I decided to visit Beijing again to explore a little more. Mostly to visit the Forbidden City. And it was a good opportunity to have a break before the onset of Summer Holidays and full time work at our school. 6 days a week for 6 weeks. Gee, I was getting used to 3 days a week work. I stayed at a different place this time, southwest of Tian'anmen called The Emperor's Guest House. Difficult to find as the street was under repair. Not just resurfacing but a 10 foot ditch that runs for 200 metres and the only way along it is by bridges and makeshift sidewalks under scaffolding. So I'm carrying my suitcase trying hard not to fall in the ditch, and against the flow of people traffic until I find relatively flat ground ... read more

I travelled up Mt Tai (Taishan) today. I've been wanting to do it for some time. Obviously Dave is still reeling from the mountain in Costa Rica so I invited one of my colleagues at work, Jojo, to join me. Her animal sign is the Ox and it's considered lucky if she climbs the mountain in 'her' year. The day was long. It took us 5 1/2 hours to climb to the top gate (of course, I'm stopping every 5 minutes to take pictures) and then a couple of hours around the little town and up to the highest point. Then it was a 3 hour descent. I had read many different versions of how many steps there are on this mountain. I think you will be either impressed or think us mad. But here are ... read more