4 Star Toilets

I traveled like a local today by bus, to the Beijing Botanic Garden and Summer Palace complex. I wanted to mix with the average Beijinger. It’s hard to describe what the people look in Beijing. I guess like most cities there are people from many different countries and also the various regions of China. I caught an early morning bus so there was a good cross section of migrant workers. The largest group really stood out for me because despite looking Asian they did not look Chinese. Very dark skin, hazel coloured eyes, pointed noses and flicking worry beads. We spent much of the bus journey curiously at each other. In fact most of the bus passengers just stared at me. I guess they don’t get many tourists taking the local bus. Tourists, like the ex-pats travel by taxi as they are cheap, however not always easy to catch. I learnt from watching that the only place you can hail a cab is from a minor road. On any of the boulevards it seems that it is illegal to catch a cab.

All of the buses have a conductor or conductress in my case. There is a Chinese version of Celine Dion's (or Jennifer Rush?) The Power of Love playing from somewhere. Over the top of this the conductress is what I can only describe as MC’ing over the top of the music. I don’t speak Chinese so can only guess that she is telling people to move down or what stop we are coming to. After I have paid my fare she asks one of the migrant workers to give me his seat. Do all tourists get this treatment or is because I look more knackered than the guy who has probably worked a double shift?

Lots of the passengers are carrying clear flasks of green tea. No tea bags just leaves in hot water. The leaves sit at the bottom of the container and eventually unfurl and float. Apparently the best leaves float vertically. I got to enjoy some myself when I met the vice director of the Beijing Botanic Garden for an unplanned meeting in the garden's botanical conservatory. At the time, 1999, the conservatory was one of the biggest construction projects in Beijing, covering an area of 6,500 square meters with over 3000 different plants. This building is a mere egg when compared to the nearly finished Birds Nest stadium.

Statues inside the conservatory

Beijing Institute of Architecture www.biad.com.cn/Products/Detail_06_05.htm

The botanical gardens are set at the foot of the West Hill (Xi Shan) in the suburbs of Beijing and seem to be the only place to escape the smog and bustle of the urban areas. Being China though you are never alone for long and despite being set in 200 hectares and being a weekday the garden was busy. I could have easily spent the whole day here but my next location was a much older garden.

More info about the Beijing Botanic Garden www.beijingbg.com/English/index.asp

Originally called 'Qingyi Garden' (Garden of Clear Ripples) the Summer Palace was constructed in the Jin Dynasty (1115-1234). During the succeeding reign of feudal emperors it continued to be extended. By the time of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), it had become a luxurious royal garden providing royal families with rest and entertainment. Sadly as was the case with Yuyan Gardens, plundering by foreign troops in 1860 destroyed most of the buildings. In 1888 they were renovated by Empress Dowager Cixi using embezzled navy funds to reconstruct it for her own benefit. It was then that it became known as the Summer Palace (Yiheyuan). Subsequent foreign destruction occured again in 1900 but happily in 1998 it was listed as one of the World Heritage Sites by UNESCO.

The Summer Palace is an archetypal Chinese garden with water playing a dominant feature namely a giant lake. Dotted around the shoreline and amongst the hills are magnificent palaces and temples. From the Tower of Buddhist Incense you get a panoramic view of Beijing.

This was another place that I could have spent all day as there are over 200 hectares to explore. However the light started to fade quickly and I had no idea what time the garden shut so before it got too dark I looked for any signs that looked like EXIT but I just kept coming across 4 star toilets!

Fears of dying of hyperthermia in the garden overnight began to set in, aided by not knowing the words for 'How to I get out of here?' Luckily I remembered that there was a McDonalds near the entrance. Having on first sight cursed whoever allowed the American golden arches to be built near a world heritage site I was actually glad for this landmark. Using the universal language of fastfood I just had to ask one person 'McDonalds?' and I was shown the way out.

Will the last person to bed please turn the light off?

I spent the night in a cold, smelly insect ridden sex hotel or as described on their website ‘comfortable boutique hotel’. It is situated on the outskirts of the city. I am surrounded by B&Q and IKEA stores and then rows of tiny shops that seem to recycling rubbish. Where are the French restaurants and Zara’s that I was expecting? The one and only good thing about the sextel is there is free internet. I Google (yes it was working) luxury hotels Shanghai and book into the first hotel that comes up.

Alarming room service offerings

My taxi driver does not seem to know where the hotel is which is worrying as we are in the centre of the French Concession and surely it can’t be that hard to find a major hotel. He leaves me outside an office building insisting that is where I am staying. The security guards look at me bemused and a small crowd of office workers on their lunch break gather around me. Everyone seems to be pointing in different directions to show where the hotel is. I point to where I need to go but no one seems to recognise the map I have. I hail another cab and get taken 5 minutes around the corner to the correct hotel. It would have been 2 minutes but the traffic was bad.

I decided to spend the afternoon at Shanghai Botanic Garden to try and escape the mass of people and traffic. The magnolia trees were just starting to loose their petals.

This garden is currently undergoing refurbishment and will be replaced by another botanic garden so I am told by one of the guides. There are lots of preparations for the Olympic themed displays such as this one with the Chinese mascots.

My art director at Corbis had asked me to get some shots of the famous tourist area the Bund and the Pudong. The Bund is a section of Shanghai that runs along the along the western bank of the Huangpu river. Facing it is the financial district, the Pudong. In just 18 years a symbolic skyline of skyscrapers has been created in defiant contrast to the historic colonial buildings along the Bund. Pudong's gross domestic product reached an estimated RMB270 billion (US$38.5 billion) in 2008, an enviable achievement considering that before1990 the Pudong was mainly farmland.

I had to work quickly to get the shots because I was told that after 8pm the lights on the buildings get switched off to conserve power. Sure enough one by one the bling buildings disappeared into the dark night sky.

Upon returning to find my room has been prepared for sleep with my bed sheets turned out and room lighting set to dim. In fact dim is the brightest the room can get with artificial lights probably part of the energy saving directive. There is however a complex light system control from the centre of the twin beds. There is a night light, a lobby light, room light, three lights in the bath and a do not disturb light for outside the room. It’s still too dark to read my book though.