Advertisement
Published: April 14th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Hi everybody,
Leslie and I have been very, very busy since last we posted. The game really started yesterday afternoon when we were given our booklet of scavenges yesterday afternoon—85 tasks in all!! We hit the ground running and not two blocks from the hotel met up with a group of Chinese students who could speak English!!! We asked them a few questions, translations, etc. then we all went to a tea house together. There, we sampled cups (thimbles, really) of different teas for a least an hour. Then, we all ate this amazing meal of noodles, peiking duck, tofu, bok chou, and more. Afterwards, we went with our new friends down the Street of Snacks where they sold just about everything edible (and quite a few things I didn’t know were) that you could stick on a stick. There were snakes and bugs and pineapple and meat and prawns and you name it. Since we had just eaten, we didn’t sample anything.
After the night market, we went to a Karaoke lounge. We went into this private room where there was a karaoke machine, a TV and a couple microphones. We partied there for a couple of hours
before heading back to the hotel for some sleep for the next day.
Then there was today. After breakfast, we teamed up with another team and hired a taxi to take us to the Great Wall. Wow! Amazing to think what went into building it. Also, I rode a donkey up there and Leslie hopped on a camel.
After up and down the stairs of the Great Wall, it was on to the Summer Palace. Going through the gates from the mundane modern city into the palace area was a little like Dorthy going into OZ. It is a huge complex of pagodas and temples surrounding a huge lake (think Sproat Lake). We took a dragon boat across the lake, climbed up Longevity Hill (damn, more climbing—my calves are killing me), walked along the Long Corridor, over a 17 arched bridge to an island, then hopped into the taxi and headed back to downtown Beijing.
There, we explored a street where they sold mostly artwork, carvings, ink drawings etc. looking for a particular address that we couldn’t find but appeared to be a construction site. Time was marching on though as we rushed off to watch the
lowering of the flag in Tiananmen Square at dusk.
That task complete, we had to look for a taxi driver who knew where our hotel was (a whole eight blocks away!) and went back to the room, did a quick clean up, and went out to dinner. And, now I’m writing you all!
Even though it has been very hectic, I’m really enjoying this trip and so is Leslie. I’m thinking I might wish that I had booked off for a few days on a beach somewhere immediately after this is over….
We just wanted to let everyone know a little taste of what we are doing and will write with some more details on some of the adventures when we have a moment 😉
Take care
Advertisement
Tot: 0.032s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 6; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0145s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb