Our hotel was right beside the Forbidden City so it would have been a simple matter for us to visit it ourselves. However, we decided to see it on a guided tour as we thought that we might learn a little bit more about it this way. Alas, this was not to be the case as our guide had less than perfect English and the tour was conducted at a gallop as we were visiting other sites as well. One particularly disappointing aspect of the tour was due to our own incorrect cultural assumptions. This was that we assumed that you [View Full Entry]

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China may have been closed off from the world for a long time but they are catching up fast, especially in devising ways of relieving foreigners of their money. In Hong Kong it's a constant rejoinder of "Would you like a Rolex, shirt, CD etc". You will not be able to walk for more than 10 metres without being asked some version of the above. What I find hard to understand is why its aways a Rolex thats offered, the favoured watch of American dentists. Switzerland produces a veritable smorgesboard of luxury watches. Maybe I look like a Rolex type of [View Full Entry]

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Service in Chinese hotels can be fairly brusque but not from the toilet attendent in the International Beijing Hotel. Linda and I booked a tour there and subsequently that was the pick up point. The tour started at 8 A.M and we faced a bus trip of 3 or 4 hours to our destination. While we waited for the bus I remembered words of wisdom from my mother before long journeys in my youth. This was the phrase " Do you want to go". Given our experience of Chinese public toilets, it seemed prudent to go where the facilities of a [View Full Entry]

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I would like to express my thanks to Yamayouri Noodles, in Dublins South Great Georges Street. Why. Well, Linda and I have been regular lunchtime customers at Yamayouri's who, you may not be surprised to hear, serve Asian food. As a matter of course they provide chopsticks for their customers. and as a consequence we became proficient, if not expert, chopstick users. This has been a handy skill on our present trip as I would feel a bit silly asking for knives and forks. I am not even sure if most restaurents would be able to provide same. We were in [View Full Entry]

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I have already noted the situation in relation to pedestrians in China but we have also experienced Chinese roads from within vehicles, i.e. taxis and buses. If you suffer from a nervous condition, a heart complaint, or are sensitive to loud noises I would not recommend using these forms of transport either. Chinese drivers have taken a separate evolutionary path to drivers in Europe for example. In Europe, vision is the dominent means of assessing road conditions, checking situational awareness before making a manouvere etc. Like sighted animals stranded in dark environments, Chinese dr [View Full Entry]

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Do you possess the speed of a cheetah. The wariness of a gazelle at a watering hole. The eyesight of a hawk. If so, then you are ideally equipped for the life of a pedestrian in Beijing. Beijing is built the way most socialist states built their cities. Big. Big buildings and especially big, wide, and very straight roads and avenues. Down these racetracks careen an increasing volume of traffic. And they stop for nobody, especially lowly humans. Do not be deceived by the veneer of modernity given by the presence of traffic and pedestrian lights, traffic lanes, traffic assistants [View Full Entry]

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hi. Internet cafes are not as easy to locate in China as we had anticipated so blog entries will be a few weeks behind our actual travels. This entry concerns our trip by train from Hong Kong to Beijing. What follows are a couple of hints for anybody following in our footsteps. (1) Remember your carriage, room and bunk numbers. Your ticket will be taken off you on boarding the train and will not show these minor details which you are assumed to know already. (2) You will be handed a quarentine card to fill out ten minutes after leaving station. [View Full Entry]

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Hi all. We made it safely to Hong Kong. Made it through the flight dispite the fact that I was unable to read the big thick book I had bought specially for the flight. My reading light was broken but I consoled myself with the fact that I could share Lindas. Minutes into the flight I sense movement on the end of our row and see someone trying to adjust the angle of the light above them. Lindas light. Lindas unadjustable fixed light. The light distingrated in his hand showering the person between us with shards of plastic. I pointed out [View Full Entry]

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