Beijing

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Hola!

My last and final entry of my travelblog as I returned home last saturday and facing the expected huge jetlag!

Our departure from Ussuriysk, Russia, was a pretty early one but that didn't matter as we all wanted to head out the country asap and enter China just as quickly :o The busride itself was a pretty comfy one with mainly russians and chinese, and 3 dutchies! Thanks to the very thoughtful guide who helped us filling out all the details on the exit/entry forms minutes before arriving at the border. It took us about 2 hours waiting before we were allowed to make our way through customs, it went pretty quickly afterwards as we received a special foreigner treatment! We were picked out of the massive queue and after a thorough examination of our travel documents we were checked by the russian customs and everything seemd to be ok but I'm always weary of the fact that it always takes way too long imagining that there's something wrong.....hahahaha. There we stood in no man's land inbetween Russia and China waiting for the rest of our companions but the waiting got better as we received an offer from a very friendly russian busdriver who offered us transfer from Suifenhe(bordertown) to Harbin in northern China where we were supposed to take the nighttrain to Beijing. The advantage of this was that we didn't have to go into town and waste time and energy 😉 the fare costed us only a tenner or so for a 4 hr busride, not that bad. Only challenge was the fact that we had only rubles and no yuan(chines currency) and nowhere atm's to withdraw money to eat and drink......thank buddha I had still had some tasty candybars and a bottle of warm coke...gotta love it!

Arrival in Haerbin was a rather chilly one but despite the low temperatures it felt really good after 3 weeks Russia and a nightmarish end :p Friendly people, good food en asian chaos completed the whole picture! Tried to buy traintickets at the main station with help from our lonely planet, point it and our wit :p so we managed to buy 3 soft-sleeper tickets for the 21.30 nighttrain to Beiijing with dozens of locals staring at us who found it very interesting to see 3 westernerns with their very own eyes!

The nighttrain was a 4-star hotel compared to the ones we took in Russia, the only negative was that I slept separate from my buddies but I couldn't be arsed as the chinese were minding there own business anyway. The Z-train was facilitated with everything you would expect from a decent nighttrain e.g. washing room, clean toilets, open smoking area(!!!) and a posh looking dining wagon complete with numerous LCD-screens showing chinese & hollywood flicks ;p This was also the case in our own coupe and watched James Bond dubbed in chinese.....I've settled for less! Beijing arrival was quicker than expected and round 7AM we landed on Beijing Zhan facing an enormous crowd of people and a thick layer of smog!

We checked in at the Beijing city central youth hotel (www.centralhostel.com) for 7 nights and after receiving a nice discount we only paid 6 euro the night for a 4-bed dorm with the 3 of us! Pretty good deal as the hostel was located in walking distance of Tianamen and Forbidden city 😊 Accommodation was cheap and cheerful with decent english speaking staff, clean showers and toilets and a cosy bar with pool tables 😊 Not forgetting the cheap bottles of TsingTao, Beijing and Yanjing beer....... 1 euro the 660ml bottle!

Whilst checking in we were told that there was a kerview during the night starting from 4PM until 6AM next day in preparation for October 1st: National day of the People's Republic of China meaning that we had only a few hours for a short recon 😊 The weather was pretty shite - overcast and a thick layer of smog - so we decided to walk to Tianamen sq. We arrived amongst a vast crowd of locals and chinese tourists who all were observing the police, army, press and volunteers prepping for that day's excercise! Never seen anything like that, too bad that Tianamen sq was off limits so we took some pics and decided to go back to the hostel to prevent us from coming in late not knowing the consequences! Played pool with the locals as they were very impressed by our playing skills(yeah) socialised with other guests and crashed pretty intoxicated before midnight :p

The next few days we visited all the know major tourist attractions such as the Summer Palace, Forbidden City, Tianamen Square. Temple of Heaven but the one we all did it for was obviously the Great Wall of China! We booked a trip to less touristy Simatai - 3 hrs outside Beijing - instead of Badaling which is nearby with only an hour and a half driving. This was a 12KM stretch with steep inclines and 500 meter drops :o Only having 4 hours time to complete it all before bus departure so we had to hurry up! It was all worth it and words cannot describe the feelings I had while walking up and down the 12KM of a stunning total of 8,851.8KM that the Great Wall of China is long!Book a flight to Beijing a experience it yourself 😊 I've added a few pics to capture the described feeling :o

It wasn't always touristy and cultural - not a surprise to people who know me ;p - as we've been clubbing in Beijing's most renowned nightclub called Cargo around the corner of Worker's stadium just minutes away from our hostel by taxi. Picture this: 2 areas with loud banging techno, crazy filthy rich chinese, cheap drinks and 3 westerners! Closing times are also variable in Beijing as they close down when the last clubber is leaving.......hahaha me like! Favourite drink is mixing expensive whiskey with ice-tea - it tastes better than it sounds, really!!! At some stage we met the manager of the joint and he offered us seats in the VIP with free food and drinks, life can be good :o

All good things come to an end but before that was about to happen we decided to end our stay at the Beijing Raffles! Raffles wasn't unknown to me as the Raffles in Singapore was visited by me back in 2004 😊 and I knew what the name Raffles stands for: LUXURY!!! It was time for some serious splurging and pampering after 4 weeks of sharing, dorming, homestaying,training, busing, hiking and walking :p http://www.raffles.com/EN_RA/Property/RBJ/ for those who want to stay in Beijing's finest!

Well people, that was my trip to Russia and China and it goes without saying that it was one hell of a trip!!! I wouldn't have missed it for the world!!! Glad to be back home in Dublin and overcoming the nasty jetlag as we speak 😊 Take good care of yourselves, talk to youse soon and don't hesitate asking anyting in relation to my trip as I will gladly answer any of your questions as best as possible!

Cheers,
Edwin

PS: distance summary

dublin - moscow 2792.41km
moscow - irkutsk 4199.09km
irkutsk - khabarovsk 2204.64km
khabarovsk - ussuriysk 573.49km
ussuriysk - suifenhe 94.50km
suifenhe - harbin 384.77km
harbin - beijing 688.99km
beijing - dublin 8596.00km
total distance 1953389km

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Photos

Tianamen sq.
Uncle Mao

Summer Palace
www.engrish.com

Summer Palace
Qilin Dragon

Summer Palace
Summer Palace

Beijing
Koi carp

Beijing
Dragon statue Forbidden City

Beijing
Forbidden City doorhandle

Beijing
Forbidden City

Beijing
lanterns Temple of Heaven

Great wall of China
Simatai

Great wall of China
Simatai

Great wall of China
Simatai