Thursday, 21 Nov 2024
Started the day with tours within Beijing city. It took us about 1 hour 30 mins to arrive at the city center due to the hotel’s location (refer last post) and the heavy traffic.
We wanted to visit the famous Niujie Mosque (I last visited in 2016), but unfortunately it was closed due to renovation. I was upset with ARBA (our travel agent) for not informing us earlier as it could have saved a lot of travel time and disappointment.
I was also suspicious of the renovations at Niujie Mosque after reading about the various suppressions done by the Chinese government towards muslims (such as banning the halal sign and demolishing mosques: BBC link) . Given that Niujie mosque is right in the middle of the Chinese capital, I won’t be surprised if they decide to demolish it entirely.
Anyway, given that we were stuck for hours in traffic and the mosque is closed, we decided to go for a quick lunch at the nearby muslim quarter before exploring the city.
After lunch, we headed to Tiananmen Square. In Xi’an, Lina (the tour guide) had a dedicated driver, so she was able to drop us off nearer to the tourist attraction and the driver would park somewhere else. Kenny (our guide in Beijing) doesn’t have a driver. He is the driver and he is the guide. The problem with this is he would park very far (due to congestion) and make us walk for miles before reaching the attraction. Honestly for a private tour, I expected better service than this.
The security to get into Tiananmen Square was very tight. There was heavy police presence, with scanners, and our bags were all inspected. This was done to all visitors regardless of Chinese or international tourists. This is very different to my visit in 2016 where we were dropped off literally on the roadside near the main gate.
We entered the main square of Tiananmen, admired the sights, and then proceeded to the main gate towards the Forbidden City.
It was my mom’s first time to visit Beijing so she is very excited to see these new places. There were a lot of walking involved but weather was quite pleasant. It was sunny with a cool breeze.
We exited Forbidden City at the rear end. Kenny suggested that we take a bus to where he parked the car as it was too congested to get a taxi. What better way to spice up our travel right. We didn’t have to wait too long to get a bus. Surprisingly, the bus wasn’t as packed as I expected it to be (I was imagining those videos of rush hour trains in Tokyo).
In the evening, Kenny took us to Qianmen Street. It was near the Zhengyangmen Gate (the southern gate of Tiananmen Square).
Qianmen Street is an open air boulevard with various restaurants and shops. Historically, it has been a commercial area since the Ming dynasty. I saw a nice looking Starbucks, and lots of candy and gift shops.
For dinner, Kenny took us to Halal restaurant somewhere along the street. I was quite surprised to find a halal restaurant in the area. The hot and tasty good was exactly what we needed on a cold night. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel for some rest.
Related posts: China 2024 part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5
Imran Jaafar 