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Published: December 29th 2008
I hope you all had a brilliant Christmas! We had a fantastic day. I was a little bit sad in the morning when I read letters from my Mum and Dad but the rest of the day was great. We were able to talk to both sets of parents and siblings on the phone which was lovely. We spent most of the day at the Great Wall- one of the restored parts quite close to the city. It's amazing to see it snaking over the mountains for miles and miles. We hiked on it for about 3 hours. Most parts are incredibly steep so it was really exhausting and my legs are still stiff now. In the evening we went to one of the major Peking Duck restaurants here to spend my Christmas money from Jo. Going into the restaurant felt more like going into some huge department store. We were directed into a lift and to the 4th floor (though it went a lot higher)and into one of about 3 rooms and to one of about 70 tables in that room. It must be the biggest restaurant in the world. I can't imagine how many ducks they get through.
Xmas tree and us
We decorated the "tree" in our hotel room.We ordered a whole one and a chef brought it out on a trolley and carved it up for us. It was so fatty but so yummy.
Our hotel was fab- It's a double courtyard with lanterns and gorgeous pots and paintings all over the place. It was so nice to be in a warm room without loads of other people snoring. On Christmas eve we went to the night market on one of the main shopping streets. There were masses of young Chinese people out taking photos of each other in front of the chritmas decorations in the street. We went all out and ate a bit of nearly everything- noodle soup, lamb kebabs, oysters, meat wraps, shredded pork in bread, banana fritters, fruit skewers.... the atmosphere was really christmassy and happy.
We've seen a lot of the sights of Beijing but we haven't worried too much about cramming everything in because we'll no doubt be visiting from Zibo (it's only a 4 hour train ride away). Tianamen Square is awsome. We went to the 'Maosoleum' which was so shocking as there were hoards of people clearly very moved to see him. We had to pose in
front of the Gate of Heaveny Peace with random Chinese people who wanted us in their photos. We spent a day in the Forbidden City which was really cool. Loads of gigantic beautiful buildings with nothing in them apart from a great big throne that the emporer would sit in and rule the country without ever leaving the compound.
The best day was when we hired bikes. Apart from the very beginning when Tristan and I had a little falling out in the middle of an 8 lane road (i wanted us to push our bikes under the underpass he wanted us to ride accross the road), it was really fun. We went all over the city both down the hutong alleyways and on some big roads. The cycle lanes are nearly as big as the car lanes so it's so easy. A great way to see the city.
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Grandma
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at last we can say "been there, done it" but certainly not in the way you have! Riding bikes in beijing and going to the night market! We only did the touristy bits. I can just imagine the chinese wanting to take photos of youboth with them. love from both of us G and G