Blogs from Beijing, China, Asia - page 449

Chengdu, Xi’an and Beijing - three cities of immense importance in China’s history. All three were past centres of imperial power and maintain their importance in the modern era. Obviously, it’s now Beijing that is pulling the strings, and they give them a good old tug on a regular basis. The only English language TV channel in China is the internationally broadcast CCTV9, and their news reports are the mouthpiece of the central government relaying their policy to the world. Each political piece is formulaic - foreign leaders are always at pains to support the “One China Policy” (i.e. supporting China’s claim to Taiwan, Tibet etc.) and the dismissal of the environmental concerns over the Three Gorges Dam project couldn’t be better spun by Shane Warne. It is well known that modern day China is subject ... read more

We set off to Beijing last Wednesday for a four day vacation from classes thanks to Abbey competing in a language competition there. I was really looking forward to going to Beijing for the first time ever and also to my first day of being a tourist in China. Seriously, three trips here and all I've ever done is go to class or travel with a Chinese tour guide with my study abroad program. This just isn't the same as Chinese tour guides feel you aren't getting your money's worth unless 1) you start activities at 6 a.m. 2) they talk about anything remotely related to the area you are about to visit for the entire one or two hour bus ride getting there and back and 3) you visit at least one pottery depot or ... read more

From the title of this entry, you can deduce that I'm quite fond of Beijing. With it's grandiose Royal Palace, great and mighty Great Wall, exquisit Summer Palace and historic Tombs and Temples, what's not to like. Well, the city itself is rather drab and characterless and it's bloody history is quite depressing, but then good outweighs the bad. The tour to the Great Wall definetely did not dissappoint. It was beautiful and majestic as the many photos taken of it, by many different people, shows, from multitudes of angles. Walking or rather climbing it also was an exhilarating experience. One could feel the great drop in temperature as one reach some of the bastion at the peaks. I amazing felt energized by the climb rather than fatigued. And the Royal Palace. Words can't accurately describe ... read more

Day 6 Today we got ready to go to the Summer Palace. Wake-up call was early as usual. When we entered the Summer Palace (it was about half an hour driving) it was very impressive to see. First thing we saw was a square with a lot of trees. Through the whole summer palace everything was green. A lot of trees and plants there, very soothing. Add in the typical (well it sounded typical to me) chinese music and it's perfect. First we saw 3 statues , a guardian, a dragon (symbol for emperor) and a phoenix (symbol for empress). After that we went to the Garden of Harmonious Interest. Weird name maybe but a truly beautiful place. It's quiet enough to just walk or sit in a corner and read a bit, or just enjoying ... read more

So we went to a networking event after work today with the British Chamber of Commerce. I was expecting it to be fairly layed back, as that is the way everything in Beijing seems to be. However when I arrived I found everyone was very well dressed and that the bar was pretty posh. After getting our free drink for the evening Diana and I strolled around the bar which had lounge chairs and little tables everywhere. On most of the tables there were free snacks which were complimentary with the ticket price. So we sat down in a side room at a table that had celery, carrots, cucumber, and dip and proceded to chow down all of it. Then we noticed that the table across the room had a cheesecake, so we decided since we ... read more