Blogs from Forbidden City, Beijing, China, Asia - page 14

Eindelijk is het dan zover. De ouders van Esther brengen ons naar vliegveld Weeze toe waar we na een bakje koffie inchecken. Daarna gaan we door de security en moeten we nog 1 1/2 uur wachten voordat we aan boord van het Ryanair toestel kunnen welke bijna helemaal vol zit. Precies op tijd gaan we weg en na 50 minuten vliegen landen we al in Stansted. Daar gaan we door de douane, halen onze bagage op en eten we nog wat warms, want we moeten ruim 3 uur wachten voordat we weer opnieuw kunnen inchecken. Gelukkig kunnen we in lekkere stoelen zitten en ontmoeten we nog een Nederlander die ook naar Kuala Lumpur vliegt. Bij de incheckbalie op Stansted is het heel druk. Wij kunnen direct naar een aparte balie, omdat we op internet al hebben ... read more

Hi all We figure that an entry a day might be a bit boring for yous, so as soon as we leave Beijing we will do one every couple of days - we are just so excited to be away and so much to do that we have got carried away! We actually managed to get up early this morning about 8ish, the new American's next door to us had just arrived and they were trying their bests to wake everyone up. We left about 11ish and set off for Jingshan Park which is just opposite The Forbidden City. It has a man made hill in the centre of it with around about 4-5 pavillions on top with views across the city in all directions. It was actually nice and sunny today so the breaze on ... read more

Hi all. Had a bit of a lie in today as I didn’t sleep much last night, think it was the jet lag catching up (that and Russell’s snoring!!). Legs are a bit sore from our Great Wall trip but well worth it. Planned to do something different today but because it’s the 60th anniversary of the PRC on 1st Oct, we were advised to go to the Forbidden City as it will be closed tomorrow. The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty and consists of lots of palace buildings. Spent around 4 hours walking around with our trusty audio guides! Quite an eye opener finding out about randy young emperors and their many concubines (mistresses)! Russell has decided that he should take a ... read more

Hello Everybody! We slept in this morning so didn’t bother with our lessons unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it…Anyway, we took the opportunity to sleep in because we’re getting a bit desperate for sleep now with all the walking we did yesterday at the Temple of Heaven. We got up at about 11:00 and relaxed around the house a bit and eventually left to go see Tiananmen Square. They have a mausoleum there dedicated to Chairman Mao, and inside they have his embalmed body (or a wax double - there’s a bit of conjecture on that matter) where you can file through and by some flowers to rest at his feet (which apparently are collected at the end of the day and resold). Unfortunately, it’s only open until 11:00, so we well ... read more

So our first week of travel is over ... tear. We arrived in Beijing without a hitch. One of my students was on our flight, so we got a ride to our hotel with her dad. We started out the adventure at Tiamenan Square. It turns out that many Chinese haven't seen giant white peeps, so Den and I turned into immediate celebrities. People were sneaking pictures of us left, right and centre and the brave ones actually came up to snap a few shots with us. It was funny and awesome at the same time. We ate some local fares... grilled scorpions on a stick, dumplings, and Tsing Toa beer, which turns out to be an offical sponsor of the NBA??? Yeah, sure. We checked out the Silk Market, Peal Market and shopping malls (more ... read more