Sleepy Inn Downtown Lakeside Beijing

Everyone got to sleep in a little and Matt went to work for a few hours. We got up around 10 and then headed to meet Matt at his work. Right below the office is a Starbucks (screams China) and we had some Chinese breakfast that Matt got us from the street. They were these little dumplings filled with Chicken and spinach, or meat. They were 25 cents a piece and super good. You are supposed to drink bottled water here (its like water in Mexico) so I got a bottle of water at starbucks. It was 18...

8:00am - we get a wake up call and shower and get dressed. This place is awesome in the daylight. They have a great little courtyard and will serve you breakfast outside at the table. Mind you, the room was around 8 dollars a night. Take that Hyatt. Our driver was ready for us and took us back to where Chad and Jen are. We all get breakfast and then decide to rent bikes. We are just getting ready for a sweet little bike tour of the home of the 2008 Olympics. We ask where to rent bikes and the...

(caveat - this entry is being written not by the witty, creative Cris Kodiak, rather Pug, who despite his attempts to be funny will probably bore you with this attempt) Today was a "great" day, perhaps one of the better Wednesdays we have spent in our lives. After spending Tuesday night on a bar crawl which ended in four of us having to walk home as cab drivers in Beijing neither can read chinese, english, or detailed maps. We set the alarms for 6am, allowing around four hours of sleep, clear...

We had been living it to the bare essentials for so long that we'd forgotten what stimulation we were in for on arriving at Beijing. We'd had an epic journey by the Trans-Mongolian across the Gobi (sand flies at stations - yuk) and the amazing mountains towering around as we were getting closer to Beijing made it already worth our while. When we arrived the day was hot and dry and the people smiley and everything was on track....well that was until both our banks decided to block our cards an...

Have had an excellent stay in Beijing. Not sure what I was expecting, but I have been very pleasantly surprised. The location of my hostel is amazing - on a small stretch of canal that links two lakes - one large and one huge! It's hard to imagine that it is in a major city, but it is also well situated for the major attractions. The hostel rents out bikes (for 1.50 pounds per day) so I hired one to cycle to the Forbidden city / Tiananmen square and also the olympic venues. It felt quite surr...

So in the freezing cold of December and China's winter we arrived in Beijing after a 5 day and night stint on the Trans Mongolian. Beijing is a huge city, and it was almost like stepping into a different world! The contrasts in the lives and culture of the people were huge... around the corner from a busy and affluent designer shopping street, it's perfectly normal to wander into a back alley (called Hutongs!) of little huts where people live, and a maze of stalls where locals make a living. ...