Around Beijing

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Over the last few days we have had a fantastic time in and around Beijing. We independently made our way to one of the best parts of the Great Wall Of China in Samatai. I can't believe it is actually 2 hours out of the centre of Beijing by bus. Even then we had to get a taxi from the local town to the wall. The size of the wall is amazing, and Samatai remains relatively remote from the tourist boom, although you need some good hiking boots because its one hell of a long walk over broken parts of the wall.

We spent some time wondering around the city, and visited the famous Tianamen Square. Of course when we were there we had to re-enact the famous demonstrations by lying down in the middle of the road for a random photo, unfortunately we were just missing the tank!. There were police everywhere, I am surprised we didn't get arrested!

We also wondered around the Forbidden City which was nice but I can't say it was overly impressive. Its more of a tourist trap containing lots of restaurants and coffee shops. Still, the imperial buildings and monuments were really cool to see.

Although it was surprisingly difficult to locate, we managed to make our own way to the new Olympic Stadium. I can't believe that it is only 3 months before the Beijing Olympics. Everywhere in Beijing is a construction site. They look like they are desperately trying to complete the work before the Olympics. I am doubtful everything will be ready. I even helped out with the construction work (Check out the pic!).

Beijing is a really nice city. Its not as crazy as I had been lead to believe. Everything seems to flow with order, it feels safe and has a really good public transport system. People seem friendly, although I do get the occasional nutta shout random Kong Fu noises at me in reference to my Shaolin T-Shirt.

We have managed to book a 24 hour train journey to Shenzhen for tomorrow night.

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Photos

Helping out
there was so much to do even i have been helping out!