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Published: April 29th 2010
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Temple of Heaven
Hall of prayer for good harvests. Seriously. Day one
Chris's Section We slept, yes we did. Got up at 11.30. We really needed that. Seems to have sorted out any jetlag issues. The plan today was put on hold when we found out no train tickets were available to Xi'an (pronounced (see'an) this weekend. The bank holiday in China has made mincemeat of our plans. We also found out our hostel room isn't available on Saturday night (we had only booked for 3 nights originally). So, the next three hours were spent on the internet in a panic, looking for alternative transport and accommodation. It was looking very grim at first. We've now booked another hostel for sat night and we're flying to Xi'an on Sunday. A bit disappointed as I was looking forward to the sleeper train to Xi'an, and it cost a bit more to fly (£60 each, as compared to £28 for the train). Oh well.
After the above panic, we set off for Tiananmen Square. It's huge. It was a lovely day - great day for a stroll. We walked for miles today. After the square, we walked down one of Beijing's main shopping streets and then onward to the Temple
of Heaven. We were met with a 20 foot wall and had to walk a mile along it to find the entrance. That made us realise just how big it was. We tried to sneak in, but we were caught. We paid 15 yuan (£1.50) to get access to the park area. Unfortunately the main temples had shut for the evening (was about 6.30 by this point) but the grounds were beautiful and we did get to see most things. We spent an hour or so walking around the grounds. Definitely worthwhile.
After this we made our way up towards Donghuamen Night Market. Here you can find a street full of food stalls selling pretty much any type of meat (generally on a stick) you can imagine - chicken, pork, beef, lamb, sea urchin, star fish, scorpions, shark (imagine a whole baby shark on a stick!), silk worms and dog! We had some scrummy stir fry pancake wrap things, then some noodles, then some meat on sticks. One such stick contained snake. It looked good, and tasted good. Pity it had the texture of a rubbery rubber thing. Pretty much impossible to chew through. In the bin it went.
Although a bit touristy, the market was a good laugh. Most of the dishes cost from 8 yuan (80p) to 15 yuan (£1.50). Pretty good value we thought.
After 6 hours of walking we were knackered. We went back to the hostel for a couple of beers. Tomorrow we go see the Great Wall. Early start, but I'm very very excited. A life's ambition about to be realised.
Louise's Section Today has been very hot, wanted to take my cardigan off but was too scared about my tattoos as was getting enough stares as it is and all the Chinese still had puffa jackets on! Will brave it at some point.
After the lazy git getting up at 11am after I had been awake since 5:30 we went downstairs to encounter the above panic, luckily now sorted, cue sigh of relief and apologies between Chris and I for being an arse to each other.
Visited southern Beijing which is much more of what I had been expecting of Beijing. Oriental architecture and then huge massive buildings and many designer shops. I think we are staying in the equivalent of Salford to Manchester but it
is still lovely. Finally had a hole in the ground wee and did not fall in, yay for me!! Think Chris was disappointed. Had a wonderful pancake roll from the night market and managed to spill the remainder of the lovely sauce all over my trousers, hand washed and hanging to dry (Gill will be proud). Beers in the hostel bar, chatting to a lovely Uzbekistani man, then rescued a dead fish from our fish tank in our room to save the other fish from possible fin rot (Dad will be proud).
Off to the Great Wall tomorrow, 6:30am start, dear god!!
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Amy Bell
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Hiya!
Loving reading what you are up to! Keep the updates coming, and take care xxx