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The Bag!!!
Finally。。。 Dair: We've been in Beijing for going on five days now, and I know this sounds cliched, but it seems like an absolute lifetime has passed since we left Aberdeen. It has been an unsettling past few days, mainly because of every traveller's (or any airline passenger's, for that matter) worst nightmare - lost luggage. We arrived pretty much on time in Beijing after an extremely comfortable flight, but all good feeling toward Qatar Airways quickly evaporated with each bagless rotation of the carousel. To make matters worse, it wasn't a mutual seen of desperation... my bag arrived, only Alison's failed to make it out of Doha. Nerves hanging by a thread, we summoned up the energy to go through the necessary reporting procedures and board a bus into central Beijing. It was horribly overcast, and the atmosphere was a heavy cocktail of low lying cloud and pollution, which perfectly matched our moods. We actually made it to our hostel (just across from Beijing Train Station) without too much fuss, and collapsed in a heap, hoping for some better luck the next day.
Alison: Trying to put the baggage traumas behind us, and with myself dressed in a rather fetching selection of Alasdair's clothes we made our way down to the hostel coffee area on Saturday morning to meet some Chinese friends that a Chinese friend back home had put us in contact with. Tiger (Alasdair loved the name!) and his wife were extremely friendly and immediately invited us to go and sample some Peking Duck with them. Feeling pretty brave, and completely baffled by the menu, we let them choose some starters. Big mistake! Out came the duck feet and the duck hearts. Poor Alasdair had to take one for the team and eagerly gobble them down. What a star! More worryingly, he seems to have developed a bit of a taste for the duck hearts, so hide your poultry!! The Peking Duck, however, definitely lived up to the billing and the meal, on the whole, was fantastic and a very generous introduction to Beijing (or is it Peking?). Our hosts took us on a whistlestop tour of the city, taking in the Capital Museum and the Hutong area which is full of lots of little alleyways and men blowing horses...
Alasdair: There really was a man blowing little horses, and sheep, and pigs, but no ducks. He had the unique skill of creating miniature animals from balls of sugar syrup. As good as they looked, I couldn't quite bring myself to eat one; I'm not that bloodthirsty, for goodness sake! Next day, still no sign of the bag which meant an unavoidable trip to the Xidan commercial district to hit the shops. When we got there, it was the shops that hit us: the chatter of frantic sales assistants, ruthless shoppers, and banging Chinese techno was a real assault to the senses, yet magnetic. Grabbed a pair of sandals, a World Cup t-shirt, a Chinese princess/bride compact mirror and (wait for it...) a pair of hair straighteners! Cheap as chopsticks and that reknowned tonic of shopping certainly seemed to hit the spot for Alison.
Alison: Seriously, there were some bargains to be had, and I desperately needed cheering up. Now the shopping was taken care of, it was time to start getting through the must-see sights of Beijing. First on the list, Temple of Heaven Park - a 250 acre park, home to a string of Ming temples and monuments, and a welcome retreat from the hustle and bustle of downtown Beijing. Next-up, Beijing acrobatics! We were lucky to find the building (Wang Sheng Theatre), which from the front looked like it was about to collapse (the entrance is down its East side), but inside was a very intimate and charming theatre. The display was very entertaining and highly impressive if not a little amusing at times.
Alasdair: In the last two days we have seen three of Beijing's more famous sites: Tiananmen square, the Forbidden City, and the Great Wall at Mutianyu. Tiananmen square is impressive in terms of its sheer size, and the scale of the surrounding government and public buildings. It has an air of historical and political significance about it, if not only because of the giant effigy of Chairman Mao which adorns the First gate of the Forbidden City at the north end of the square. Through the first, second, third, heavenly, longevity, and so on, hidden like the inside of a Russian doll, is the inner part of the Forbidden City, the home of the ancient Emperors. A beautiful and tranquil place, apart from all of the Beijing 2008 scaffolding covering large parts of it.
The trip up to the great wall was a bit of an epic to be honest. Penny-pinching as we are, we decided not to pay for a tour which we heard would mean spending half an hour on the wall and four hours in various shops, but instead catch a local bus up to Mutianyu. Everything was going to plan until we were spat out at the side of a roundabout and told, "bus no go to Mutianyu". Information that would have been more helpful back in Beijing. So there we were, at the side of a motorway roundabout, not a clue where we were, face to face with a solitary grinning taxi man; prepare to be taken for a ride, if you know what I mean. I'll leave the details out of it, but needless to say we exchanged a few cross words at various points of the journey, and we didn't really part company on good terms, but at least we made it to the Wall, which was well worth it. I was really glad we came to this part as opposed to the more popular Badaling, a decision vindicated by the lack of tour buses, and the experience of a relatively deserted section of the Great Wall - a fantastic experience.
Alison: After a wonderful day, we arrived back at the hostel to... no bag! And, no surprise there. However... a few stinging phonecalls later, and the bag magically appeared in the hostel foyer. I am delighted and Alasdair says it has taken at least three years off my appearance (Alasdair: and six years off my life). Happy days!
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Jingxing
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Nice to see you there.
Thanks for letting me know how you are getting on...Well, you 2 are brave people, I am happy you can manage that, though with a bit bitterness. Getting your bag back is a good sign. Give me a shout if you will stay in Guangzhou for a couple of days, so that I can check with my girl friend (Anna, sure I remember her name!), or my parents-they don't speak much English though :) if we can arrange a time, they can introduce you better foods/fruits in my home town. Bless you!