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Published: March 17th 2007
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Uncle Mo
This huge portrait hangs outside the first temple you have to pass before getting to the Forbidden City. After leaving the polluted cities of Xi'an, Pingyao and Datong I arrived at the just as polluted city Beijing - capital of China and home to the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. Arriving close to 6am with a huge backpack and no idea where I was going - I had to get the cab drivers to call Colin for directions - left me as an easy target for the wily cab drivers. Or so they thought. After debating with several different drivers, telling a few to f#$k off and even bartering with a couple BEFORE they knew where I was going I finally managed to secure one who would take me on the meter. Surprise, surprise that no it does not cost 150Y, or even 80Y, but only 30Y. When I finally arrived (Colin and Laura are engaged) I could not believe that I would be staying at such a nice place, with my own room at that! Laura had even been kind enough to clean out most of her clothes in the wardrobe. I plopped my three stuff sacks down on the top shelf and used one of the many hangers to hang up my towel. Both Colin and Laura had
Tianamen
The building in the background is an example of how bloody long they are. work of course, but they left me a key with chinese directions attached and left me to catch up on some much needed sleep. Sleep that I would need for my two weeks in Beijing.
While most of my time has simply been spent wandering the streets, there has been a disproportionate amount spent going out. As a tourist here I have come to refer to myself as 'the excuse'. Night after night someone whom I meet just has to take me out and show me the best club in town or just has to stay with me at The Den to explain the finer points of Chinese culture, life, and the game of rugby. The Den pub which is apart of, or the only venue of any good night out, sponsors the Devils Rugby Club giving half price drinks and half price pizzas to rugby members (and yours truly), and is referred to by Laura as 'the trap.' On my first night in Beijing Laura said that I would get stuck at The Den much like many of the other rugby boys who have made it out here. I didn't believe her. A pub is a pub is
Forbidden City
Entrance to the Forbidden City it not? Well anyway, it seems like at least four nights of the week I would end up here, even if it were after going to a club, or just coming out for a pizza, until the wee hours of the morning. It really is something that you can't explain though maybe the best way would be to say that it never closes, it always feels like it is 21:00, and there is almost guaranteed to be someone in there that you know.
In hasn't all been partying though. I have been working out at a fantastic gym in the Hilton complete with hot tub, steam room, sauna and pool. An old Chinese man brings you a towel for your workout, your shower and any other time he thinks you may need one, and even serves you water to keep you cool in the hot tub. Luxury. I have also been going out to rugby training sessions, and even managed to get into four games during the Ice-Breaker tournament (which we won) hosted by the Beijing Devils and played by teams from all over China. And yes, I have actually managed to see Tianamen Square, Forbidden city and the
Toilets
One of the better public toilets in China...still not great by any stretch of the imagination Great Wall which were all pretty impressive in their own regard. Tianamen Square, though just a square, makes you realize just how huge the city really is with wide streets and incredibly long blocks. Making it worse is the fact that one sole building will take up the entire length of a city block making you feel like you aren't actually getting anywhere. Forbidden City was just as massive but as we've done over the year and a bit I walked through it quickly skipping the old chinese parchments and porcelain bowls that are apparently impressive to some.
My hopes of doing a 10km hike from Jinshaling to Simatai on the Great Wall were dashed by a huge dump of snow the saturday before (imagine walking out of a club at 4am with nothing but a t-shirt to realize that it was cold, damn cold and snowing!) and a dishonest travel agent who told me the roads would still be open. We did still make it up and were able to take in the Great Wonder with an added bonus of snow on the walls and in the mountains. It did make for some treacherous climbing, especially coming down.
Temple
Just one of many massive temples in the Forbidden city with a good amount of pollution hanging in the air. During the visit you could not help but ask
why? as many of the parts have been built on the top of incredibly steep hills where there would unlikely to be anyone cross. There would also be no way to put enough men on any stretch of this wall to defend it properly making the wall probably as useless as the Maginot Line.
While I did also look into teaching english while I was here (a distinct possibility for the future) I have decided to take the new train from Beijing to Lhasa and check out the Tibetan Plateaux (as much as the Police state will allow) before crossing into Nepal for some trekking and maybe even Elephant bathing.
Did you know? There is so little water around Beijing that they have 400 people firing rockets into the air in the hopes to make it rain.
The number 4 is so unlucky that the number is neglected from the elevator in apartments, so people think that floor 4 and 14 do not exist. As an unlucky number (it means death) cell phone numbers with a 4 are at least half the price of the other cell-phone
Great Wall
Taken from one of the unrestored sections of the wall. numbers.
According to Lonely Planet the Beijing municipality is roughly the size of Belgium.
Kids in China have a slit in their pants so that if they have to go to the toilet they can just squat and go right on the road.
Public toilets are small stinky rooms with a trench going down the side and if you are lucky small two foot concrete dividers creating stalls with no doors. It is not uncommon to walk in and have a man facing you while he takes a shit. Glorious!
Free beer and rugby players do not mix well...or perhaps too well depending on who you are and how you look at it. Back-to-back saturdays provided free beer for all those rugby players attending for a few hours. O' Discordia!
China's government controls all the heating in China. Unfortunately this means that the rooms in the apartment are scorching hot all night, so much so that windows must be opened.
The Canadian Embassy is currently constructing higher walls around their compound in an attempt to put an end to North Koreans jumping over and claiming refugee status.
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