Travel China and Beyond

Saturday Morning In Beijing

Every so often visitors coming to Beijing ask me what are some of the different and interesting things to do once you have seen many of the sites in this big city…All of us who have spent significant amount of time in Beijing, have been at least once if not multiple times to places like, the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace (YiHeYuan), the Temple of Heaven (TianTan), Beihai Park, Wangfujing…But there are some other interesting sites you could enjoy in Beijing in order to pick up some of the local character and understand better how folks in Beijing (at least some of them) spend their free time on weekends.

So, if you are ready to explore, please continue reading. On an early Saturday morning, plan to go to JinShan park. The park is located directly behind the Forbidden City (GuGong), and next to Beihai Park. Plan to arrive there before 9 am. The entry fee for the park is minimal (in comparison to the already exhorbitant fees in places like the Forbidden City) — RMB5.

Once in the park you will immediatelly see an interesting temple, which is currently serving as an art gallery/shop Then to the side you will see large number of benches and tables and of course a whole lot of grannies and grandpops playing mahjong, cards, chess…. You can spend some time there and you will most certainly be engaged in a lively conversation with some of the folks and will have the opportunity to even make some friends. Continue further in the park and you will encounter some even more interesting activities:

Several large groups of organized amateur Chinese singers — when I say large, believe it I mean it. Some of them numbered well above 100 people. And they were singing….quite well.

Then there were the dancer. At one point we counted around 50 couples learning to dance together under the watchful eye of an older gentleman/instructor. To give you some idea take a look at this photo — all in all an interesting sight.

There were a whole bunch of other activities in the park - caligraphy (the writers use heavily diluted ink — with lots of water so it is easily washed from the sidewalk) on the alleyways, wushu with swords, hackysack, bonzai exhibitions, and of course instrument playing.

The park is a good place to see life in Beijing, and meet lots of interesting people. Even our daughter was able to practice her Chinese with some local kids - and of course there was the innevitable photo per request of the boys parents…..

Well, I think this posting should give you some ideas about your next weekend outing. If you have any comments or suggestions, please do not hesitate, drop us a line…