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Biking in Beijing

After 28 hours we finally arrived at our first hostel in Beijing 01:00 am in the night. We had booked a double room with own bathroom in "Lucky Family Hostel". We got a room with bunk beds from one of the family members on the roof of the house, the bathroom in another building. " We are overbooked!" Our vacation starts well ...
Nevertheless we can highly recommend this house. It is located in one of Beijings hutongs (historic small roads). As there is no public traffic, it is very quite during the night. Only a 5 minute walk away you have access to Beijing Metro, to restaurants and shops. The team of Lucky Family is very friendly and well informed about everything. No wonder that travellers from all over the world meet here. The price for this accommodation is quite high compared with other chinese hostels. Though Beijing prices. Nevertheless we could get the first night on the rooftop appartment for free. For the second night we changed to our booked room.
On the flight from Shanghai to Beijing there was no meal offered. What to do after midnight in the hutongs? We tried to find some open foodstall or street kitchen but all the shops and restaurants were closed. Only 1 kitchen on the road with some drunken chinese men was open. We took our dinner at 2 am. For Manuela the first experience with sticks in mainland china. It worked surprisingly good, she is still alive.
At 3 am a short night started as we wanted to visit the forbidden city this day.
During the breakfast we were informed that the forbidden city is closed every monday.
So we changed our plan and rented two Mountainbikes (available at Lucky's for 30 RMB per day).

Later on our trip to the great wall a columbian family told us that the forbidden city is opened on mondays. Only the Mausoleum is closed!
After a maintanance session with the bikes - adjusting the seats, repair the brakes, fill the tires - we started exploring Beijing by bike.
One of the highlights: the temple of heaven, a huge garden area with forests, temples and ... some geocaches. Unfortunately we had to keep the bikes outside.

Very disappointing for us was the area Wangfujing, a touristic part of Beijing east of Tiananmen square. We were told that it' s possible to eat scorpions, snakes and other exotic food here. Nevertheless you cannot say "eat" but only taste. To satisfy your hunger you need to spend lots of money. The people there know how to make money. They offer a stick with 3 crabs for 25 RMB. After you received your order you have to pay 75 as the price is valid for only one of the crabs on the stick. Thank you! We decided to leave our stomacks empty and leave this tourist spot as we have planned to enjoy a famous Beijing duck tonight.

Next destinations: Beihei Park, the hutongs east of Beihei and a local brewery.
Shortly before it got dark, we reached our home at Lucky's. We prepared ourself for dinner at "Ghost road" where it should be possible to find a restaurant offering Beijing roasted duck. We found a place where it was possible to order only half a duck. And we waited and waited and waited. After more than one hour we asked for our food and were told that the duck will be finished in about 90 minutes. We were so stupid! The ducks are prepared for order! Nobody told us that we have to wait for about 3 hours. We balanced our bill for the beers and left ... with empty stomacks again. Empty stomacks in China, unbelievable!
Where to go now? Half past eleven? Yes, to the same kitchen on the road as yesterday.
Day 2 ended again late at 1 am.

See more pictures below.
Unfortunately Travelblog.org does not allow to place pictures exactly where they are relating to the text.

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