wan·der·lust: Beijing, A Bargain, and The Bet

So far, each day that we head home from a day of sightseeing around Beijing, Scott and I are crawling home. It’s not as if we’re coming home at 2 am after a night of bar-hopping or even at 11 pm. Yesterday and today, we’ve come home between 8 and 9 pm, and yet our eyes are heavy, our feet are aching, our energy is utterly drained.

Beijing is a big city. I’ve known this. Memories of Beijing have always included a lot of walking on endless grey blocks and vast distances between each destination. Also, there seems to be this constant truth when walking around Beijing – you will inevitably have to backtrack and do a lot more walking than originally intended, either because you are lost or because the Chinese government has decided to shut down whole city blocks and make them un-walkable for pedestrians.

Alas, there is now something amazing in Beijing that wasn’t there during my previous trips to Beijing – the subway. The Beijing subway is the last true bargain in Beijing, a city that has become grossly expensive.

Okay, there are people who may not agree with my use of “grossly,’ but for someone who’s just come off of months of traveling through India and Southeast Asia, Beijing is not a welcoming city for those who are on a budget. Back in 2001, my boyfriend at the time and I were able to get a hotel room in Beijing for US$12. Now, two beds in a crowded 6-bed hostel room costs more than that. The lowest price for a double that we’ve been able to find is US$27. This may not sound like a lot, but we were just paying US$5 for an ultra-clean, spacious room in Battambang, Cambodia with a TV and a fridge. Besides room prices, food seems to be on the rise as well. We’re hard-pressed to find a meal for two for under US$5.

Which is why it’s so refreshing to walk underground to the subway and pay 2 yuan (US33 cents) for a ride anywhere in the city. There are over 10 subway lines that go all over the city and it’s easy to navigate the system and figure out transfers. Today, Scott and I went from the Forbidden City to the Summer Palace to the Olympic Park and back to our neighborhood all for a US dollar each. Amazing. Public transportation in Beijing is a definite highlight of this ever-modernizing, ever-growing, ever-reaching city.

During one of our subway rides today, I was lamenting to Scott how expensive Beijing has become. More than half the tourists that are in this city are Chinese from other parts of the country, so much of the tourist infrastructure is geared towards middle to upper class Chinese and they certainly doll out the cash easily. There is no hesitation to buy a meal at KFC for US$4 or a Frappacino at Starbucks for US$5 or an endless number of trinkets. People who come to Beijing have money, including the Chinese tourists.

I commented to Scott that not only are prices rising here, the Chinese Yuan (or RMB) is rising as well. I asked him, “Do you think, in our lifetime, the Chinese dollar will ever be equal to the US?” Scott was more than certain that the day would come, in our lifetime, when China’s currency surpassed the US’s. I wasn’t as gong-ho. After some discussion on the year, Scott and I made a bet. By January 1^st, 2040, Scott bets the Chinese dollar will be better than the US. I disagree. Whoever wins has to take the other on a weekend away to whatever destination the winner picks. Let’s see who’s right.