Beijing H Q Ritz Hotel

Spent the last two days getting to see a little more of Beijing. Yesterday was spent solo exploring the Temple of Heaven, located in a park where loads of locals were doing thai chi or practicing sword fighting or dancing. Very odd experience seeing all these people competing with their dancing to the point where western would be next to people doing the tango, next to people doing jive and all with different music. I also visited the Summer Palace which was beautifully ...

Today we were up, shower, shaved, deodorized, fed & at the bus by 0800. We tackled the Beijing traffic again & sat on the freeway for about 10 minutes waiting for the traffic to start moving again. Taxi drivers were getting out of their taxis for a smoke & were wiping down their taxis while they waited for the traffic to start moving again. We went by the Bird's Nest & Water Cube (venues for the 2008 Olympics) for a photo opportunity ...

... actually wasn’t a normal cake but an ice cream cake that was actually all ice cream. Apparently it’s pretty common here, but the way they made it was they put ice cream on this kind of cylinder that spins, like a pottery wheel, and then shape it and put icing on it. They custom decorate each one. The place gave them candles and plates and “forks” too. I say “forks” because actually there were these spear kind things with two ...

... at a pretty safe distance from us. And went towards the East Palace Gate. There. That was all. It was some sort of anticlimax. Maybe not so much for me. I could in any event hardly wait for all this to pass, so I could go out. Some people were just happy that there was something, anything, going on, so even this much was enough to them. But there were those who clearly expected more. But there was no more. Few minutes later they opened the East Palace Gate for the rest of us. Just in ...

... been on a world tour. This was a civilisation existing 6,000 years ago that not much is known about and one that seemed to be wiped out quite suddenly. Once again their craftsmanship was staggering. They definitely had invented round wheel like objects thought to be used for worship and quite how they carved jade into the tools and weapons on display so long ago is unimaginable. There has been reference about these items in some ancient literature but until they were discovered it was ...

... reality, the modern Olympics is both symbolically and materially a political event; simply stated, it is a competition among nations. Although this is ideally intended to be limited to the sports arena, in reality there are no such firewalls in politics and as past boycotts have shown, the Games can and will be exploited as a bargaining chip in international poltics. Moreover, insofar as each team represents its nation, the performance of the national teams is, in a very ...

... the real China..we want some comfort now! NOTE TO SELF: Stop going to markets! NOTE TO OTHERS: Do not bother taking canestan with you when you travel..you won't need it..and you might eat it by mistake! It's not good! Lots of love Laura (not thinking about the next leg of the trip on a train) P.s Julia Hulia..your super Windsor dry soap thingys are the best essential item to be carrying in China! Market some..ship them here..you will be a millionaire by the weekend! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

... me the set menu which was the only one they were offering that night. It was a whopping ¥1300 for 7-8 people so I left! All the other restaurants in that area, called Houhai, were doing the same sort of deal because it was the Mid-Autumn Festival. And everywhere was filling up so quickly I decided to make an executive decision and went to a bar I know that's away from the main area and has a lovely atmosphere about it. There are lots of red lanterns, with couches ...

... me for, even though i already paid for the chinese hotel.) i've learned that in china, without the huge lawsuits, it seems easier to get away with this type of thing. the first place we went to was called yuan ming yuan, a big park made to copy western style parks. i realized pretty quickly that i wouldn't be understanding the commentary of this purely chinese tour, so i just wandered around the group while everyone listened to stories ...

I went a little wild but it was all so inexpensive and had the right markings. I love all the "Made in Italy" and "Made in France" imprints when those things were made right here! Hope you enjoy my shopping finds and I can get the pictures in the right place because I am using my cell phone not my camera to send them to my travelogue.