Disappointing Beijing

I visited Beijing, but I was rather disappointed. I expected a lot from the capital of the great Chinese Empire, of the world's most populous country. The truth is, there isn't so much to see.

The Forbidden City is on top of the list, but even that is no big deal. It's like a succession of huge empty squares surrounded by ordinary brick walls with orange roofs. There are a few gates here and there, with nothing special to see inside. Then there is what I call the "village" section, with all those small houses that look like a poor country town. The floor is usually made of earth, not tiles or wood, and the decoration is almost inexistent. That's not at all the level of luxury I expected for the mighty emperors of China. Could have been alright when it was built 600 years ago, but what about the latter emperors who ruled until the begining of the 20th century ? Looks to me like some pioneers and gold diggers in the American Far West or in Australia had better accommodation than some Imperial staff in Beijijng in the same period.

As for shopping, Beijing is far behind other Asian metropolises : Tokyo, Osaka, Singapore, Kuala Kumpur, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Seoul... Nothing to fret about. Overall I found the city quite boring. The architecture is monotonous. So temples are nice, but they are all too similar. Then the pollution and dust are so bad, and people so "rough" that it doesn't make you want to stay long there. Do other people here feel the same way as I do ?

as waht you describe BeiJing ,I just want to tell you "无知是绝对的,知识是相对的"。

Hummm??

I hope all that strange looking writing translates out to something nice?

Grandpa Frank

kashii:

Yeah, I would like to know what that means.

I kind of meant your knowledge is relatively low and you are ignorant. If I translated well enough. -.-

Anyways, I went to Beijing 2 years ago and I liked it. It's not on the same level as the other metro poles though. But Beijing has it's charms and I adore the Chinese art and lifestyle. You should've visited Shanghai ! There things are totally different. More to see and more modern.

Also, I think you can't compare China's wealth and luxury to other countries that easily.

•ï龙¯;481350 said:

as waht you describe BeiJing ,I just want to tell you "Ù'm¥绝对"I,'m识¥'Š对"I"B

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I used Babelfish to translate the text: "Ignorant is absolute, the knowledge is relative". I understand this to mean something like: "If you make black or white generalisations you are ignorant. If you know something about what you are talking about you will be more balanced."

However it does seem a bit odd to use chinese language in a english language discussion forum about japan!

Hummm?

I think I read that once in my fortune cookie.

Grandpa Frank

:blush:

PS - I felt the same way about New York when I went there.

All i can say is that the eyes of the worlds media are going to be on Beijing next year when they host the Olympic Games, could be very interesting for one and all.........

Grandpa Frank said:

PS - I felt the same way about New York when I went there.

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All I can say to that is 十人十色 ;-)

Isn't it true that all of Beijing's riches were carted off to Taiwan with Chiang Kai Shek, and all that remained was the buildings? That may explain Sharingan's experience.

Now their government is enthusiastically conducting goodwill campaigns, "behave yourself" or "kawaii Chinese" (kawaii may be nice in the Chinese context, may not be cute.)
So it is fair to wait and see.

Only time will tell, lets see what happens when the entire world is watching them on tv.

Hmm i thought the same on London, i hated it and i didnt think too much of Tokyo either. Capitals for me are not the images they are built up to be.

As for London 2012, its too early to comment yet, but having been to one Olympic games in my lifetime, I may be going down to London in 2012.

I went to the commonwealth games in manchester haha but i wont be going to the olympics in London although i wish the city the best success of course

RockLee said:

I kind of meant your knowledge is relatively low and you are ignorant. If I translated well enough. -.-

Anyways, I went to Beijing 2 years ago and I liked it. It's not on the same level as the other metro poles though. But Beijing has it's charms and I adore the Chinese art and lifestyle. You should've visited Shanghai ! There things are totally different. More to see and more modern.

Also, I think you can't compare China's wealth and luxury to other countries that easily.

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I went to Shanghai before. Have you tried the 3 yuan noodles? Tell them no MSG, and the answer they gave me was simply ting pu dong! And the scoops just started to go in. While I pointed to the MSG heap and said no MSG, they just doubled the amount, and it was awful.

Beijing really depends on how you look around. . .

The first time I was with an ordinary tourist group, that was of course very colourfull, and if you get additional explanations, the fantasy is also called.
I knew quite a lot already, but must also say, that I was only partly charmed, but more, because I have seen other places before and all along the silkroad. Beijing seemed to be so far less Chinese at first sight than all the other places except for the sightseeing places (that I personally liked very much).

But I was wrong, because I happened to be there twice again on my own, although never more than one week, once even in winter.
Since I speak chinese, it was probably different for me anyhow and I always got fine contacts and thus tips, where to go.
Partly they were the families of friends, thus a kind of merry go round from one dinner to another, which means a lot of backstage, so to say.
Also when I stayed in a hotel a bit out of the center, I found an article in the papers about old parts of town, that were about to be torn down. Of course I went there immediately.

Going side streets is a habit from me and that also showed me a very different Beijing, plus a lot of parks, markets and special streets, where I could have stayed for whole days, discovering. Since the Chinese are very curios and also don't mind curiosity from foreigners, at least then, I had lots of interesting things to see and follow.
If you just go along the main streets, you miss a lot!

The "big" places were not necessarily of interest for me any more, although I personally still liked them very much. And modern Beijing was not what I was after, I simply skipped it, whenever I could, plus opened many shop doors to see what they had inside, and they always had a surprise! For me, shopping was cheap and big fun! But I also often knew what to look for and found it, be it in a bag in the back of the shop.

Many such places may not exist any more, I don't know, but according to my fotos later on, and I made a lot, it was very interesting! I just had my fun and learned to love Beijing after all.

Well, one has to learn to see and to make some contacts first maybe. I could also write a whole book of fine stories about this now. Speaking their language was surely a bonus too.
Also, like in Japan, several restaurants are not just outside or easy to find, I had the luck of being guided by locals, thus additionally learned about their preferences, apart from great privat invitations.
Not to mention several remarkable exhibitions, that I had the luck to visit.
But just an outside market street could already catch me for a long time discovering.

Or the different transport possibilities, also to the outsides of Beijing. Always an adventure! However rough at times.
I am still wondering about that old lady, that came out of a packed bus with a net full of eggs, all intact!! I have no idea, how she even got into that bus!

And one should not feel offended by any "mei you" (= don't have, not available), usually you just have to wait patiently and suddenly they "you"(=have). . .