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Published: November 7th 2013
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We arrived in Beijing around 9:30am and got a taxi to our hostel called Lucky Family located in one of the many hutongs (narrow alleyways) in the city. It took around an hour to get there but the time passed quickly especially as our taxi driver was singing for us most of the way there. When we arrived at the hostel our room was ready so we managed to check into our room early and decided to have a few more hours sleep as Grandma had kept us awake most the night laughing and talking in her sleep. We got up showered and arranged to meet up with one of my friends who I went to university with, Laura, who is now working in Beijing.
Before meeting Laura we took a stroll through Ghost Street where there are lots of restaurants, people sat on plastic chairs and tables socialising and drinking and lots of Chinese red lanterns everywhere hanging from the telegraph poles and trees. We met Laura and headed to one of her favourite restaurants and got to have a good catch up before her friends arrived. We ordered lots of food and everybody had a bit of everything
but the best food was Beijing's famous dish, Peking Duck! After dinner we all went to Laura's friends bar and had a few cocktails before making our way home.
The following day we woke up early and headed out to the Forbidden City, an imperial complex made up of many traditional buildings. In the past no one was aloud to enter the city without the emperors permission, hence the name. Clearly this rule had changed though as when we got inside it was absolutely jam packed with Chinese tourists. We were told that the Forbidden City is a world heritage site but after seeing a 9 year old girl taking a poo on the floor inside you wouldn't of thought it!!! After 3 hours we decided to leave the city and head back to the hostel.On the evening I wasn't feeling great due to a combination of Beijing's terrible pollution and the heat so chilled out at the hostel and had an early night.
In the morning we had an early start as we were spending the day visiting the Mutianyu part of the Great Wall of China. The Mutianyu section of the wall is supposedly one of
the best preserved parts of the Great Wall and less busy. When we arrived it was quite smoggy and misty but we had hoped it might clear up. We bought the tickets and headed on up to the wall via cable car. We then walked to the top of the wall by going up steps upon steps, everybody was absolutely soaked through with sweat by the time they reached the watchtowers. Due to the foggy weather we couldn't see much of the old part of the wall or any views in the distance but it couldn't be helped. We took a breather for about 20 minutes to try and dry off before we clambered down the steps back to where we started. We had a walk to the other side of the wall but the sky started to turn a dark grey so decided it was time to head to the restaurant to meet our group. We joined the que to take the toboggan down but the heavens opened and we were told for safety reasons it was too dangerous and that we had to take the cable car back down. By the time we got to the bottom to
meet our group for lunch we were soaked through!
The whole journey back to the hostel the rain was lashing down and the thunder and lightning was becoming very loud and fierce. We had hoped by the time we got off the bus it might of calmed down but it hadn't so when it was our turn to get off we legged it. We were both laughing hysterically running through the hutongs to our hostel, we were getting absolutely soaked. It had rained that much the drains had started over flowing and the sewage was starting to come gushing out the drains as well. The moment we realised we were running and splashing ourselves in sewage was priceless and the laughter stopped immediately. We got inside our room and we were completely soaked through and filthy so jumped straight in the shower. Once we were ready we went out for dinner with my friend Laura again and indulged in some delicious juicy tiger prawns, beef in black pepper sauce and some tasty fungi mushrooms.
The next day we checked out of our room and naughtily went on the hunt for western food as we were craving something other
than rice! We eventually found a cute little cafe where we shared a sandwich and a piece of carrot cake for lunch. After we'd eaten we made our way to Tiananmen Square, the third largest city square in the world and had a wonder round. On our last evening we met up with Laura for dinner as she wanted us to try another of Beijing's popular dishes, the hot pot. We went to a restaurant called the Little Sheep and it was great and pretty cheap. You basically choose a selection of meats, fish and vegetables and then choose a broth. The broth is placed on the burner on your table and when the food comes you chuck it all and cook it yourself. After dinner we went for a quick drink and said our goodbyes to Laura as it was time for us to make our way to the airport.
It was really nice seeing a familiar face after so long and it was great having Laura showing us around and getting us try and experience some local dishes. Beijing also had some very impressive sights which despite the bad weather and pollution we really enjoyed.
Overall,
we had a great time in China and would love to go back and visit places that are out of the big cities. We would also never go back in the summer! A big tip though for anybody thinking of going to China in July/August it's blistering hot and also their summer holidays so everywhere was full of Chinese tourists. We were also surprised how consumer orientated China is considering its a communist country so it wasn't such a culture shock for us after all (apart from the little girl pooing on the floor and everyone spitting everywhere and anywhere).
Next stop Bangkok.......eeeek!
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