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We arrived in Beijing on the 3rd May, signaling the end of our 9000 mile Tran Siberian train journey from Moscow. The 32 hours from Mongolia had been eventful as we got carried away having a few beers with a French couple in the superbly decorated Mongolian restaurant car. The fun was cut short by our Chinese border arrival and the following wheel change for the train. Toilet facilities were closed during this so emergency procedures had to be taken! Waking up the next day we enjoyed the incredible mountainous scenery and views of the Great Wall in the distance.
As we stepped off the train we realised that we were now really a long way from home. It was hot (which we welcomed!) and Beijing was huge. Prior to our arrival we'd been lucky enough to arrange to stay with Andrew (brother in law of Lauro from Old CC) at his city centre consular flat. It was an awesome place with great views and incredibly relaxing after our month of hostel and train accommodation. On our first night Andrew took us out for a few drinks both in a quiet park and a busy hutong (narrow old
style Beijing street). Both were a superb introduction to the city and we finished off with a Chinese meal in a lovely courtyard restaurant. The next day, after a decent kip, we attempted to find and explore the famous Forbidden City. Unfortunately we underestimated the task in hand and after making ourselves familiar with the Metro system, a two hour sun cream hunt and a look round Tiananmen Square we gave up for the day. More Local food followed as we headed out with Andrew again, leaning on him for information about both the food and Chinese culture in general.
We finally got to the rugby scrum that was the Forbidden city the next day. Whilst the scale of the place was impressive, the crowds made it difficult to navigate. A lot of the exhibits were also pretty difficult to see behind dusty windows. The highlights were the clock exhibition and the impressive Palace Gardens. On leaving we headed into a lovely adjacent park where we climbed up a hill to a superb view over Beijing. Our walking was accompanied by singing, firstly by groups of locals that sounded fairly well in tune. After this we were
treated to some solo performances by completely out of tune local singers. They seemed to be thoroughly enjoying deafening everyone around. The evening saw another meal out with our host and another decent local restaurant.
After some minor Visa complications, we'd ended up having to book a guided tour of the Great Wall which we duly took the next day. After a couple of hours drive we arrived at a small village and set off up hill on foot to an old part of the wall which we joined by climbing a ladder. Our guide took us along this section of "wild wall" - a lot of it was overgrown and broken up - for over an hour. We only saw a handful of other people and took in the breathtaking views while listening to why the wall was built and how it was used and occupied by the soldiers. After lunch we walked further, onto a reconstructed more touristy part of the wall. This, in contrast, was much busier. The views were still impressive though and it was interesting to see the wall in its restored state. There was a cable car to get down to
the car park but we opted for the 1000 steps option – hmmmm. Overall it was a great way to see the Great Wall and we certainly slept well after all the walking.
We spent the next few days enjoying more sights of the city. This included a great day at The Summer Palace, which we preferred to the Forbidden City. We hired pedalos and despite the windy conditions entered into an impromptu race against a Chinese couple (OK we aren't 100% sure they were aware we were racing them) -but anyway we won - much to Tina’s delight! The Lama temple was another favourite although the cat cafe nearby with dozens of cats everywhere provided far more excitement and photo opportunities - no cat as cute as Molly though..... obviously. Near to Andrews apartment was an enormous TV screen above a pedestrian area, 250 metres long and 30 metres wide!! This was another pretty mesmerising highlight. Mark would have enjoyed watcing a bit of sport on that!
Cuisine wise we tried the full range of places, from decent restaurants to street cafes. We both enjoyed the Vegetarian Peking duck - a mock duck
tofu dish. Real Peking duck was another experience; the recommended restaurant only served them as full ducks - no halves (much to Marks disgust..honestly) It was cooked near to the table then sliced in front of us onto three small plates - no-where near as much meat as you'd imagine. The head was served on a separate plate - that's where it stayed! Overall it was tasty but not as special as anticipated. Other memorable dishes were the 7-11 specials, a superb "select your own ingredients and we'll make a dish from them" lunchtime thing and another Korean meal. We also had the spiciest meal we’d had so far on Ghost street – chilies galore with tears to finish!
Overall we both loved Beijing. We found the people friendly and the city not as polluted as we were expecting. It was such a privilege to be able to stay at an incredible flat too, so we have both Andrew and the New Zealand tax payers to thank for that! All good things have to come to an end though and we booked an overnight Chinese sleeper train to Xi’an and departed after a farewell Indian curry with
our host. Thankyou Andrew!
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