Lavender Gardens – Chaoyang District – Beijing & Bullet Train to Shenyang – Liaoning Province – PRC – September 2018

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beijing, Beijing Blues Lavender Manor, Bullet train, Chaoyang District, Lavender Gardens, Liaoning Province, prc, Shenyang

When is lavender not lavender!!!

Before heading to China last month I read about places around Beijing that had the top lavender gardens.  I love brightly coloured fields so took down the details of the one I thought was the best (Beijing Blues Lavender Manor) and arranged a driver to take us there a couple of days after arriving.  It took us over an hour from our Airbnb and it really was out the back of no-where; a downtrodden old street with huge construction over the road and on each side of the entry gates.

This is what the gardens looked like on the internet …be assured they looked absolutely nothing like this.We hesitated as we arrived at the front gate because we were greeted by these two ‘people’…mmm not a great start.But because we had driven so far we decided to pay our 20 RMB ($4 AUD) each to go inside as I really wanted to see the beautiful lavender fields.  We started walking around the paths and the first tree we see is one with fake orange leaves and cheap umbrellas around the trunk.  Second bad sign.And then we were welcomed by some unusual little rope people along the pathway but no lavender yet…Then…in the distance we see a small field of purple but it was not lavender; they were some sort of weed and as we walked alongside we saw a chair in the middle of the field – guess this is in case you get tired and need a rest? But the ‘lavender’ had grown over so we decided not to stop!!As can be seen, this small field looks absolutely nothing like the internet photos but to add to our amusement there were a few other ‘interesting’ garden ornaments.

A lovely swing with artificial flowers…An old stone carriage that was impossible to enter…An interesting structure which I said looked like an outdoor toilet complete with more artificial flowers but no toilet!And I have no idea why rope Sponge Bob Square Pants was there but he was as were some unusual signs.No more ‘lavender’ but a farewell from some more rope people. We haven’t laughed so much and spoke of this experience during the next four weeks travelling around China!  Our next stop was Liaoning Province over north/east China and we caught the fabulous bullet train from Beijing but it was Golden Week (national holidays) which meant all Chinese are on holidays.  Most of them at the train station…What a great experience travelling in business class with huge chairs, complimentary snacks, water, Chinese tea and slippers…And travelling at speeds of over 300km/h checking out the cities and rapeseed fields along the way.

 

 

Tian’anmen Square & the Forbidden City – Beijing – PRC – September 2018

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beijing, Chinese cuisine, Eggplant, Forbidden City, GuGong, Lavender Gardens, People's Republic of China, prc, Tian'anmen Square

A great way to start my return to China

I start off leaving from Canberra and arrive at Sydney Airport from Canberra for five weeks in the ‘Middle Kingdom’ and because this year [and last] I achieved Qantas Platinum Frequent Flyer Status I take my friend Jon and I into the First Class Lounge.  On our last occasion we saw a famous movie star so that was pretty cool and on previous occasions I really look forward to ordering scrambled eggs, hash browns and sourdough toast but since becoming a vegan, eggs are out so it was delicious sourdough, hash browns and avocado and…a glass of champagne!Before I leave for any overseas holiday, I do a lot of research about where I want to go and then type out a full itinerary which includes details of places to visit/who I will see/my driver [if there is one]/costs and accomodation details.  My friends who travel with me love it because all details are in one document and it might include a map and a link to the place we intend to visit.  However, I do always leave time for resting as that is just as important to me as sightseeing.  This time was no different…a complete itinerary.We arrive in Beijing nearing midnight and I had booked an Airbnb in Sanlitun [area that is know for the location of many embassies and lots of restaurants and bars].  Our accommodation was great and the weather was amazing the next day; skies were blue [surprisingly]…but so welcome as we had great views from our apartment.Our first day and evening we went for a walk around the local area and saw some great buildings; some I had not seen before in the two years since I had been to Beijing.Our second day, I had arranged a private driver, one I used when I lived in Beijing, to pick us up to take us to the Forbidden City.  Both Jon and I had been to there separately before, but I really wanted to go back and walk slowly through and see things I had not seen before.  It was worth it as we arrived early and our fabulous driver Mr Mike had already booked us tickets so there was no need to line up; just arrive show our passports and in we went and as can be seen from my photo so did thousands of other visitors.But before we arrived, cars are not allowed to stop on Chang ‘an Jie [street] alongside the Forbidden City or Tian’anmen Square so we parked some distance and after going through security screening (and seeing the long line of Chinese to visit the body of Chairman Mao at his Mausoleum) we entered Tian’anmen.

