Friday, 24 October 2008

China continued...

So... after the hellish journey that was the train from Shanghai we arrived in Beijing feeling tired and irritable. We jumped in a cab to the Saga Hostel, which we luckily asked an English speaking Chinese guy to book for us from the train! Our first day in Beijing was a bit of a wasted day. Determined not to give in and get in bed we had a little wander around the surroundings which turned out to be the Forbidden city. After hearing that this place takes a good few hours and not feeling in any way up to it, we headed straight for one of the drinking areas, Sanlitun. We had a few beers and watched the world go by until we decided it was time to go back and recover from the train journey. The little Chinese women of our hostel let us take over the lobby as we brought down our quilts, ordered loads of coffee and watched DVDs till bedtime, ignoring all the other travellers as they came and went!!
Feeling refreshed the next day and having spoken to some other travellers we headed over to the Birds Nest Olympic Stadium which was pretty impressive. And as an added touch they even play the sound of birds tweeting over the speakers!

Next stop was the Summer Palace which so far (aside from the Great Wall) was one of the places i enjoyed most. Even without taking in the history behind the Emperors etc there was still so much to enjoy. (Basically what i'm saying is that we didn't really take any notice of that)! It's a beautiful place that you wouldn't expect to exist in Beijing. There are temples galore set amongst a massive lake with mountains in the distance. We took a dragon boat along the lake in time to get some brilliant photos of the sun setting. All my pics from the Summer Palace are on Facebook, there are just so many. After walking forever around the lake we felt like we deserved a drink, so we headed to another of Beijing's drinking spots, Hou Hai. This place was impossible to find but when we did it was completely worth it. There are hundreds of little bars set along a river booming out reggae music with never ending happy hours. We stayed there for a cocktail or two and wandered around the bars til we could go no further, and so after a few headed back to our cosy little hostel ready for our 7 am start the next day.

After getting up early feeling nice and moody, we joined the rest of the guys from our hostel, 2 Ozzies, 2 Yanks and a Swede for the bus trip to the Great Wall of China. About an hour and a half away, it was worth the journey! When we arrived, the first step was to take a ski lift up the side of a mountain. With Keeley being so petrified of heights it was just hilarious, she couldn't look the whole way up and we were on it a while. Once we were at the top the Wall went on as far as they eye can see. We had 4 hours at the Wall which is apparently long enough to get to the furthest point allowed then back again. Well, with our little crew which by now was the 2 of us, the Swede and the 2 guys from LA, we walked as far as we could, stopping every few minutes to take yet another photo which looked just like the one we'd taken before. I pushed myself as far as possible, it was so hot up there and it's so steep that we must have only got half way when we decided to turn back. And it's no easier walking back either! Once we were back to the starting point there are two options, back on the ski lift, or a toboggan right to the bottom. And so in we got, in the tiniest toboggan, screeching the whole way down! It was such an experience, and its so cool to be able to say i tobogganed down from the Great Wall of China! Once we were at the bottom we sat and waited for the others, comparing stories about parts of the world and drinking beers the size of wine bottles!
The rest of the day was a bit wasted, until later in the evening we went out with a different crowd from the hostel for Peking duck, the delicacy of Beijing. I ate it til i could eat no more, and now i don't want to see another crispy duck pancake for the rest of my travels!
After an exhausting day we decided to spend the next day doing the final touristy things....the Forbidden City and Tian'an Men Square. The Forbidden City i think we managed to get through in about 45mins (rather than the 3 hours people had told us they spent there). We took a couple of photos so we can say we've been, but overall it wasn't our cup of tea. And aside from that there were so many Chinese tour groups with their matching caps that it was difficult to get to read about anything anyway (that's my excuse)! There's not a lot to see at Tian'an Men Square, in fact i don't think i took a single photo, but there is a lot of history behind it and it's a place that everyone who visits Beijing must go to. For once the history didn't involve the Ming or Qing dynasties or any Emperors and so i was actually interested!
And finally, to finish off our time in Beijing, we visited a night market, expecting to see some bargains. Instead when we got there it was a food market, and the only things on the menu was whatever they could put on a stick.... seahorses, scorpians, starfish, beetles and so on. As you can imagine, we suddenly realised we weren't hungry! But it was interested to see, and moreso, to see the Chinese people eating it all so casually! And so this was a nice little peep into the Chinese culture before moving on to our 25 hour train journey to Hong Kong...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Sounds excellent.

Now I am jealous!!