Yesterday we decided to give ourselves a bit of a break and took it easy in the morning. We wanted to go and see some shops, though what we were really hoping for was a good old street market. Neither of us said so, but we secretly wanted to see a street where they sold the fabled scorpion kebabs and bags of crispy crickets we had heard so much about before we left the UK. Anyway we asked the concierge where was best to go for shopping and he pointed out a shopping area on the map for us, then followed up with "but this is for Armani and Zara, you cannot barter there, you would prefer to go to the silk market perhaps?" Despite already feeling slightly out of place in the up market hotel we are treating ourselves to, we decided to interpret his comment to mean that we wouldn't get any of the culture of China from the modern shopping mall, rather than because "you look like you must have won a competition to stay at this hotel for you appear to be far to too dishevelled and poor for it to be worth your while going to such exclusive shops, the owners don't like it when the paupers drool on the windows". He very kindly pointed out the locations on our map and after deciding it would be an interesting comparison to see both old and new shopping areas we headed for the subway to go to the swanky place first. The subway in Beijing is superb, the trains are air conditioned and clean and a single trip only costs 10 Yuan, which is about 20p. On the more modern lines, there are digital projections that display adverts on the tunnel walls outside as the train is moving, it looks brilliant! We have found the public transport system very easy to navigate and often much quicker than getting a taxi as you didn't have to hang about in traffic. Not to mention the fact that in a taxi you are taking your life in your hands; Beijing drivers are mental, with one taxi driver we had, I noticed he had actually worn a hole in his steering wheel where he had been pushing his horn so much.
The swish new mall was indeed full of very familiar stores, and we wizzed round very quickly, pausing only for a quick fruit smoothie to cool us down. It was indeed very pricey, in some cases more so than in the UK and we wonder how any of the locals can afford these shops, they just don't seem to fit the rest of the economy. Perhaps they are purely aimed at the tourists and ultra rich. A quick hop on the subway and we were at the Silk Market, where we had been assured we would find a more "real" shopping experience. First off I should point out that there wasn't a piece of silk in sight, no all we could see were rows and rows of shoes, bags and belts. Many of which were of the Armoani or Kelvin Klune variety. Secondly, it was an absolutely horrendous experience - we were tugged and pulled by every single stall holder, not just verbally trying to entice us into their areas but force-ably grabbing our arms with steel like grips and dragging us down. I nearly had to invoke the Pirates Code* when Nikala started to drop back having been detained by one of the muggers, but it might have ruined the holiday if I had had to go on without her... besides she had my passport in her bag.
I have no photos of the whole affair as it really was just like being down the rough end of Tooting market, not that we didn't feel safe - I have almost certainly exaggerated for dramatic effect - but it just wasn't really photo worthy stuff. However we then found ourselves at the Temple of Heaven, and that was pretty awesome.
*The Pirates Code - a collection of rules which includes amongst others, that if you fall behind, you're left behind. Yahh me hearties!
The Temple of Heaven
We were greeted by a man in traditional dress, performing a traditional "hacky-sack" dance:
The Grounds:
At the end of the um, Endless Corridor:
At the temples:
Taking a break; Nikala found a bakery...
No comments:
Post a Comment