace, where the emperors used to hang in the Summer.
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- Oddly Dr Seussy type plants in Tiananmen Square.
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- Really big TV in Tiananmen Square and one guy guarding the remote.
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- Outside the Forbidden City (very old imperial palace) with an ominous picture of Mao in the background.
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- The Forbidden City was full of the old school Chinese architecture you’d hope for!
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- You may have seen the Forbidden City in such films as The Last Emperor, Hero (with Jet Li) and American Pie Presents: Beta House.
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- The door that has loads of arrows fired into it at the end of the Jet Li film, Hero.
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- No one could accuse the Forbidden City of needing a new coat of paint.
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- Patterns with dragons on them – now we’re talking!
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- And more!
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- And something else cool on the roof!
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- The whole place felt like a film set, but with lots of tourists everywhere. These old rooms are pretty amazing.
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- The Great Wall of China is as you might expect sooooooooooo big!
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- Takes ages just to climb up to the top of it!
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- Amazing view looking out of turrets.
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- Back in London then? No, no! This was a staircase resembling Tower Bridge from the Shijingshan Amusement Park.
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- What children’s theme park is complete without a screaming lemon ticket kiosk?
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- Awesome looking ride where you fire ping pong balls from your seat as more ping pong balls get shot aimlessly into the air!
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- Copyright isn’t a big thing in China, so this Theme Park had it’s own rip-off Epcot Centre and I’m pretty sure that caterpillar belongs to Pixar!
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- All sorts of “unofficial” rides in this park.
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- The biggest Orc thing you’re likely to find anywhere!
So there you have it. I didn’t manage to capture some of our experiences in photograph, like the storm we were caught in on our first day. Seriously torrential downpour! Wondered if it was normal for the Chinese but as it made it on to the local news that night we figured it had to be pretty exceptional. We had almost made it on foot to Tiananmen Square when the heavens opened and we joined crowds of people sheltering under an large archway, before escaping on a taxi/motorbike/gardenshed-on-wheels type thing.
Or… the fact that locals ask to have their photos taken with you or your kid, like you’re George Clooney or someone. Happened lots, even half way up the Great Wall!
Or… having our bags and ourselves x-rayed before entering Tiananmen Square (imagine that at Leicester Square!) and even the tube stations.
Or… the over-enthusiastic masseuse. “Is here okay?” “That’s fine, thanks.” “What about here?” “Erm….. no thank you!” “Why not?” “Erm… I have a wife.” “Oh, alright then.” Probably good there’s no photographs of that!
