Beijing,Temple of Heaven

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During our stay, we stayed in 2 youth hostels, one to the north of the city and the other more central. They were both in Hutong areas, which are the old town with narrow streets, a little dusty and dirty, but full of people leading their everyday lives. Little shops line the streets, from tiny dodgy restaurants to double glazing workshops. Here, Phil found a taylor to take in his baggy shirt and take up his long trousers. The taylor did such a profession job! The city was gently restoring these areas to keep them, rather than them growing into slum areas. The hostels were helpful, we spent an evening watching Chinese acrobats, all children doing some fantastic balances, tumbles and jumps! We went to see the Great Wall and hired bikes for the day.

We hired bikes and rode to the Temple of Heaven, and survived! The buildings were once again impressive! The roads are so busy, so so many bicycles, scooters, cars, taxis and buses. There seems to be so so so many people in these cities!

Bus station nightmares!
It was during the Chinese holiday that we stayed in Beijing. They called it Golden Week, where everything was really busy and trains were fully booked for weeks!Trying to obtain a bus ticket out of Beijing was a nightmare. The Chinese people in hostels wouldn't help us and just said 'Bus is very difficult'. But determined to somehow eventually leave the city (couldn't just stay here endlessly!) we began our investigation into which of the 15 bus stations will have a bus to Pingyao, our next stop. After 3 days of following peoples directions from station to station, queuing endlessly, we eventually got a ticket!

China seems full of massage parlours. So we couldn't resist, we had our 2nd foot massage. Japan was our first. It is quite amazing, when it hurts it's related to a part of your body that is slightly out of balance or needs attention. Weird, how my labyrinth, ear part of the foot really hurt!

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Photos

Wow!
Over excited.