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Published: February 3rd 2009
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Beijing Day 74
You know before I start writing all about Beijing I though I would add a little bit on hear about home...... You know that place it took me 4 years to grow the bollocks to come out hear travelling. I do at times miss home Family, Friends, the odd random night out where you know it's going to be a good one, but after 74 days travelling or 77 as I am typing this, you relies that those people and place are not going anywhere, it will be the same weather I go home tomorrow or 200 days time, so anyone that has ever had itchy feet forget the job, forget the people you are going to miss as this really is once in a life time opportunity. Anyway that's the heart to heart out the way with my blog readers back to Beijing.
First impressions of Beijing are good for once I have a good first impression of a city. It's clean and modern I guess maybe as the Olympics have only just finished has a lot to do with that? Talking of the Olympics today that where Ceri and I went, I was so looking
forward to getting on that track and running the 100m that Usain bolt smashed the world record at, was going to see how much slower I was than him as a kid I was not to bad at the 100m. Unfortunately thought the track was covered up as there were so many people at the bird nest, I so the China people don't wreck the track. The Bird Nest it's self is an amazing stadium, but does looks like the designer just scribbled over stadium drawing and said that would do. The swimming pool stadium which name I can not spell cus I am useless at spelling we did not get to go in as the queues were about an hour long so we deiced to just head to the park at the back of the long road. It must of been snowing in Beijing a few days ago as the lake at the back of the park was frozen and they had snow (you had to pay to get in the field with snow???) Ceri wanted to walk across the lake that was frozen and I said she was mental as it was not freezing temperature today so to
prove its not safe I deiced to throw a big rock in to the center of the frozen lake. As I done this some guard started shouting at me so pretending not to notice I walked away quickly lol.
Beijing Zoo
Ceri and I thought that we have seen elephants, Lions, Buffalo's, Tigers, Sharks so though while in China you have to see the great Panda. Beijing zoo was surprising big and the panda were great to see but most of them where just sitting down looking really board and depressed. I think they were almost extinct at some point then the China people started a breading program which has gone well. Whats more impressive at this zoo is they have dinosaurs........ Ok I am sure that it's not a donors but it bloody well is nothing I have seen before in my life its like a half cross between a Rhino and some sort of dinosaur the photos have not turned out that well but have a look I have no idea what it is.
Great wall
We deiced to do a 13k terk along the great wall from Jiayuguan to Shanhaiguan. The good thing about this
part of the wall is the fact that not many people were on it. The trek it self was not to bad but did take 3 hours to complete the 13k hike where we were told takes about 4 hours. The only bad thing about the wall was the local farmers that followed us for about one hour trying to get us to buy things. There really is only so many times you can say no thank you before you feel horrible and guilty for not buying something. The part of the wall between Jiayuguan and Shanhaiguan has not yet been rebuilt so parts of the wall are falling over and some times it gets really thin and dangerous so you have to walk around it. The views all around are of green fields and its very peaceful and we only was about 10 other tourist on the wall for the whole 3 hours. At the end of the wall we got the zip line down over the river which just saves another 30 min walk. All in all though this has been the highlight of China so far, its a pitty that our tour guide did not know more
about the wall apart from that its 4000 miles long and one side of the wall was Beijing and the other Mongolia.
Temples of Beijing
I am a little disappointed with the temples of Beijing it's like you seen one you have seen them all. The first one we went to was the temple of heaven which was surrounded by a lovely garden but only took us around 2 hours to walk around it. The most disappointing temple of them all has to be the Forbidden City. Locked away for 500 years or so and when you get in there, there is not much to see. It did take a while to walk from one end to the other then back again but we were not stopping much as there really was not much to see. The place was really busy though as it's China new year.
Summer Palace - This temple or park was massive and was nice to walk around. Ceri and I met up with Mark and Jenna who we met on moon hill in yangshou. We walked around the park for 6 hours and still did not set to see everything. The lake was frozen
and you had a lot of mad china people walking on the ice that looked a little to thin for my liking but hay these China people are mad.
I have just read this all back through and the spelling, grammer and they way I have written it has to be my worst yet but very bored on the PC now and off to get a nice warm cup of tea to the next time.
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