Blogs from XiCheng District, Beijing, China, Asia

I love Chinese breakfast food, but rarely have the chance to eat it due to a combination of different factors. I had done a breakfast tour in Beijing, when visiting previously and really enjoyed it, so decided to check out Lost Plate and their Hutong Breakfast tour. We met at 9 am, and were greeted by our lovely guide, Kelly, who already had something for us to try while we waited for everyone to arrive. I enjoyed the traditional Beijing yogurt drink, which Kelly gave us, I've had it before and it makes a nice change from a regular yogurt. I am not a big fan of honey, but you can barely taste it in the yogurt. Our first stop was just around the corner from the subway station and on the main street. There were ... read more

Looking forward to our trip, with Lyn and Steve Weber and Mark Oberegger, Mark has not been to Beijing so planned to have a couple of days there, we were only going to have three days in Beijing and catch the Trans Siberian Train taking 24 hours, but this was not to be! Booked the train with a company in Beijing and they notified us that because the World Cup is in Moscow we were not guaranteed seats until three days before departure......because people going all the way to Moscow would get priority and we would be bumped off.....so hence the extra day in Beijing and are now flying up to Ulaanbaatar. Hot and humid here in Beijing, flight delayed by one hour and a half, so ended up getting to hotel around 2am Melbourne time ... read more

Bonsoir tout le monde, ou plutôt bon matin, je ne sais plus trop où nous en sommes rendus. L'important c'est que nous sommes bien rendus à Beijing. 13h30 de vol!!!!! Nous avons mal partout. Première particularité du voyage. Regardez la première photo. Devinez ce que l'on voit.......eh oui! L'océan Arctique!!! Pour aller de Toronto à Beijing, ça à l'air que c'est plus vite par le nord que par l'Ouest. En tout cas c'est très spectaculaire surtout qu'à cause de notre itinéraire, il a fait soleil tout le long du voyage. Nous n'avons pas encore vécu de choc culturel. À part l'aéroport énorme où nous devions prendre un métro pour aller chercher nos valises nous avons l'impression d'être dans un gros quartier chinois de New York. Nous logeons dans le luxueux Four Points Sheraton 5 étoiles de ... read more

Nach einem 10stündigen Flug und einer zweistündigen Odysee mit Airport Express und der völlig überfüllten Subway ( mal wieder am falschen Ende gespart, Rückfahrt mit Taxi!!) erreichen wir heute gegen 14 Uhr endlich unser Hostel, welches im Stadtteil Xicheng in einem schönen alten Hutong (Altstadtviertel) liegt und vom Aufbau her ein traditionelles chinesisches Haus (Siheyuan, "Familienhof") ist: von Aussen unscheinbar betritt man nach Durchschreiten des Tors eine eigene kleine Welt mit mehreren Innenhöfen, um die sich je nach Wohlstand und Familiengröße der Eigentümer mehr oder weniger viele Gebäude gruppieren. Traditionell wurden diese Hauser von chinesischen Grossfamilien in mehreren Generationen bewohnt. Da die Familien bekantermassen hier aber inzwischen nicht mehr so gross werden, wurden leider viele dieser alten Viertel abgerissen, da sie leer standen und/oder als Schandfleck für d... read more

What a day! I've never been so tired. We started off at 8:00 andhe added out to the Forbidden City, the Imperial Palace, and the great Tian'anmen Square. We walked about 5 miles to cover these attractions. I've never seen so many people. They aren't shy about pushing and shoving either. We had a great lunch at a Chinese restaurant. Everything is served family style with a lazy Susan in the middle. Then, we went to the Summer Palace and walked some more! We stopped at a pearl store on the way. We came back to the hotel and showered and were back in the bus to go to dinner..We had Peking duck at a restaurant know for it. The chef carved the ducks at our table. We put several slices on a wonton wrapper and ... read more