Serious Travel Article 14: 12 Hours of Beijing Part 1

It's been six months since I wrote a Serious Travel Article. I think it's time....

I awoke on the slow train from Zhengzhou in the centre of China to Beijing. The brand new bullet train could do this Journey in less than four hours but I liked the hard sleeper class on the slow trains. Twelve hours of looking out the window, snoozing and reading without a care in the world.

It was 6am and the train was just entering the outer suburbs of Beijing. There is nothing suburban about a suburb in China, nothing a westerner would equate to suburbia, pleasant tree line avenues, expansive houses side by side each with its own garden. This type of existence is difficult to find in China, only the most exclusive gated communities would offer such luxury. A Chinese suburb was comprised of factories, wholesale and second hand markets, industrial estates, crumbling communistic 7 story housing cuboids and brand new towering apartment blocks. Chinese suburbs are invariably grey and ugly.

The Beautiful Suburbs of Beijing

As the train attendants woke the passengers up there was time for one more feast of peanuts, watermelon seeds and instant noodles before we arrived at the West Beijing Terminus.

I had come to Beijing to visit the British Embassy (Paperwork stuff). I had twelve hours in China's capital before my train would whisk me away back to Zhengzhou. I regretted not having longer but I had work commitments in "The Big ZZ" as Zhengzhou is often called. I took the public bus (Beijing West still hadn’t been connected to the Metro, figures) to the embassy and was done by 9'o Clock.

Beijing's West Railway Station. It's 6am and it's cold.

The sky was bright blue and the air was fresh, somewhat of a rarity in Beijing so I'd heard, I felt lucky to be able to see so far into the distance and admire the fantastic modern architecture which was all around me. After about an hour wandering aimlessly, poking my nose in where it wasn't wanted, I did what all good travellers in Beijing did, and got the Metro to Tienanmen Square.

As I queued with the hordes of commuters I could see that everybody had to go through some sort of airport style security to get into the Metro station. I also noticed that the crowd was so large, half of the passengers were simple going around the security to get to their train quicker, the guards did nothing to stop them. I followed the crowed and dodged security, and even as a suspicious foreigner, nobody stopped me.

Some of the Brilliant Architecture you can see in Beijing, note the unusual colour of the sky.

As came up the stairs from Tienanmen East station, I immediately saw the Iconic picture of my old buddy Chairman Mao hanging in its frame on its wall outside the old government offices. More interesting than this was the 4 lane duel carriageway which separated Tienanmen Square from the famous compound which hosts the forbidden city, which I don't know the name of. China must be one of the few nations in the world which ploughs a highway through one of its most treasured and celebrated national monuments. To cross this highway you had to go through an underpass. Walking down the stairs you had two options, to the left was the forbidden city, to the right, Tienanmen Square proper with all the self important, aggrandized government buildings.

The four lane highway which cuts right through the middle of Tienanmen Square

I decided to head into the forbidden city. As I drew closer to the entrance, I began noticing the multitude of foreign faces. I'd never seen so many foreigners in one place in China before. Usually, seeing a foreigner in China is an occasion. It happens perhaps once every two or three months and when it happens you make the most of it. You go through the usual bollocks, where are you from, what brings you to China blah blah blah. I mock the idea of speaking to foreigners just because they are foreigners but every now and then, its nice to converse with a compatriot (and by that, I do mean someone who isn't Chinese).


I shuffled under the portrait of Chairman Mao with all the other gawking tourists when I saw a commotion. Three police officers were chasing a young Chinese man. The young man was quick on his feet but a plucky 4th policeman was hidden behind a tree, clotheslining the young man. The man fell to the ground and the four policemen began pounding the man. As they dragged him away I could see the man's unconscious face covered in blood while dozens of tourists shrieked in horror.

At the scene of the incident, just outside the forbidden city, Beijing

End of Part 1.......