This summer my friends and I embarked on quite an adventure as we set out for the faraway lands of China. Our first destination obviously had to be the capital city, Beijing.
Hotels are quite cheap in China, and one of my friends got us all an employee discount, so we lived quite luxurious (more than I ever did on other travels, I’m more the hostel / camping kind of person)
Beijing is fascinating, especially the wide open spaces and the complete absence of westerners (I didn’t expect many to be there and was still surprised). What I enjoyed most was that the city is not trying too hard to be touristic. Apart from the few typical tourist streets and famous restaurants, you can pretty much go anywhere and have an authentic experience. There’s one caveat however, which is that you have to learn at least a bit of chinese. Outside the big touristic spots you should not expect anyone to speak English. Some people obviously do, but then again, we went to bigger restaurants where not even a single waiter spoke a word of English. I did learn some Chinese beforehand and it was so worth it! We had by far the best (and cheapest) experiences in places where we had to talk using our hand and feet, and the little Chinese we knew.
Sadly, we didn’t have a lot of time to venture to the outskirts of the city, barring one trip to the summer palace and the obligatory great wall visit. Then it was already time to take a train to our next destination, where some friends of mine were already waiting for us. More to come!
