B&B Inn Shaoyaoju Beijing

... sur la rue; des cabanes dotees de "stalls" d'un pied d'haut avec installations turques (trou au sol) dont les portes (si elles existent) ne ferment pas la plupart du temps. Papier de toilette? Pense-s-y meme pas!

Ting nous a fait diner dans un resto de dumplings tres bien qui nous a coute des pinottes. Et pour souper, nous avons reussi a denicher un excellent resto de Hot Pot Seshuanais qui n'avait meme pas d'ecriture en anglais! Il avaient heureusement une petite serveuses ...

... 8230; However, after a long day in a Chinese Walmart (which is an even more hellish version of the original), twenty minutes of facing off to the army and police guards as well as some pretty gutsy rival cab-hailers, and lugging several heavy bags about; well, I was none to happy to return to my room to find myself locked out. Apparently that’s how they let you know they want more than a deposit for the room, so I dropped another 2,000 RMB on the place with the ...

... rychlikem, cena je o tretinu nizsi, cesta trva sice skoro deset hodin, ale jede se na noc, tudiz jsme se pekne vyspali. Cestovali jsme totiz na tzv. tvrdem luzku. Jak to vypada jsme netusili, veskere nase informace pochazely akorat z par historek znamych a pak jeste ze Sveta bez zlodeju, kde sedeli na sedadlech, ale lehatka tam videt nebylo. Akorat ty zlodeje, takze jsme se sem tam rozhlizeli po podezrelych existencich :) V ocekavani drevene prycny ...

... night seems to have been fired as when we went to breakfast he was packing up his gift shop. We are still not sure what happened though. Today we have walked miles! First we went to Tiananmen Square and had a look at all the Olympic art work they have there. They have made lots of Olympic carvings from plants which look quite cool. Next stop was the Forbidden City, which is a huge area within a wall surrounded by water. Inside the walls are lots of temples. Apparently ...

... supposedly has a "House" where fans, athletes, etc go to celebrate in communal olympic spirit. The Canada house has an ice rink inside. The Irish house is really just any bar that has beer. The USA house is hidden and exclusive, an invite only policy, LAME. Where's the spirit in that?! Another mission for us before 2012, start the real USA house! The Holland House, or as it is really called the Heinaken House, was the best ...

... Right there I met a German guy from Koblenz who I chatted with for a while, standing in the middle of the world's largest square. He lives in Shanghai and we might meet up when I get down South. Afterwards I cycled around the Forbidden City, which is surrounded by some canals. This whole area is much more old-fashioned, with beautiful tree-lined alleys. As it was getting closer to 7.30pm I slowly began making my way over to the Hutong district which are ...

... It really doesn't take much to boost our egos! We reached the silk market and as soon as we walked through the door, we were grabbed from everywhere; "Oh, pretty lady, come have a look", "oh, beautiful girls"...talk about ego boosting!(Twice in a day). We went to a shop where we bought ski jackets from last time and we recognised the saleslady...and to our surprise, she recognised us, too! "Last year, you come to my shop, you nearly kill me! But I still like ...

... the silk market where we were constantly harrassed by shop assistants trying to drag us into their stall and sell us their ties, silk scarves and fake northface coats. We ran away pretty quickly from there too! In the evening we met the rest of our tour group who seem friendly and look forward to spending more time getting to know them. Dinner was less exciting than the previous night but alot tastier!

... nearly as aggressive as many of the other settlers selling goods along the way. I ended up paying three times what I should have for a t-shirt that says I climbed the great wall and a pack of postcards, but it was nearly impossible to bargain after that. Tuesday, we had an amazing lunch at a Taiwanese restaurant with Helen, a Korean social work professor whom I must thank Ken and Jill for putting me int touch with - although I'm not the best at ...

... flat barges pass by. This was alright, not my favorite. We then went to the Yujuan Gardens. They were a private residence at one time and it is ginormous. We went in and out of probably 20 buildings that are all connected via paths or bridges w/ amazing old school architecture. The gardens connect to a Bazaar which is a street market. We had 30 minutes to shop in the market and bargain w/ the locals. We bought silks, bags and scarves somehow in that mini period ...