Day 2 ~ Sunday 22nd August, 2015

After a good nights sleep & feeling much better, we had a hearty Beijing Breakfast and then braved the city by way of the Beijing Subway!

WOW ~ NOTHING will prepare you for this experience. If the language barrier wasn't enough, the shear number of people the public transport moves (very quickly) will blow your mind!

We firstly had to buy a ticket. The ticket machine did have an “english” translation, but knowing what buttons to push and in what order was still something we had no idea about!

Looking like western fish out of water, we were soon helped by 2 locals who helped us navigate the ticket machine. You have to insert your money VERY quickly into the machine otherwise it will cancel you out. Of course it cancelled us out as we had an old note and the machine didn't like it. All good – we knew how to use the machine….but no, the machine wouldn't take our money, after trying about 6 times! The look of fear on our face must have made the next local girl help us! She said in very broken english “follow me”! So we did! We had to navigate through the security screening ~ yes, just like in the airports, everything has to be scanned. I was pulled up for my bottle of water, but was all good & I was let through.

The girl lead us to a Ticket Counter… GREAT!! We can get tickets…. Hmm… sorry – you don't speak English?, hmm, we don't speak Chinese! Hilarious ~ eventually, after lots of chinese being yelled at locals back and forth, we found enough locals who knew a few english words which was enough to get the ticket!! RMB 10 = AUD$2.50 for 2 tickets (one way)

YAY!! 2 Tickets in hand, we make our way down, down, down into the subway.

Our first train left from Line 14 at Jintailu. SPECTACULAR ~ Very fast train, looked brand new, AWESOME air-conditioning, and plenty of room to move. WOW...if only Australia had trains like this. We figured the lack of people on this train was because it was a Sunday morning. Ha ha ha ha – oh those 2 Aussies...they have NO idea what they are in for….

So we arrive at Line 6 at JinTaiLu Transfer Station, we navigate our way from Line 14, up to Line 6 and work out what train to take to the Zoo. Steve finds the right train heading in the right direction and we jump on the train. Ha ha ha – you know all those 21,000,000 million people who are living in Beijing? Well, they were all on this train! We let one train go, as we couldn't get on. But then we soon learnt that EVERY train was the same, and we just had to barge our way on there and push and shove to get a spot! Hysterical. You are up close and very personal to everyone around you – there is NO room between people, and when you want to get off the train, well, you have to push HARD to get out.

We finally make it to Station PinganLi which is another Transfer station and we navigate our way up to Line 4, along with half of the 21,000,000 million locals who also get on the next train. It helped that the mass of people kind of dictate which direction you are going in – we figured we'd go with the flow. We once again worked out which train to take in the right direction and we find the ZOO !! YAY It took almost 1 hour from the moment we left the hotel and walked to the subway station to when we walked up the platform to the entrance of the Zoo. We travelled from one side of the city to the other, so we thought that was excellent timing, considering we had no idea what we were doing or heading, and was fairly slow and finding our way.

We have to say that the Beijing Subway is amazing. It is spotlessly clean. The Locals are extremely courteous and kind and very calm in amongst the sea of chaos. I guess it is normal for them, but if this had of been in Australia, well, there would have been mass murders and shootings from the sheer rage!!

Beijing Zoo.

Zoo Entrance Fee and Panda House Experience ~ RMB 20 (approx AUD $5 each)

OMG ~ YES, 21,000,000 million people are all lined up outside the Zoo to get a ticket – or so it seemed. Was boiling hot, and humid as hell. We almost bought “umbrella hats” as they seem to be the latest in Chinese fashion. We joined a line and eventually we got to the ticket counter, bought a ticket and went on our way inside.

PANDA HOUSE - Was the first stop. Word to the uninitiated – just go straight through, and forget about looking at the pandas that are inside behind the glass. They sit with their backs to the people and with so many locals all screaming and then add children screaming, and the heat and humidity, and the finger prints on the glass, its really not worth it. But still we stayed and tried to get photos – we thought this was our only chance to get to see the Pandas. We stayed until our bodies were dripping with sweat and I could stand it no more!!!

Head outside and be patient, eventually a Panda will come outside to escape the noise and heat, to bask in the shade. So that was our experience. One Panda graced us with his presence outside and we got to see him flake out up on his platform. 

What was the funniest thing by this stage was how everyone was looking at Steve with his HUGE 200mm lens on the monopod. More locals were watching Steve than the Panda! We had a girl come up and want to have a selfie with Steve…. And then another selfie…..and then I was eventually asked for a Selfie too ~ seems we are famous! Lol

We were people watching and people were watching us! We knew we were the only westerners on the subway, but we soon saw we were basically the only westerners at the Zoo as well! We saw only a handful of non-asians all day. We had people running up to us wanting photos with us – we thought it was hilarious, but they did. So we obliged. Now I know what it feels like to be famous!

