Arrived in Beijing on Saturday afternoon and got the bus into the city. The hostel was supposedly next to the bus stop but I couldn't for the life of me find it so I wandered around in the freezing cold attempting to find it. No one seemed to know where it was and then finally I spotted the hostelling international sign up high on a building and eventaully managed to check in. Was starving by this point as the lunch on the plane had been so bad it'd made me feel sick so went next door for McDonalds, figuring Big Mac is the same in any language! Then I walked around by the hostel for a bit but got very confused by all the Chinese, and was also feeling cold, tired and grumpy at this point so I gave up and went back to the hostel to speak with crazy Brightonians on Skype.
Was a bit more cheerful the next day and made my way to Tiananman square. It's big! Walked across it to the other end and then went to the Forbidden City. Just as big!
Spent most of the afternoon there as each time you think you've reached the end there is another section hiding behind it waiting to be explored.
Once I was done exploring I went to the shopping street to have a look around. Got some meat on a stick for dinner and then got excited about real shopping centres! Found a foreign language book shop and managed to buy just one book, and also got myself a stupid hat with ear flaps and pom poms as I'd pretty much lost all feeling in my ears in the afternoon.
The next day featured more shopping. Went to Silk Street for some fakie goods - got myself a proper winter jacket and a pair of hideously unnatractive (but very warm) ugg boots . In then walked for a bit with no real purpose until I was so cold I had to go warm myself up in a cafe. Next up I went to the cold and windswept Olympic park.
I didn't really want to pay lots of money to go inside things so I just spent a bit of time walking around on the lovely windy expanse of concrete and then went back to shopping street for some more shopping time. Also went to see Tiananmen Square all lit up at night.
Had an early start the following day for my great wall tour. It had a lot of other parts to it too and in the end we only spent a couple of hours at the wall but given how cold it was a couple of hours was more than enough! The first stop was a jade factory where they tried to sell us expensive jade products, and then we went on to some Ming tombs. It was set up in a temple complex similar to the ones in Vietnam but it was cool to see. Next up was the wall where we climbed up over 1000 steps (I gave up counting after 1000) to various assorted watch towers.
On the way up to each one we'd say "after this we're turning back" but then we'd see the next one and think that perhaps the view was better from there, so off we went up and up and up. And then we had to come down and down and down.
We then went for lunch at a local restaurant and had some good Chinese food then we were taken to a silk factory where I bought the most awesome cushion - it is bright pink with butterflies on it and it zips out into a silk blanket! It's ace! The last stop on the tour was a tea place to sample various teas. I'm not a big tea drinker so this wasn't particularly exciting, but it was nice to be sitting down in the warmth.
Got up early the next day too to go and see the great chairman. Had to go back to the hostel to get my passport as apparently they take the protection of their dead leader far more seriously in China than in Vietnam and so I had to show ID before I could go and see Mao. Pretty much the same set up as for Uncle Ho - stand in a line, go through a metal detector, stand in another line, take your hat off, walk past a dead guy in a glass box, come out the other side, done.
Just got to get to Moscow now to complete the set of dead communist leaders!
Once I'd gone back to the hostel to collect all the junk I carted around with me each day (you can't take your bags in with you to see the great leader!) I went to Yonghegong Lama Temple. It was pretty busy with people burning their new years incense but apparently after the new year it was even more crazy busy.
I then went across the road and down a side street to the Confucian temple which was much more peaceful before heading to the zoo. It wasn't very exciting, and despite having to buy a ticket to get into the zoo you then had to buy other tickets to see most of the animals once you were inside. Most of the animals were huddled up away from the cold anyway - really not the most exciting zoo visit ever!
After these busy days being a tourist I had quite a slow day the next day. I went to try and find some underground city thing and aquired a crazy lady from Singapore along the way. She was staying in the same hostel and she invited herself along. I figured it'd be nice to have some company but she always walked five paces behind me and would never really speak to me. She kept staring and any Western man we passed too. Crazy stuff! Couldn't find the underground city place as it was on some obscure street so I got distracted by shops instead and bought some awesome stripy and spotty knee-high socks! I then went back to the hostel in an attempt to shake of the crazy stalker and settled down with my book for a few hours whilst waiting for Alison and Calder to arrive. Once they were checked in we went across the road to the station to look into buying train tickets to Harbin to go to the ice festival. Unfortunately whilst there were still tickets available to get there, there were no tickets left for me to get back to Beijing in time for me to fly home so I couldn't go. Once htey had bought their tickets we went for a classy meal at Maccy Ds then back to the hostel for a drink or two in the bar.
The next day was new years eve (if you're Chinese or Vietnamese) and we spent it visiting the summer palace. It's out towards the edge of the city and was rather pretty, plus the sky was really clear and blue. It was a really nice (but cold) day for a bit of sightseeing.
We then tried to find lunch near the drum and bell tower and ended up in some local restaurant with Alison ordering food for us in Chinese. It made a nice change to the fast food/food that could be pointed at that I'd been eating prior to their arrival as a lot of local places were beyond my capabilities. Paid a brief visit to thr drum tower just in time to watch the drummers going crazy and then we made our way back to the hostel, picking up supplies on the way. Spent the evening watching dodgy Chinese new years eve TV and listening to the endless fireworks going off outside.
On new years day we joined what seemed like the rest of China in visiting the temple of heaven
where I modelled my beautiful and rather fashionable Chinese look.
The ugg boots, the stupid hat, the knee-high spotty socks and the flappy mittens all add to the look. We then ate more yummy Chinese food in a local restaurant before calling it a day and chilling out at the hostel for the rest of the afternoon.
The next day was the last day with Calder and Alison and we went to a (somewhat busier) Tiananmen Square where I joined the locals in posing a for a photo or two.
We then walked through a hutong or two away from the crowds to find a place for lunch before discovering another shopping area that I made plans to return to the next day. We made our way back to the hostel after that and after getting in supplies for their journey (McDonalds and beer!) Alison and Calder left for their overnight train ride to Harbin. For something to do (as bizzare Chinese TV is less entertaining on your own) I went back to the original shopping street for more meat on a stick goodness. It was much busier this time so I just people watched for a while and took in all the crazy fashions that Chinese people seemed so keen to show off to the world.
For the last few days I didn't do very much. I did a fair bit of shopping (H&M!!) and when I was ill I watched some DVDs in the warmth of the hostel. I did make it to the ruins of the old summer palace which was nice as it was really wintery. I miss those cold crisp blue winter days but the old summer palace was a good place to enjoy them again as there were lots of frozen lakes to walk around.
I also went to see the Chinese acrobats which was entertaining. Their big ending was this:
5 dudes on motorbikes riding around inside that cage behind them. Whilst I was watching it I couldn't help but think that if you put 5 Vietnamese people on a wide straight road they find a way to crash into each other and yet these 5 guys managed to ride around that confined space without crashing! OK so they've probably worked pretty hard to get to that point but I still found it amusing.
And that, ladies and gentlemen was my trip to China. Next up - Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore and maybe even Brunei when my sister comes to visit in April!
As always, people without Facebook can see my photos here