Looking across Chang’an towards the Forbidden City is the iconic painting of Chairman Mao and also the People’s Liberation Army guarding the Chinese national flag (the former paramilitary flag guards transferred to the PLA in January this year, having guarded the flag since 1982).So as I said, we entered the Forbidden City and walked about a couple of hours.  It is a former imperial palace; so impressive and really you could spend days there looking at the individual rooms containing jade, jewellery, wooden structures etc.  Or like me, just loving walking around the ancient buildings because it has such an incredible history having taken fourteen-years to complete by over fourteen-million workers and the fact ordinary people were not allowed to enter without permission! I love hearing the provincial Chinese talking when it is their first visit to such an amazing place they thought they would never access.And one of my favourite sites is the rooftops..Afterwards we enjoyed a delicious Chinese lunch of eggplant [of course], sautéed cauliflower, Chinese cabbage, a tofu dish [that didn’t look all that good but was absolutely delicious], string beans and mushrooms and duck pancakes for Jon.  And a bottle of New Zealand white wine brought by a dear Chinese friend.

What a great way to start a five week holiday in the Middle Kingdom…so until next time!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nine Dragon Screen & White Pagoda – Beihai Park – Beijing – PRC – July 2010

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Beihai Park, beijing, Nine Dragon Screen, PRC China, White Pagoda

 Two Large Structures in Beihai Park

One of Beiing’s largest public parks is Beihai (which means northern sea) and used to be an imperial garden.  It is now used by thousands of Chinese, expats and foreigners to stroll around, take boat rides or eat snacks from local vendors.

Beihai is also home to wonderfully ornate pavilions, canals, a large lake and several large structures.

 

One of the main structures is the White Pagoda which is a 40-metre high stupa, located on the highest point on Jade Flower Island and built to honour the visit of the 5th Dalai Lama in 1651.

Its body is made of white stone and there are sun, moon and flame engravings on the surface of the tower. It was destroyed in 1679 by an earthquake and rebuilt the following year, and restored again in 1976 because of the Tangshan earthquake near Beijing.

There are also beautiful buildings around the park with the usual large gorgeous Chinese lanterns.

A Five Dragon Pavilion which comprises five connected pavilions with spires and pointed upswept eaves and built in the Ming dynasty is also located within the park along the waters edge.

And to the south of the Five-Dragon Pavilion lies the Nine Dragon Wall.

It was built in 1402 and is one of three walls of its kind in China. I saw another one during my travels to Datong in Shangxi Province and also the third but cannot recall where I saw it.  This one is very similar to the one I saw in Datong, made of seven coloured glazed bricks with nine complete dragons playing in the clouds and these  decorate both sides of the wall.

Beihai is definitely worth a visit; it’s a wonderful day out, walking, riding or rowing, and even if you are not culturally minded, the colourful buildings and vibrant trees and shrubs around the park in summer and spring are just lovely.

Chinese New Year – Beijing – PRC – 2013

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beijing, Chinese New Year, Fireworks, prc

Fifteen days of fireworks and noise!!!

Chinese New Year also known as Spring Festival (春节 chun jie) is an annual event celebrated in the majority of countries around the world where a significant Chinese population lives.  In China, there are beautiful fireworks and noisy firecrackers every day and night of the fifteen day long festival coupled with smiling, happy Chinese.  Because it’s a period of national holiday [usually Chinese have seven consecutive days off from Chinese New Year’s Eve to the sixth day after Chinese New Year’s Day], it’s a time when Chinese can return to their families from major cities where they have been working.  It’s therefore not a time in China to take any form of public transport – and for those of you who read my post on Mt Shangfang National Park you will know I learnt my lesson one May Day public holiday!!

