PETERandANNICE

July 12: Today we took the city bus to see the Terra Cotta Warriors. We followed some directions we found on the internet and they were letter perfect. We caught the 306 bus from outside the railway station ... it cost 7 yuan to take us the hour or so trip out of town. The bus stopped at a few attractions along the way. Finally, we were there! We walked up the long walkway, past one set of gates where we had to buy our tickets, and more walkways, then the second entrance gate. We started at Pit 1 - not a very imaginative name. When we walked in I felt goosebumps all over. I had seen so many pictures and had taught a little about these ancient figures to my grade five class a ... read more

Wow we made it out of Beijing. The problem is every student is returning to their home town so getting out of town is impossible. We spent an extra day in Beijing as a result of but that was okay becasue we found a Lama Temple and Confuscious Temple and College that was about 500 years old and was so interesting. In Getting out of Beijing, we got ourselves a soft sleeper which is a wonderful translation of "First Class" which means we had a room on the train we shared with two other people who turned out to be a young couple of students returning home. They neither smoked nor snored so were were happy. We were lucky that in Bejing they have Foreigners Ticket Wicket whcih mad ethings easy. In China you can not ... read more

Four Blisters, one box of Immodium, 56 bottles of water and 106 bottles of beer two Rickshaw rides, one lineup at the bank of China, two nights of the runs and 1800 yuan of artwork purchases and riding two of the nine million bicycles in Beijing ... Beijing Priceless !!! Tommorow night we leave for Xi'an after a week here in Beijing. We had a great time. The Summer Palace was a long boat ride up some canal but was very disappointing. The Temple of Heaven was amazing as was the Rickshaw ride ther and back. Today I (Peter) jogged Tiananmen Square and thought for sure I would attract the Police but not at all. It is a very very regulated and guarded area ever since the riots of 1989 but no one seemed to care ... read more

Well as said we made it. Getting through Beijing International Airport was a breeze. Customs and Imigration tooks seconds as did exchanging our $ to Yuan. Annice found the kisok to buy the shuttle bus tickets which were as we expected 16 Yuan each. Right on budget ... but that's as close we styaed on budget all day ... We foudn the #3 line to Beijing and we Zonked out on the bus but woke up well before the stop at the Beijing Railway Station, found the Subway and took it to Qianmen Station whch took us close to where we wanted to be but so much changed in two years since I was last here with all the construction going on for the Olympics so we got turned around as it was hot and our ... read more

Wow we are here. We arrived today which for most of you is yesterday. Our flight went (15 hours total and 8 hours in layovers) well and made it to our hostel with few problems 'cept it was hot and the backpacks heavy and we got turned around 'cause of all the new construction since I was last here and ended up a few blocks from the hostel and took a rickshaw to finally get here. It's the second time I arrived in beijing on a rickshaw. It hot and and the beer is cold. We found my favorite little resturant in the Da zha lan market area blocks from the hostel (yes Jodi, the one you dragged me intoo almost two years ago). We had an amazing dinner and drank two ice ice cold Ting ... read more

Well we are almost ready ... sometimes the journey is as much fun as the desitination ... well in this journey we have all but scrapped going to Tibet. It just wasn't meaningful if the restrictions were going to be less exciting and value than reading about it in National Gerographic so we rushed out last week and got our Vietnam Visas and had to freat for a week while they held on to our passports but all is there and done and we will spend close to a week in Vietnam. Almost packed. Almost there ... First Stop, ready or not - BEIJING.... read more

Well to be honest, we have no idea if they even have Ice Cream in Tibet but their rules and regulations are a bit like the "Flavour of the Month" and right now we are so frustrated in the process required to get a travel permit to Tibet that we worry we won't get there at all. This is all thanks to a small group of American Tourists who decided to make a political statement and made some fuss about “Freeing Tibet”, but while not a bad idea within itself (depending you position of course on the issue) , independent travel to the region has now been banned because of their antics. Our contact in Beijing has had all their Tibet permit requests rejected. Americans I am told simply are being rejected period and others must ... read more

Well this marks the beginning of our journey. Actually the journey started the Summer of 2005 when we went to China as English teachers and lived in Southern China in an amazing place of 11 million people in the city of Guangzhou. Teaching English was an incredible experience as was the opportunity to live and experience a culture without a tour guide. It was odd that we set our alarm clocks before bed, got up early morning to catch the bus to work alongside a million or so commuters, living and in some small way assimilated into their wonderful culture and lifestyle. We return now as tourists but we will be our own tour guide and hopefully not becoming our own tourist trap. ... read more