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Published: October 20th 2012
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14
th – 18
thOctober 2012
Beijing
We arrived in Beijing after a great night sleep. The nearest subway was a good 10 minute walk away so off we trot. The public transport system is not as extensive as Shanghai was but it was still cheap; 10p on the bus to anywhere and 20p on the tube regardless of distance. We had pre-booked our hotel which makes this 3
rd part of travelling a lot easier without having to turn up to a place and then search for the best accommodation.
Our hotel was near the city centre and down one of the alley ways that Beijing is famous for. We decided to freshen up and off we went to take a look around. We walked down to the main high street, and found a food court where we had crispy duck with rice, however it was a little cold but for only £2 you cannot complain. I popped to the toilets and discovered they were the squat style loos which is not uncommon for China. I walked down the row of toilets and was shocked that no one had shut the doors until I
realised there were no doors. I was so desperate and as no one else seemed to care I chose the final loo down the corridor and went as quick as I could – oh the loss of dignity whilst travelling!!
We spent the afternoon walking around Tiananmen Square which is located in the centre of Beijing. There is some magnificent buildings to see and as the night fell the army marched out to lower down the Chinese flag for the end of day ceremony, exactly what we had seen in Xian but this time in front of thousands of tourists.
The next day we had to go to the train station to book our 24hr sleeper train to Hong Kong. However the train had completely sold out except for hard seater class. We decided we would have to fly as there would be no chance of sleeping in seater class that would be over crowded and we would be worn out for when we get to Hong Kong. I would have to search for flights that evening and hope they are not too much. As it was the afternoon we
decided to head to the Forbidden City. This was the imperial palace for 24 emperors during the Ming and Qing dynasties. It was built around the 14
th century. There were so many tourists there but was nice to wonder through the old buildings and gardens. We then ventured into Jing Shen park where you can climb up to the top of the hill and it provided a great view over the Forbidden City. Mot tourists around Beijing are in fact Chinese, I guess it is such a large country you could spend every holiday discovering a new part.
That evening we walked down the main street which had a long row of food markets. We tried the fried dumplings but they were simple veg ones and pretty boring to be honest. We then decided to head to another food hall which we had a nice noodle with meat dish and they had western style toilets this time! On the way back we picked up a fruit on a stick which had kiwi, pineapple, tomato (bit odd) apple and melon which had been covered in sugar toffee (like a toffee apple) was so good. The food
market had some interesting food to sample including spiders, beetles and scorpions – gross and no we did not try any.
That evening we booked out flight to Hong Kong, it had set us back £115 each but as we are meeting my mom there we have no choice but to ensure we arrive on time and this does mean we have an extra day in Beijing.
The next day we had a well deserved lie in and decided to go to the most popular restaurant for the famous duck and pancakes which first originated in Beijing. This was called Danong. Took us around half hour to walk to and when we arrived it looked very posh. We had heard that you cannot get in on an evening so we thought at 2.30pm we should be alright. It was pretty empty and we got a lovely table right by the window. We asked for the duck and pancakes and we would share one duck. The chef came out to our table and started to carve the duck in front of us. The duck had been roasted and the chef began
to thinly slice the duck unlike the duck we had had back home where it is all shredded. It supposedly is half the fat as they use less oil compared to the usual duck we have back in the UK. Was really delicious and we managed to finish is all off! Definitely the best food we have eaten in China so far!
What I really hate here in China is the way the Chinese people rush on to the train before you can even get off and you have to push your way off the train or be stuck on it forgever, however saying that as the days went on it did feel a bit good shoving a few people out the way as you are bigger then them – jeez what has happened to me, but it become like a challenge, as your station approaches you have to get ready, starting pushing towards the door and as soon a they open keeping pushing. It’s the short old ladies you have to watch out for here they really shove you and somehow manage to get past you! Another thing you notice in China as soon as you
get off the plane is the way everyone spits everywhere. Supposedly it is not as bad as it used to be as people used to spit in restaurants and on the train before it was disallowed, however in the street there is always someone snorting their nose loudly or coughing up phlegm and spitting it out, even the women. This is something I could never get used to. Terry blew his nose the other day on the train and everyone looked at him in disgust, I was shocked, I think they must think we are dirty blowing into a tissue rather than onto the ground!! Errrrrrrrr
Anyway grumble over, we took the subway over to the Beijing Olympic park. The subway was packed as always. Funny to see Terry towering above everyone else though. Even I feel tall here.
It was really busy and the stadium was a really cool building to look at.
That evening we decided on an early night as we wanted to get up early to go visit the Great wall of China. So we got a few cans of Yanjing beer in
and packet of crisps but at 45pence a can it would be rude not too.
We decided to get the 8am train to Bedaling to see the Great wall as it was only 60p on the train and is the most easiest section of the wall to get to on your own, even though this supposedly means it will be full of tourists. We thought if we got there early it may not be so bad. The train was actually very slow going and we didn’t get there till around 9.30am and it looked very busy.
However we managed to walk for 40 minutes and soon found we had the wall to ourselves. It was incredible to see definite worth coming to Beijing for to see. You can see it rolling out over the mountains, and as it was Autumn the leaves were changing colour on the trees, I reckon we picked the best time of the year to come here! We spent around 4 hours walking as far as we could along the wall, it was very steep in places so we were totally pooped by the time we
got back.
We have really enjoyed China, the food has not been as great as we hoped, we could not find the typical Chinese food you get to the restaurants in England which we thought was quite funny. We were lucky we were in the Cities as not many Chinese people speak English, and what with the Chinese symbols too, many signs did have the English name too but I imagine outside the cities it would be a struggle.
Next stop is Hong Kong where we meet my mom at the airport!!
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