Having a Great Chai on the Great Wall of China

I had the good fortune of recently having a work/leisure trip to Beijing for a month. This post serves as a recollection and guide for future travelers.

My journey to get there was 16 hours long. This is the first time I experienced very thorough frisking, it was a bit uncomfortable. I was also nervous about not having any wifi/data/ active phone number in case of an emergency. My memory from 5 years ago was that it was very hard to communicate in English, and that even if you did manage to access airport wifi, Whatsapp did not work. The process was much smoother this time – there were wifi machines where one could get a code in absence of a phone number, and I purchased VPN beforehand, which was a very wise decision. In hindsight, I should have also bought a phone number and some data. Foreign cards don’t work here unless linked with a phone number. The standard mode of payment is via WeChat or Alipay, even for public transport. Not having data meant I couldn’t make any purchases unless accompanied. Moreover, one often needs to translate Chinese spoken by locals, using apps like Google Translate, Microsoft Translator, WeChat or Pleco. Thankfully, I lived at my friend’s house who very kindly paid for my expenses and aided me with translation.

I have been proudly financially independent for more than 5 years now. Having to communicate my wants isn’t necessarily my strong suit. My friend also made things less challenging, which i really appreciate. This trip would not have been possible without him.

As soon as I stepped out of the airport, I realized I was quite unprepared for the sub zero temperatures. Wearing multiple layers (literally) saved my skin. I caught frostbite twice, it was quite painful. My limbs also started looking reptilian. I now understand the importance of a good mask, socks and gloves. The weather in general was sunny but hazy, seldom accompanied by a light wind. It often felt gloomy like in London, except one could barely see a few meters ahead due to the pollution. The mere presence of the sun, however, made a significant impact on my mood and general welfare. The pollution in Beijing and most of Northern China is due to coal used to boil water, which then runs through pipes across the city and powers heaters in every household. It is quite toasty inside the house. This contrast is yet another cause for me to fall sick. I was once very hot because of the heater (even if you turn it off, the water flowing in the pipes still keeps the house warm), and left the window open all night. I ended up with a horrible two-week long cold and a headache that lasted 2 days!

I ate a lot of good food in Beijing. Before coming to Beijing, I had lost my appetite, and was very happy to regain it here. I was not sure I would enjoy the cooking, and was afraid to encounter the raw taste of meat. How wrong I was! There are several dishes with unique flavors which are different from the Indo-Chinese food i grew up with and adore. My favorite was fish steamed in a light white broth. I also enjoyed steamed vegetables, and stir fries with lotus and green Sichuan peppercorns. A word of caution: Beijing is not paradise for vegetarians. Dairy products are expensive and not easily available (they can be found in stores like Jenny Lou or April Gourmet). Bread is also different to the ones I’m used to due to the absence of yeast – white or brown baked bread. Most of the bread here is stuffed with meat or sugar, and is either fried or steamed. Most instant noodles in the supermarket contain meat in some form as well – be sure to read through the ingredients. One may find it quite hard to get vegetarian food in restaurants unless you specifically ask for it; not everyone understands what no meat means. It is highly probable that these dishes will be cooked in the same pan as a meat dish, and hence will have a meat flavor in it. There are some hidden gems like a small shop in Wudaokou which sells fresh date cakes, but you need to be patient and wait in line for about 30 minutes. There are quite a few vegan Buddhist restaurants. I liked their unique creations. I ate a lot at the canteen of a university. One makes a selection from a plethora of inexpensive dishes. Since the choice is generally based on visual inspection, we would often end up taking dishes that had minced or hidden meat in them. Out of the 20-30 choices, maybe only 2 would be vegetarian on average. Nevertheless, I feasted on delicacies such as stuffed pancakes, red bean paste buns, steamed brocolini stems, golden pumpkin soups etc. There is also a large range of very tasty fruits to indulge in – ranging from pink dragonfruit to crunchy melons to sweet mandarins. Another thing I enjoyed a lot was the street version of fruits dipped in sugar water and frozen on a stick. There is also a wide variety of unique drinks, such as a hearty liquid made by boiling chestnuts in rice water, a fresh tea made from apples and possibly rice, different kinds of soy milk drinks, and tea with whipped cream on top served in huge bamboo cups. There are several restaurants as well with more vegetarian friendly cuisines such as Thai(Amazing Thai was indeed the best Thai food I have eaten), Turkish (Turkish Mom), Indian (The Tandoor) and Italian (Annie’s, LMPlus, Bottega) or pubs(there is a quiet one in Wudaokou which is one of the best i have visited). I also quite enjoyed Hotpot(Haidilao is very good and also has robots that serve you!), but this doesn’t have a lot of good vegetarian options.

