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Published: October 19th 2008
Fianlly arrived in Beijing after nearly 24 hours of planes and airports, Rox slept most of the way as expected and i struggled to get comfortable.
After queuing for like an hour to get a cab from the airport we were dropped at some random little alley - known as a HuTong... Lukily for us Rox has the eyes of a hawk and managed to see the smallest sign, in pitch black pointing to our hostel location.... We had to walk around a few back alleys to find it and were expecting the worst. After entering however we walked into a really lovely tropical courtyard, and after walking through a room of sleeping peeps were happy to find our own comfy room minus a door!!!! Rox is enjoying waking up to two strange germans walking about in their boxers (she wanted to sleep by the door)....
Beijing - what can we say, lets put it like this, our first port of call for refreshments was to the local starbucks.... The smell around the food stalls was making us gag, although we have since learnt that the smell is down to off tofu - referred to as
stinky tofu (smelly) 
The Devil Stairs.....
Drum Tower Stairs - a.k.a The Arena for Rox's Panic Attackin restaraunt menu's!
Our first impression of Beijing were not as we had expected, it wasn't as modern and city like as expected. Although it has a lot of charm and an old chinese style feel... Walking through the park an old chinese guy approached Peter and started to rub his shoulders, Peter thought he was saying muscles muscles when in fact, after being followed for a while realised he was trying to sell him a massage. Peter was gutted.
The first bit of sight seeing we did was Gongs mansion. The grounds of this mansion were pretty impressive - we chilled for a while on a pavillion in the the middle of a rather large pond! We then went to the drum tower. This was eventful. To get to the top we had to climb like 150, quite steep steps. Rox was vey affraid, so with some gentle persausion from Peter (stop being a wuss) Rox made it... It took about half hour though and she clung on to the side for dear life.... Once we got to the top Rox preceeded to have a mini panic attack at the thought of getting down and cried the whole time.... Oh the fun.... Everyone was starring thinking I (Peter) must have given her a wack or something! We then went to the bell tower - needless to say Rox didnt come to the top of that and it was a lone journey for Peter....
It was The summer palace today - wow...... The journey took two and a half hours, with us two finding our way by bus... It was like p[laying snap - trying to match the pictures... This place has topped Rox's list of top sights, it was amazing and unbelievably large, a true reflection of self indulgence... We managed to pick a lovely tour guide (young Chinese girl) for only 100 yuan (8.50 pounds). She thought we were only 18 and couldnt believe we'd both finished university.... She taught us loads about chinese culture and the summer palace.... It basically boils down to longevity and prosperity...Its the year of the rat, the year both of us were born so we have been warned to wear red clothes and jade to help prevent bad luck....
On our way back after dinner we walked through a square full of chinese people of all ages........dancing, playing jump rope games, playing keepy upys with some feather thing and generally socialising... Was a very sureal thing for a sunday night - but nice.....
Join the tour group tomorrow night, start our mountains and monestaries tour the following day.... off to see Tianniamen Square, the Great Wall, and the Forbidden City... We'll keep you posted...
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Sanna
non-member comment
no panic
Bless you Roxy! What doesn't kill you can only make you stronger! Sounds like you've had some interesting experiences already. Looking fwd to hearing and seeing more. xxx