Advertisement
Published: September 20th 2011
Edit Blog Post
Hi everyone here is the first blog of the new trip. It’s taken a while as I couldn’t access the blog in China due to internet restrictions (no Facebook either!). The internet speeds in China were also slow and there haven’t been many internet café’s in Hong Kong so I’ve purchased a cheap Asus Netbook which is great for the blogging! Thanks to everyone for the good parties and gatherings in July and August it was great to catch up before leaving.
So the plan is China/Hong Kong, Oz, New Zealand for the RWC and South America with a few cheeky side trips along the way but I’ll leave those as a surprise for you! The second time travelling has been just as exciting so far but also easier in terms of getting around with the practice from before.
The trip started on 17th August at Heathrow terminal five which was impressive. The flight from London to Beijing was packed with Chineese with lots of Harrods and Selfridges shopping bags! The inflight shopping was also busy and I was giving them tips on which Whisky to buy. Beijing airport was huge and very modern-3 runways it took 20 minutes to taxi
to the gate. Inside it took another 20 minutes to get to the temperature detectors and immigration (we are called “Aliens”!) but it all went smoothly and I was soon picking my bags up, exchanging GBP into RMB Yuan and on route to the center with the Hostel pick up service. Beijing Downtown Packers is in a great location on Nanluogu Xiang Hutong, a very appealing Hutong (traditional street with lots of alleyways and “alcoves” – great word alcoves!). There are lots of laidback cafes, boutiques and restaurants and in the backstreet alcoves many fascinating street scenes going (avoid the toilets though if you can).
The first night was an early one but I managed to find the Shicha lake area via a short cut through the Hutongs and a nice restaurant overlooking the lake area. The curry was amazing and the beer cheap and cold! On Saturday it was time to do some serious sightseeing and Tian’anmen Square and the Forbidden City met my expectations and there were a couple of hundred thousand Chineese tourists who had the same idea. The FC is huge with 800 buildings and 9,000 chambers and the earliest structures began with Kublai Khan
(Genghis’s grandson) during the Mongel/Yuan dynasty (1271-1368) however the plan of the palace building date from the later Ming dynasty (1368-1644). You’ll see from the pictures that the structures were built exactly in line according to yin and yang, the balance of negative and positive and stood in the exact centre of Beijing. On Saturday night I went to the lake area again with Andrew a fellow Travel Blogger who lives and works in Beijing and provided some great tips for China along with the food and beer-thanks Andrew!
On Sunday I got the Underground (20 pence per journey anywhere on the network!!) to the Temple of Heaven which was also very impressive and less busy than the FC. In the evening the hostel arranged a traditional Chineese Acrobat show that was amazing. The Summer palace on the Monday was a highlight of the visit and much better than I was expecting. It’s a vast park with a lovely lake where you can do a boat trip. There are also lots of old buildings and the Palace itself has great views of the lake. Again there were plenty of tourists here (43,000 on the Monday and 67,000 on Sunday
according to the visitor information post board) and many of them wanted to have their picture taken with a westerner!!!! The Great Wall trip on Tuesday with the Hostel was great and we went to the Mutianyu section of the wall and also the Ming Tombs. In the evening some of us from the hostel went out for Dinner and some drinks the youngsters went clubbing after until 3am! On the Wednesday I went to the silk market for some shopping, the Capital museum for some culture and history lessons and then the night train to Xian...i hope everyone is ok back home and that you're enjoying the blogs. Watch this space for Xian, Chengdu, Emei Shan, Guilin, Logji Rice Terraces, Yangshuo and Hong Kong. This Thursday I fly to Melbourne and then Auckland the following week for the RWC!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.098s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 12; qc: 26; dbt: 0.0744s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Eve Mean
non-member comment
Great Trip Rob! Hope you can manage to pop in to see Mick and Sue in NZ. Mum xx