Beijing

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Well we've made it to China.

Arrived by train into the most insanely train station we have encountered so far. Throngs of people going every direction. We made the costly decision of deciding that the hostel didn't look that far and we would walk to our hostel. Turns out it was a two hour walk and very very warm. Reached the hostel, starving and not smelling so sweet. After a shower we decided to treat ourself to the local dish - Peking Duck. It was delicious and the Chef even carved the duck at our table. We spent the remainder of our first night wandering around our neighbourhood before hitting the sack.

The next day we headed for Tian'anmen Square which was two stops on the metro line from our hostel. We visited the square itself as well as Qianmen Gate, Maos Mauseleum (Although we didn't actually go in). and eventually made our way down to the Forbidden Palace. It turns out that we had arrived in China on the busiest week of the year - National Holiday week. This is the week when hundreds of millions of people in China go on holidays and visit the larger cities. The Square was absolutely jammed packed with Chinese tourists as was the Forbidden Palace. After visiting the Palace which was beautiful we made our way back to the hostel.

We met two of our roomates Riard, a South African teacher living and working in Northern China and Justin an American college student backpacking for 4 months. We decided to head out and visit a market Riard knew about. The markets particular delicacy was scorpions on a stick. We all decided to eat a couple (See Photos) and to be honest they didn't taste too bad -like a burnt chip. Then we had some dinner in a little restaraunt in the market. We visited a little street in Beijing called Bar Street before heading out to a bigger area. After passing the night away (Watching Bolton painfully hammer Liverpool) we headed back to Tian'anmen Square. The tradition in Beijing for many locals and tourists alike is to watch the Chinese flag being raised on the square especially on National day. It is raised at sunrise so we had a bit of a wait. The cermony itself involves the flag being raised, but the sheer volume of people (Hundreds and hundreds of thousands) made it a really worthwhile experience. We finished the longest day of the trip so far with a well deserved Mc Donalds Breakfast.

We spent a good portion of the next afternoon in bed catching up on our sleep before heading to the train station to get tickets for our next port of call. The train station was still mental. That night we had arranged to meet the two English couples we had met in Russia and travelled in Mongolia with for dinner. We met them in town and headed for a delicious dinner including some local delicacies such as chicken hearts and squid - all very tasty. After dinner we had a couple of beers and headed home early as the next day we planned to hike some of the Great Wall.

We were up very early the next day for our roundabout trip to the Great Wall which took the guts of 4 hours. Starting at a point on the wall called Jinshanling we hiked the 10km to Simatai. The weather was warm and the walk very tough. The wall follows the line of the hills it is built on so you are no sooner up one hill that another one faces you. The scenery however was spectacular and worth the effort. The following day we visited Belhai park, a huge park in northern Beijing (Also packed with tourists). In fact we became a bit of a tourist attraction ourselves with a couple of guys asking to have their pictures taken with us. (See Picture Below) The same thing had happened in Tian'anmen a few days before. We put the interest in us down to our good looks and tried not to laugh. Riard had headed back to his city at this stage. We arranged to meet Justin again in Xi'an (Our next stop) the next day. Another good nights sleep and we headed back to the crazy train station.

Next Stop Xi'an.......

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Photos

Imperial Garden Lion
Forbidden City

Nobody Told Us It Was A National Holiday
Tian'anmen Square