If you got the impression that we experienced Hong-Kong as a rather uncomfortable city to live in, well, then you are perfectly right. So we departed to Beijing with a frown, expecting the metropolis to be similar, or even more difficult. How wrong we were! First of all, we met Wu Jiqing, Steve’s former mathematics study-mate in Darmstadt, who now lives and studies at the ETH Zürich. He will accompany us through China during 2 weeks, whereas he’ll see the different places for the first time, simply like we do. We are very glad to travel with him and don’t know how we will survive in China after his return to Europe. He is not just a great help in organizing things but it is also a pleasure to talk with him about everything we notice and think about.

But this is not the only aspect we like in Beijing, where we stayed at the highly recommendable “Lucky Family Hostel” and met Mathias Boegner, internationally renowned violin player and professor. The city appeared to us totally different from our expectations. Yes, there is smog, but it is bearable and nearly vanishes on the weekend (just a pity that sometimes the view is not very clear). Apart from that, the capital is a fascinating mix of wide and monumental communist architecture, harmonic traditional Chinese style and bold modernity. Due to the large Stalinist-like avenues and the rather low buildings (seldom more than 15 floors), the metropolis appears bright, very bike-friendly and is able to deal with the masses without hassle and stress. Especially in the center there are also many “Hutongs”, old little labyrinthine streets with small houses of not more than two floors, often lined by trees. The atmosphere is so relaxed that you would never think you are in the capital of one of the most dynamic countries of the word. Finally, huge green parks with lovely lakes contribute to the high quality of life.

Not only the city is different from Hong-Kong, also the inhabitants are not comparable. They seem much more relaxed and more human, enjoying the small pleasures of life and are friendlier: the waiters make jokes and play some tricks when they are not serving, they are into kite flying, in the parks you can see street artists and other urban culture, they go a lot by bike, love watching us doing unconventional, nearly forbidden things (like sliding on the handrail of the Great Wall), some people whistle or sing while waiting at the traffic-lights and they really like taking their time in the restaurants. No wonder that in Hong-Kong they consider the people from Beijing to be lazy and frivolous.

We can more identify with inhabitants from the capital city, and so we competed with them in staying at restaurants. Again we tasted lots of different delicious meals, among others the “Peking-duck”.

Of course, we furthermore visited the must-dos in and around the metropolis. We stood on the biggest square of the world, the “Tian’anmen Square”, watching the 3km (really!) long queue to the “Mao-soleum”, where China’s former great chairman is exhibited. He used to steal the life-time of the Chinese and continues doing so after his death. Moreover we visited the “Forbidden City”, which is the old palace of the Emperors. It is really impressive but not overdone and you can feel the greatness of the old Chinese Empire. Not surprisingly there are tons of tourists, but mainly Asian ones who always wanted to take a photo with us, some rare specimens from very far away. This greatness is also obvious at the “Great Wall”. We refused taking an organized tour and went there by public transport, which was the best idea we could have. This world-wonder can hardly be described, it is simply awesome how the wall winds through the astonishingly high mountains. Other beautiful and impressive places of the Empires’ Ages were the “Ming Tombs” and the “Summer Palace”, where the last Emperor lived until the 1960s.