Stories from China (Part 8)

This entry is part 8 of 40 in the series Stories from China

May 22, 2023

Stories from China (Part 8)

By Simon J. Lau

I left Chengde this morning on a bullet train, my first time riding one in China. It was everything I imagined: efficient, organized, and fast, cruising at nearly 190 mph (300+ km/h). Buying the ticket felt like a small achievement too. I handled the whole thing in Mandarin. It was a big change from my last visit to China in 2010, when I took a train from Beijing to Shanghai and had to pay an English-speaking broker to buy tickets for me. Five years of language study later, it all feels easy.

I’m in Beijing for just one night, so I decided to make the most of it by wandering the historic center. My walk took me past the outer walls of the Forbidden City, the former seat of China’s emperors for nearly five centuries. At dusk, the red walls and watchtowers glowed in the fading light, their reflection stretching across the still water of the moat. Even from outside the gates, the scale of the place felt immense.

Later, I arrived at Beihai Park. By then, the sky had deepened to blue. Once an imperial garden, it now feels like one of Beijing’s quietest corners. I wandered its bridges and paths as the lights came on, photographing the lake and the white pagoda reflected in the water.

Finally, I stopped by a brewery tucked inside a nearby hutong. Chatting with the bartender, I learned the owner had studied in the US, where he first picked up brewing. It was amusing to see American techniques carried across the world and poured into pints here in Beijing.