Beijing

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We flew with china air to beijing from Bangkok and arrived at 6.30am bleary eyed. Straight away we were quoted 490 Yuan for a taxi to our digs, luckly I had heard through a guide book it was about 100 Y, so unlucky that taxi driver. We stayed for 4 days and 3 nights at a small hostel near the Forbidden City called "Sitting on the Walls" Its whats called a Hutong which is an ancient type of home for all the family.Its very narrow lanes make it very difficult to find but we did with a little help from the locals. The owners Rick and Rachel were great,they spoke english and helped us explore the best of Beijing except "the Great Wall"!We tried twice without luck to get there. The train was booked up once we arrived at the station(you can't reserve local trains)after a bus journey of half an hour,so we went to the zoo instead to see the Pandas. The second time we thought we would get there early,but not early enough, so off to the bus station by tube to get the 919 bus to The Great Wall. Did I tell you it was a Saturday and there are more chinese tourists than any other nationality. Many 919 buses in a line leaving every 5 mins.,queues with hundreds waiting, that was that off we went to the Birds Nest at the Olympic Centre instead. We have another 7 weeks to fit in the Wall somewhere else. With such a short stay we fitted in the usual tourist attractions, Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, BaiHai Park, Zoo, Summer Palace, Birds Nest, Jingshan Park and the Lama Temple.....alot of walking.What a big city with crazy driving and spitting everywhere! A culture shock some what but I feel it'll get more difficult once we head north to Shenyang and then to Tongue.

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Photos

Ruined Photo!
On self timer the camera caught these two rascals, I think it improves the frame,no?

Keep off the grass, please
We have seen a few variations since.

The Water Cube
Where they swam in 2008.

Golden Tripod outside Lama Temple
We were starved and by chance came upon this restaurant, what a find, delicious and open 24hrs!

No he's in a zoo
The chinese in the zoo were spitting on the panda to make it move or get a reaction. They were also shouting at the lions and tigers or in fact anything, so that they could get the right photo!