Ghenghis Didn't Need a Visa

And so, having last seen my adoring parents on September 1^st, they were with me in Beijing. Sara and I rushed to the airport from the train station as we only had an hour until they landed. Beijing has three terminals, with 1 and 2 being together and 3 being a way away. I thought it was 1 but it wasn’t it was 3 so we spent ages getting there with me stressing and snapping about missing them and when we got there the parents were nowhere to be seen worry worry worry. Turns out their plane was delayed 2 hours so we went to Starbucks and I slowly calmed down. Starbucks has saved my sanity countless times.

Sara and I had a sign saying “Aged Parents” and they spotted it.

So we caught a taxi to the hotel which involved me arguing with the driver that we did fit in his taxi. Grumpy git.

We walked to Tiananmen Square and Mum fell over and sprained her ankle which was not an auspicious start. Luckily she could still walk and we had a wander.

I’ll just summarise over our stay in Beijing as I am now on a train to Ulaan Baatar and don’t want to fall too far behind…

I hated the Forbidden Palace because it was exactly like all the other temples I’ve seen and was full of Chinese crowds and was hot. Mum and Dad loved it because they hadn’t been somewhere like that before. The Palace is rather large and is a basically a collection of Palaces of Harmony. Not much of the interior is left and as you can’t go inside buildings anyway you are left wandering through endless courtyards. Sara came down with food poisoning.

I had a barney at a taxi driver wanting to charge 80 RMB and not use the meter. I was a bit stressed that day.

The Great Wall is, er, basically a big wall. It was very humid when we went so you could not see very far and a bit hot to walk along but one section was much like another. I feel that the wall was rather superfluous as if you’ve managed to walk up the ridge on which it sits, which is no mean feat, then you are either so determined that a wall won’t stop you or so knackered you could be easily defeated.

I bought some souvenirs for Mum and it was interesting to see the difference between the price they asked for (say 200RMB) and what I paid. (Say 30RMB). Some tourists must get so ripped off.

We also visited the Ming Tombs that Mum insisted on going to. They consisted of various temples as well as some large carved animal statues that Mum rather liked. I was not convinced. The way that the place is developed also took away from what must have been a rather awe inspiring place- a long slow road up to great temples. Today the souvenir stalls take away from it.

We attempted to visit the Summer Palace but it was chucking it down with rain and so we abandoned that…

The main drama of Beijing was me trying to get a Mongolian visa which involved the following steps:

1. Go to Embassy, arrive 40 minutes before closing time, realise that queue is too long and will never make it
2. Go to Embassy an hour before it opens. See a new sign saying the Embassy has changed its opening times, come back this afternoon… Walk back to hotel in pouring rain and startling Americans on return
3. Go in afternoon 1.5 hours early but being FIRST in line.
4. Wait with stomach cramps from stomach bug acquired from sister
5. Have a Brit worry you by saying you might need an invitation letter which you haven’t got and haven’t time to get
6. Worry a lot
7. Hand in application with a bright smile and get away with it RELIEF
8. Go back following day 1 hour early and collect visa with no days to spare. Phew.

We were staying at a rather nice hotel in Beijing and as Dad is an executive member or something this meant using the executive lounge, which was rather swanky. I could get used to hors d’oeuvres and cocktails. It was also nice to go swimming in the pool. I could get used to luxury…

As I write Mum and I are in our compartment somewhere in Inner Mongolia on the way to Ulaan Baatar. Going from Beijing, where visibility was horrendous, to now, where I can see forever, is a nice change.