Alice In Beijing! (Dave in Hong Kong...)

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Apart from minor hiccups with the seventy two glasses of water i had on the plane to ward off dvt, and deciding that I needed to declare a radio, I arrived in Beijing and met Fred and my driver. The Lante Hotel where I'm staying is in the back of beyond but some very nice girls with pink umbrellas (everyone has umbrellas) showed us to the bus to Tian'anmen square. After a brief detour to an 'art gallery' went and sat in the square. The sheer vast emptiness is amazing. Mao's tomb was closed but we occupied ourselves being asked to be in family pictures as the only caucasians around. We quickly decided that we have to do the victory sign in all our photos because everyone else did! I also managed to make a big blue stain on the pristine square with a simultaneous platypus and pen leak so we ran away quickly from the guards in white gloves. I should mention the square was bounded by Qian Men (Front Gate) to the south, Museum of Chinese History and olympics 2008 countdown clock to the east, the great hall of the people (and apparently a Andreu dome Antonia although i couldn't find it) to the west and the Gate of Heavenly Peace with 30ft Chairman Mao picture on it. We decided there was enough to do without seeing the museums.
Went to Swissotel to book Panda tour to Great Wall and change money. Spent far too much of my time in between and on the tube trying to pronounce xiexie (thank you) correctly. Then met Fred's friends and took their mealtime advice and went to a place near the office where we ordered breakfast since it was stuff I hadn't had before - pork dumplings, sesame-y flatbread, rice wrapped round pickle/egg and long thin deep fried dough dipped in sugary soy (no cows here) milk.
The Forbidden City was closed by this point but sat in Tian'anmen Square again, a girl came and talked to us for ages and then met another of Fred's friends who's Chinese but has always lived in Australia. On advice we went to the best peking duck restaurant Quan je de, south of the square. Very tasty crispy skin and good conversation! Couldn't find our way back to the hotel in the taxi and the receptionist didn't even know the address when we phoned. Apparently everything is changing so rapidly here though that it's understandable. Still wouldn't have managed the taxi driver or the receptionist without Vera's fluency though. Now have address written down for taxis!
And dave's in hong kong...

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