5-6 February, Beijing

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First whole day in Beijing. We arrived from London yesterday at 11.20 am fearing that we had missed our ride. Fortunately the taxi driver had decided to wait. When we picked up our luggage we were scrutinized by a police drug dog. It was the cutest little puppy imaginable led by two stone-faced policemen.
Unfortunately our taxi driver didn't really understand english, so he took us to the wrong hotel. It was the best moment so far this trip. He took us to the five-star Beijing Hotel, it was extremely luxourious and for only 200 kronor! (we thought). We had to walk a few blocks to the real one. When we first came into the lobby we were struck by a wall of heat. Luckily the hotel wasn't that disappointing.

During the trip from the airport we experienced a Beijing that we hadn't anticipated. It was a lot cleaner and almost no people at all. The arcitechture is amazing with lots of windows that mirrors the sky. We have a disagreement whether its beautiful or not. Erik thinks many of the new buildings exceed New York's skyscrapers by far.

We slept for a few hours and then headed out for dinner. At the big central boulevard we met two happy chinese english students who guided us around and joined us for dinner. They were very nice but the dinner was a bit more expensive than we anticipated. Very good food though and the best tea we've ever tasted.

Today we woke up quite early and went out for breakfast. First we went looking for a food court that turned out to be very disappointing so we went to McDonalds. After that we walked around looking for Henderson's shopping centre but took some wrong turns before we found it. We did however experience some of the China we had expected with narrow alleyways and crappy houses. Lots of exercise.
After our lunch nap, we headed to the Tiananmen Square where policemen searched our bags and seemed very interested in our travel documents.

We ate some rice (of course) with squid and beef for dinner before returning to the hotel. Maybe later we'll head out and watch the extensive fireworks display.

Tomorrow we're planning to see Mao's corpse in the Mausoleum and then some shopping before going to the forbidden city.

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Comments

[Pappa E.]

Foto!
Hej killar! Lägg gärna in lite bilder om ni får tillfälle! Ha de´, Pappa E.

[Anna]

HEJ!!! hoppas ni har roligt, det låter i alla fall så!:) själv sitter man ju i regniga Sverige och glor. Erik, fick du veta att Marie fick en dotter? En liten Tyra! skriv så mycket ni orkar varje dag, det är jätte roligt att läsa!:) Kramar från Anna (din syster Erik, om du nu inte skulle komma ihåg mig efter din långa frånvaro från familjen :)

[Annica, the one and only]

nice det låter hörrni! Hoppas allt fortsätter lika bra för er och att min lyckokatt lever! för det gör han väl..? Har ni döpt honom än? Ni måste langa lite bilder också! Nu ska jag gå och bajsa i din säng Erik. ha det bra kramar /annica

[Nicklas]

Va trevligt och spännande ni verkar ha det därborta i Asien. Fortsätt skriv om alla era äventyr! I maj blir det fest Hannes! Take care. Nicklas

[HannesAndErik]

Lotus
Jag forsakrar dyrt och heligt att lotus mar bra, dock sa skulle jag vilja ha lite av den utlovade turen :P. kram /Erik

[Magnus]

Det var som!!!
Tjenare E! Det var som fasiken, är du i Kina?! Det låter tokroligt! Själv har jag aldrig varit i Kina, men i Lilla Peking (Norrköping!) där har jag varit. Bra engelska i bloggandet också, antar att ni fick bra betyg i ämnet! ;) Sköt om dig och den du reser med så ses vi fram över! Jenny, Moa och Olle hälsar! Eder vänligen, Magnutz