The first time I went to Beijing with my dad in 2002, we hit all the major sites (Forbidden City, Summer Palace, Temple of Heavens, Mings Tomb, The Great Wall, etc.) and had a driver/guide to hand hold us around the city. Then on short business trips back to Beijing over the next few years, I mostly end up shuttling between the hotel and office with arranged transportation. Thus, I never really had a chance to figure out how to navigate this immense city, or how to really get from one place to another on my own. Even after I started taking taxi, I was still mostly clueless on direction of where I am going.
Like in most places, driving or taking subways/buses & walking is the best way to learn about navigating around a place and figured out the layout of the roads. For Beijing, driving is not something I will do (at least for now), so finally on this trip, I started taking the subway to get around and across town for the first time. In some ways it is as much out of necessities as anything. This is really the first time I would be staying in Beijing for more than a few days, and except for that aforementioned first visit, I have had limited time and opportunity to venture out on my own very much.
The Beijing subway has grown quite a bit since my first visit back in 2002, when it consists of only two lines. I counted 7 lines covering what I would consider the core metro area (there are also a few more line extensions into the ‘suburbs’). The gap between each station can be quite large, such that it can be a fairly long walk from the subway station to where you want to go. The best part of the subway is that it costs only two Yuan (RMB) no matter where you go on the grid. (There were talks of changing the fares during rush hour because the subway is too crowded during that period. Would be interesting to see how the subway fare structure may change over time.) And subway often is the most efficient way to travel in Beijing’s notorious heavy traffic, especially across town during rush hours. When I tried to take a taxi to go from one side of town to another during my first day here on this trip, after driving a couple blocks the taxi driver suggests that it may be better and faster for me if he just dropped me off at a subway station rather than for him to drive across the town. More than any other places that I have been, Beijing taxi drivers can be very picky in terms of where they want to go.
It is also the only subway I have been to where they check the bags (X-ray) that people take onto trains. The general layout of the subway stations in Beijing is fairly good. Signage at the station could be better or better placed, particularly with regard to exits information when riders come off the train. And most of the transfer station requires long walks to make the connections. The subway train itself is adequate if not as well designed as those in Hong Kong (my opinion). The trains of each line seem to be different, not unlike those in London and Paris. And most of the trains don’t have doors that retract automatically so sticking your hand/body to try to squeeze in is not a good idea. Trust me, I tried it.
The other interesting point about the subway is that the ticket machine does not take the paper dollar. Beijing is one of the cities in China where the paper dollar is used more widely than the dollar coin, but the subway ticket machine only accepts the dollar coin and larger denomination of paper bills.
The more I walk around, the more I get to see the flow of people and cars. A few times I have stand at the traffic light while walking to the mall from the hotel. Even though people use the crosswalks to cross the main streets (for the most part), it was amazing the number of pedestrians just try to cross the streets regardless of traffic light status. For those of you who remembers the game “Frogger”, there were times, I feel like I was watching people enacting a real life version of the game as they cross the street.
In the years since my first visit in 2002, I have seen the build out of the outer rim of the city. I have seen more new shopping center/malls and high rise buildings built where once just simple row house and shops stood. Good or bad, there is an expansion of what I would call convenience chains, from the international ones (McDonalds, Papa Johns, KFCs, Yoshinoya, etc) to the comparable local chains. And the business in all those places seems to be quite good, filling up during both lunch and dinner time slots. (KFC and McDonalds makes deliveries in China.)
I imagine that all the structural changes I am seeing are also changing people’s lifestyle. By how much, I don’t know. On an early Sunday afternoon at the mall near the hotel, one image that I recall is a middle age man walking with his wife through the department store holding a McCafe cup. That is something that I probably wouldn’t have seen 8 years ago (not taking into account McCafe didn’t exist 8 years ago). Many of the old tradition and style is still strong here. But I can see that there is a move toward something “newer”, not necessary all western influenced changes, but people lifestyles are changing.
I recall returning early evening on the subway one day, across from where I was sitting, the row of young people were all staring into their mobile phone or portable games. And upon arrival on the station, they all got up and exited without taking their eyes off their devices. This would be a scene that I could be seeing in Hong Kong or Singapore. The pace of change is not ‘overnight’ in the absolute timescale per say. That is, people are moving from outhouse to the penthouse in a couple of years. But on a relative scale, the pace of change is quite fast when compared with the changes experience elsewhere. Whereas the changes in many other cities can be more ‘refined’ rather than dramatic, the changes in Beijing would be substantial. A visitor who last visited London or Paris in 1990 likely will still be able to navigate and recognize many of the same establishments. This would not be case for someone who had last visited Beijing in 1990. Aside from the main landmarks, the visitor likely would not have recognized most streets or buildings.
I have stayed mostly in the western part of the Beijing since my initial visit, and in my limited ventures outside of the area around my hotels, I have not seen too many international restaurants (not including McDonalds and KFC types). Most of the western fares (and particularly the high ends ones) are primarily located in the eastern part of the city where many of the expats tends to reside. But another area where a few more western favors have sprouted is around the area called WuDaokuo, where a number of colleges and universities (particularly language schools) are nearby. The area is filled with cafes, diners, small eateries of varying kinds in the few blocks of areas that we ventured out from the subway station. On a Sunday afternoon, the place has many people running about, especially the younger set, but the atmosphere is more relaxed than hectic.
We ate at a restaurant off the main street that with a 50’s American Diner theme. The pasta, salad and soup were decent, but the best dish we had was the Apple Pie. Also on the main street I found a small shack eatery touted by a local magazine as having one of the best hot dogs in Beijing. I tried one, and it was good if not quite reminiscent the ones I had off street vendors in Chicago or San Francisco. (Have to admit I never had tried one in New York.)
Other ‘new’ places I explored on this trip to Beijing:
- Yong He Gong – former residence of a Qing Dynasty prince prior ascending to the throne that transformed into a Buddhist temple. Outside the temple, the streets are lined with shops selling incense and related offering items. Inside the temple, there are a number of houses each with a distinct Buddhist deity. Toward the back is an active prayer room that the monks can use. And the temple also has a 30 meter tall Buddhist statue that is said to be the tallest Buddha made out of one piece of wood.
Next to the temple is an area where in the ancient times people came to the capital to take exams to get government positions. If you walk down this street from the temple, there is a Confucius temple and school. Sitting adjacent to this area is also an old hutong neighborhood that now has an eclectic mix of shops, cafes and restaurants. The area is being renovated when I visited, remodeling the structure while retaining the old façade look.
- Qianmen Street – Located just south of Tiananmen Square, a pedestrian shopping street that was renovated and reopened in 2009 with a façade that evoke the historical street’s appearance in the (late) Qing dynasty, when it was a key business street in the city. Today, it boasts both old/new Chinese brand stores and current international brand stores. The area also has a large number and types of restaurants and eateries in this area, including the main Quanjude Roast Duck restaurant, one of the renowned restaurant groups for Peking duck. And the area is still expanding, including an area focus on Taiwan’s goods and food that just ‘opened’ recently.