From my apartment window overlooking one of the main streets in Beijing, I had a great view of the local Chinese lighting fireworks on Chinese New Year’s Eve.  On this evening,  many people set off fireworks and firecrackers, hoping to cast away any bad luck and bring forth good luck. Then over the next fourteen days [and evenings], many many firecrackers are set off to continue the celebrations.

There is an interesting history on the firecracker; in ancient China bamboo stems were filled with gunpowder and burnt to create small explosions and these were used to drive away evil spirits. This method has now evolved into the use of firecrackers during the festive season where firecrackers are usually strung on a long fused string to be hung down and where each firecracker is rolled up in red papers with gunpowder in its core.

Once ignited, the firecracker lets out a loud [very loud] popping noise and, as they are usually strung together by the hundreds, they have deafening explosions that are thought to scare away evil spirits – loud enough to wake me up from a deep sleep anyway at 3am.

(source http://www.ibtimes.com)

Chinese New Year is truly a sight to behold and a lot of fun if you are out and about around Beijing watching the fireworks and watching all the happy Chinese laughing and celebrating this important Chinese festival, but I must say the continuing sound of the firecrackers all through out the night, every night.. can make for a very restless sleep.

(hundreds of boxes of fireworks are arranged in the middle of the street)

(first lighting of the fireworks)

(fireworks in all stages)

(and the end result; all cleaned up by daylight every day)

Up the road from my home was a huge truck that arrived every New Year full of fireworks and every year they were always sold out.  No matter where you are in Beijing, there would be the noise of firecrackers during the day and beautiful fireworks in the evenings.

 

Whilst it’s a very noisy time, it’s a time every year I really looked forward to – I loved to see the Chinese celebrating and lighting fireworks…plus because I did not travel within China during this period, Beijing was very quiet and streets were pretty empty with all the migrant workers returning home to their loved ones – so it became a time to get around very easily without much traffic.

Ritan Park – Beijing – PRC – April 2016

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beijing, prc, Ritan Park

A walk through one of Beijing’s lovely parks

Ritan Park [the Temple of the Sun] is located in Chaoyang District, about a forty-five minute walk from my apartment block.  One day on the way to lunch my friend and I decided to take a walk through the park as it was such a lovely day.  We saw an entrance fee of 1 RMB (about 20 cents AUD) but for some reason we were allowed to enter without a fee.

The park covers an area of 206,200 square metres, but we only walked the distance from the front gate to the back.  Along the way we saw the royal shrine which was built in 1530 and used by Ming and Qing Emperors to make sacrifices to the sun.

The park is really lovely and another one of Beijing’s parks where you can see the elderly Chinese practising t’ai chi, playing Mahjong or walking around the ponds with their grandchildren; flying kites.  We were lucky to be able to see the blossoms on the many trees within the park; such a lovely sight.

There is a wonderful Chinese restaurant in the park which I have eaten at a couple of times before with a rooftop area to sit and overlook the park.  There is also a cafe called the ‘Stone Boat Café’ where you can sit either inside or out, overlooking the water; enjoying a cup of Chinese tea and some Chinese snacks.

My friend and I strolled throughout the park speaking to the local Chinese, taking photographs, looking at the flowers and trees and generally just enjoyed a spring day in Beijing.

A lovely hour or so and well worth the time when in Beijing.

Dongcheng District – Beijing – PRC – 2011-2014

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beijing, Dongcheng District, dongzhimenwai Xiao Jie, PRC China

Dongcheng District in Beijing – My Home For Three Years

Between 2011 and 2014 I lived in Dongcheng District 东城区whilst working at the Australian Embassy in Beijing.  So I thought I would post some photos I had taken during the different seasons over those three years and in particular for my dad who, unfortunately never made it to China and would love to see where I lived.

I lived in a fabulous building about a four minute walk from the embassy and every morning I would walk over a lovely stone bridge to get to work; regularly seeing lao Beijingren (elderly Chinese) performing their morning stretching.

