King's Joy Hotel Beijing

Got to beijing airport finally after 10 very long hours on a plane and what a difference already!! The airport is imaculate and strangley empty. we took a tram to the baggage hall as it was miles away and it was the only way there. It sitll hasnt hit home that we are in china even with all the asians about :) when we got to the baggage hall our bags were already going round the carosel... brilliant, no waiting for the last bag to come out. we went into arrivals and we see all these people hol...

Wake up call at 5.45am, up and dressed by 6.00am, down in the lobby with the rest of the group by 6.15am. This is far to early for my liking.. We got onto a bus and began the two and a bit hour drive to Simitia. The driver was very jerky on the breaks, which is not the best thing at 6.30 in the morning. Jenny tells us the history behind the Great Wall but couldn't understand half of it. We get there for 9am and get our ticket, its an amazing location. You can see the wall from the entrance it...

This morning went to Tianamen square, had to go through about 5 security checks just to get onto the square. It was full of tourists germans, english, american even chinese. It was wierd in a cool way being somewhere so iconic and world famous and i can now say that i was there. After a mooch and some pictures we moved onto The Gateway (Tianamen Gate) which is the pathway to the Forbidden city. We went up to the top level and were attacked by over excited asians wanting their picture taken wi...

Pinch me, I feel like I'm in Sydney, there're Chinese people everywhere! Beijing is China's second largest city after Shanghai and home to over 14 million people. My first impressions were met by a completely new airport which opened in April 2008 in time for the 2008 Olympics. The airport lies around 35 km from the city centre and the best way to get into the city at the time of my visit was by taxi; however an extension of the Beijing metro to the airport will soon provide an alternative op...

12/08 - Helen Emotionial farewells with everybody before we set off on our travels, but here we go...... Arrive in Beijing and it is scorching! 35C and humidity to match!!!!! Andrew is sweating buckets..... Check in to King Joy hostel - no kings there and not too much joy, good location near to Tianamen sq. We spent the first day sleeping as so jetlagged and caught the sunset at the square with another few hundred chinese, most with long kites that go on forever. Luckily no tanks or protester...

My thirty-four-hour train ride from Xiamen on the top bunk of three hard sleepers was as comfortable as can be expected.  I was the only foreigner on the train aind brought out friendly curiosity in everyone - most just staring, but a few testing the limits of my meagre spoken, and even more meagre written, Chinese.  Bo flew from Xiamen because she did not have time for the train.  She arrived at the airport within minutes of our friend Ramy, who had come from home to join us on another leg o...

Where do you start? This city has MANY things to see and you need some time to be able to take it all in. Thankfully, we had enough time to see many of the great sights in the city and around the area. First of all, THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA was great fun. For those that have not been, it is quite a hike. It is no easy stroll that is for sure. We walked 10.5 kilometers of the wall from Jinshangling to Simatai areas which was 29 towers worth of walking. We ended the walk with a fun zip line ride...

Arriving in Beijing, we were astonished at how clean and new the city felt. New infrastructure, new buildings, clean streets, orderly lines (we actually didn't have to push people), and excitement throughout. We wondered how much of what we saw was due to the Olympics recently being hosted in the city. Even Athens had a luster to it that could probably be attributed to their recent Olympics hosting. One thing's for sure, China has a lot of momentum going into the 21st century. Rachel had to g...

yeppe, Het begon natuurlijk weer allemaal net niet zoals gepland. Aangekomen in Landegem vergiste ik mij van perron en zag mijn trein vertrekken op het andere perron. Gelukkig heeft de beste ziel van Zomergem mij nog snel teruggebracht naar de thuishaven waar ik dan maar zelf de auto heb genomem met de bedoeling om in Antwerpen alsnog de trein te nemen. Ook dit plan werkte niet aangezien de drukte en de file op de E17. Uiteindelijk dan maar zelf naar Schiphol gereden. Een helse vlucht, niet k...