Beijing Peaceful Service Apartment

8 is supposed to be lucky in China. It's been just over

7 weeks that I've been living here now. Unfortunately, I've gained about

6 lbs (or 3 kilos) since and this motivated me today to run a

5 km at the gym. My split was about 7 min/km... I don't think that's good. Usually I go

4 times a week. But I haven't kept that ...

... their own cause. Now, most people in the unit a safe haven where it has lost the face of the waves and the new environment courage. The resignation of entrepreneurship has become an empty slogan gradually, not in financial crisis, the market downturn as an excuse, that is, the unemployment rate high, hard to find a good job the grounds, with the family and the duties of the person is a total given ...

... and limbs are cast, but their heads and faces are each individually crafted. Facial features are truly representative of the real men. Originally the warriors carried real bows, swords, spears and crossbows, more than ten thousand of which have been found. They were originally painted in bright colours - red for luck and blue to ward off evil spirits - however, over the years that they have silently stood guard, the colour has faded and worn off.

TUNIC ...

... yuan later I acquired the permission to enter one of the most famous Beijing landmarks, we went to the entrance. "Do many Chinese have yearly ticket as you do?" I asked PingPing. "Sure. My mother has it, too. Maybe we'll see her inside," she answered. "Is that right?" "Yes. She comes here with her friends every day." "So, we may witness a family reunion, then?" "I hope not. Not today," PingPing said and I decided not to dig into that one further. The Summer Palace is indisputably one of ...

... works a treat! Not all successful but it was fun bartering. The kung fu show was pretty cool. There was a story line and it was a big stage production which had some pretty amazing moves. A nice way to spend the evening. Day 3 we were off the see the Great Wall. About a 2 hour drive out of town, we caught the gondola up to the top but had no idea what the countryside looked like because it was ******* with rain and you could not see a damn thing! We were still excited though and spent a ...

... close, let alone a live one scrambling with four buddies skewered on a stick. Just about every booth offered these weird kebabs: cicadas, sea horses, something called sea dogs, star fish, and other random bugs I'd never seen before. Scorpion was obviously the most intense one, so I knew what had to be done. I asked the stall owners if it really tastes good, and they said if I don't like it I don't have pay them for it. I asked them if the stinger ...

... and sure enough the park also meant the replacing of an old grey chinese family-run restaurant with a gym and several delis. Well they do delicious almond croissants and pain-au with real-chocolate! Freshly made every day. AND they do great coffee. Sod this tea and rice ****. Spring is here, and I want to sit in a newly-laid park next to the new parade of delis with my newly-made french pastry and drink a low-fat cappuccino - what do you mean you don't have organic soy milk?

... squat whenever nature called. Inside the Forbidden City, Vivienne told stories of how along with each Emperor, around 3,000 concubines shared the palace. She told us one tale of how twelve of the concubines tried to strangle one of the bad Emperors. The Queen found out, and the punishment for the concubines was to have all of their flesh cut off piece by piece. The process took three days, and they remained alive the entire time. Most of Vivienne's ...

... jiao'ze - a delicious, meat dumpling meal for only 3 yuan, roughly 40 cents. Or, jien bing - a cheap, fantastic, late-night, roadside snack. The second week has been pretty eventful as well. I moved from Candice's couch back to Carey's. But, Carey went to go visit his girlfriend in Thailand for the week, so I have the place to myself. My own pad after only a week in country - not too shabby. I also have my own cell ...

... things to take in these new sights. It is pretty chily up here in the mountains and there is snow on all the peaks. But I'm making pretty good time between 80-90 KPH (about 40-50 MPH) which is about as fast as I've been able to ride this entire trip in Russia. I stop at a cafe (this is easy, it's spelled almost the same in Russian) and a Kazak woman who speaks English helps me order meat and potatos. After lunch I continue through the most beautiful scenery I've seen to ...