Day 2 - Beijing

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My weather fears have been realised! It's a high of 28C in Beijing today but raining all day just about. Luckily we were in T-shirt and shorts so were easily identifiable as tourists. My daughter got rather concerned at one stage as she seemed to be attracting a lot of attention from the locals. All that effort to look great and then complaining about getting too much attention; I don't know! There are plenty of tourisist around but a western family seems to draw plently of stares.

The locals are very good with English which was a real fear of mine and my extensive vocabularly of local lingo (Hello and Thank you) is going down very well. We did a lot of walking today, ran the food gauntlet, tested the communal toilets and saw some great sights. It's a real mix of modern and old and even then the ornate design contrasts with the stark concrete in many areas. We found a few spots off the beaten track and some of the little shops and shacks were quite an eye opener.

I am learning to haggle for just about everything but still no real clue as to if we are getting ripped off or landing a bargain. We bought some brolleys from a street vendor and were adamant we wouldn't pay the asking price until we saw the locals handing the same amount over and then we sheepishly paid up. Of course lots of things seem cheap here given the exchange rate so it's certainly one of the less expensive stops on this trip.

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Photos

Found it!
Local coffee was good and I liked the look of this building (sadly just a department store)

Sore thumb
The tourists are in town

Confused again
The locals were no help with directions in this case!

Tainanmen Square
Keep a nervous eye on some officialdom