Beijing Again

By my last day in Beijing I was feeling like a bit of a pro… and I must have looked like one too as two separate groups of tourists stopped me to ask for directions… and both times I was able to help them! 

I’d been getting the metro all over the city. It really was easy and efficient and only ~20p a ride, no matter how far you went! My first stop that day was the Lama Temple – the most renowned Tibetan Buddhist temple outside of Tibet. It is an active place of worship and was crowded with locals, burning incense and prostrating themselves. It was a beautiful and peaceful place and reminded me very much of Bhutan, with its prayer wheels, prayer flags, etc.

Worshipping at the Lama Temple

One of the inner temples

People laid flowers and incense before the Buddha

Next I had a wander through the hutongs in that area and found some more trendy little shops and cafés, dotted between people’s washing hanging over the street and a man cycling around pulling a cart of eggs for sale – I enjoy seeing the contrasts of life here! I stopped for lunch in one of the cafés and had to smile to myself as it was all Western food, but full of young Chinese hipsters determinedly struggling to eat pizza with a knife and fork. I guess Western food is as “in” here as Asian food is in London!

In the hutong around the Lama Temple

In the afternoon I visited the Summer Palace, in the North-West of the city. This collection of lakes, gardens and palatial buildings served as a summer retreat for the imperial court. 

Outlook over North-West Beijing, from the top of the Summer Palace

Part of the Summer Palace

Beside the Kunming Lake

It was very beautiful, but there were a LOT of steps, which put my aching legs (post Great Wall hike) to the test! There was a beautiful lake where I watched the sunset with a (hideously overpriced but much-needed) cup of tea.

Sunset over the lake

I then whiled away a couple of hours in a bar and restaurant on the trendy Nanluogu Xiang as I had a sleeper train to catch at midnight.

The train was an adventure in itself. This time I was better prepared for the lack of English communication and had “please take me to the train station” (for the taxi driver) and “I need to pick up a ticket and here is my booking reference” (for the station clerk) written out in Chinese so the process went pretty smoothly and soon I was shuffling along with hundreds of other people, trying to board the train. 

Now, I’ve taken sleeper trains before in India and Vietnam and generally prefer the top bunk, so was pleased to see that’s what I’d been allocated. That’s until I boarded the train and saw how close to the ceiling it was! It was almost laughable really – I couldn't sit upright once I was up there and it was pretty high up (they were 3 bunks high, whereas I'm used to 2!). In the carriage there were about 20 rows of 3 bunks, and no doors or other partitions so it was essentially open plan and there was quite a hubbub! Still, after the night buses in Myanmar it felt like a luxury just to be able to lie flat, so it was headphones in, eye mask on, duvet up and I was out like a light and slept almost right through until 7am.

Looking down from my top bunk...

I was woken by the inimitable whiff of pot noodle (or the Chinese equivalent), which all the locals had brought on for their brekkie and were enthusiastically tucking into at 7am! Shortly afterwards, we arrived into Pingyao.