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Published: June 24th 2008
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(Day 75 on the road)So I am back in Beijing. The last time I was here I did a lot of the touristy things (Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace), so this time I will try and also see the things that I haven't been to previously. Although I did go back to the Summer Palace, as I only spent about an hour or so there last time, which is definitely not enough for this place. I also went back to the Temple of Heaven, one of the nicest landmarks in Beijing in my opinion. All in all, I spent six days in the city (most of it actually with very nice Anna from Poland whom I had met there), staying at a very cool hostel called Qianmen Hostel, about 400 meters from the Forbidden City, so an excellent location. The hostel was located in the Qianmen Hutong and was an old building with a central, open-air courtyard with the rooms placed around it. Very nice!
My plan for the next few months is to spend the upcoming four weeks here in China, then move to another country for a month (either Vietnam or South Korea, still need to
decide this), and then to come back to China sometime in August. I have tickets for Olympic Games for the end of August for Boxing, Hockey and Softball. After the Games, the plan is to catch a ferry to Japan to meet my friend Ann there.
Even though China has labelled the upcoming Olympic Games the "Green Olympics", there isn't much to show for it in my opinion. If anything, I feel the pollution has gotten worse since I was in Beijing about four years ago. There is a constant thick fog of pollution above the city, and most of the time you cannot see the sun at all. When you can see it, you can actually look straight into it, a strange feeling. There is a statistic that says that one day spent in Beijing is equivalent to smoking 70 (!) cigarettes, imagine! Certainly not a place where I want to live, even though the city itself is amazing.
My foot has also gotten much better. It is far from perfect though, but at least by now I can already walk properly again without limping. However certain movements, like walking on uneven roads etc, bring back the
pain instantly, so I guess this injury will follow me for a some time to come. Being constantly on the move and pretty much walking everywhere doesn't really help, as even on quiet days I am typically walking quite a bit. I assume that on average I am walking anywhere between 5 and 25 kilometers every day, depending on the particulars of the place I am exploring and my activities (spread, availability of public transport, location of sights, efficiency of my route, detours due to getting lost and so on).
I also met two old friends of mine from university, Li and Chris. We and I did our Masters together at UMIST university in Manchester back in 2002/ 2003; Li now works for Siemens here in Beijing, and Chris works for the Swiss government, promoting Switzerland to Chinese businesses. The last time I had met Li was actually in Mainz (Germany) in 2006 for a nice bike-tour along the river Rhine, when she was on a business trip to the Siemens headquarters in Germany. I hadn't seen Chris since 2003, and it was very nice to see them both again! We spent some time sampling some of the nicest
restaurants here in Beijing, but also went to Tian Tan (Temple of Heaven) and the artist quarter 798 together. On my last day in Beijing, I also met a former colleague of mine from Deutsche Bahn AG, Timo. We used to work together in Mainz, Germany, and now Timo is responsible for Business Development in China for Deutsche Bahn AG, and this sure seems like a cool job!
Next stop: Hua Shan (Shaanxi Province, China).
To view my photos, have a look at
pictures.beiske.com. And to read the full account of my journey, have a look at the complete
book about my trip at Amazon (and most other online book shops).
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Kitty
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The hostel
I've checked more info about qianmen hostel. Great location for even cheaper prices compared to the one I used to stay. Thanks for mentioning:)