I had to do a very important thing in Beijing – visit the zoo and see a panda. The Beijing zoo is huge, it takes an entire day to cover it properly. One needs good shoes and the will to walk a lot.  They have animals from all over the world – there are zebras from Africa, bears from North America, penguins from the Arctic, tigers from India, kangaroos from Australia etc. The tigers and lions didn’t look well-fed, which was sad. There is also an aquarium with separate tickets which is much more expensive. The pandas have an entrance ticket as well, it is well worth it. When we reached there, we couldn’t see anything because of the vast crowd stuck to the walls, we joined them too. And there he was, the huge majestic being (bigger than me), doing absolutely nothing. In the 20 minutes we spent there, the panda simply moved from the ground to the top of a branch, and then took a nap there. The crowd cheered at every movement, possibly seeing themselves in the panda. It reminded me to cheer for myself if I was having a difficult day and did the bare minimum I needed to. This was one of the highlights of my decade, a life goal being complete!

One of the first few touristy things I did in Beijing included going to the Summer Palace, located in the outer rungs of the city. This is more of a living complex spread over acres where the Empress lived for several years. A lot of it had been previously bombed by the French and British, and had been restored in 2021. This is probably why entry was not permitted inside most buildings (or i might have gone for the cheaper ticket). It is built on top of a hill, and also includes a massive lake, living quarters, several offices, guest houses for foreign dignitaries, and a tall temple (where the Empress would light thousands of incense sticks in prayer). It takes a full day to walk through and see everything. The view both from top and bottom are fascinating. On one side, one gets a birds eye view of the city, while on the other side one can see the lake stretching into infinity. However, the face of the Summer Palace is best viewed from bottom, from an island made in the middle of the lake. Since I went in the depths of winter, unfortunately I could not take in the landscape that would have been bathed in lush green, intermingled with cherry blossoms and other flowers. I was, however, quite enthralled with what I saw. Despite the general hustling and bustling around us, we could easily picture the Empress walking about in her royal robes, looking into the lake and quietly reflecting on the day’s events. I quite enjoyed the trip, it really gave me an insight into the grandeur of China.

