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Published: September 22nd 2007
Red Lantern
Lovely placeFinally we arrived in Beijing at 5.30 am, the station was quiet.
When we ventured outside it was mayhem, multitudes of hawkers trying to sell us anything you could possibly think of.
We ran the gauntlet and arrived unscathed at the metro.
This one was the easist by far to figure out, and we were soon on our way to our stop.
Once there it was a 20 minute walk to the "Red Lantern Hostel" in the hutongs.
The walk was like an assault course, avoiding pot holes and the relentless stream of cycles.
When we arrived we were able to check in immediately and partake in the "all you can eat breakfast".
Fried eggs have never tasted so good....
Having feasted, we were ready for the long awaited shower and hair wash.
Well after having spent over 6 days on a train without a shower, we were a bit smelly...
Two hours later we ventured out to check out the area, a bit of a culture shock to say the least.
The heat of the day was intense and stifling.
It suddenly occured to us that we had expected to arrive
Our Street
Watch out for the bikes! in China to the smells of our local chinese take away.
But all we could smell was the sewers and dust, or was it the water from our recent showers!!!
The hutongs are a bit like a shanty town in the back streets, the real China.
They sell most things from doorways.
You can eat a meal and get your hair cut within a hundred yard walk.
We got back to the hostel just before it rained.
Just finished unpacking...
Ploop ploop ploop, the rain came in through the ceiling.
We then had to repack and move to another room for the night!
Thought we were settled there.
But the next morning we were told we had to move again, as this room was a 3 bed which they wanted that day.....
3 rooms in 24 hours - can't be bad!!!
Decided to leave our stuff packed there after, just in case....
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Jane
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Just lurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrve the red and yellow traffic wardens
doing their synchronised exercises for balancing the yin and yang of wrongly-parked vehicles... or are they really JUST dancers??? Are you in the red lantern district? And didn't your mothers EVER warn you about THAT sort of place?? Like the en suite shower through the ceiling!