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Published: January 24th 2008
Hot pot
Shortly before rich got stuck in the toilet....We made it to Beijing after a long flight. Been here 4 days now so just about getting used to it! Main observation about Beijing - it's cold. Unbelievably cold (we've heard rumours of -11 in the day earlier this week, I'm pretty convinced I had mild hyperthermia. Cured by a chinese tea though so all is well).
Rich's friend lung met us at Beijing airport and managed to get us to our hostel with ease, good job he was there cos the buses in beijing are crazy with no english on any maps. We'd probably still be at the airport, or circling round central beijing not knowing how to stop the bus. Our hostel is really nice, very swish for a hostel, with a good bar and cheap internet and the like.
Lung gave us a 2 day tour of Beijing, we went to the Temple of Heaven (impressive but cold), Tiananmen Sq and the Fornidden city, all of which were amazing. Seeing the size and detail of those places was just incredible. Lung also took us to a snack street to have a look at the street food. Seahorse kebabs were one highlight.
After our trip
Summer Palace
View from the summer palace, complete with frozen lake to the temple of heaven, lung and his wife wanted us to try a traditional hotpot at a local restaurant. We had absolutely no idea what was going on. Basically a big vat of boiling water over what can only be described and an oversized bunsen burner, and plates and plates of raw food. All you do is chuck the bits of food in the water, wait for it to boil, then eat it. Much fun trying to get noodles out of a pot of boiling water with chopsticks. There was item on the table that Lung translated as "beef ball". It was interesting. Not convinved meat that looks like that can be described as beef. We didn't eat it. After lunch rich got stuck in the toilet. Highly amusing as no one was around so he had to scale the bathroom door to get out. Difficult when there is not toilet to stand on. Got to love the chinese squat toilets.
Rich has continued to attract crazy people, last night when we were walking to restaurant with our tour group a random chinese man with what appeared to be a semi-serious head injury grabbed onto Richs arm and walked with us, talking away in chinese. turned out he was after richs hat, he was so keen that he followe dus intp the restaurant up the stairs and sat down at the table with us, before being ejected by the waiters.
Our tour group are all really nice, we're all pretty much the same ages, and it's mainly brits, a few aussies an american and a mexican. All really nice people though. Today we went en masse to the summer palace in the north of the city. Beijing is huge. It was 30mins by tube then 30 mins in a taxi to get there. And it's still in Beijing! The Summer Palace was absolutely incredible, we'll put up some photos soon (when we remeber to bring the camera to the internet place) so you can see. It was just stunning. Absolutely massive, we were there for nearly a day and still only saw about half of it. It surrounds a huge lake, that at this time of year is frozen solid. Some of the more adventurous of our group decided to take a short cut across the lake on foot to reach the palace. Scary stuff! The palace is really high with amazing views of the whole of beijing from the top. The climb nearly killed us all though, we're starting to worry about the great wall hike!
Off for a few beers and a game of pool now i think.
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lee
non-member comment
Hot Pot
Ah, the old hot pot, you guys have any eels and pig's heads? Try going more north if you want to experience severe cold, it will be good for you, it will clear up so old limbs. Go all the way and hang with Aussies, they everywhere. Good luck to Rich talking to them about sports. There is only ever going to be one winner, THEM. Well glad you guys arrived safely, don't drink too much beers, I know how incredibly cheap they are. Look forward to your next blog.