I arrived in Beijing quite close to Chinese New Year. This is a big national holiday. I was disappointed to learn that this is meant to be more of family time, so not a lot of celebration happens outdoors on a grand scale. Nevertheless, we used this opportunity to travel over the weekend. There were a few options in mind, such as Harbin (a city sculpted out of ice), Luoyang (a cultural centre housing the birthplace of KungFu) or Huangshan (close to the Yellow Mountain). Harbin has a winter festival but I was sure I would not survive in the extreme cold, so we chose Tianjin, which is a city close to Beijing known to have a “Western” influence. The journey was somehow riddled with potholes. We had to book a ticket for the train, but couldn’t do it online because we didn’t have a mainland Chinese ID card. The automatic ticket machines couldn’t help for the same reason. There is meant to be a service counter at the station, however the usual one was closed for the holiday. Finally, with the help of a lot of people and after giving up almost thrice, we found a counter where we managed to get the last 2 tickets in the train, phew! We learned later about a Government app called 12306 which has an English interface. The bullet train we took ran at about 4.5 kms per minute. It did not really feel fast. The seats were comfortable, with a lot of leg space. As soon as we stepped out, we saw smog all around, our visibility being reduced to a few meters. We soon realized the cause – people were cracking a lot of fireworks for New Years. We were starving and set out towards the Italian Style Street. In doing so, we got to see quite a bit of the city center while walking by the frozen river. We happened to witness some sort of event – an old man jumped into the ice cold water in his underwear, while people cheered him on. When he came out after a couple minutes, he seemed normal, and was surrounded by photographers. What a strange and gutsy thing to do! There were several glass skyscrapers with interesting shapes. The architecture seemed to have a mix of styles – some of the bridges looked American, some British, and one looked very similar to a bridge in Brisbane. There was even a small cute replica of the Eiffel Tower on top of a building, and a house made of porcelain. There was a Tianjin Eye akin to the London Eye, which we intended to see at night. The Italian Style Street was true to its name – it had many Roman columns and a fountain with a female figurine in the middle. There were several Italian, French and German restaurants there in posh buildings. Unfortunately, the vegetarian options available were very less, and we ended up eating a spinach pumpkin pie at Starbucks (can be found almost anywhere, even at the Great Wall). We were now exhausted and wanted to refresh ourselves before stepping out to enjoy the night lights. We had booked a place to stay for 99 RMB using a popular app called Ctrip (Airbnb doesn’t work in China). We reached there at around 6 pm. Much like an Airbnb, this was an apartment in a building, and there wasn’t much help around. A lady came and asked for ID. When we showed her our passports, she made a video call to somebody and then both of them started saying things in Chinese. There was a lot of chaos which was incomprehensible to us, after which she simply walked away. Soon after, we received a message saying our booking had been canceled, they couldn’t take foreigners. Although the message was apologetic and polite, we were livid with rage. We later realized that she couldn’t keep foreigners in her apartment without going through police verification, only big hotels could do that. It was freezing outside, our phones were dying, and it was probably too late to take the train back to Beijing. We stayed in the building for a long time, using a power bank while searching for cheap options to stay. Finally, we decided to leave and just walk to the nearest hotel we could see online. Along the way, we saw a few other hotels and stopped to ask if they had any affordable options. We found one which gave us a 350 RMB room for 220 RMB. This meant that our trip had to be cut short by a day, but it was now 9:30 pm, so we accepted it gratefully. The room was quite comfortable with a good view. We had barely eaten anything, but were too exhausted to go anywhere. We ordered some food and made peace with the fact that we might not get to enjoy the night version of the Tianjin Eye, one of the reasons we had come. The shower I took then was one of the most relaxed ones I had taken in a while. My mind had been clogged with work and anxiety for several months now, but in that moment, I just stood there observing the steam rising up in the dim light. I acknowledged how differently my body now worked, and how soon tiredness wore me out. I don’t dislike it, it just means that i feel things more intensely, making my time valuable. With these thoughts running in my brain, and being glad to have a roof over my head for the night, I slept like a baby, unaware of the lights and sounds coming from the celebrations. Before I knew it, it was time to leave again. We got a generous New Year parcel from the hotel, which included milk, soy sauce soaked eggs, and some meat delicacies. We requested if we could leave our luggage there for the day while we roamed the city, they obliged. I also picked up some peanuts from their counter, these are some of the freshest peanuts I had in a while. Unburdened with bags, we set out to find a vegetarian brunch. Visibility was much better. After walking around unsuccessfully for a very long time, we gave up and returned to the Italian Style Street. Every restaurant was playing very loud music outside, which seemed to be their way of luring customers. The different genres mixed together blaring at full volume gave me a headache. We ate in Venice Club. The decor seemed authentic. The food was all right, nothing remarkable for the price. Our only complaint was that the ravioli seemed more like dumplings. In any case, we set out to find the Tianjin Eye before sunset, so we could catch the train back to Beijing in time. This meant that we continued our walk along the river. We reached a glass bridge which had a lot of stalls and live music. There were many fascinating things on the bridge, much like a fair. We saw a person take a leaf and transform it into a grasshopper! When we reached the other end, we saw a lot of people disappearing it an alley. Out of curiosity, we followed them and found ourselves in a street filled with unique shops. Some were selling jade, some wooden artifacts, some different kinds of tea etc. They had lifesize wooden mannequins that moved like a human and described what one could find inside. We entered a tea shop which was also selling something that looked like cheese. We got a lot of free samples, then the saleswomen kept following us around, so we left in haste. I also went to a soap shop where the soap smelled like it looked – an Oreo soap smelled like oreos, fries like fries etc. The place was very crowded but the atmosphere was warm, joyous and inviting. We ate something my friend called Tofu chaat. It was different kinds of tofu mixed with some liquid and topped with some masalas, crunchy chickpeas, spring onions and chilli oil. The quantity was not a lot but we were both warmed up and satiated for a long time after. The sun had now set, and pressed for time, we decided to get out of the unending street. After getting out, I read the sign board and realized we had just experienced one of Tianjin’s top things to do – the ancient culture street. Sometimes it does indeed help to follow the crowd. The towers and sides of the river had been festively lit, it was very pretty. Soon, we could see Tianjin Eye in the distance. Unlike the London Eye, which stands on the banks of the Thames, this was in the middle of the bridge, with cars passing underneath. With somebody playing the Chinese flute in the background, it was a sight to behold. Our  nocturnal aim had been achieved! On the way back, we saw lots of fireworks. Families had some sort of handheld machine which spat out fireworks, these were often pointed towards the river instead of the sky, I wonder why. The return journey was uneventful. I was very happy to have had a good time, surpassing all roadblocks.

