Chong Wen Men Hotel Beijing

As time passes, life here begins to settle. <br><br>Recently, Beijing experienced two 'snow days', which is unusual, as snow season falls around January and February&#8230; (There seems to be hot speculation as to whether this was a gov-induced snowstorm, however, all whom I have spoken to here, are firmly convinced that the second snow day as natural- the first is still in question) Regardless, this city looks beautiful in the snow, two words- Winter Wonderland. <br><br>I woke up to the ...

We awoke to sun and warm weather. And by warm weather, we mean 39 degrees instead of 38. So that's an improvement.<br><br>The first stop of the day was the pearl market. We learned that Beijing was the top place in the world to get fresh water pearls. Fresh water oysters are able to produce more than one pearl at a time. The oyster that was opened for us in demonstration had more than 35 pearls in it. Pearls have a lot of different colors ...

... 5. Go to the main bar Relleka the east of the building, you will see a Pipe. Tinderbox <br> to use your cherry bomb <br>Point bombs, and then cherry bomb on Pipe Lane. <br> 6. Back to Manni it, take a Keg, you have to buy low alcohol keg the keg and pour it <br> into the general, the likelihood <br>Manni after game, you win. Congratulations, you won a vote! <br> B. Swensen the Navigator <br> 1. It started from the task bar of the south-west of that ...

... abolished all tobacco billboards, including "Love Our China," but the advertising reappeared after the Games, said an official at the Shanghai Health Education Institute. Shanghai should take the initiative in tobacco control as it will host the World Expo in 2010, officials said. In 2003, China signed the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which commits it to banning all types of tobacco promotion by 2011.

... to need to remember like flight times, phone numbers and words you want to learn like thank you, hello and how much, which I usually don't write down anymore, as I just whip out my calculator. The idea is too have all your data in one place. In China they want the receipts back for everything; you can store them in there as well. I buy the little black books that fit in a shirt pocket and then keep them for after the trips as mementoes. 10 A sense of humor you will be ...

... I felt proud until I realized that Canada split an embassy section with Australia and so the embassy is an Australian-Canadian hybrid. It was a fine day of public transportation and easy-going fun. Wednesday: My day started early and ended late. I woke up in the morning when my host family asked me to follow them to their TV studio. Why, yes, they own one. They decided that I will become a Chinese TV personality, appearing on a weekly program called OKChina ...

... confused at the road signs, then looking at us as if we knew something then more muttering. We were not too worried but it was annoying that she was clearly driving slower than before. We were on the highway and she took the exit to the right but then stopped abruptly. She stopped in a lane on the motorway. This was about 2 metres ahead of where the roads split into two. She then put the car in reverse gear. I was freaking out, there were cars ...

... and some new drums, including the largest one. Every 30 minutes there is a drum session although not like those you'd imagine with a circle around a few bongo drums. These are huge with the drummers standing at full height to play. Afterwards we could walk around the tower at the top, with views across Beijing, to the Bell tower and down into the Hutong. We made the trip downstairs back to our rickshaw and on through the Hutong. Unlike the one we'd walked through behind our hotel this ...

... We did drive past a few sites where Olympic events will be held, which was pretty exciting. I have to say, we've really been fortunate in that nearly every place we've gone to has had something significant going on there, whether it was Carnaval in Brazil, Cambodian New Year, or preparations for the 2008 Olympic Games. I'm pretty upset at myself that I wasn't able to find a Beijing 2008 t-shirt once I finally decided I wanted one, but I'm sure it's one of those things ...