Galloping Horse: October 2014

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

-Laozi

Travelling alone is one of the things that I have always wanted to do. Get my backpack and explore the world. I just never thought that I would do it in Beijing, the capital of People's Republic of China! Well, I did it for a number of days when I was in Ireland. This one we are talking about 9 days, 9 days trip in Beijing (just would like to emphasize).

The idea of visiting China was rather inspired after watching Mainland China drama series, "Empresses in the Palace" whereby the setting was the Forbidden City (and I was addicted to series). Most of my friends have been there and I was determined to make the trip happen, even if I have to go there alone. (Some of my friends thought I was very daring to travel to Beijing all by myself). That advice came a little too late as I purchased my flight ticket 9-month ahead of the trip due to promo (Unfortunate MH370 incident happened around two months later). Adamant with my decision, I bought a Lonely Planet travel guide for my preparation and counting the days to September.

Visa is required for Malaysians to enter China. Applied mine through a travel agent in my town with a fee of MYR150. It is advised to apply for the visa a month ahead of your trip and not earlier than 3 months as for tourist visa is valid for 3 months only and it usually takes around 5 working days to process. With Forbidden City being my major motivation to visit the city and of course, the famous Great Wall of China, I was rather unsure what else I could do there. You must think that I'm crazy that I plan to stay for that long then. At the end of the trip, I realised I did make the right decision, even before the trip ended as I underestimated the size of Beijing. I have researched and to find out there were quite a number of places that I could spend my time there. Planned my itinerary, ready with the travel guide including city map, booked my accommodation (faced last minute change due to unavailability of hostel to accept foreign visitors and managed to sort out the night before flying off to the city), converted RMB3000 (MYR1 is approximately around RMB2), I was ready to commence my trip as AirAsia X took off at 6.45pm from KLIA 2 on the 5th of September. The flight journey was around 6 hours.

Landed at Beijing Capital International Airport - T2, done with immigration check and I fell for very first scam. It was totally avoidable and I was very aware that I was in the middle of it but for some reason, I just went along. Walking towards the arrival hall and my intention was to get a legal taxi outside the airport but I was followed by a guy claimed to be official taxi driver. I was ignoring him at first but he was persistent and I walked into the trap, literally, when he showed his card. I was like, "oh, okay." I guess contributing factors include tiredness from long flight and it was late hour so I just agreed to get onto his RMB400-fare to my hostel. (Normal rate is RMB300 for after midnight charge). The worst part is not about the overpriced fare but the fact that the driver can't seem to locate my hostel. Not enough with that, he even asked for more money at the end of my trip. I couldn't care less so I just handed him a MYR10 note as a souvenir (even explained who's the figure on the note) for his keepsake. My very first scam in less than 1 hour after arriving at Beijing. What a way to start my trip.

By the time I reached my hostel it was already 2.30am. Checked in at Jade Hotel which is located at Beiheyan Dajie: 17 minutes walk from nearest subway station (Dengshikou), walking distance to Wangfujing (famous shopping street), Donghuamen (one of the snack streets) and Forbidden City. The room only cost MYR33 per night, 4-bed dormitory with a shared bathroom. With that said, Forbidden City was on top of my Beijing agenda.

Glimpse of chinese imperial setting shall unfold in the next chapter.