Advertisement
Published: April 4th 2008
Edit Blog Post
The Forbidden City
This is the first place we went, the Chinese still Idolise Mao and this picture is changed every yet. Hello!!
Sorry it has taken so long to add my first entry, but here it is anyway.
We started in Beijing ... but I'll go back a bit because the stories really start on the plane! Sitting in a three, myself, Claire and a Chinese girl, we thought we'd watch a film, make the most of the food, and then get some shut eye ready for the start of our adventure. No,no,no,no,no!! The little Chinese girl wasn't going to have it!! Turns out she wasn't too great at the old air travel ... and consequently made very good use of the sick bag provided. So I guess you'd think she'd go to the loo, finish her business and throw it away? No, no, no again!! Instead she thought she'd leave it in the pocket in front of her, ready for later. Lovely. And she did use it later, but when she wasn't being sick, she thought it would be funny to jump up and down on the seat. Good sleep? Nope!
The airport in Beijing was brand new, well the terminal was anyway, all ready for the Olympics. But we really needed to find a airline desk and
At the Forbidden City
This is us at the Forbidden City, Claire is making a fuss right next to me about putting this one on. change our flights for the rest of the trip and get it out of the way.
Turns out no airlines have individual desks at Beijing unless there's check-in happening at the same time, there wasn't, and there wouldn't be until the next day. So that still hasn't been done. Bit annoying but we'll do it in Shanghai.
Beijing itself was a real culture shock to begin with, everyone stares like they have never seen a white person before, people spit in the street cos they think its healthy, small children have holes in their trousers around the bottom area so they can just squat and do something in the street! Its a bit weird.
The air quality is awful, the roads are crazy, but its all part of the experience! We were very tired so went to sleep when we checked into the hostel, which was pretty nice, nice rooms, a backpacker area as well with pool table, internet, bar, shop etc.
In the early evening we met up with our tour group. Then something a little strange happened, sitting at the table waiting for everyone to join i heard a voice that said 'Oh my God! Are
The Great Wall of China!
We visited a less visited part of the wall, it was steep and challenging to climb! you Rhia Newman's brother?!?' Turns out it is Jess Tindall, who was in Rhia's form at Bishop Luffa! Small world, crazy too!
Our group is really nice, there are 15 of us in our group, most are British (3 of the girls are even only from Brighton) there are 2 Norweigians and 1 Ozzie.We went out that night to try some Peking Duck, which was a bit of a disappointment ... restaurants later on had much better duck.
On the first proper day we went to The Forbidden City, the Palace of the last Emperor and I think it goes back about 500 years. That was pretty amazing.
Then it was on to the Silk Market to try out our bargaining skills, the weather was cold, and we wanted a coat, especially for New Zealand. We managed to get two coats for a combined price of 15 pounds!!
Following that it was on to Tianamen Square, where Chairman Mao used to address his people... very similar to Red Square in Moscow.
Running out of time now so the rest will be brief, we finished off Beijing with a trip to the Summer Palace and then
Best picnic spot ever...
Enjoying an apple on the Wall out to the new Olympic Stadium (the Chinese really are CRAZY about the olympics!!!) which was pretty spectacular, though we weren't allowed close to it yet.
The next day ... it was the Great Wall!!!And my was it tough! Very steep, lots of ridiculously shaped steps, and lots of Mongolians following us the entire way trying to sell us stuff. That wasn't very good but the views were spectacluar and the Wall was just amazing.
Our accomodation that night was alright, but very cold at night, when we got back from the Wall we kicked back with a beer with the wall in sight ... without doubt the best location to have a Beer!! But we deserved it! Sticking with beer, a big bottle is only 79p by the way.
The next morning we got up at 5 to see the sun rise over the Wall... it was cloudy so it didnt so much rise as just became light, but seeing it at Dawn was again, spectacular.
Then it was back to Beijing to get our overnight sleeper train to Xi'an, the train was alright really, quite compact but comfortable. Nice to socialise with
Our Intrepid tour group
These are the people on our tour ... its a pretty chilled out group and a great bunch of people our group. By the way we do most things as a group but we decide what to do ourselves, its very flexible and we dont usually do things with the guide, mainly cos she doesnt want to! But its all good.
Xi'an is the home of the terracotta warriors, and today we went out to see them (the day before we basically just walked round the city, soaked up the atmosphere and inc. the Muslim Quarter which was a different part of Chinese culture we hadnt seen and apparently does AMAZING street food, but we haven't tried it yet, we will tomorrow!)
The Terracotta Warriors were just amazing, some of the most amazing things i've ever seen. The detail of them is just so lifelike, it really is incredible. I'll try and publish some photos. Its difficult to tell you how overwhelmed you are by them, just take my word for it!
Last night the plan was to go out for our first big night out as a group, Claire though has caught my cold that I'm just getting over after having it from the start of the trip. She wasn't very well AT ALL!! So
Us at the wall
On the trek with the Great Wall behind us. she stayed in bed and rested up, watching weird Chinese soaps and eating nice pastries whilst covering the bed in snotty tissue.
I went out with everybody else, and the bars and clubs are pretty odd compared to home. When you walk in you get seated and get table service, and in the club they give you the proper VIP treatment and you dont pay a penny for that service, even for entry. The drinks themselves are really cheap.
The club itself was really cool, ultra modern, lots of cool psycodelic lights, and lots of Chinese people trying to be Westerners, it was quite an experience!
We're about to go and get the overnight train now (16 hours) to Shanghai, where we stay for 2 nights, before heading off to the countryside for 5-6 days and then to Hong Kong.
We'll write again soon, please pass this link on for the website www.mytb.org/asiaandbeyond on to anyone who knows us if they want to know what we're up to and they don't know the address.
Hope you're all ok, speak soon,
Love Rich and Claire x
Advertisement
Tot: 0.077s; Tpl: 0.025s; cc: 10; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0401s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Becks
non-member comment
JK SWEAT RULES!!!!!
JK SWEAT RULES!!!!!!! looks good rich looks good!!! and claire I'm loving the hoody, you have to tell me where you got that one from!!!!!!