I'm dreaming of a Beijing Christmas. Pt 1

A bus on Tian'amin Road

Forbidden City

 

So, Christmas in Beijing?

At first glance a stupid and idiotic idea, first Beijing gets a little chilly in the winter and second it gets really bloody cold in the winter. Yet despite this Beijing is somewhere that I will always love and as I also love Christmas, why not spend it in Beijing. (That and mam and dad were flying into Beijing to visit.)

I finished work on the evening of the 23^rd and flew early morning 24^th, a short 3 hour flight and I arrived! Met mam and dad in the airport with only a little wandering about, and jumped into a cab heading back to Sanlitun hostel (where I used to live with Clare). It had been 18 months since I last saw Beijing and it felt like a homecoming, well it is the closest thing to home for me in China.

One of Dad's hats 'borrowed' for the week

We were put in a room in the hotel across the courtyard, which was not ideal but a perfectly nice room, plus every day we got business cards for hookers posted under the door so it had its advantages. So much had changed from what I remember from living in the area. Things I thought would be gone were still there and things I thought would outlive us all (dumpling lady) had gone. It was hard not to be disappointed with some stuff, the silk market for example, used to be a huge fakes market where you could get some great bargains, but what was a market now looked like a mini shopping mall type centre with doors and glass walls where a table and an old lady once were. It was much nicer looking but had lost its chaos charm and the atmosphere had completely changed. Luckily the other market nearer to the hostel seemed to have picked up the slack and was now very cheap where it used to be a little on the pricier side. Generally, it was a case of looking for the relocated shops or restaurants that I remembered. Gave a treasure hunt feel to any shopping days we had.

Christmas dinner was a Beijing roast duck served with a multitude of other dishes and was a beautiful meal. Duck is one of my favourites anyway but definitely better than dry turkey and sprouts. Presents were exchanged Christmas eve which was mam and dad just unloading there bag of clothes and shoes onto my bed, they had brought out heaps of stuff and just as I needed them too. I cannot buy clothes in southern china, as the people are annoyingly short, so when I find trousers they are always several inches too short.

In the first week, we did most of the normal touristy things; WangFuJing and bug street, a few parks, a lot of shopping, the local bar area and much more. Plus we found a new local bar to go to as my one had changed into something not so great. The weather was freezing cold but with enough layers and a hat we were able to walk around and visit places without suffering too much and getting uncomfortable/miserable/cranky. Dad bought a hat in almost every place we went and left China with the hat count in double figures! No idea how he plans to wear them all, maybe an elaborate rotation schedule and double layering?

My favourite food, some big pancake crisp thing.

 As all of us had been to Beijing before we were not left with the need to go to see all of the “must-see” places, which meant we were able to just wander round and never felt like we were missing anything. We did a few but generally; we walked all day every day and crashed in the evenings, slowly eating our way round the city.

After a week in Beijing we went to Xi'an, the plan was to get the train but I couldnt get tickets. so back to the airport and a 2 hour flight to Xi'an on one of the bumpiest flights i have ever been on. Wasn't pleasant!

 

Stand by for New Year in Xia'n