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Background: For centuries China stood as a leading civilization, outpacing the rest of the world in the arts and sciences, but in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the country was beset by civil unrest, major famines, military defeats, and foreign occupation. After World War II, the Communists under MAO Zedong established an autocratic socialist system that, while ensuring China's sovereignty, imposed strict controls over everyday life and cost the lives of tens of millions of people. After 1978, his successor DENG Xiaoping and other leaders focused on market-oriented economic development and by 2000 output had quadrupled. For much of the population, living standards have improved dramatically and the room for personal choice has expanded, yet political controls remain tight.

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By chloes
October 4th 2008

Day 22: Beijing China

Asia » China » Beijing » Tian'anmen

Day 22: Breakfast
The sweetest bread in the world. 4 types of it.

Update to come - read what we did in the photo captions! [View Full Entry]

By Al and Gem
October 4th 2008

Beijing and the Great Wall

Asia » China » Beijing

Mongoilan sunset

We arrived in China a few days ago. We crossed the border without problems and the young soldier who had been sent to watch us over the border in our carriage was desperate to speak to us in english. He was very friendly and gave a good first impression. We arrived in Beijing the following morning (we were getting a bit restless on overnight trains now) and we were eager to get to the hotel. The first thing that hit us were the number of people. It is so so busy here. The station was packed like a football stand. We [View Full Entry]

By Sandijoy
October 4th 2008

Holiday in Beijing and X'ian

Asia » China » Beijing » Great Wall of China

Praying mantis outside my apartment

After just under a month of teaching, I found myself on a week of holiday time. A small group of us ventured by plane first to Beijing for 3 days and then on to X'ian for another 3. Visiting Beijing on my own terms was much nicer than the whirlwind tour I took 4.5 years ago. I actually got a sense of the city. On the first day, we went to the Forbidden City and T'ianamen Square again, but while everyone else went to the Temple of Heaven I went through one of Beijing's Hutongs (the walled-off sections of housing that [View Full Entry]

By Curtis and Monica Gallivanting Abroad
October 4th 2008

Summer Palace and the Great Wall of China

Asia » China » Beijing » Great Wall of China

Summer Palace
Main Buddha Temple

The last two days here in China has been very exciting with one day venturing out to the Summer Palace and yesturday was our Great Wall day trip. To get to the Summer Palace we decided to take the city bus. Which the girls working at the hostel said it was easy. Ya, it's easy when you can read which stop you are suppose to get off. Getting there was slightly confusing but being only lost once in Beijing for the week is not to bad. We were suppose to take our first bus to the terminal stop close to the [View Full Entry]

By Gus
October 4th 2008

Michael Zernow and TaiShan

Asia » China » Beijing

Holy cow today is the 4th of October. Its October already. Really? Zhende ma? P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY GABBY! So, as per my title, I have a really cool story about one of my best friends. For those of you who don't know our little Traverse City "Survivor" celebrity, Michael is a busy guy and travels the world doing parkour and dance performances. Last Friday night I was walking down Sanlituin (a great bar street with fun dance clubs and such) with 3 of my guys friends on my way to a birthday shindig for a British girl friend, when all of [View Full Entry]

By PeteB
October 4th 2008

Ulaan Baatar - Beijing

Asia » China » Beijing

The cabins were very cramped!!!

Day 33 - Friday 3rd October - Got up early for breakfast. Our transfer was at 7.20am and we only had 20mins to eat so i opted for non melted cheese on toast. Our train for Beijing departed at 8.05am. It was a much better journey this time as all the people we had met were in our carriage so we felt like we owned the place. There was this one guy there though who juggled a lot and was always practicing 'Mongolia throat singing'. Best way to describe it was like the sound of a gnat by your ear, or [View Full Entry]

By chloes
October 3rd 2008

Day 21: Arrive in Beijing

Asia » China » Beijing » Forbidden City

Day 21: Coming into Beijing
View from the train coming into Beijing

Update to come - read what we did in the photo captions! [View Full Entry]

By Lindsaytheexplorer
October 3rd 2008

The Great Wall

Asia » China » Beijing » Great Wall of China

Temple of Heaven
Temple of Prayer for Good Harvests

Arrived at the new hostel which isn't great but has a western loo so I'm still mamaging to avoid drop toilets! :) Thought I would venture to Tianamen Sq and the Forbidden city. Arrived to see the whole population trying to get inside the Forbidden city so I decided to give it a miss. Instead i did a few of the parks in the surrounding area, Beihai park with the white pagoda and trip on the water, and Jingshan park with a view over the Forbidden city. It was pretty busy with local tourists, mostly eating corn on the cob from [View Full Entry]

By Lindsaytheexplorer
October 3rd 2008

Photos

Asia » China » Beijing

Just had a quiet day today but added my photos...some of Moscow too if you want to have a nosey. (I found my camera if I haven't already said!) Will try and get some Ger camp pics from my fellow travellers soon. [View Full Entry]

By Ped
October 3rd 2008

Beijing

Asia » China » Beijing

The Forbidden City
Now they let anyone in... including me!

Beijing I hadn't planned on coming to Beijing but as my departure date approached it looked increasingly likely that the only way to see my good friend Eric was to travel up to Beijing. Originally Eric was to come down to his native Hong Kong. This was however a detour i was happy to make. Although my time in Beijing was brief we managed to cram a lot in - especially eating. Eric's matching attitude of always over ordering ensured that we had the widest variety of foods to satisfy our taste buds. We had everything from dim sum to (reputedly) [View Full Entry]

Travel Blog » Asia » China » Beijing