My first impression of Beijing is wrong.

Our flight lands at terminal three along with all other international flights. Then it is on to terminal two by railcar to pick up luggage. The terminals are large open buildings, the air inside is fresh after a long flight. It is 3 p.m. and I am in a spectacularly bright environment. The terminals here ooze modernity, an avant-garde that you find in fashionable airports like Hong Kong or Changi in Singapore. You might be inclined to think of it as a modern day marvel. But, as I am about to discover, the reality of Beijing is far more spectacular.


The “modern day marvels” are feeble feats compared with the antiquity of China’s capital city. No brightly lit modern terminal building can ever eclipse the richness of an old 6000-kilometer wall that can be seen from outer space, the mysteries of the Forbidden City, or the rich heritage of the Temple of Heaven. The wide open spaces of the airports fade into oblivion when you rickshaw through the dank enclosed alleyways of Beijing’s hutongs. The whiteness of the airport pales in comparison with the nondescript city center, a relic of gray, drab, low-rise buildings which frantically spins time in reverse. The sterile terminal air will be long forgotten after you get a taste, yes taste, of the pungent particle-filled air which is sweetened by the street smells of restaurants, markets and bakeries. No question about it, the airport gives you few clues about what you will encounter in this year’s Olympic City.

I am spending five days in Beijing searching for experiences I will never forget. I manage to tour jade markets, fresh water pearl factories, tea houses, copper vase factories, clothes markets, street markets and most of the big attractions, all with one goal: to discover the five things visitors “must do” in Beijing. My first pick is really two attractions because one leads directly to the other.

The First Pick
The “Square of Heavenly Peace” or as it is more famously known, Tiananmen Square, is the largest public square in the world. No picture can accurately express its size. I see thousands of tourists massed along its perimeter, most of them Chinese. They are in groups distinguished by different colored hats. They are waiting for tour guides to lead them onto the Square, and are wearing the colored hats so they don’t stray from their group.

As I walk across the square I am catapulted back in time. It is 1989 and I am a young journalist in Canada. I am reading a newspaper story about a man just on the edge of this square standing in front of a line of military tanks, stopping their progress. As I look out onto the street where it happened, Xichang’an Jie, I think about the bravery of that man, and the student led demonstrations which resulted in hundreds, if not thousands of deaths. I cross under the street to the Gate of Heavenly Peace which leads to the entrance of the Forbidden City. A super-sized picture of Mao dominates the centre gate. The Forbidden City was just that, forbidden to all but the royal family, their servants, the emperor’s concubines, and high ranking officials. The first royal family moved into their new digs in 1420 after thirteen years of construction by an estimated one million workers.

As I walk inside the largest palace in the world, I notice carved figures on the rooftops of each building. The guide I have hired tells me that they are creatures which would bring rain in case of fire. Fire was a real concern because the buildings here are made of wood. She tells me the roof creatures also indicate the social position or importance of the person who used or occupied the building.

Before we go any further into the Forbidden City, you should know that China is a country of mythical creatures, of lions, dragons, and animals that have qualities of several species combined. It is a world of many, many superstitions. So you may see people doing unusual things, like rubbing Buddha bellies, or dragons, and in the case of the Forbidden City, the ornate carvings on the copper cauldrons which used to hold water. The Chinese do it with vigor and in the case of the cauldrons, believe the rubbing will bring them luck. You can tell which creatures bring luck, or prosperity, or health because they are so worn from rubbing that they don’t have that ancient tarnish; they stand out because of their shine.

One of the standouts for me is the Royal Garden. The trees in the garden are marked with tags which tell how old they are. A red tag for instance means the tree is more than 300-years old. There are many 300-year old trees in this garden. My guide explains that one sign of wealth in ancient China used to be the number and the size of rocks in your garden. While there are plenty in the Royal Garden, I’ll feel especially rich indeed when I return home to Canada.

The Second Pick
Not for all the tea in China would I visit Beijing without stopping to sample and buy tea. I’m not a tea drinker but my mother-in-law is, so I make a point of stopping at a teahouse for a lesson. Dr. Tea on Min zu yuan Road will give you a free sampling of five different teas. In my sampling I taste Jasmine, Golden Green Tea, an Oolong tea called Oriental Beauty, a Litchi Tea, and a pu’er tea. The pu’er is most interesting because it is a fermented tea and is pressed into cakes. You break off a piece of the
cake and steep it in hot water. I was told that it is a medicinal tea, which can help lower blood pressure and cholesterol. It is the only tea which improves with age, so the older it is, the more expensive it becomes. I must be a novice because my favorite happens to be among the cheapest, Jasmine. I buy Jasmine for me, Oriental Beauty for my mother-in-law. I have decided to live with my high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