I had all different sorts of views from my lounge room windows which included local buildings, a canal and a children’s play area as well as the lovely garden and BBQ area for use by the occupants of the building.  As you can see the views were different in summer and winter especially after a snow fall.

The canal was especially pretty to walk along in summer as there was always the local Chinese men fishing and walking their dogs as well as swinging small birds in their bamboo cages.

Dongcheng covers the eastern half of Beijing’s core.  It’s about forty km2 and subdivided into seventeen sub-districts which includes all the old city inside the 2nd Ring Road.  There are currently six Ring Roads in Beijing with the 6th being an expressway which runs around the city and approximately 220 kilometres long.

(source: http://www.wildgreatwall.com)

Dongcheng includes many cultural attractions including Tian’anmen Square, the Forbidden City and Temple of Heaven amongst many others. But what I really loved about living in Dongcheng is that one minute you are walking in a concrete jungle and next you are looking at beautiful old buildings, trees and ponds.

There were also the many stray cats I fed over my time and many bicycles parked on the side of the pathway, whilst their owners popped into local restaurants for a quick meal.

And at night the sights are very different to those seen during the day.

And of course if you don’t want to walk or cycle you can always take one of the little silver carts that are available around the district…they are not supposed to go onto the main roads but do or usually take the back streets…always good to set your price before you get in otherwise the drivers usually charge way too much (I know this from experience but did need to get home one night so I guess 50 RMB [around $10 AUD] was worth it).

So, this was where I lived for three years and really loved it in all seasons [although my least favourite season is summer – it’s just too hot].  I much prefer the cooler seasons!

 

 

 

Rosewood Hotel – Beijing – PRC – April 2016

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beijing, Chinese food, cocktails, prc, Rosewood Hotel

Cocktails and Dinner at Beijing’s Newest Hotel

On my last evening in China, I wanted to do something special, so my friends and I went for dinner at Beijing’s newest hotel, The Rosewood.

We arrived at the hotel for a cocktail or two before our dinner.  There was a VIP staying at the hotel so we had to go through a thorough security check before entering.  We asked who the VIP was and were told that the person was the head of a European country that makes delicious chocolate.  Of course that was easy to work out – the Swiss Prime Minister was in town and the next day it was confirmed when we saw the Swiss flag flying outside Tian’anmen Square and the Forbidden City along Chang ‘An Street. The Chinese always display a visiting countries’ flag during high-level official visits.

But back to the hotel…we caught the lift up to a beautiful bar area and my three friends ordered cocktails and I ordered my usual white wine and we sat in some comfortable chairs talking about our recent trips around China.

There were nice views of the city also; but unfortunately with the usual smog.

We had a couple of drinks in the bar area then made our way to ‘Red Bowl’ which is the Chinese restaurant my friend Nic told me about as she had previously been there and said the food was very good.  We walked through the hotel and arrived at Red Bowl to see a wonderful display of Chinese red bowls hanging from the wall.  Very striking!

We sat down at our reserved table and Nic had a strange look on her face and said that she didn’t remember the restaurant looking the way it did.  This was actually a ‘hot pot’ restaurant with red bowls already on the table for our food (hence the name ‘Red Bowl’) and communal hot pots for cooking food.

Well as it turns out the Redwood Hotel has a few restaurants and this was not the one Nic wanted us to eat at…so as none of us really felt like hot pot, we left, after making a reservation at the other restaurant within the hotel.  As we had over an hour until we could eat, we returned to the bar, again going through a full security check.  There was a live band playing and we enjoyed singing along to some of the older songs, eating snacks and drinking a couple more cocktails.  I know if we let him, my friend Jon would have stayed at the bar all night; singing and drinking then of course probably dancing (badly).

I must say it was worth the wait as when we finally arrived at the restaurant called ‘The Country Kitchen’ it had a lovely ambience with an open kitchen and a wood-roasting oven.   Noodles are hand cut, pulled, knife-cut or rolled under the direction of the resident noodle master.

(above photograph sourced from: http://www.beijinger.com)

The décor featured granite, wood and soft red tones.  There was also terracotta and oil paintings which were displayed to resemble an old Chinese village restaurant.  There are no fancy water glasses here, only copper mugs and earthenware dishes and woven napkins; all adding to that lovely country feel.