There were numerous times when Steve was busy checking the back of the camera and looking at the photos he just took in the LCD screen – unbeknowns to Steve, he had a crowd behind him, all too looking at the back of his camera, all in awe of the photos he took! One guy was trying to take a photo using his iPhone of Steve's LCD screen! When Steve turned around the first time to see what all the fuss was about, he was shocked at the huge crowd! Lol

Everywhere Steve's big lens stopped – so did the locals. If he had it pointing at something, then it must be because something is there! He did this at an empty enclosure in the Panda House, (Steve was looking at his photos he'd taken, not because he was taking a photo) and within a few minutes we had a crowd surrounding us all trying to “see” the panda hidden in the enclosure – HILARIOUS! I had to stop myself from pointing up to the sky, to see if they'd all stare upwards to see what I was looking at! lol

The Zoo was AMAZING! We read heaps of write-ups from Trip Advisor and most were negative, to the point we were nearly not going to bother going. The place is enormous, with different “Parks”. We paid the extra to get to the Panda House. But we could have bought tickets to the Aquarium….it wasn't till the very end of the day that we found that area and wished we had of bought tickets – it would have been mind blowing. But the Zoo is full of beautiful lakes, and the willow tree's were so tall and so beautiful. Sure, some of the animal enclosures could do with bringing them into the year 2015, as some are still behind small glass boxes, but on the whole, the enclosures weren't anywhere near as bad as I thought they would be & the animals look to be in good condition.

The Brown Bears were fantastic and were extremely active so we got to see them quite close. The Monkey enclosures were also fantastic. We saw so many animals, but we also missed so many enclosures as well, just due to the size of the place.

A thunderstorm blew in late in the afternoon, so once that had passed, we walked in the rain and decided to call it a day and head back to the hotel. Hmm…. We thought it was busy in the morning heading in, well nothing prepared us for coming home. We walked through the “Markets” to the subway and there were thousands of people all queuing for “something”. Armed guards or police were yelling at them, and they were all fenced in. Steve made a comment, something along the lines of how funny they are all stuck there, and wouldn't it be funny if it was for the train…. Well, his laughter soon turned around and bit him on the ass, as we too were in the bloody lone line! We had no idea why we were in the line, but there we stood with thousands of others. Eventually the line moved and we found our way back to the subway, and we had to buy a ticket…. So we lined up with everyone else and we eventually got one (we did well, except we didn't know the name of the station to come home to) – so after some locals helped us locate it on the Ticket machine, we were issued with 2 tickets and we joined another queue and from there we made our way through another security scanning checkpoint, and then down to the subway and then home to the hotel.

BOY are our feet SORE!!!

Quite positive we walked a good 10kms today if not more. I carried the backpack all day, and Steve carried it on our trip back home loaded up with the heaviest of camera gear. I was thankful for the reprieve...it was heavy and HOT.

Oh, our Hotel “East” is attached to “INDIGO” shopping centre – a bit like Chadstone for those Melbourne People. VERY expensive stores, all designer label with price tags to match. More expensive than Australia. There is a supermarket there, and what an experience that is! The Fruit is very expensive. I didn't see any meat for sale. Lots of frozen goods. Prices for anything imported looks to be highly priced (don't be craving chocolate – you need to the rich to afford to buy that). And yet there are things which are so cheap its ridiculous. There is a “fresh” market area where you can buy take away foods for lunch etc. I had “noodles” for dinner last night which cost RMB12 (AUD $3), and tonight I ordered fresh Wonton/Dumplings – 380g RMB12 – they were EPIC – so I will be having them again possibly for lunch whilst Steve is at the conference!

I have been trying different local things to eat, but Steve ate 2min Noodles - well, last night at least, tonights he bailed on – too many vege's in with the noodles for his liking, so he ate Pringles! Ugh

Yesterdays lunch at the Indigo centre at a local cafe cost us AUD $60 for Eggs Benedict and a Salad and a Milkshake and bottle of water!!! So don't be eating at Indigo, unless you are happy to be ripped off. The shopping centre was built for the rich locals, and they do shop there – the car park is full of Porche's and Bentley's, Range Rovers etc.

So, Beijing, I have to say you are NOTHING like I expected. I excepted Smog – & to date there has been none at all. I excepted more 3^rd world and industrial factories at the door – None to what I can see so far. I expected us not to be able to navigate anything due to lack of english translation – well its pretty good on the majority of signage.

The locals can't speak english, and there is the odd one who will try (god love them).

I wonder what Day 3 is going to have in store for us? Do we get back on the subway on a Monday morning and brave the peak hour madness and head back into the city to see the sights and architecture, or do we head out to the Great Wall – Badaling? Right now are feet are screaming to us for NO walking, but there is so much to see and do and so little time.

Oh and the Forbidden City is closed whilst we are here as they are getting ready for a HUGE Parade on September 3^rd which we will miss. And the Olympic Park is frantic with IAAF Games (International Athletic….something, something), so we might not be able to get there to get the photos we want.

Sorry for the long blog – you all know I don't know how to write a few words! :)