International Exchange Center Beijing

... their way into the palace & kill the emperor. We visited several rooms and learned a lot about Chinese superstitions. Nine is a very lucky number. There are nine rows of bolts on all the doors and there are nine bolts to a row. There are 9,999 rooms in the Forbidden Palace, etc etc. Each room has a threshold to keep the evil spirits out. You cannot step on the threshold & men have to step over with their left foot first ...

... so 3 of us decided to take a walk. We walked to a grocery store. It was fun seeing the locals reaction to us as we walked around. The people here always look at you and smile. They are very friendly. I truly think they enjoy having tourist come to their country. In China they so many people they have lots of people who pick up the trash all the time. There are guards or police who sit in the subway stations all night. Here in Beijing feels very safe.

... from Europe. Besides, custom dictated that she spend some time with her husband's folks. After that she would visit her own family in Shanxi province. On her way there she would pass through Beijing. "I'll call you towards the end of the week," I said. "By then you'll probably know when exactly you are coming here." She agreed with that suggestion and we left it at that. And that's how my third day in China ended. By the looks of it, this was going to be a socially very busy vacation for me.

... Due for some sleep we negotiated a bit of a later start at 10am the following morning to head out of town to Longsheng. 2.5 hours drive it was a bit of a schlep to get there but comfy as in our air conditioned car. Where were we going? The dragon's backbone off course! 70 sq km of rice terraces that began construction in the Yuan dynasty 1271-1368. The Zhuang and Yao ethnic people have lived there for generations leading simple farming lives. The highest terraces are at 1180 metres ...

... 17,000 employees who will participate in the opening ceremonies have taken an oath of silence, breaking which can result in imprisonment. Such an iteration of precautions is a bit dizzying, but first and foremost, these measures serve to protect the 10,700 athletes, more than 80 heads of state or government, and hundreds of thousands of spectators at the 37 Olympic venues held in 7 different host cities (Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Qingdao, Shenyang, Tianjin, and ...

... It was a crowd for the ceremony, but I was surprised to see a lot of peple wait more than one and half hour before the ceremony, although the ceremony lasted only 5 minutes and it was not satisfying. After the ceremony, I found another line of people in the square. They were waiting for the Chairman Mao's Mausoleum to open at eight, although it was five past seven at that time. I knew that even if I waited for another one hour, I could only glance at Mao's body. So I ...

... a-lung kind of loogies. It makes me shudder just to think of that sound. We did most of the usual touristy things while here - Forbidden City, Tian'anmen Square, Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven - but to be honest we were somewhat disappointed. These places were so over-packed it was nearly impossible to get a thought to yourself and really appreciate where you were. The Forbidden City is so commercialized (e.g. at the end of each info board it read "brought to you by American ...

... shops, Leslie sampling Rose Essentials from Bvlgari and trying to get me to put on something from Armani. Okashi Land shop has Collon Crackers - hopefully not a typo. They also sell 1000 gm bags of duck tongues (a lot of tongues, I'm thinking) - two for me please. Great gifts for someone. Maybe I'll bring a bag home for you. The HK airport is on Lantau Island in the South China Sea and is reached via an elegant suspension ...

... the bunk is two inches shorter than yo are. This was the Chinese train after all. The trains are heated with coal and there are some sort of pipes that pump the minimal amount of heat and the large amount of coal dust and fumes into the compartments. After twenty minutes if feeling nauseous I fall asleep and thats the end of night one. The next morning Alec wakes me up with the sound of him rummaging around in the massive pile of plastic bags he had ...

... on earth. Haha... Okay well, this is supposed to be about Beijing so let me get back to it. Aside from being smoggy, Beijing is a really fascinating city and I reckon I'm having too much fun. For one, this appears to be a shopper's heaven. My sister would love this place!!! haha. Our internal clients brought us for Peking Duck last Friday and that was fun. Apart from the food being great, we were informed that the restaurant is one of the most famous ...