If one wants a unique experience, they should head to Hutongs. Once described as “the soul of Beijing”, Hutongs are areas in the city which were very poor, but have now been converted into markets. They are characterized by the very small houses (with no individual toilets) close to each other in a maze of narrow lanes. The outer look has been kept intact, while the interiors have been swapped for a modern cozy vibe. These Hutongs are home to some of Beijing’s finest street food, clothing and assorted stalls, and Western restaurants and pubs. On public holidays, the crowd is never ending. I enjoyed some spicy potatoes, a pistachio latte and an icecream filled croissant here. What I enjoyed even more was bargaining with a vendor who was clearly fleecing me for being a foreigner. I got him down to half his ask in Chinese, which i am very proud of (although I am sure he still looted me). There is no greater illusion of power than asserting dominance in a foreign language.

Next to one of these Hutongs lies China’s oldest Buddhist temple, called Yong He Gong, or the Lama temple. Located in the midst of the city, this place has a charm of its own. One soon forgets the bustling city life outside its walls. Lamas and monks still reside here. I found the praying methodology similar to those practiced in Hindu temples – you light incense sticks, kneel in front of the idol with the incense sticks in your hand, bow and then drop the incense into the pyre. There were a lot of different idols in the shrines, the central ones getting bigger as we delved further into the complex. This is where i saw the largest laughing Buddha I’ve ever seen. There were many small rooms on the side, one of which contained idols for Tantric Buddhist practices. Another room with a lot of books which caught my fancy was described as one where monks learnt astrology and calculations. There was also a busy store. I noticed people leaving with multiple bracelets and forming a line. My curiosity got the better of me and I joined the line as well. We were led into a special room where everybody knelt with the bracelets kept in their palm, possibly as an offering, while a monk conducted some ritual by chanting some mantras aloud. The entire experience was very calming and therapeutic.

The temple is very close to Chaoyang, which is one of Beijing’s fancy districts. This is the best place for expats to visit since a lot of foreign products are sold here in premiere shopping regions like Sanlitun (a huge mall filled with international brands), Sanliyuan (a market known for having international groceries) and Wangfujing Street (a shopping plus street food street, where one could sample Insects such as cockroaches). There are larger than life 3D billboards here, where you can witness a golden dragon flying towards you. I was quite fascinated by the bookshops, since there was space to actually sit and read in them. Most of them look like they’re in a movie, walls lined with books and reading nooks tucked into the corners with small lamps. All of them seemed to have a cafe inside, so one could nourish both mind and body. Its the perfect escape room for a weary soul. My favorite memory of Chaoyang, however, is huffing and puffing across a frozen lake as the sun set, watching adults and children squealing in joy and other very young figure skaters polish their almost perfect art. There is not much to say about it. It was the right amount of wonder combined with beauty, serenity and happiness that made this moment a core memory for me.