The menu presented us with an array of Northern Chinese specialties and in particular lots of chilli not only in our ordered dishes but also whole chillies in huge bowls and chilli oil on the table.  And the great thing about this restaurant (and the hotel) is that the chef’s work with local farmers to source the freshest and homegrown ingredients; all this for making delicious tasting dishes.

We ordered a couple of dishes to share and as always I ordered a spicy braised eggplant dish which was pretty hot but really delicious.

My friends ordered a kung pao chicken dish and a beef dish; we also ordered the stir fried green beans with chilli – another of my favourite dishes.  Unfortunately I forgot to take photographs until we all had eaten some of the food – we were too hungry and the dishes too delicious.

After a great night with lovely friends, we all departed so that I could get a good night’s sleep before our flight back to Australia the next day.

Buddhist Restaurant – Ghost Street – Beijing – PRC – April 2016

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beijing, Buddhist Restaurant, Ghost Street, Gui Jie, prc, vegetarian restaurant

Dinner with a friend at a new vegetarian restaurant in Beijing

My friend Nicola and I had ridden around Beijing one day and whilst riding home we rode along Gui Jie (Ghost Street) and saw a new vegetarian restaurant.  When I previously lived in Beijing, the restaurant location used to be a Chinese tea house so we thought we would try it out. Ghost Street has more than 150 storefronts with 90% being restaurants so this makes it one of the most prosperous food streets in Beijing.

The layout of the street is like a dumbbell, wider in the two ends and narrower in the middle and during the evenings a sea of red lanterns hang over the street, which makes it really pretty to walk along.

So, one evening we took a cab to this new restaurant with a bottle of wine to enjoy with our meal.  We arrived and were seated and immediately asked for two wine glasses and showed our waitress the wine we had brought.  Our wine was taken from us and surprisingly, the waitress looked at it intensely then gave it to the chef behind us who commenced reading the back of the bottle.  Finally our bottle was returned to us and we were told we could not drink it.

We laughed at first as we thought perhaps the wine was not good enough (but it was a nice New Zealand white!!) so then asked could we buy some wine.  All this took about fifteen minutes and bearing in mind my friend and I can speak a little Chinese.  We were shown the drink menu and saw bottles of wine…but then finally worked out this was a Buddhist restaurant (and the wine on the menu was non-alcoholic) and therefore, of course, BYO alcohol is not permitted.  All throughout the waitresses were extremely helpful and sweet and were trying their best with the limited English they had so we all did enjoy a lot of laughter trying to communicate.

Finally we got around to ordering our food.  The menu was on an iPad; we ordered quite a few dishes; too many as always!!  We first ate a lovely taro root vegetable dish and Chinese pancakes with a Chinese vinegar dipping sauce – very tasty!

Then came a fabulous potato dish; very spicy but truly delicious.  Most of the dishes arrived with lovely little flowers on the side…very cute!!

We then ate an amazing egg and capsicum dish.  The egg was thick a bit like pieces of omelette and covered in a wonderful spicy sauce.

Then came the dumplings; all twenty-one of them…we ate ONE…as we were just too full.

We asked to ‘da bao’ (take-away) a couple of dishes and took the dumplings and Chinese pancakes away and as they were still warm we gave them to a homeless lady near the restaurant…I hope she enjoyed them.  We walked home along Ghost Street and enjoyed the sights of the lit lanterns and when we got to my friend’s home the first thing we did was to enjoy our bottle of wine!!

 

 

Bicycle ride along Beijing’s Hutongs – Beijing – PRC – April 2016

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beijing, bicycle ride, Mr Shi's dumpling restaurant, prc

An afternoon of bike riding around Beijing’s Hutongs

Whilst in Beijing, I stayed a week with my New Zealand friend Nicola and one day I borrowed her husband’s bicycle and together we rode about forty-minutes down to the Hutong area.

Hutongs are a type of narrow street or alley, commonly associated with northern Chinese cities, most prominently Beijing and they are a wonderful maze of shops, restaurants and courtyard homes and a fabulous way to see the ‘real’ Beijing.

