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Published: February 20th 2008
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I was sooooo excited to go to Beijing, China! Mostly because I heard the fake bags are so cheap and so good! I didn’t even think about the Great Wall of China, I didn’t know it was close so just didn’t think it was an option! But when I heard that could be on the cards I was praying for a good crew wanting to do stuff……………………… and that I got!!!!
The flight its self is quite long (7hrs there) , especially coming back (9hrs back) but the passengers were no bother! On arriving went straight to the Silk Market to shop! I imagined it to be outside, but since it was -3 ish degrees then I’m glad it wasn’t like that! It was huge and the stall holders really abuse you to buy and at one point one had looped their arm into mine so I couldn’t leave “their patch”. You have to learn to be firm and barter. Theo, from Greece who I did all my shopping with was looking at a hand made Chinese jacket and the starting price was £85 but by the time we walked away the guy had dropped the price to £15!!!! We
had already purchased some things and realised we could have got the things down to an even lower price! O well! I could have gone mad! They sold everything. There were about 6 floors, everything from bags, clothes, silk, watches, shoes, jewellery and crafts! I bought a lot but could have easily got more but good job I stopped as I was having to sit on my case to close it on departure!!!!! We went back to the hotel as we had an early start to go on our trip to the Great Wall of China and The Forbidden City!!!! Was so excited!
After a wake up call at 6am, I found it quite easy to get up from sheer excitement believe it or not! We had hired a driver to take us on the 1.5 hr drive to the wall! There was four of us in total. We wrapped up warm- it was freezing! The Chinese countryside was amazing especially as the sun was rising…………… there were plenty of skeleton tress, the sun beaming through the branches and onto frozen lakes! The driver spoke no English. We took a cable car up to the Great Wall in the
hills! The view was amazing as was the Wall. It was surreal- I couldn’t believe I was there! And also we were the only ones there! The Wall was our own, not a bad way to spent Valentines Day!! I was amazed at how long it was- you couldn’t see the end. We walked a bit of it but no doubt didn’t even cover a third of it. One of the girls who was with us said that they did a catwalk show on it the week before! The air was so fresh. On our way back to the car there were again lots of stall sellers selling things for next to nothing…….. They depend on this money- it was very sad to see. I couldn’t help them out this time as the money went long ago on a Prada bag!!!! We drove back to the city of Beijing, on the way passing a few tiny villages. So many people ride bikes over there. Wasn’t there a song about 9 million bicycles in Beijing??!!!??? She was right! On the way to the Forbidden City we passed the Olympic City, as Beijing are hosting the games this year. Loads of merchandise
for sale over there.
The Forbidden City housed the Imperial Palace, completed in 1420 (!!!!) and its huge (1,000,000 square metres). It contains the Inner Court which was not only the residence of the Emperor and empress, consorts and concubines, but also the venues for administrative activies. The Forbidden City is the largest and best preserved palace complex extant today. The film The Emperor was filmed there. Not seen it but most now. This place was immense and we couldn’t possibly cover it in the time we had! Shame! But so glad we went as we weren’t going to go inside when we arrived due to lack of money and praying they accepted credit cards!!!!!!
When we got back to the hotel I still managed to fit in 5 hours sleep before we flew back! Had a great time and saw and did so much!
Went to back to Moscow the other day, as I went just the week before I didn’t venture out but……………………………….................................. One the way back we had a White Syrian Lion travelling in the cargo. He was going to Johannesburg so when he got taken off our flight and went to
have a nosey!!! O he was so beautiful poor thing!!! His head was huge! xxxx
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jessica
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wow
Wow great pics! love jess xxxxxxx