From Hong Kong I took a 24-hour sleeper train to Beijing. I spent a lot of the trip talking to an English and Armenian couple I met who were sharing the same cabin as me which helped pass the time. I also managed to sleep 11-hours, almost half the trip, in the comfortable, narrow bed. When I arrived, I stepped out of the massive Beijing West train station into a sea of people crowding the front of the station. I caught a bus to my hostel in central Beijing but accidentally got off one stop too early and spent the following half an hour wandering the streets around the Forbidden City before I finally found the hostel. Once I arrived I dropped my bags off, took a shower, and spent the next five days exploring Beijing.

Beijing is, well... Big. There were a few things that struck me about the city - the first being the sheer number of people. There are 17 million people in the city and no matter where you go, you can't escape the crowds! Another thing was constant police and security presence everywhere you went. I've never seen so many police and army personnel randomly standing around before.. but then again Beijing is the capital city of Communist China and all. Before you're allowed to get on a subway train, you have to put your bags through a metal detector at each station! To enter Tian'anmen Square you have to pass through another metal detector and get patted down, discouraging public demonstrations of civil unrest.. most likely due to the infamous protest of '89. Not to mention the random policeman positioned wherever you looked (even in empty alleyways) and the security cameras "hidden" inside all the street lamps throughout the city. You could just feel the oppression. The last thing I noticed (and it's hard not to) was the pollution and all-pervading smell of car exhaust and construction. When I think of Beijing I think of that smell. There's a constant haze above the city (making the sun a dim red even on a cloudless day) from the millions of cars being driven everyday.

I spent the first few days exploring the area around my hostel, which was conveniently located right next to the Forbidden City. I spent a good three hours there, wandering the massive pavilions, temples, gardens and streets. It was an amazing castle to visit, rich with history, full of Chinese culture.. and flag-touting tourist groups. In front of the Forbidden City is the massive Tian'anmen Square with Mao's Mausoleum in the center. It's the largest open square in the world and takes at least 20 minutes to walk from one end to the other. On either side of the Square is the Great Hall of the People and the National Museum, making the Square the literal center of Beijing and political China. The other few days I spent visiting the other sites of the city, including one day of renting a bicycle and randomly riding down the hutongs (old, haphazard urban streets) until I got to the Temple of Heaven, I watched people practicing Tai Chi and Wushu in the park, visited a night food-market and ate delicious dumplings, noodles and seafood-on-a-stick, went to the Silk Market to haggle with salespeople over the price of fake-brand named clothes, paid a visit to the Ancient Observatory to see the old astronomical instruments, ate Peking duck with a Brazilian I met at the hostel, journeyed to the Beijing Zoo to see the Panda's (I personally don't like zoos but I had to see the Panda's!), rode the trains to the Olympic Center to see the Bird's Nest Stadium and Aqua Cube from the 2008 Summer Olympics, walked around a few lake parks in the middle of the city and, of course, did the one thing I came to Beijing in the first place for - visited the Great Wall of China.

One thing I should mention about staying in Beijing (and traveling around China in general) is that everything is really, really cheap! Riding the subway to anywhere in the city costs 1 yuan (or 20 cents), 5 nights at my hostel cost $70, meals anywhere from $1 and up (depending on where you go), and a 1.5L bottle of water is 75 cents, just to give you an idea. I brought a lot more money than I thought and actually had trouble spending my money so I got a massage, bought souvenirs, and opted for a domestic flight back to Hong Kong instead of a train. Anywho, after spending five days in Beijing in the scorching hot weather visiting all the sites amongst the crowds of people, I was ready to move on. It's a great city to visit, but I think the only reason I would go back would be to see the Great Wall again. I'd definitely recommend a visit to Beijing at least once, just be prepared for it!

Check out my album for more pictures of Beijing.