We decided to spend a week in the city and a week riding north of Beijing to the Great Wall.
After arriving at the train station we set about putting our bikes together which were still snuggly packed in their bike bags. We managed to get them into our sleeper cabin as luggage, if they were unpacked they would have been put on a freight train 3 days later!! It took us a good hour to get the bikes back in one piece and we had the attention and the help of about 20 curious chinese onlookers who were happy enough to hold a wheel or check out our panniers.
Once we headed off into the Beijing traffic it felt like the world had been turned upside down, there were suddenly bike lanes (one every road) two lanes wide, cars (usually) give way to bikes, there are little bike symbols on traffic lights and there are cyclists everywhere!! This is a city we felt at home. The only problem is our bikes stick out like sore thumbs against the local bikes. There are also bike shops everywhere where you can get a city bike for $50NZ or sidewalk repair shops where a guy will happily fix a flat tyre or change some bearings.
Because Beijing is so big we decided to split our time up at a few different hostels so we would get a feel for different parts of the city and this turned out to be a good approach because the city is HUGE. We spent a few days cycling around and easily clocked up 50km per day. The only bad thing about cycling is the pollution, most days it is ok, but sometimes it gets pretty bad.
We have enjoyed some fantastic food here. There is a huge variety of different types of food and yes, chinese food here is TOTALLY different to NZ chinese food.
In the north they use a lot of wheat so there are lots of flat breads that are often filled with a combination of leek, fennel, pumpkin, tofu or spring onions, these cost around 10cents so are great for breakfast. There are also plenty of the usualy suspects such as steamed buns filled with meat or veges and often you dont know what you are getting which is often part of the fun.
At restaurants you can get dishes from all parts of china and our favourite so far is Kung Pao Tofu, a spicy Sichuan stirfry concoction with tofu, peanuts and spring onions. It is interesting observing the Chinese restaurant etiquette. They often order about 2-3 dishes per person and never finish it, and only rarely do they get it in a doggy bag. We think this is a sign of showing ones wealth, alot like in Malaysia where if you have a big pile of rubbish outside you house is not a bad thing, it is a showing that you are rich enough to have that much rubbish, and look i can afford toilet paper rolls!!!
The costs in Beijing are higher than we have been used to for the last 6 months, we are paying about 10NZ for a bed in a dorm at a hostel (yes our first proper hostel in asia) but food is still really cheap ($1-$5 for a meal).
We have been to a handful of the countless sights in Beijing, such as the Temple of Heaven where the Emperors would go to pray for a good harvest, the Lama Temple, a tibetan buddhist temple and also the forbidden city and Tianamen Square in the heart of Beijing.
Speaking of Tianamen Sqaure, there is an 8 lane bicycle lane running in front of it!! Pretty impressive!!
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