Blogs from Dongcheng, Beijing, China, Asia - page 2

Retour de Hong-Kong à Pékin avant de quitter l'Asie demain. Gros trous d'airs lors de la descente vers Pekin, heureusement que le plateau repas était avalé. On se sent presque de retour à la maison après le tumulte de HK ? Les passants nous dévisagent à nouveau et les parents demandent à leurs enfants de nous dire "hello" en souriant, bref on retrouve nos habitudes des premières semaines avec plaisir. J'oubliais ceux qui nous prennent en photos ou vidéos "pirate", que Marlène détecte sans relâche. La dernière auberge est située dans un quartier typique de Hutong et bien agréable, hormis le wifi capricieux qui a nécessité une heure pour enregistrer le vol de demain. Nous n'avons pas résisté au plaisir d'un dernier canard laqué, les filles ont avalé la dernière bouchée en se demandant avec angoisse ... read more

Bright and early start to the airport heading off to Beijing next stop on this whirlwind ride. 3 hour flight and before you know it I'm landing. Skipped through the airport and luckily bumped in to someone else on the course so we decided the logical thing would be to share a taxi to town or at least you would believe that this would be logical until you are met with a million confused faces when trying to explain you want a price on taxi to make 2 stops. After asking around 8 people we were finally told that these two places where not actually close to each other as they look on the map and a shared taxi cost more than 2 so off we went in of separate directions. Explaining where the hotel was ... read more

Day2 Beijing City and Day 3 Hiking on the Great Wall As we had tedious day ahead (hiking on the Great Wall) we tried to keep the city tour to the minimum. Tessa, Ryan and Alex came in the morning and picked me up from the Hotel. We travelled by underground most of the time afterwards. Like most "undergrounds" it was easy to navigate once you got the hang of the different gates that exited to different streets or you had an help to help you with. As Tessa had not been to the Temple of Heaven and I did not mind another trip there we went there first. Next to the Lama temple which had some gorgeous buildings rivalling even the ones I had seen earlier. This was an active temple and worshippers were burning ... read more

Took an early flight to Beijing and after some traveling by bus, we stopped for lunch not too far from the Great Wall. Since it was my second time at the Great Wall, I was happy to see that we were at a different gate for a somewhat new experience. We had 2 hours to ascend and descend. After about 65 minutes I decided I better not go any further even though I had only another section to get to the top. Jerry only went up one flight of stairs and decided to stay below. He still wasn’t feeling up to par and the steps are of varying heights which makes it a bit grueling. Along the way, many young people wanted their picture taken with me and that was a hoot. They didn’t speak English ... read more

Well we are finally away on our Silk road adventure. Two great flights from Auckland to Hong Kong and then on to Beijing had us arrive at the massive Beijing airport about noon on Saturday. After smooth immigration process, we took the airport express train and a couple of metro rides, and we arrived at our B&B in the heart of the Hutong area in Dongcheng Nth. Did the Hutong walking tour in the afternoon ending up at the Drum Tower and Bell Tower. Unfortunately no drumming cos they were doing some renovations . On Sunday we headed off to the Park of the Heavenly Peace - a massive park with temples, corridors, and a raft of entertainment activities by the local people - we saw ballroom dancing, drumming, tai chi, cards and knitting, mahjong, tennis, ... read more