Alright me Old China

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Wow Beijing, some wonderful sites to see in the capital of such an ancient land.

Though a communist country, you see little evidence of this except for a few more soliders around (most looking like they just left school), and me unable to open the BBC website on the internet due to it being "Sensored"!

Top sites included Great wall of China/Forbidden City/Tiananmen Square/Temple of Heaven and The Summer Palace.


Big shout to my old Uni housemate Ralph who put me up in his Penthouse apartment whilst I was seeing the sites (mailnly with him anyway).


As Beijing is gearing up for the Olympic games in 2008, I guess this was an ideal time to see Beijing as they were cleaning it all up and trying to do something about the polution (it makes London seem like a garden smelling of roses!).

I would also like to make a special mention to the Banana Club, whose Dance floor actually vibrates and moves up and down, actually was quite good and made me wonder why this had never made it to the Ritzy nightclubs of the 90's in the UK?



Everything we saw in Beijing seemed to be on a Massive scale, as most of the sites were built for the Chinese Emperors, it seemed they enjoyed to have a large playgrounds.

In the Summer Palace Ralph and I walked around for 5hrs and took over 200 photo's, and the Forbidden City was also massive (though guess the City in it's name was a bit more of a clue to that one!). Good to see that the British Empire had been here burning things down and bacially destroying thins (and in this instance with the help of the French no less). Tiananmen Square was big though the tanks and students weren't there.

Stopped on a couple of occasions where people either asked to have their photo taken with me (picture with the white man to show the relatives when they get back to central china), or for them to try to practice their English. Also seems popular for young mums to bring their little toddlers upto you to try to say hello!

Tried the famous Peking duck in which was delicious.

Mostly the weather was really good whilst I was in Beijing but on a couple of days, man did the freezing wind make it feel cold (Kristin who I met at the Temple of Heaven can confirm that!! - Oh my God those Americans are strange!! - JOKE Kristin).


Went on a day trip out of Beijing to see the Ming Tombs where most of the Ming Emperors were married with there belongings and even their emperesses and slaves (alive!) to help them in the next life, and the Great Wall of China that needs no introductions.

Next stop Xi an, and the Terracotta Army.

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