Blogs from Forbidden City, Beijing, China, Asia - page 12

This is my second time in Beijing so I've decided to do something different for a change. After a lot of researched, I found so many man made ski resort in China and one which is close to Beijing is called Nanshan Resort Ski, an hour and a half away from the airport. There is another ski place which I found close to the border of Mongolia and its called Alphan Ski Resort.(for me the idea of cross-country skiing sounds amazing) but we have to fly from Hong Kong to Ulanhot, then the resort itself is another 3-4 hours by bus/train from Ulanhot. Alphan Ski Resort is considered to be China's second best Ski resort after yet another ski resort named as Yabuli Ski which is 198 kilometers away from Harbin in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. ... read more

On our third day in Beijing, we finally got up early enough to visit the Forbidden City without being rushed. You could easily spend all day here, but I frankly don't have the patience for that. It is a stunning place to visit, but after a while it just all looks the same. It is huge. And impressive. And extremely well-preserved. Renovations are always ongoing and they are very well executed. The central corridor of the Forbidden City is where government meetings took and place and important people were met. That's not where the emperor's actually lived and spent time smoking opium and having sex with their concubines. Those buildings are on either side of the central corridor, and there are a lot of them! Probably at least 25 on each side. Each room has its ... read more

Enis and I flew to Beijing for Chinese New Year. I checked the weather and I knew it would be cold, but I had my hat, gloves, long underwear, wool tights, thick wool pashmina, heavy wool sweaters, and a bright orange North Face coat, so I felt prepared. And I was. Sort of. Good gravy it was so cold!!!!!!!! And windy! I hadn't been in cold like that in a long time. Our first night there, it was -10C. It got warmer after that though and held steady around -5C at night, and even got above 0C one day. When we arrived, it was already dark and we found our hostel - 365 Inn - with no trouble. They had emailed good directions and we took the airport shuttle bus to the train station, then took ... read more

Hi Guys! Just a quickie to let you all know we've arrived safely :) The flight was one of the most comfortable and enjoyable I've ever experienced. We had a few hassles getting a bus/taxi/train from the airport in a country where we couldn't even guess the language but we arrived and checked in fine. We're staying at a little hostel called the Happy Dragon, just outside Tian'anmen/Forbidden city. We've had a few drinks in the bar and played some cards etc anbd even managed to wangle an invite to the owners new years piss up next month :) Tomorrow we're off to explore the capital and figure out our next weeks plan - trying to decide whether a 18 hour train ride is worth it to see the heavenly lake or whether we should just ... read more

First of all- I wish everyone a very happy New Years, and I hope that collectively our next ten years will be more productive (and hopefully less destructive than the past) and bring everyone good luck and fortune. Also I would like to remind the reader that this is the year of the Tiger (John's animal year) which is a terribly Chinese animal and therefore good luck, though not as good as the year of the Pig, which is the best of all. Nothing brings money like a pig in your house. As I mentioned many times, John and I headed North this Christmas to the center of the world, at least in China- which is the Middle Kingdom, and the only real country after all. (The word for China in Chinese is "Zhong Guo" which ... read more