The word we hate the most as travellers in China is miǎnfèi, 免费.
It means “free.”
We’re not masochists who embrace capitalism. It’s just that since all the museums operate like this, you can’t book a free ticket. We tried to visit many museums, including the amazing National Museum of China. Ah, ah. It’s like trying to get Taylor Swift tickets. The daily 20,000 spots are booked in seconds on WeChat.
So we went to the Forbidden City instead. It’s cheap but not “miǎnfèi,” so it’s easier to get tickets.
As everybody knows, China boasts a large population, but it’s only in Beijing that I want to shout “人太多!” (“Too many people!”). The subway is packed, as are any streets or shops worth visiting, and, of course, attractions.
Like the Forbidden City. Holy shit… So many people, half of them dressed in Ming or Qing costumes—you can rent them, it’s not exactly something most Chinese have at home…
This morning, we had officially run out of things to do.
“We’ve been everywhere!” Feng complained.
I get it. No, we clearly haven’t been everywhere, but we have visited pretty much all the attractions over the years. This is not our first time in Beijing.
“Let’s bike around Tiananmen, then”, I suggested.
Going to Tiananmen used to pose zero problems. Like, you’d just cross the street and step on China’s most famous square. In 1999, sixteen-year-old me couldn’t wait to see it—I took a taxi alone, and I first heard the famous Beijing accent because “Tiananmen” was “Tiananmerrr” to him.
But last year, we discovered that Tiananmen and the entire Chang’an Jie area are a pain in the ass to access. You have to book your (free) visit a day ahead and go through several security checkpoints. In a way, I get it. It’s a sensitive area with all the famous museums, Mao’s mausoleum, the Great Hall of the People, plus the official residence of Xi Jinping, and more.
“I wish we could just bike around it,” we sighed last year when we were stuck in the security checkpoint lineup.
You can stop people from wandering around, but you can’t really stop traffic.
So we used our phone, the bike-sharing app and our Chinese-language skills to unlock three blue bicycles in Wangfujing. Ta-da!
We taught Mark how to ride a bike during the pandemic, and he trained very hard for a school bike trip that was cancelled at the last minute in June because of a heat wave.
“Well, here’s your bike trip!”
“Do I ride on the sidewalk?”
“Er… nope. On the road. Just pay attention to the buses, cars, motorbikes, scooters, and… You know what, just go between Daddy and me.”
The only rule when biking around Tiananmen is that you can’t stop. Well, no one is going to shoot you if you slow down, this is not the bike version of The Long Walk. And you will be stopped anyway at various checkpoints to show your ID.
And this is how we bike along Tiananmen Square, in front of the Forbidden City and the official residence of Xi Jinping.
Feng and I spent the rest of the night at Hou Hai, a popular lakeside walk with tons of restaurants, bars, and live music.
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