Advertisement
Published: March 8th 2006
Edit Blog Post
ok this is the first entry. this is going to be a massive first entry because i only discovered this site a couple of days ago despite a lot of time spent at this computer on the internet. we arrived in beijing on the 2nd of feb. plane flight was great the plane was huuuuge. anyway had a slight hiccup when we arrived becuase despite the emphasis in heathrow of trying to make sure my bag wasn't left in paris which was where we changed flights...it got left in paris. it wasn't actually that bigger deal becuase on the good side i got a free shite t-shirt and a free washbag curtesy of some asian guy. nice. anyway it was also very cold when we arrived and within a couple of days it was snowing i mean it was firmly in the minus degrees. we're welcomed by our respectable and wonderful host tee and tracy who are the very nicest people in the world.
the next day tee took us to beijing, they live just outisde central beijing and showed us about tinamunnen square and silk market and left us outside the forbidden palace thinking we were going to go in
there , instead we went back to the silk market and decided to put our bargaining skill up to the test and bought well mika bought lots more clothes despite spending 200 something quid in uk getting ready for this trip, what a fool she was when we saw the prices here, it awesome. but we still got ripped off badly which we dicoved when we got back home and tee and tracy laughed in our faces when we told them how much we payed which we thought was a repectable price.
having sated our need for spending we visited the forbidden city the next day and it is massive and very impressive, some of the building we saw were closed but it was ok and despite it being ancient, 1000's of years old there is still a starbucks in the center so do not fear, the west is inching its way in.
we went to temple of heaven which has a cool echo wall there. its a semi circle and if two of you speak at the wall on either side you can here the other person speaking to you which is preetty cool but really hard to accomplish
becuase there are so many tourists shouting you can't tel whos voice is whos and if its a voice from the other side or the guy shouting next to
you.
Dave
mikas first entry:
So Dave took you up to the temple of heaven, which was amazing. It was snowing that day and we just wondered through this emperors garden and it was so beautiful and peaceful that when you arrive back in the city you feel like you have just walked out of some dream... The Summer Palace was very much the same, we spent an entire day there..just enjoying it and wondering around. In the centre of the palace is a huge lake with an island and temple in the middle and because it was so cold the entire lake was frozen and so we could walk all the way across to the island and out the other side..it was beautiful..with the snow, ice, traditional buildings and willows...
That day we also walked through the hutong, which is where most of the Chinese live. they have no running water or heating and live in these sort of make shift huts all crowded together..the entire city used to
be that way, which for us seems impossible as in the last five years Beijing has totally modernised and there are high-rise builidings, neon lights and taxis everywhere..there is hardly a bicycle to be seen now..but it doesn't take long to turn off a main road and find one of these hutongs which is the real china..
So we did all the tourist sights...great wall, (which was the coldest i have ever been in my life, our scarf literally froze into shap[e around our necks)Ming Tombs, The palaces and gardens, the antiques markets (huge) the food markets, and even the aquarium.. we mastered the art of chopsticks (some better than others might add..) and the riding of the subway and even some basic Chinese and were treated to many meals outby the people we were staying with..they took us all over town from scummy bars playing scar rock music, to traditional restaurants with live music and even to their child school for food.. and made us eat everything from intestines to brains and chicken feet and even eyeballs..but that was a wonderful experience although I don't think I’ll ever appreciate a Chinese take away again..
Anyway..we so enjoyed our first
week here..always at the back of our minds waiting for my malaria tablets to arrive from the UK after I forgot them, but one week turned to two and two to three and as I write we have been here over a month and they still have not arrived. I can safely say that we exhausted everything there was to do here a at least two weeks ago and so Dave has been mercilessly been forced to play more and more computer games and I have been forced to make many more visits to the silk market to shop... but even that got boring. and so I spent too much money buying a whole new set of malaria tablets..and so today we are off...
And to those of you who say it is typical that I would forget my malaria tablets and hold up our trip by an entire month.. I would like to tell you that I remembered everything else.
xxx
Advertisement
Tot: 0.169s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 7; qc: 56; dbt: 0.1275s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Tank
non-member comment
Looks cool (no pun intended)
Sounds like you guys are having a pretty good time. Hopefully it will start getting warmer for you, it looks far too cold for my liking.