Beijing by day

My first thought about Beijing, when we left the train station was "This is not a place where someone gets lonely". I had never seen such a busy place. Lots of people going in every direction... It was crazy!... For a moment I asked myself if I could do 4 days of this, but there was no need. The city ended up being much more organized and not as crowded as I expected. Of course there were a few exceptions, and here I will show you some of them.

For the few that had been here before, the city has been losing a lot of its charm. The old neighborhoods, built over narrow alleys, called hutongs, have been destroyed to make place for the new western huge avenues with modern buildings and shoppings malls. Fortunally there are still of few around and just on the first day we ran into one by chance (I love when this happens).

First thing that struck me was that the atmosphere here was completely different! If the other street where we had been walking could belong to most of the cities I've been to, this was different... this felt... unique and vibrant! There is a lot of food for sale mixed with all kinds of shops. Some guys had no shirt on, the narrow alley was full, of people, of smells, colours... it was a feast for the senses. Finally I felt like I was in China! :)

I've walked through hutongs later on, mostly at night, and even got a bit tipsy on one! :P At night time, things are a bit different. 

There is a lot of food in the hutongs. Fruit...

Cold meat...

Meat at "room" temperature...

Yet to be meat...

All kinds of nuts

All kinds of eggs

Candied fruit

Some meat skewers... and much more!

There were no other clothes around, just these two manequins with winter coats on a very warm day (around 25ºC)

Another mandatory place in Beijing is the Forbidden City. At first I was not very curious and actually, didn't know exactly what to expect, so my expectations were imensly overcome. We had to wake up at 7am to be there when it opened (at 8h30am) to fleed the masses and because Natalie had an airplane to catch!
Even at this hour the amount of people was overwhelming (the name "Forbidden" becomes a bit out of place when you see so many people in the "city"). Being the last day of a big Chinese holiday didn't help at all, either. So we had to share the experience with thousands of other tourists, which was actaully okay, because the Forbidden City is so big, that you can even find yourself alone a few times in the smaller squares!

Of course, a picture of Mao at the entrance!

The hordes of people walking towards the center of the (not so) Forbidden City

The hordes of people walking towards the center of the (not so) Forbidden City - part2

This dragon statues were in almost every roof

The city is so big that you welcome one of these from time to time

One of the doors between one Holliness Serenity Square to the other (the names were all like this)

Sometimes you need some help to carry on

On our way out

This was taken on the next day. The forbidden city under the smog of a monday morning.

And here is the proof that I was there :p

But because Beijing is much more than this, I leave you here with a few other images of it.

This doesn't happen only in India

Music is fashion

It's very common to see people dancing or doing Tai-chi in the gardens. The two women facing the camera were doing just that

Everyone wanted to see/take a picture of what the others were seeing/taking pictures of

On the other side, the crowd. In the Temple of Heaven

And when you have to go,you have to go! Yes, the kid was peeing, not even aiming to the flowers! I've even seen a kid on top of a garbage can in the metro peeing inside of it!

And that is why they have these pants... with a hole from back to front! This way is easier... way easier!

On Tianmen Square we could see kids having fun...

...kids being patriotic...

...adults working/having fun...

...and adults being patriotic.

Signs of Portugal. Don't get too excited, they tasted like srambled eggs! :(

Arty cafe in district 798

Just around the forbidden city

We tried to go here, but apparently the Beijing Underground City has closed... for a while!

We found a park and in this small corner there were several people all playing cards and drinking tea! It was cool!

Sometimes you get lonely, even in Beijing

Wrong match!

Beijing by night

I like to take photos, and even if I get hugely disappointed with most of my pictures, there are a few that I think are okay. In Beijing, some of those pictures were taken at night time. This city has a special kind of light that comes from the street food carts, or public illumination. And even if I can't share the mosts scenic images I've seen at night time (I didn't have my camera with me! :/), I leave you some of those okay images here.

A random street in Beijing

The same corner, another fruit truck

Just besides cafes and fancy shops you could find this kind of street food vendors 

The art district 798. This picture is not crooked, it's just artsy

Street lamps sometimes had this cool effects

Souvenirs or sweet potato? The choice was clear

A detail of the nest. Again, not crooked, artsy

On the olympic park

The Silk Market

Theoretically, China is a comunist country. In practice, I don't recall seeing a city with so many shopping malls and all kind of stores like here in Beijing (ok, now they may have a real reason to block my blog in China! :p).  And the pinnacle of this less comunist part of the country may be found on this specific place, touristic, yes, but very Chinese as well. The Silk Street aka as the Silk Market!

One of the main entrances of the Silk Market. Opened almost 12h a day

It doesn't look like a market at all like I expected, but more like a large scale small town shopping center with no chain stores whatsoever.You can find plenty of things here (but not everything) from souvenirs, to watches, to suitcases, to clothing... to a lot of clothing...

The inside... the red lanterns are everywhere!

The true experience starts when you first enter a store and show some interest on something. There is always someone around to help you and tell you the price Price tags here are secondary, they count for very little. To tell you the price they get a calculator and type the numbers (tactic also used everywhere else on this trip, by the way). When they present you the value they're asking you stop for a moment to do the conversion to your own currency(in our case divide by 7) and then get shocked because the price is way higher than what you expected. Everyone told you this is the place where you can find the best bargains and that's just too expensive... and then you remember... you have to haggle, and haggle hard!
In the beginning I was a bit shy but after I got my first "You are tough (at negotiating)" I got cocky and sometimes I just felt like haggling for the haggling itself. It was fun, almost like a game. But if you won you had to take the "award" home.
But how were these negotiations?
First, we could never show that we really want something or getting the price to a good value won't be as easy.
Second, every time said/showed the price I would let go a sound of disbelief/absurd which they understood perfectly.
Then they asked "How much for you?". Here my strategy was not always the best. Most of the times I would calculate the price I was willing to give and say that one from the beginning and stick to it until the end. It worked a lot of times, but maybe I could have gotten those things even cheaper... Now I won't know.
Most of the times the way we (me and Isa) settled the deal after walking away. The vendors would then shout decreasing values until they agreed with our price. We were even chased through the corridors by some of them.
There were times where we know we could have done better deals (like when the vendor knew Portuguese!!) but we made a few good deals. Maybe too many good deals... maybe we got carried away at some poit... just a little... just enough for Isa ended up buying a suitcase to put all the extra gifts/souvenirs of the trip. :p

But even when we decided it was enough, the hassling continued. We were walking away from the Silk Market when one lady tried to sell us wallets. She chased us (maily Isa that had shown some curiosity, bad mistake) across the street and while we were crossing it and even while we were trying to get into a restaurant. I guess she also understood a bit of Portuguese (like the girl in the shop) because she went away a little after I told her: "Oh minha senhora, deixe-nos lá que nós queremos ir comer!" Something like: "Lady, please let us go, all we want is to have dinner" (it sounds better in Portuguese).

Trying to fleed the lady

At the end Isa was desperate, just asking the lady to let her go!

And finally we could stop our shopping frenzy and eat! :)