Blogs from Forbidden City, Beijing, China, Asia - page 2

Thursday 13th September Was picked up from my hotel by my organised tour guide at 6:45am and was off to see the Summer Palace, Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven. After a couple of pickups of other tourists we headed out to a glorious blue sky and sun. First stop Summer Palace. I won't go into the history or things to see but was a worthwhile trip. Next stop was a tour of a fresh water pearl shop. Obviously these additional stops were used to give the tour guide and driver commission on anything sold. So after being shown the different between a fresh water oyster and an ocean oyster (fresh water holds at least 20 to 30 pearls where as the ocean oyster only has 1) we headed to lunch at a local Chinese ... read more

Vuur vuur! De avond voordat we vertrekken hebben de hete lucht geluksballon die ik van mijn oud collega's heb gekregen opgelaten. Heel mooi maar wel een beetje dom want er stond veel te veel wind. Maar goed onze geluksballon waait niet op het nieuwe rieten dak van de buren maar in een hoge boom waar de vlam gelukkig langzaam uitbrandt... Onze Lufthansa vlucht gaat volgens plan en vrijdagochtend 13 juli staan we op het mooie, moderne en vooral gigantische vliegveld van Peking. En gigantisch is wel het keywoord van deze stad, of het nu om metroafstanden, paleizen, tempels, pleinen, mensenmassa's of muren gaat!We slapen in een sfeervol hostel vol planten in een hutong in het centrum. Een hutong is een sfeervol buurtje met allemaal steegjes en gelijkvloerse huisjes die helaas in rap tempo worden vervangen door ... read more

So we just got back from a 7 day vacation through Xi'an and Beijing. Both cities were a lot more commercial and industrial than Chengdu. Xi'an was not my favorite place so far, the hostel was super fun and we met a ton of people from all different countries that were our age, but the city didn't have too many major attractions. The shopping was excellent though, and I had to stop myself from buying the seven puppies for sale on the side of the road. We took a 17 hour train to Xi'an which was an experience to say the least. Each train car is set up with rows of triple bunk beds, and we had the bottom bunks. We spent the next 17 hours with questionable people sitting on our beds and a very ... read more

Cheguei ao meu hotel em Pequim na hora do almoço segunda e passei a tarde de bobeira no meu quarto. De noite fomos a uma livraria/café/bar em Sanlitum, o bairro dos gringos e participamos de um quiz – ficamos em penúltimo hahahha. Terça passei o dia enrolando no trabalho, mas n vi meu supervisor então não podia fazer nada. Ainda super cansada da viagem, recebi a notícia de que não era p ir trabalhar no dia seguinte. O que me falaram foi que teria uma reunião de assunto sensível no prédio e que não era p estagiário ir trabalhar – suspeito que seja estagiário estrangeiro, mas enfim, adorei receber o dia de folga. Não sei se eu mencionei antes, mas o lugar q eu trabalho (Academia Chinesa de Planejamento Urbano) tem um prédio só nosso e ... read more

I went to Heaven Temple and I witnessed a nice patriotic chorus old people singning in an ensemble. They were surranded other old people that did not play domino not bowling but cards. A long, long line of groups of players with poker cards playing something that made them sweat and laught. The Heaven Temple is an old nice building completly abandone in a nice park where I join a class of body exersice as a Chinese women explain me. But it was not body exercise at all. It was mainly hand movemnts that envigorate your soul after repeting some sayings the teacher was shouting before us. It was like clapping with different parts of the hand, between them and on your body. But actually the body does not moved it. It was not taichi, not ... read more

Sleeping on the train was actually OK. I managed to change into trackpants and T-shirt and had a doona if I felt cold. While I woke various times during the night (including when some of the people went in and out of the room, sometimes stepping on my lower bed), I got a lot of sleep until the attendant came in at 7am and announced the time (we were due in at 7.25am). We were told that our local guide, Leon, would meet us at the platform but once the platform cleared there was no one in sight. Fortunately I had been given his phone number, so I gave him a call. He was running late and advised to wait. Yet another example of the benefits of getting a local SIM card before starting my trip ... read more