Blogs from Tian'anmen, Beijing, China, Asia - page 6

A MUCH better day today. For a start, MY BACKPACK ARRIVED!!!! Went downstairs in the morning just on the off-chance, and there it was! Minus a minor hand sanitiser explosion, all is well with it, although I'm definitely keeping those 'Quick Transfer' and 'Expidite This Baggage' labels (aye RIGHT) as war medals! So I had a pretty nice morning of generally looking at outfits that weren't my travelling outfit, and having a good long shower (a cool shower...!), then headed to Tiananmen Square. Was pretty buzzing, lots of people, lots of staring but was all good... funniest moment was definitely when a tiny child just about sparked a major incident by making a break for the Chinese flag in front of the Forbidden City! Suddenly there was police everywhere, and a highly embarrassed mum! The only ... read more

Walking where so many important things have happened for thousands of years. Then going to Crazy Food Street. After that, we saw a Chinese acrobat show which was amazing!... read more

I set out fairly early to try and find a mobile phone and Chinese SIM card, which I did, and, despite haggling, am sure I bought at extortionate price. I took the opportunity, in so-doing, to explore the area around the hostel a bit. The hostel is situated in the Dongcheng district, which is a maze of passages and alleys about 20 minutes walk north of the Forbidden City. The alleyways - or hutongs as they are called here - are small and winding, filled with shops (or are they private homes?), street vendors and building works. Once you get off the main axes, you rarely see a foreigner. Having wandered round the hutongs for a bit, I set off to walk past the Forbidden City to Tian'amen Sqaure (so called, I have only just learned, ... read more

Thanks to the update I left on Facebook explaining the ban in China and that it would be over a month before I could respond to any posts one of my German relative sent me details on family I had living in Beijing, a Great Uncle. I made contact and we arranged to meet at Ritan park for lunch the next day in a German restaurant called Schindlers Tankstelle. When we met we started with some drinks of course, I had a pig knuckle with sauerkraut, it was brilliant, the largest meal since I left home, it was so big I took what was left of it away in a doggy bag for dinner. My grand cousin joined us as well, someone id only met once when I was four. I didn’t even know he lived ... read more

Hi to all our family and friends, as we said in our last blog we are going to post a few of our pictures from the trip to Beijing, so please enjoy the photos we took from Tian'anmen Square, Chinese Parliament buildings and some old and some new markets streets. ... read more