A short stay in Beijing, China

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Hi all,
Beijing is a big city, very big city. I just don't like big cities too much, and I guess for that reason my stay in Beijing was not something I would remember as a highlight of the trip.
Had many things to arrange after being away for so long. I've been almost three months on the road, and I had to buy some things I needed, send some things home, do some catching up on the blog, and so on.
Went to the embassy for some legal arrangements regarding the fact that I quit my job on the phone from China. Once again the staff at the embassy screwed up. I got used to it...
Bought a new shirt - it could have been seen in my pictures that I on;y had one short sleeved shirt. From now on you can try and spot the new shirt on the blog as well...
Tried to see some tourist sites as well - went to the main square of Beijing, the Tiananmen Square. This place is famous for many demonstrations that took place here over the years, and the most famous one ended with tanks running over people and thousands of Chinese dead or missing. A huge picture of Mao reminds you where you are.
There is also a huge sign counting down the time to the 2008 Olympics (in seconds!) reminds you what is the most important thing in China these days. The city is under massive reconstructions. Every site is being worked on.
Went to Tiantan, The Temple of Heaven. It's a huge park with some temples inside, and you can pay only for the park or for the park and the temples. The main temple is, surprisingly, being rebuilt, and therefore I went to the park only. The park is nice, with many trees and pagodas, and a few small temples. Stayed really close to a tour group to sneak one of the temples that are not included in my ticket - but it was quite disappointing.
At night I wanted to go to the famous Beijing opera, and booked a ticket through the youth hostel. They took everybody to a theater, and let us into a small theater with a tiny stage, nothing like the pictures they showed us in the hostel when we booked the tickets. After a long discussion on the phone with the hostel, they explained that there were no tickets to the show they promised us, and they took us to another place instead, without even asking us. This is another thing you must get used to in China. You never get what you paid for. They will always try to cut a corner on your expense. Of course we went back and took back our money.
Instead, went to try the famous dish of Beijing - the Beijing Duck. It's a roasted duck served to the table as a whole and being cut in front of you. You also get some sauce and some vegetables, and some thin wraps of bread so you can make your own wraps of duck with vegetables and sauce. It was very good!
After some more things I had to do - like develop the sixteen rolls of film I had and ship them home, some souvenir shopping, etc. I moved on, leaving Beijing, leaving China, and going to Ulan Bataar, Mongolia.
I'll tell about that later,
R.

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