Blogs from Tian'anmen, Beijing, China, Asia - page 2

I arrived in Beijing about three hours ago, it's the first time that I have been in the shortest immigration queue. There were only about a dozen of us foreign nationals entering China from my train, T98. The train itself took 23 and a half hours, but the time went surprisingly quickly, especially since I slept pretty soundly (though it took me a while to get used to the motion whilst lying down). I was in a room all to myself, the other three bunks being empty, but that was alright, the noise from next door kept me company, and I went down to dinning carriage, where I am pretty sure I order vegetables but ended up with vegetables with grey chunks, which looked to me like frogs legs and bits of spine. Good times. The ... read more

Et c'est parti. Grosse journée pour commencer nos vacances.....oups, notre périple en Chine. départ de l'hôtel et direction la place Tian'anmen. C'est un peu comme la place Jacques Cartier mais beaucoup plus grand, plus plat, rempli de Chinois.....dans l'fond ça n'a aucun rapport avec la place Jacques Cartier, voyez sur les 2 premières photos. Ensuite direction de la Cité interdite des Empereurs Ming et Tsing. On l'appelle la cité aux 9999 chambres. Et croyez moi, il y en a beaucoup. C'est très beau et grandiose. Voir photos 3 et 4. De là direction du Temple céleste du Palais des étoiles de la sagesse et de la vénération du divin (Là vous voyez bien que je ne me souviens plus du tout du nom du temple, allez voir le guide pour plus de détails ou regardez la ... read more

Beijing – Pingyao – Xi'an – Chengdu – Kangding – Xiangcheng – Qiaotou – Naxi Village (Tiger Leaping Gorge) – Halfway Guesthouse (Tiger Leaping Gorge) – Qiaotou – Shangri-La – Shaxi Village – Dali Old Town – Caicun – Dali Old Town – Kunming – Xinjie – Pugaolao – Kunming – Yangshuo – Nanning We spent just under two months in China. As part of the bigger picture, it was less than 1% of our entire lives. How can such a tiny fraction of our time on this planet have been so life-altering? Here is a brief summary of what the last two months looked like, if this only describes about 1% of our trip, imagine how truly amazing China really is: Beijing was slightly hectic. We saw so much in our first few days in ... read more

So then ,where do we begin, ???? After our siesta yesterday which lasted 12 hours, it was time to get out and do "stuff". First we hopped on the metro just 2 stops to Beijing Railway Station as my online ticket agency let us down with our train tickets to Shanghai.We managed to get some but need to stay in Beijing another 2 days, doesnt matter as we have realised this place is so big and there is so much to see we can easily fill them. After another hearty chinese breakfast we first headed off to Tian anmen square , only being a 10 minute walk from our hotel we soon enough reached the vast expanse, absoloutely swarming with chinese tourists! It was a bit smoggy this morning and to be honest the noise and ... read more

CHINA: Beijing...in blizzards to find a fur hat...How it all began. The year is 2002...dinner with a friend from my youth...not seen him for years...he partnered with a Chinese/Georgian woman from Beijing...her parents Professors of Fine Arts...she separated from her family during the Cultural Revolution...lived in caves with others...me unable to imagine I would later meet some of these people...their stories changing my perspective on life. Over dinner showing me pictures of snow capped mountains ringing a surreal plateau... "We are going to Shangrai-La...its just opening up to tourism...we want to go before its too touristy...would you like to join us?" "Shangri-la"...that's the name of my first comp tennis team...this is fate...count me in! Booked three weeks and received itinerary for five...OK five...why not? Denise won't come as we ar... read more