Beijing, China

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We took a flight from Yichang up to Beijing and on the first day went to the Xiushui Silk Market where quite a few in the group had some suits and dresses made. The market was seven floors of crazy shopping and you could buy everything from jewellery to clothes to handicrafts. The bargaining here is as intense as I have ever seen but a lot of fun to watch. You could spend hours here but we just shopped for about 4 hours on the first day and would return later for more!

We spent one of the days in Beijing visiting the most popular sights such as Tiananmen Square and The Forbidden City. We even got up at 5am to see the flag-raising ceremony that takes place in the square everyday at exactly sunrise and sunset. We went at sunrise thinking the square would not be so crowded as the evening ceremony but several thousand other people must have had the same idea.

Another highlight of China was the trip we did to the Great Wall. We drove about 2 hours to section of the wall known as Mutianyu. It was not very crowded and we were blessed with perfect blue skies.

One of the most interesting things to do in Beijing is take a walk through its Hutong districts which are fast being wiped out to make way for new building projects, particularly with the 2008 Olympics approaching. The hutongs are old districts with narrow winding streets and street stalls. Its a good place to people watch, try local food and take pictures.

On our last night with the group we went to a restaurant to try Peking Duck which was delicious. We had a fun time getting there by public bus too, see the picture below which we endured for about 1 1/2 hours!

I said goodbye to mum and the rest of the group in Beijing and then took another overnight train to Shanghai in order to get the boat to Japan.

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