Lost Forever on the BTA 3/8/2015

With a nod to the Kingston Trio, Montana and LuRue could relate to Charlie who rode forever 'neath the streets of Boston; they spent most of the day 'neath the streets of Beijing. 

Did he ever return? No he never returned and his fate is still unlearn'd.

He may ride forever 'neath the streets of Boston. He's the man who never returned.

This morning we took some time studying the Beijing subway map and the places that we'd like to visit. Neither of us cares to take guided tours, though they are heavily promoted here. Everywhere we go we see a group, a couple, or even a single person with a local guide, giving all the history & facts, then quickly moving on to the next thing. We much prefer to wander around, speed-read through the information plaques, then maybe take 5 or 10 minutes just looking at things. After the first few temples, it becomes impossible to keep all the stories straight anyhow, so we just want to look. Montana, of course, is also taking loads of photos that she'll have to sort through each evening.

Montana and LuRue's hotel room

After making a list of places we'd like to visit and after our harrowing taxi rides to and from the Golden Mask Dynasty Show last night, we began to realize that we'd be better off learning to use the subway system. That was our project for today. LuRue looked up some attractions, noting the subway directions given for each. Montana made a plan for the day, getting from place to place to place.

"Walking street"

At 11:30 we went to the end of the "walking street"...South Luogu Alley...to begin our adventure at the subway station. While we were trying to figure out the ticket machine, about 4 men became involved in our getting tickets. One man kept putting in a 20-yuan note, which kept getting spit out, until he dug out a newer bill. Montana showed him our first destination in the notebook we carried & somehow we ended up with tickets. We swiped them as we watched others do, and the gates opened. So we were on our way.

Each destination on Montana's plan involved 2 or 3 transfers so we had to learn how to get on the train headed in the right direction as well as the number of the route and the station needed to make the change. Then we carefully watched the lighted displays over each door in the subway car to make sure that we got off at the right station to change trains. We took turns leading to each new destination and describing to the other why we were doing what we were doing. We got back to Luogu Alley at 5:30. By the end, we both felt comfortable with the system...how to buy the tickets to the right destination and how to make the transfers. We learned by watching a TV screen on the first subway car that our original plan to just stay in the stations & keep transferring trains wouldn't work. It was clear that you must exit where your ticket says (a machine swallows your ticket on the way out) or an agent will kindly escort you to the ticket booth to "pay up". With each leg of the trip costing about 65 cents (including unlimited transfers), it wasn't worth trying to do something out of the ordinary.

The first destination involved going through a station for one of the attractions that we want to see, but didn't know exactly where it was. That confused LuRue, though, because she knew that the attraction was somewhere North, and the Temple of Heaven (our destination) was South. But Montana insisted No, that the Temple of Heaven was North...she had looked it up. We had agreed that we'd take turns leading with no whining from the other person, so on we went--to the 3rd from last stop on that train. 

By the time we got off, we had emerged from underground and were now on an elevated train. The station looked very ordinary and was surrounded by tall apartment complexes as far as the eye could see in every direction. We looked around for some clue about where to find the Temple of Heaven, but there weren't the usual signs, vendors, or potential guides. We saw a bridge crossing the busy highway, so took that & eventually spotted a KFC, then a DQ on the side from which we'd just come. At that moment, our lunch plans were made.

While eating Original KFC drumsticks, we got out the Beijing map to figure things out. There on the map...to the south...was the Temple of Heaven. When Montana checked her "route notes", she discovered that there is a difference between "Tiantenyuan (housing area)" and "Tiantendang (Temple of Heaven)". In copying over her notes, she had written down the wrong destination. Considering all the "yuans" and the "dangs" we went through today, it is nothing short of a miracle that our ride to the north of the city was the only detour. One big plus was that we actually saw blue sky and clouds! Ironically, the day we were mostly underground happened to be the day we would see the most blue sky since our arrival in China. Would we have seen them from downtown Beijing? We may find out in the next couple of days as the forecast is for sun the rest of the week.

We went to three more destinations before heading back "home". We stopped briefly at the Olympic Sports Center & saw the Birds Nest and the Cube from afar. We'll go back when we can spend some time there. Beijing has a population of more than 20 million people & we covered the northwest quarter pretty well today.

Since we were traveling most of the day, much of our time was spent people-watching. From our viewpoint, we'd give each other a count of how many passengers had out their cell phones/tablets...6 out of 7, 8 out of 10, etc. along any given bench we could see. China is connected!! We also saw lots of couples, especially couples of white males and Asian females.

Only on one segment of the trip was there an available seat, so LuRue gratefully grabbed it. It was just before the last transfer of the day and she was ready to sit down!

Just before we left this morning, Montana had gone to the office and set up two activities. Tomorrow we will be picked up by a driver to be taken to the Great Wall for the day. And we have reservations for an acrobatic show on Friday night...out last night here.

Jing Shan Park from 3/7 post

White Pagoda from 3/7 post