I hadn’t been on a bike for years and whilst it wasn’t difficult it was a bit hard on the backside!!  And the Beijing traffic…wow!!!  It’s concentration all the time…but funnily enough cars are very courteous to us bike riders.  And as always owners of their vehicles put blocks against their wheels to stop dogs weeing on the tyres!!

It was lovely to see this part of Beijing; being able to take in the sights properly especially the wonderful doorways along the Hutongs.

We stopped off at Mr Shi’s dumpling restaurant which is renowned amongst the foreigners in Beijing…so many choices of vegetarian dumplings – lucky for me!!

Mr Shi is an actual person and is often seen in his restaurant with his six-year old boy, but unfortunately not on the occasion I visited.  My friend Nic was happy to just order vegetarian on this occasion so we ordered the cabbage, carrot and shitake mushroom, the egg, corn and chinese chives and the egg, tomato and eggplant dumplings…extremely good, two lots we ordered boiled and one lot pan fried – delicious!!

Outside the restaurant we had a lovely view of the Hutong and the people strolling past including lao Beijingren (old Beijing people) who were on the way to the communal bathroom still wearing their pyjamas.  Or others just sitting around wasting the day away chatting/playing cards or relaxing.

After lunch, we hopped back onto our bikes and rode to Lake Ho Hai.

I have been there in the middle of winter and walked on the ice; this day it was very lovely with beautiful blue skies (a rarity really in Beijing) and people enjoying themselves on small boats on the lake.

It was also a beautiful time of the year to see the blossoms blooming along the lake.

My friend Nic had also told me about a residence of the wife of Dr Sun Yat-sen.  It is located at Lake Ho Hai so we hopped off our bikes and paid 20 RMB each (abut $4 AUD) to walk around  the residence and the beautiful grounds.

It was a really interesting place to visit with a wonderful museum telling us everything about the life of Dr Sun Yat-sen but more about his wife as it was actually ‘her’ former residence.  Dr Sun Yat-sen was a medical practitioner and the first president and founding father of the Republic of China.  He married Soong Ching Ling who was born in Singapore and educated in the United States as a teenager where its democratic system had a great influence on her.

Soong Ching Ling was deeply concerned about the welfare of the Chinese people and once she finished her studies in the USA, she returned to China and dedicated her life to the quest for equality and freedom for China. It seems she was loved by all and played a very important role in the history of China.

After this, feeling a bit tired, we hopped back on our bikes and rode home; this time along the main streets (bit scary!!).

Aman Resort – Summer Palace – Beijing – PRC – April 2016

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Aman Resort, beijing, High Tea, prc, Summer Palace

High Tea at the fabulous resort within the Summer Palace complex

Whilst in Beijing recently and staying with some New Zealand friends, I asked them to visit a resort I had read about near the East Gate of the Summer Palace.

We drove to the resort and intended only to take a look inside and leave but after we sat in a lovely little courtyard with Chinese umbrellas hanging from the trees.  At this time we saw a family eating a huge tray of cakes, scones and little sandwiches, so we decided to stay and order our own.

This courtyard was lovely but after we ordered our High Tea, I took a little  walk around and found a round stone table with four little stone stools in a wonderful spot overlooking a beautiful lake.  We moved there!

The resort is like travelling back in time to the land of the Empress, but with the amenities and services of modern times.

The High Tea arrived in a fabulous three storey tray and then we had a pot of Jasmine tea to accompany the food.  The little sandwiches were  lovely with one vegetarian containing tomato bread with grilled vegetables.  Then I tried a scone with jam and fresh cream – lovely then a few of the little cakes – delicious too. My friends said the meat and fish sandwiches were really nice and one was a mini burger which looked too cute.

 

Around the lake, there are pathways and gardens and the resort guest rooms were not available to look at but they look fabulous on the internet although quite expensive.  The rooms were previously used by guests awaiting an audience with the Empress, Dowager Cixi who used to go to the Summer Palace in the warmer weather to enjoy the lake and cooler surrounds.  I was really pleased I made the effort to visit the resort as it was very beautiful.