Another such moment occurred atop the Great Wall. The Great Wall of China is a 1500 km long wall built to serve as a defense for erstwhile northern China. There are now sections of the Wall which have been protected/ partially restored. There are 3 such sections close to Beijing one can visit, the closest being about 1-1.5 hours away by train. This is called the Badaling Wall, which is the one we visited, because it is the most convenient to travel to. For travelers with a low tolerance to crowds, I would strongly suggest going elsewhere. After taking a 20 minute train ride, we walked for about 30 minutes to get to the entrance of the wall. Most people ditched the walk and chose to take a cable car right to the top. The walk was pleasant albeit very crowded (due to the New Year holidays). There were several stalls along the way, we picked up a cheesy corn pack to enjoy on top. There is a daily limit of 65000 visitors, and pre-booking entry tickets is highly recommended. The train station had looked more crowded than Dadar station at 6 pm on a weekday, so I was not optimistic. However, we got in! Now came the hard part. We had to climb up the Wall to get a good perspective. I was suffering from a horrid cold and was not prepared for the steep ascent via unevenly cut steps at an angle on a windy day (it was around 6 degrees Celsius). But then I saw people of all ages walking as if they were strolling in a garden. The young children who were unable to climb the steps would either use their hands or take a small break and then resume. Moreover, all of them were cheerful and having a good time. This motivated me. Soon I warmed up because of sweating and felt better. There were several towers in between these steps, which I believe were resting stations for soldiers. There were also holes in the wall which seemed like they were for cannons. The view from top afforded a look at the endless mountain range. It was magnificent but also scary. The wall was built on a sharp edge of the cliff. If one were to fall from there, survival seemed impossible. I found it hard to imagine the life of a soldier in the Qing dynasty having to run up and down this wall no matter snow or rain. My heart goes out to all soldiers who risk both their physical and mental well beings to keep us safe.

When we felt we could climb no more, we opened our cheese corn. I had nicked some tea bags and hot water earlier in the day, so we had 2 cups of steaming hot tea as well. Passersby were amused by our little picnic. Once done, I started feeling chilly again, and we decided it was time to leave. An exit option was to use an open rollercoaster which i wanted to try but was too cold for. We chose another walking path with a less steep descent. Along the way we found an uncommon stone which is also present in the Earth’s mantle! We realized we had spent too long inside and there was a chance we would miss the last bus of the day. Luckily, we ran and managed to catch it. The journey was smooth and beautiful, however i would suggest train over bus because it is cheaper and arrives at a more convenient location for further travel. I returned feeling content, having finally got to see my third Wonder of the World!

This concludes my first trip to China. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I very much liked the strong sense of cultural belonging, even if I could not partake in it. It felt quite similar to home, not very fancy to look at but having people with hearts of gold. I was treated like a celebrity wherever I went, being asked multiple times for a photo. I think there was a lot of curiosity about India, but it was hard for locals to communicate with us. Irrespective of that, they helped us as much as they could. Often we could not respond to the people who came to deliver groceries, but they never gave up or canceled our order, they were always smiling. The transport systems are very efficient, it seems to me that metros around the world have some similarity with the Beijing metro. Their systems are also very technologically advanced, with most tasks being accomplished by the click of a button. There is quite a bit of surveillance: checks are conducted at all metro stations and you need to provide identification (your face can be scanned if you are registered to the system) to enter any university. In some areas such as Forbidden City or Tiananmen Square and even railway stations, one needs to provide ID proof to simply enter. Theft rates are very low probably because of this system. I also did not see any homeless people or beggars. Most people seemed to have a decent standard of living. It also felt like people work very hard, even on New Years. I heard that Chinese companies just give 5 days of holiday apart from national holidays. What I really liked is that the wage gap between industry and academia is not so much. Academics are also treated with a lot of respect, most of them having generous funding. These are, of course, my opinions as an outsider who gets to see the bright side for a month. Certainly there are problems for expats, such as finding an inexpensive source of drinking water (tap water is not drinkable), or easy ways of communication. It is a completely different part of the world, and it can be quite exhausting to translate everything spoken or written before pushing a button on an app to even order grocery. I heard that a lot changed after Covid, and there is hope that things will get easier with time.

I did not complete everything on my list. I would like to see a KungFu and acrobatics show, the Peking Opera, Shaolin Temple, and a lot more. If I had done all of this now, what would I do next time? Until then, zaijian(goodbye)!