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Published: April 5th 2009
Sorry, but the blogsite decided to post the last entry before we finished it, hence the abrupt ending!
We did go to Tianamen Square, but found that we had missed the viewing of Mao by 5 minutes! Not to worry, he was probably having a freshen up. Ater being dead for 30 years. it's understandable. Now I have collected 2 of the 3 and will never complete the set as Lenin has defrosted and now is buried. (We saw Uncle Ho (Ho Chi Minh) in 2005).
We did also try to see the China Museum, but it was closed and only the toilets were open. That's probably more important considering the situation!
We also saw the Forbidden City where the Emperors lived from 1420! Not bad condition seeming it was thrown open in 1949 by Mao. No emperors seen however! There were many impressive things, not the least being a huge marble mural (sculpture) weighinging 200 tonnes that was slid into place using ice as a lubricant for 30 k! The 800 year old living cypruses were remarkable too! The Emperors were able to revise their geanology every 10 years! What a way to write out the ones you don't like!
That night we had a huge meal of Beijing Duck and very different to our Oz version and not to be forgotten. The final course was deep fried duck bones! A bit rich for us though.
Friday we split up and Sandy stayed in to do her slides for the conference and I went back to see
Then Wangfujing Street the big name shops are and finally Silk street, where Ping and Sandy had spent a few hours shopping and bargaining down the traders! It was great being with Ping, as she drove the prices right down, much to the discust of the storekeepers. Chris & I found an outside cafe for a birthday beer, or two!
The final part of the day was my real birthday celebration when we all (we is Us, Chris & Ping, her sister Quiming, pommy husband Steve and the girls mother) went to a strange restaurant called Crystal island. We started by splitting to men and women and went down to seperate male and female areas where we stripped naked. This was followed by a swim in a hot pool and spa then the rubbing where masseurs scoured our skin with salt and massaged us, then a sauna, shower and finally dressed in alike shorts and tops and met up to share in a marvellous smorgasbord. Thanks for the experience.
The choice of food was mind boggling. There was everything from shark fin soup to steamed pork buns and everything in between. The whole experience was incredible. We rolled out of the restaruant having been complete gluttons.
Then next day a drive to the airport, where we set off to Helsinki and finally Copenhagen where we are writin this.
Some reflections on Beijing.... the food, the food, the FOOD! We will have to starve for at least the next 2 weeks to get over it (not a problem here considering the prices!).
We loved the place and can recommend it as a destination. The food is the most memorable thing, along with 1000's of years of history, with the current political situation in clear focus. The leader in yesterday's China Post was on Tibet, a different story to the one moat of us know.
That's all except to thank Chris and Ping for their wonderful hospitality and patience, Thanks Guys!
pj and Sandy in Denmark!
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Dr sandy
Sandra Beach
Thnak you
Hi Chris I\ve finished one presentation and I have another one tomorow. Peter is off rushing around Copenhagen seeing everything. He loves museums so he has a veritable smorgasbord of things to do. Not much in the way of Chinese food in Copenhagen so we have had to content ourselves with Vietnamese. Hope all is well with you and that Ping\s students are singing in tune. Sandy