Blogs from Xuanwu District, Beijing, China, Asia

Precruise Day Two Day Friday 6 September-Beijing Xuanwu district. Tried to have a big sleep in but by 7-30am China time I was awake and making use of the free wifi, but alas not facebook. We are staying at The Holiday Inn Express Temple of Heaven, Nanwei Lu, which is a short walk away from TheTemple of Heaven in the Xuanwu district of Beijing. It's a typical western style hotel with western toilet and bathroom facilities and a free buffet breakfast each morning in theGreat Room which has lovely views of the surrounding gardens. The buffet is a mix of western (or an attempt at this style) plus Chinese food, juices, fresh fruit,yoghurt, cereals etc. No fridge in room but tea making facilities, free bottled water, fresh white towels and hard Chinese beds! A ... read more

Day 29 (Thurs 4thOct) So the first task of the morning was to get the money back that the housekeeper had stolen. On waking up I packed my bags and headed to reception. I handed them my key and asked for my money, which I was given in full along with the 3 days I had paid for and wasn’t going to be staying there for. So off I go to my new hostel, which is actually a hotel but the top floor has some dorms in it instead, it’s far nicer than the previous hostel so I’ve fallen on my feet here. First major problem on the road overcome and time to enjoy the rest of Beijing. With it being early afternoon by the time I got settled into new surroundings, I decided to head ... read more

We met at the airport on Sunday morning at 9 am and had a very long day of travelling, it took us about 20 hours altogether. Waiting for us in the arrivals lounge were 5 of the teachers from Honglian primary school, they were all really friendly and very excited to see us. They dropped us off at the hotel and told us we had 30 minutes to get ready and we were going to be taken out for lunch! We checked in to our hotel which is on the 12th floor, had a quick shower and freshen up and then set off for our meal. We arrived at the restaurant which looked like a small temple and were ushered to a private room upstairs, where were greeted by the headteacher and treated to an exquisite ... read more

The Muslim population in Beijing is quite large. There are many mosques around the city, one on Wangfujing street and a whole areas around the Xuanwu district. As a Muslim I read about the Niujie mosque in history books. One of the oldest mosques in Asia, it was built in the year 996 by an Arabian scholar Nasurutan. I was expecting to see s huge domed structure to indicate the mosque. I remember when the taxi dropped us to the mosque I thought were in the wrong place! I walked up to a gate where I saw a series of Chinese style houses. On the gate there was a sign welcoming us to Niujie Mosque. It was a real pleasant surprise. The grounds are quite and calming. A man came out to greet us in limited ... read more

We spent our last full day in Beijing exploring the area near our hostel. This district, between Tiananmen Square and the Temple of Heaven, seems to be one of the last parts of the city to retain the old development pattern wherein low houses with interior courtyards are grouped together into hutongs, forming what are effectively villages within the city. This development plan dates back to the Mongol days when the capital was moved here. In fact hutong is derived from a Mongolian word, and this term is not used for alleys or back streets any place but Beijing. In modern times, and especially since 1949, most of the city's hutongs have been torn down to make way for grand government buildings, tall apartment houses, and, more recently, modern retail development. In the core tourist area ... read more