After checking out of my hotel, I went on the search for breakfast and coffee. I ended up at Starbucks, where I had a coffee and some kind of breakfast crossiant. Starbucks really is a mecca for foreigners as I saw more in there than I had at the different places I had visited the day before. My breakfast wasn't really substantial enough, so I wandered back up Furong Ancient Street looking at the food options. I ended up at a stall selling duck wraps. It was 18 RMB, not too cheap, but it hit the spot and filled me up nicely. Yesterday had been a nice sunny day albeit a bit windy. Today was overcast and definitely a lot chillier. I headed to the Five Dragon Head Pools Scenic Area. It is really close to ... read more

When I first visited China many, many years ago, one of the places I really enjoyed in Beijing was the Summer Palace. It was definitely somewhere I wanted to revisit and finally the opportunity arose. I took the subway to Beigongmen Station. That was a bit of a novelty as when I'd visited previously there had been no subway and we'd been at the mercy of taxi drivers, who weren't exactly legit. I headed out if the exit and there were no useful signs here, like there were at the Temple of Heaven, to tell you which way to go. You have to turn back on yourself and walk for about 5 minutes to get to the ticket office. There were several different options for tickets and I went for the through ticket which covered admission ... read more

Food is for me an important part of travelling and living in other cultures. So I generally tend to look for cookery classes and food tours to participate in. In a large city like Beijing there are plenty of options. I attended a few sessions at the Beijing Cooking School, which was formerly known as the Hutong Cuisine Cooking School. It's located in Dengcao Hutong in eastern part of central Beijing. I really like wandering the hutongs and I was happy the cookery school was in a traditional neighbourhood. The building the school is in is nice and it's nice to get a peek around the inside of a house in the hutong. I loved the courtyard and it was a great place to sit and relax and eat all the deliciousness we had created. 5th ... read more

I used to love Cherry Blossom Season in Korea, so when a coworker told me that Beijing has lots of cherry blossoms and Yumyuantan Park, in particular, is famous for them, I knew I would have to make a visit. I had a bit of a walk from the subway station, there might be others closer. I did manage to get lost once before getting on the right track. It took me about 15 minutes to reach the park and I made my way to the ticket office. The park looked quite busy, but there was no queue at the ticket office. I got a lovely surprise when I bought the ticket as it was only 10 RMB. What a cheap day out! The ticket was also rather beautiful as it a special cherry blossom one ... read more

I'd had a good night's sleep, but didn't want to get out of the nice warm bed. Eventually, I got myself sorted and made my way down to the hostel's bar/restaurant for some breakfast. That took a bit of doing as the aiyi spoke no English and I speak no Chinese and everything I wanted on the menu seemed to be unavailable. Eventually, I settled for some black tea and a ham and egg French toast. The aiyi was lovely a brought me a big flask of water so that I could keep topping up my tea. I read while waiting for my breakfast and read and read. I think it took an hour for my food to come. I don't know why it took so long, in hindsight I probably should have ordered Chinese food ... read more