On my way to Australia, I had a 13-hour stopover in Beijing, the capital of China. I always…
Times visited: 1
Cities visited: Beijing
UNESCO sites visited: 3/59
I’ve had plans to visit China for years, but the notoriously complicated visa process always held me back. Technically, though, I have been to China – during a 13-hour stopover in Beijing on my way to Australia. I’ve also since travelled to Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau, but I personally view those as separate countries.
For my Beijing stopover, I took advantage of the free 72-hour transit visa, which allowed me to leave the airport and explore the city a bit. I had big plans for the day… but things quickly went off track – and it was entirely my own fault. I hadn’t learned any Chinese beforehand and just assumed people would speak some English (I was young and naive….). I paid the price for that mistake by getting completely lost in the metro system for over three hours while trying to make my way to the Imperial Palace.
Eventually, I gave up on navigating the subway and just got out at a random station, using a paper map to guide myself the rest of the way. With about an hour to spare before sunset, I finally arrived at the Imperial Palace and the Forbidden City – one of the top things on my list.
In the end, I didn’t really get to enjoy Beijing the way I’d hoped. The heavy smog made it hard to take any decent photos, and the stress of being lost had drained most of my energy. Still, it was a learning experience – and one I won’t forget anytime soon.