Crystal International Hotel Beijing

... When my friends came later to join me, we experience similar things. Constant yelling and promoting in different languages (especially in broken English sentences to my friend - who is white), offering us branded products like LV, (and they call it Lu-i-v-don, haha, instead of Louis Vuitton), haha. Silk Market is a dangerous place, I warn the future shoppers, be ready for a 'world-class-service of aggressive sellers'.



Beijing, China nancyinbeijing

... with a tap of the breaks to avoid taking out my rear wheel. Lucky for me, the pedals start working- and I promise my ride that as long as the chain stays on I will stop trying to shift gears to a happy medium. I ride on and resolve to make a fast plan.

Plan was as follows: Bike on. From the map emailed to me, I knew the group was to head towards the airport- so I followed the side roads along the highway in the general direction of the airport. I would go to the airport ...

... you can come away wit ha great deal. I spent a 1000 Yuan in there but if I bought the same in the U.S. I would have spent nearly $1000.
We had fun in the market.
This evening we met with Principals and Central office administration from the U.S. they are here for a bout 2 weeks. We ate together some of them it was their first time with chopsticks. Our skills have improved some. The meal was fun.
Tonight was the first night we were not ...

... it was the turn of Xiu Yi Qiao, a bridge that closely resembles Yudai Qiao and at first sight leaves an impression as if there is no difference at all. And thereby we made a full circle. We reached the east Kunming Lake shore and now we would stay inside the Summer Palace only if we didn't feel like going out yet. But we had quite a few hours on foot behind us, with many ascents and descents, and I had one or two social obligations yet to go. So we decided to gradually call it a day, at ...

... the camera on multi shoot and was snapping away frantically while behind him quite a crowd gathered so god knows where my photo will end up! We then went to see the red pandas that are also endangered and since I was on a role I also gave this one a cuddle. More fox like with a long tail and much smaller but also very cute. Finally we went to see the adult pandas that are pretty huge, they do 10kg of poos a day! Just amazing to see them up so close. Although Shayne was a bit ho hum about ...

... tongs to all threats -- both real and perceived, and the laundry list of precautions seems endless. Paraphrasing from Canwest: * There are two-kilometer long traffic lines due to security inspection of cars entering Beijing * Hundreds of checkpoints on every road leading into the capital from Hebei * Soon to be implemented security checkpoints on major downtown streets * 100,000 PLA soldiers who protect the capital and Olympic venues (by way of comparison, the US has about ...

... as it was a truly humbling experience. That night we met up with our Norwegian buddies Magnar & Henrietta for farewell drinks, as our routes diverge at this point. The following morning we made the short trip out to the Summer Palace, the one-time imperial seasonal retreat dominated by Kunming Lake & gardens that made Monty Don go all weak at the knees. We could only pay a quick visit as in the evening we had to catch the overnight ...

... We actually arrived a day early for our organised trip although we thought it was the right day - very confusing after a night in the airport so with the extra time we decided to recover from our late flight and later in the day brave the local area to get some food. This was our first taste of the real language barrier that stood in our way. The only place we could find in the local vicinity that had a menu with any English on it was in a food court of a shopping ...

... op de IMEX, een van de grootste beurzen op het gebied van incentive reizen. David wil daar dan aan geïnteresseerde bezoekers voorbeeldprogramma's uitdelen. Hij vroeg aan ons of we voor zes steden in China zo'n progamma wilden samenstellen. Hij zou ze dan bekijken en zijn visie erover laten schijnen. Dan kunnen wij ze verder uitwerken voor de eindversies. Ik heb een programma voor Chengdu en Shanghai gemaakt omdat ik daar onlangs ben geweest. We hebben nog geen feedback gehad, maar ...

... is 72 and everybody knows everybody in town. Ideal location to raise a family I think. We ride down to the next town where there is a free music festival put on by a radio station. The buildings, the landscape, and the people are really very, very nice. The next morning I'm off early for points east. I stop off at the seaport town of Rostok and it is another picturebook setting. Amazing how clean everything is. The driving is first rate, the roads are smooth, and the ...