The Temple of Heaven is a gathering spot for many Chinese people. On the day I visit there is music all over the park, so much that it is almost impossible to pick out any one tune. You see, the temple is actually an open park as well. Senior citizens in Beijing get in free, and they are there in the thousands on the day I stroll by. The first sound that becomes clear to me as I approach is the flutter of bird wings. I look up but don’t see any birds. What I do see at eyelevel is a man practicing tai chi and directly behind him a class learning the fan dance. Both move as gracefully as butterflies. The tai chi man is concentrating on balance, while the fan dancers concentrate on steps and the opening of their fans. The fans are making sounds exactly like a flock of geese or ducks flapping their wings backward as they land in a prairie pond in the spring.
Further along the walk there are two groups of people learning various dance steps to competing music. Everyone it seems, is enjoying a spring morning in the park. Their smiles are contagious. As I walk along taking pictures, a Chinese man and his wife approach me to ask if I speak English. We trade stories about sons and daughters, and in their case grandsons and granddaughters. He knows how to speak English because he has spent several years in Great Britain and in Australia where some of his children now live. His wife doesn’t speak English as well as he does, but she listens intently, smiling and nodding as we chat. It’s a moment I will never forget.

The activities are very inclusive, as I discover when people invite me to join groups playing hacky sack. Some of the players are quite old and for a fleeting moment I think that I might be able to play on their level. But then they demonstrate. It is clear I am not in their league, although I am leagues younger. I definitely won’t be able to join the hundred or so people who have gathered around a conductor leading them in patriotic songs about China. The Temple of Heaven is alive with culture and I haven’t even seen any of the historical buildings yet. It’s one of the reasons that it makes my list.
Another is that The Temple of Heaven is important in history, not just for the city, but for all of China. It’s where the emperor would come to pray and offer sacrifices for a good harvest. At the very end of the park is the altar to heaven. There is a small round marble stone right in the centre. The people standing on the stone while I am there, must have been praying for rain. As I take pictures of them, the heavens open, so do hundreds of umbrellas. If you’re a commodities speculator, apparently there won’t be a problem with crops this year in China.

The Fourth Pick:
If you have never been checked out by a Chinese herbal medicine doctor, Beijing is the place to get it done. You can get a consultation with herbalists at Tong Ren Tang, and you aren’t pressured into buying. They give you a diagnosis, tell you what you should be taking, and then move on. Tong Ren Tang is one of the oldest pharmacies in China. It was the “Royal” pharmacy for the emperors of the Qing Dynasty. While there, I am told that the recipes for some of their current herbal medicines were handed down through the women of the families who ran the original pharmacies. My diagnosis is done by an herbal specialist who uses three fingers to read the pulse on my left arm and then my right arm. He also looks at my tongue. The doctor tells me that everything checks out, but that I need some preventative help for my kidneys so he prescribes two types of capsules, one which contains a rare fungus from Tibet, and the other a more common pill. He gives me a prescription, and it’s up to me if I want to get it filled. I don’t, but I really enjoy the experience.
The Fifth Pick:
The Great Wall of China is an understatement. Just like “big” doesn’t describe Tiananmen Square, “Great” doesn’t do it for the Wall. I take about a hundred pictures of the wall. Friends will tell me later that I have captured spectacular scenes. But I know that not one of them come close to recreating what I see and feel during my time there.

The section of the wall I visit is called the Juyongguan Pass. It is about an hour drive out of Beijing, but can be longer depending on traffic. My very first thought when we approach by car is medieval England. The towers along the wall are built much like the castles you will find all over the British Isles. Your perspective begins to change as you start walking. I hike about two kilometers up a long winding hill. Just that section of the wall alone was a marvel. Then you begin to think about the people who built the wall, the people who guarded it, and the people who it was designed to keep out.
This part of the wall has a long rich history. Some of the fortifications here date back as far as 770 B.C., but it was about ten centuries later that this section was linked to the Great Wall. My guide, who decides not to hike the two kilometers with me explains that in the Jin Dynasty this area was named one of the eight best scenic areas of Beijing. During and after the climb, I can see why. The views, no matter which way you look, are magnificent.
There are many areas close to Beijing where you can visit the wall. I only had time to visit one, but if I had my time back I would have skipped some of my other plans and visited another section. Without the benefit of first hand knowledge, I spent time at many places that just weren’t as precious as those at the wall.

So what would I have ditched to do the wall at another location? Well, the Ming Tombs sounded impressive, but I would gladly have passed had I known what there was to see. I would also have passed on The Imperial College in the heart of Beijing, although the neighborhoods surrounding it make for a wonderful evening walk.

So, what if you don’t like one of my picks, say the tea, or maybe you’ve already had a reading by an herbalist? Next on my list would be the Summer Palace. It is a beautiful walk along Kunming Lake, and I found upon reviewing pictures that some of my favorites were taken there.