The Clan's China Adventure, Episode 30: Missions to the Celestial Capital

Readers well-versed in the history of the Orient will immediately recognize the title's reference is to none other than Beijing, arguably the greatest and most famous of China's so-called "Tier 1" cities (its primary competition, of course, being our beloved Shanghai). Shanghai is certainly the more stylish of the two, with its stunning skyline and river view, but it is hard to make an argument against the sheer historical and cultural Goliath that is Beijing, in spite of its somewhat bland (and very Communist-looking) architecture.

Typical modern Beijing building. Grandiose but somewhat bland. Masks are much more commonly needed up here in the North...

SOHO always has interesting buildings

Very "Communist looking"

After having been living in China for over two years, I finally had several opportunities to visit the Celestial Capital for the first time in 13 years (my previous last visit was in 2004)!

As with everything else in modern China, things have moved quickly, here in Beijing as well. One of the first interesting things I noticed, which might be different from days past, is the abundance of Hyundai model taxicabs. Using my powers of deduction, I was able to correctly determine that Beijing has a Hyundai plant, much like Shanghai has a Volkswagen plant that feeds most of its taxi fleets.

But beyond these mundane observations, the biggest overall changes are freshening up of some old streets, and of course the giant 2008 Olympics grounds:

The revamped pedestrian street at Nanmen

Drum tower? I think?

No post about Beijing would be complete without Peking Duck!

Yes, that is duck. The whole plate is of course edible.

The "Bird's Nest" Stadium

The "Water Cube"

Back in the old days of Grant's China Travel, I hit mostly the well-known spots in and about Beijing like the Forbidden City and the Great Wall. But in my more recent travels, I've tried to find obscure, out-of-the-way attractions. One very cool attraction introduced to me by my friend Bill was the China Aviation Museum, tucked away in a cave dug into 小汤山 (xiaotangshan, or Little Soup Mountain), to the north of the city. This gem is straight out of a 1960s cold war movie scene - a hidden aircraft hangar stocked with first generation fighter jets and WWII era bombers and weapons. What made our particular visit even more entertaining was the group of Russian military officials that decided to tour the museum on the same day!

A trip to Beijing is never complete without seeing various live critters on kabobs:

Of course, you can't really go to Beijing several times and NOT see the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, and the Summer Palace:

Just one of the huge plazas in the Forbidden City

Striking a pose at the Temple of Heaven

The huge man-made lake from Empress Dowager Cixi's Qing Dynasty Summer Palace

The Summer Palace's rendering of the water towns of southeastern China (like Suzhou and Wuxi)

Water lilies at Beihai Park

Getting to and from Beijing is also much easier than it used to be. Back in the day you had to take a 15+ hour train ride, with or without seats. These days, you can get there in just 6 hours by high speed rail, or if you want, you can get a pretty comfy sleeper car that will get you there in about 12. We decided to do that for the kiddos this past Chinese New Year:

 One big surprise about travelling to Beijing over Chinese New Year was how few tourists there were, and how little pollution there was! The city itself tends to empty and most factories are given the week off, making the air quality pretty great. The Great Wall at Mutianyu was spectacular!

Look at that blue!

I love this toboggan ride, only available at Mutianyu!

 We also made it a point to visit somewhere I'd never visited before - the Old Summer Palace. This palace was destroyed around the time of the Opium Wars when the Europeans and Americans discovered that the Qing Empire could not defend itself. The ruins there are pretty awe inspiring, and it's easy to see how grand they once were. But, for the kids, the most fun was being able to stand on the frozen water in the many ponds and creeks on the grounds!

First exposure to frozen ponds!

I would have never believed that this was Beijing...

A maze in the garden

Some of the once spectacular and still awe-inspiring ruins

After having been in China for three years, I do have to concede that Beijing definitely trumps Shanghai when it comes to basking in thousand-year-old Imperial Chinese culture and history! It took me THREE visits to the city to collect all the photos in this post!