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Published: August 9th 2007
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Entrance to The Forbidden City
we thought it was also tiananmen square.. oops! The city of Beijing is certainly different to any other that either of us have visited before. There are many ways I could describe it, and I shall start with the more complimentary.
........
Well now that's done, I can start.
No in all honesty we enjoyed our time there. It's so, so different to what we are used to at home. I am certainly pleased we visited before the Olympics of 2008. We both agree they have a lot of changes to make to attitudes and hospitality to tourists if they are to be successful at handling the onslaught of travellers arriving next year!
Our Hotel, The Harmony, was not far from the main shopping area- Wanfujing Street and it was here we headed on our first morning. The Chinese are keen to stop you in the street and speak to you about where you are from and what brings you to China. This is nice and makes you welcome but after five days of it, you find yourself trying to ignore them, not being rude, but just trying to do what you are doing or get to where you are going. Thankfully we quickily
managed to find somewhere that repaired my camera that afternoon- I had missed it! One difference we noticed was that there didn't appear to be anywahere to get food. Then we stumbled upon it- an eating quarter- which was a side street hidden away, full of Chinese street stalls seeling every kind of food you would expect to see. From Spring Rolls to Kebabs on skewers, they sold everything. We got a Spring Roll each, I must have drawn the short staw as my mouth soon became reminiscent of the waste bin at a vindaloo factory. I didn't notice the sauce until I had eaten half of it- whatever it was, it was vicious! Clare seemed to get away with not having any somehow, I don't know how! It was really cool to see this area and the native foods thhat were on offer. We went back to get a delicacy- Hawthorn Fruits and Caramel on sticks (Tang Hulu)- very nice indeed and we had read about them in the guidebook. Everyone should try one.
We visited the Forbidden City where the Chinese Emperors lived, which was very interesting to look around. There was the occasional scaffolding which was
Our Route
this was the easy part! a shame, but I was surpirsed how few poeple there were looking around. I expected more somehow although it was a bonus not to be crammed in with lots of tourists. It is very strange looking at these bulidings and trying to relate to the history contained within them- amazing really. The Temple of Heaven was another historical attraction and almost equally as interesting. It was built in 1420 during the Ming Dynasty to offer sacrifice to Heaven. Each of the above took the majority of the day to look around and take in.
We had also planned to take a trip from Beijing to Xian on the overnight trains. However we decided against this as they couldn't sell us a return ticket. We didn't want to take the risk of being stranded there with a flight to catch that evening back in Beijing. We looked at alternatives and decided to bring forward our flight over to Sydney by two days, where we are now.
By the third evening, we were almost certain that China has at least two guaranteed Gold Medals at the Olympics. The first is rather revolting for street-spitting. It is in all seriousness, everywhere.
The Great Wall
and yes it was windy! It doesn't seem to be in the slightest bit 'not the done thing' as it is almost everywhere else. YOu couldn't walk ten yards without hearing a snort of a minimum seventy five decibels, then a grotesque hocking, and finally the sound of the spit. I will be writing to the Olypmic Cimmittee to recommend it as an event. Points should be awarded for 'depth of snort' and 'distance of spit'. SOrt of like a triathalon, but without the third event...
The second Gold will be in the event of street-sellling. You could not move in parts of Beijing for people trying to sell you things. It was either a park of postcards ( they don't have postcards in the shops), a Rolex, a book, or more randomly, a kite! It id get SO annoying being repeatedly accosted to buy one or the other, but I guess these people are trying to make a living.
The final day was spent at the fantastic Great Wall of China. It truly was amazing. We got up at 6.30am and checked out, getting a taxi to Deshengmen station where we jumped on the 919 bus to Badaling, taking just under
Great Wall
simply amazing an hour. The site here is fantastic. You can walk either North or South on the wall and until I saw it I had absolutley no idea how hard work it would be to walk it! On the South part the gradients are in places at least sixty degrees. It has steps of about two and a half feet each, and this is the most suitable part of the wall for tourists!! You have to be fit to do it, and I think the decents were worse than going up! We thouroughly enjoyed it though and it was one of the best experieices of my life, without question.
We headed back to Beijing and realise that Tiananmen Square wasn't where we thought, so we rushed the approx two miles there, leaving us about half and hour before we need to get a taxi to the airport. To our great frustration no taxi wanted to take us, and it was only the fact that we managed to work out the subway maps (thank you Clare!) that we got to the airport in time. Seems like a fond memory now, but it really wasn't at the time! Sorry to Auntie Betty
Tiananmen Square
when we finally realised where it was... who probably got one of the worst postcards in history are I tried to write it on a moving train leaning on Clare's back so we could run to the post pox and post it in time!
All in all, we had fun, and some good (and at times strange) food. I think it is an experince we enjoyed overall, but it's good to be in Australia!!
Love to all, hope everyone is well.
Max (and Clare)
XXXX
P.S- For the less computer literate, now that we have photos you can click on any of them and view properly, with captions and everything!!
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Andrew
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I loved Beijing...posing for pictures and helping peeps to practice their English was great! Also, apparently the scaffolding in Forbidden City goes on forever, as soon as they maintain one area they go onto another and by the time they do a full circle of maintenance it's time to go back to the start!