Beijing Marriott Hotel Northeast

... Wen! Master Wen has fainted!"
Madame Zhou quickly gave orders to fetch a doctor while Luo Bing ran back to her husband. Wen's injuries were already serious, and he had used up a great deal of his remaining strength to squeeze the silver ingots together. Wen was unconscious, his face drained of colour. Luo Bing ran to him, calling his name over and over again. Slowly, he regained consciousness.

... maybe even three with PingPing's and my eating capacities. PingPing was evidently very entertained with the sight of my attempts to cope with the huge smallest sweet potato I could find. Those I had tried in Korea back then were juniors in every respect next to this one. She helped me along a bit, but not significantly, so basically it was up to me to wrestle with the potato all the way. She suggested I throw away what I couldn't eat, but I've been taught that tossing food away - edible food ...

... Most of the time was taken up by sticking the stamps to the postcards, even if I didn't necessarily use a painter's brush as I had two years before in Nanning. OK, the glue was still there, but I guess the technology of applying the glue to the back of the stamp and sticking it to the postcards evolved a bit. At least here in Bĕijīng. And then it was time to go to the market. It meant going back underground, going through another security check, taking another short ride ...

... Eric watched a few guys playing Chinese checkers for a while, but that was about the extent of that adventure. The novelty wore off quickly as the hutongs just looked like Xi'an, where we have been living for the last few months. There wasn't too much new there. We walked to the old Drum Tower, window shopped in the Old Town, and then eventually had a nice dinner date of Beijing Roast Duck before heading back to the hostel and tucking ourselves into bed.

... up the rooms to surround a central yard rather than having the open space in the front or back. Lots of light etc. A lot of the more ramshackle Hutongs were bulldozed for the Olympics, which is a bit of a shame for the people who were displaced. The food was a little fancier and pricier than some of the restaurants that locals go to, but, the setting was beautiful. Maybe the prettiest place I went so far ...

... 3 0857&l=8df88&id=512638516 Terracotta Warriors: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=3 0856&l=726d4&id=512638516 Pingyao: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=3 0853 ...

... on arrival else it takes 2 hours. Onb a good note Ive picked up some new timberland hiking shoes and about 10 pairs of designer socks for about a fiver so I cant complain. I went the ming tooms too which were really good and then called in the see a chinese medicine doctor on the tour who diagnosed me just by looking at my tongue as having a failng left kidney and poor circulation, he must have know I was about to ...

... and i'd down it and call my next order before they'd only made it a few steps away. I ended up going and playing some pool for a while with Jo from the other group as everyone else wanted an early night. I went to order a scotch and coke from the bar and they gave me a whole bottle of scotch...poor your own mixes !! Madness...I got so bloody messy. Actually ...there was a communication break down when leaving which meant I got away ...

... the government's regime that they felt was restricting their freedom and civil rights. It was the anniversary of the massacre (which is actually kept pretty quiet in most of the country) a few days after our visit and as such the place was probably more busy than usual. The square and the busy 8-lane road alongside it harked back to the harrowing images of the tank and the student during the massacre. The iconic image of the Chinese flag flying at the front of the ...

... a good morning and walked over to the hotel where I was to wait for the bus. It took 3 hours to get to the part of the wall we would start our hike, Jinshanling, and although I tried to get some sleep I was, as usual, unsuccessful. It didn't matter too much because I wasn't too tired. I bought my ticket, and walked up to the wall, talking to a French family who gave me a cookie, who were also travelling around China. When we got ...