Bob's photo travels: Beijing and the Forbidden City

I usually don't say much but this day was worth writing about. I took over 400 pictures and I have tried to pick the most representative ones. If you are interested in seeing more let me know. The story of my day begins below.

Morning sunrise coming into Xingang

The port of Xingang is absolutely huge. This picture shows only about 10%.

Outside TianJin Station

Bullet trains in TianJin Station

View of Beijing on Bullet Train

My train getting cleaned at Beijing South Station

We docked at Xingang which is about 100 miles from Beijing. Got my passport and left the ship at 8:30 trying to make the high speed train in TianJin that was leaving at 9:24. Found a taxi driver who would take me for 200 Yuan (Chinese dollar aprox. 6 yuan = $1 US) and I said it was too much. He found another driver that would take me for 100 and so I got in and off we went. We did not arrive at the station until 9:30 and I gave the driver my 100 and he got angry. I left paying him the 100 and went into the station to discover that there was no English at the ticket counters to figure out how to get to TienJin to get the high-speed train to Beijing. Saw what looked like an information booth and the woman there spoke a little English and told me to go buy a ticket for the train leaving at 10:15. Got the ticket after standing in line at what I thought was the proper ticket booth cause I saw another Caucasian in that line. Got my ticket and waited for them to call the train. I was off on my adventure! The train arrived in TienJin at around 11:00 and after wandering around figured out where to get my ticket to Beijing. The train station was huge. You buy your ticket outside in one place and then go through security to get into the station. My train was leaving in 15 minutes so I got to the gate. Thankfully at this station there were English names and descriptions along with the Chinese so I was able to figure it out. When I got down to the track I was excited to see that I was going to get on a bullet high speed train! I went to the first car where the engineer is and was the only person on the car except for 2 people that were VIPs that were sitting fight behind the engineer in what looked to be a 1^st class section of 8 leather seats. We got under way with announcements in Chinese and English. The train got up to 285 Km an hour and we arrived at South Beijing Railroad station in about ½ hour. I still had to take the metro to the Forbidden City which was fairly easy. The automated ticket machines had a button for English and with the help of a friendly person I got my metro ticket and went down deeper to the metro. I had to go 4 stops and got out in what was a nice park surrounded by government building on 1 side and lots of shopping malls on the other. I thought I would be able to see the Forbidden City or Tiananmen Square but I could not and had no idea which way to go. I asked a security guard and he pointed me in the right direction and I started to walk. I was low on Chinese money and I thought I should change my money at the first bank I came to. The process of changing money at the bank was a long process because they have to fill out many forms, take my passport information etc. This takes about 20 minutes. I continued to walk and saw a wall on my left that seemed to go on forever and it was pink. I knew I was on the right track and after walking another 1/4 mile came upon a gate guarded by soldiers as well as young men in suits. I thought the Forbidden City was closed! Well the wall kept going and what else did I have to do. I should be able to find Tiananmen Square. At this point the map I had was so poor (provided by Holland America) that I didn’t know where I was in relationship to the Forbidden City. Was I on the North side? South?....No idea and still could not figure out where Tiananmen Square was. Well another 15 minute walk following the wall and I had arrived at Mao’s tomb and the entrance to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square was on my right. It was very crowded with thousands of people. I was approached by 2 girls that wanted to accompany me through the Forbidden City (FBC) and practice their English. I said no and got in the line to go over the moat and into the FBC. Unbeliveable! The first area as you enter is free and open to the public. Though another gate and I get to what I was familiar with. The actual outside of the Forbidden City is where you buy tickets to get in. Stood in line for about 15 minutes and then after refusing 4-5 requests from people to be my guide, entered the FBC. The size and beauty was breathtaking! I spent about 2 hours walking through and taking many pictures. When I got to the other side, I thought about taking a taxi back to the Train Station but it was only 4 and the high-speed train all the way to TianJin left at 6:50 so I had some time to wander and I had not eaten all day so off I went in the direction that I came from only this time I was at the South end of the FBC. I walked through many neighborhoods and when I could go no further East because the road came to a T I turned left and continued to walk. As it later turned out I had turned left at the proper time and after walking many blocks, being undecided about where to eat here I was back where I started my journey. I found a hole in the wall place, made pantomime gestures that I wanted chicken and paid 40 Yuan for a beer, rice and 2 chicken feet with green pepper, potato, and a lot of chicken bones with a little meat on them that required me to put the piece in my mouth and spit out the bones. It was very salty and I didn’t even take a picture of it. I did take a picture of the young staff as they gathered outside for their nightly meeting. I went back to the metro station which was unbelievable crowded with young people all going back home. It was about 5:30 and I figured I would go back to the Beijing South Station and take a look around before catching the train at 6:50. After the most crowded subway ride of my life I arrived at the train station and thought I should get my ticket first and then look around. When I got my ticket I thought the attendant had made a mistake and given me a ticket for the train that had already left. It said 17:57 and I thought it was past 6. I looked at my watch and it was 5:40……How did that happen? Time Travel? I still had time to go outside and take a couple of pictures and then get to my bullet train that went 289km and hour back to TianJin in 1 hour and arrived at the station a little before 7. It was dark and I had to pee so I went inside the station, took care of business and went to find a taxi. No one could understand where I wanted to go! No one spoke English! I went back to the station to find someone who spoke English and could not find anyone. I was starting to panic because I only had 230 Yuan left and that probably was not enough for a hotel and how would I pay for a taxi in the morning? I approached some more taxi drivers and a crowd started to gather. The taxi driver called a friend who spoke a little English but I was not really getting through to him. By this time a young woman took over. She spoke hesitant English and started to question me about where I wanted to go. I said the cruise ship terminal. She said there were many cruise ship terminals, which one did I want to go to? There were many interchanges with people in the crowd about where I wanted to go all of which I could not understand. After much discussion I said I it takes about 40 minutes to get there….this was the key information that she needed as there was only one cruise ship terminal 40 minutes away. She told the driver and now there was the price! I said I paid 100 Yuan to get to the station in the morning and she said it was too cheap and no one would do it for less than 300 because that was during the day and now it was dark. I said I would be happy to pay 200 and everyone, I mean everyone agreed it was a good compromise and I shook the woman’s hand thanked her, everyone in the crowd and got in the taxi. The adventure was not over. The taxi driver was going to the cruise terminal completely differently from the way a came in the morning and when we passed the TianJin Sheraton I thought he was going completely the wrong way. I could not communicate this to him and sat there worrying and trying to figure out what I was going to do. I thought about stopping at the next big hotel and getting them to help me but then I saw something I remembered from the morning drive. We kept going and we got to an area with lots of shipping containers and the driver stopped and was obviously lost. I used had signals to try to communicate that it was a long straight road. We turned around and he went a few yards…stopped went a few more yards until we came to an intersection. He turned left and there was a big sign with a picture of the cruise terminal with an arrow pointing left. I pointed to it and said yes and clapped my hands. We were going to make it. It was still another 15 minutes with a few pauses and we had arrived!!!!!! I thanked him and gave him all my money $230 and I was back at the ship at 8:30. I got some more to eat and found out the internet was still down on the ship. I was supposed to contact diane at 11 so I took my computer into the terminal that had free wi-fi and tried to get on. The Chinese blocked the internet on the ship. It was incredibly slow but I was able to get one message off to her before the Chinese shut Google down on me. I gave up and went to sleep to get ready for the crew tour to the Great Wall on Sunday.