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Published: July 16th 2008
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We arrived in Beijing on the 11th of July and had a couple days until Chris meant up with us from Europe. Immediately stepping off the plane I noticed the pollution and how gray the skies were. On the ride from the airport to the hostel you could barely see a couple blocks in front of you.
We are staying at Peking Downtown Backpackers for 65 RMB/night. That's about $10 for a 6 bed dorm room. The hostel is located in a hutong (aka a traditional old area or side street). Our hutong always has tons of people in it. There are bars and restaurants, but you really can’t beat the Y3 ($.40) beer our hostel sells. We found a favorite little Chinese restaurant a bit down the way from the hostel. Jeff and I had dinner there for about $4/person. We each got a beer, kung pao chicken and a beef dish. Every time we eat someplace different we always end up going back to that little place because it is the best. Last night the boys even ordered bullfrog there. I had a taste- it was actually quite good, tasted like chicken as cliché as that sounds.
The two days before Chris got here were spent wondering around and trying to not to see anything to significant. After a 3 hr walk, to where we thought the Olympic stadium was, we found Tiananmen Square. We are the only tourists who find it by accident!!! We tried not to look too much so we could save the excitement for when we did it with Chris.
I am slowly becoming a fan of China, but it hasn't happened yet. The streets here are dirty, people spit and throw trash everywhere and there is a general disregard for human life. I guess that happens in a country with 1.3 billion people. Cars run red lights, almost running pedestrians and bikers over and bikers ride on the sidewalks almost running over the pedestrians. The streets are truly insane!
We did manage to find the Olympic Village when Chris arrived. There is still a lot of construction to be finished in 3 weeks and we aren't quite sure it will get done. At least I got to buy at 2008 Beijing Olympics shirt and saw the venue for all the events. It's pretty crazy knowing that in 3 weeks thousands
of people are charging into Beijing for the Olympics.
Yesterday, we had an early morning and took a 3 hour journey to Jinshanling to do a 10 K (about 6 mile) hike on the Great Wall of China. That was absolutely amazing. Our legs are freaking sore today, but the whole experience was mind blowing. Sometimes we were the only ones on the wall. There were steep parts where you literally climbed the steps like a ladder they were so steep and high. About 1/3 the way into the hike it started to drizzle which was absolutely amazing. Who would have thought we would have liked the rain so much? But with 90% humidity you learn to love it! There are people selling water and books on the wall and we witnessed a fight between two vendors over 20RMB (about $3). I swore one of the guys was going to get thrown off the wall. That was, until some French tourists stepped in and stopped it. Totally crazy! After a long and amazing day hiking the wall we slept well last night.
We awoke this morning with sore legs and decided to take the subway to Tiananmen Square.
Jeff and I having a moment on the wall
I can't believe we are on the Great Wall of China This time, not on accident and without the 3 hour walk. There are closed circuit cameras everywhere in Tiananmen Square making it not truly a "people's square" like they claim. From there we headed into the Forbidden City to see the ancient buildings and the former residences of the monarchy. The buildings were amazing, but somehow it felt as if it wasn't real. Like I was in Chinatown in San Francisco instead. We forced ourselves to snap out of it and enjoyed the scenery around us. We were then able to head to a hill at a park nearby and get some great aerial shots of the city from above.
We have met some interesting people in our hostel as well. We have spent our nights sitting on a bench out front of the hostel people watching and drinking our $.40 beers. Last night there was a drunken French Canadian dude that kept asking Chinese women super inappropriate things in his broken Chinese. He told us he didn't like Americans, but had no real reason why. He thinks he doesn't like us because it "is trendy to hate Americans." I thought that was a pretty good answer from a
drunk guy.
Like I said, Beijing is growing on me and there are many interesting things to see here. I guess you just get used to the fact that the city is dirty, like Tijuana with soy sauce. We can't wait to get out of the big cities and in to the countryside, but that will take a little time. We are stuck here in Beijing for another 3 days since we couldn't get a train out until that time.
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Nina
non-member comment
Hi there!
Girl, you are super good updating us on your journey! It feels like I'm on the trip with you when I'm reading your blogs and checking out the pics at the office! Thanks so much for the weekly dose of travels, I can't wait to see you once you get to Australia! Have fun and look after yourselves. Love, Nina