Guanqi Hotel Beijing

... from one side of the room to the other, turned a few circles and flicked my hair. Then, wonderously, a woman appeared in the window and placed a little Chinese sign beside her. I ran over and ignored the incomprhensible sign.<br>"One soft sleeper ticket to Shanghai on the next night train please"<br>"You want tomorrow?"<br>"...T-t-tomorrow?"<br>"Ye ah, you want?"<br>"...Why yes, that will do very nicely thank you!"<br>It was a rather exorbitant fee, but I was so glad not to ...

... for a square and I wandered on again, wanting to see the main part of TS, the famous bit from the pictures and Meowsy's tomb. I came upon another courtyard and another temple on a pedestal. And another, and another.<br>"Something ain't right here." I told myself. (Having no company requires a little imagination).<br>Then I saw the word 'palace' on a sign. Palace what? That's not very Communist. And this is begining to look far too opulent.<br><br>Slowly it dawned on me that I was ...

... often greeting arias with rounds of loud applause and even singing along. PingPing shared their enthusiasm to the hilt. Well, at least one of us was having a thoroughly good time. However, all that I just said was in case I had been alone there. I wasn't, though. Which meant that PingPing made sure I could follow the plot and know exactly what was going on on stage. She explained to me who was who and who did what at a time. She even pointed out details like when the actors were ...

... take us for 10 Chinese dollars. Fine. We got in, and he drove through some alleys to the entrance of the tunnels. The doors were closed, locked, and chained. The thing was closed. He pointed to the thing, explained the obvious, and started laughing like a hyena. Two other people pulled up on their tricycle taxis, and also laughed. Now he wanted 20 kuai to take us back! We bickered with the guy and he finally took us back to where he picked us up. We ...

... pronounced Chwan Jew Duhh) I met with them at a restaurant recommended by a modern city listings magazine. We went to Private Kitchen #44, which is in a Hutong. Hutongs are city dwellings that consist of a low wall leading to a small courtyard surrounded by small buildings. This is the Peking equivalent of a brownstone, i.e. row houses. They are pretty and I like the idea of taking your house and ...

... played an important role nowadays. For instance, after the earthquake, many anxious people contacted their relatives in Sichuan, where the epicenter was, in this way. "In Chinese we say 'more helpers make the job easier'. More people could help resolve the conundrum that no single person could handle," said Xia. "Actually Renrou search reflects development of society and the popularization of the Internet," said Xia. In a way, Renrou search could be a way of monitoring ...

... Man I would have made a good boy scout). Anyhow, it was a cool experience; especially going to the unrestored parts, kinda gives you the feeling of antiquity. The sandstorms/pollution or whatever the hell it is made it hard to appreciate how far and wide the wall stretched. My dinky 5MP camera didn't help, but hey all in all a good time. Coming down was an adventure as we decided to ride this tobbigan slide thing down. Not very authentic, but loads of fun. Video is included.

... shades of beige! Strangely, given Ev's love of magnolia, this has not gone down too well. However, it has been rather fun, if a little nerve racking ordering from the menu and not really knowing what you're going to get, even when there is some english on the menu. Whats more, they stand by your table as soon as you sit down and wait for you order - not great when you have absolutely no idea what you are doing. The Chinese seem to have the ability to order their food, scoff it ...

... to go to a tea factory. Knackered &amp; feeling odd to say the least we're shut in this room with this young girl desperately trying to sell us tea. Teaching us how to slurp it &amp; spraying us with a' pee pee boy' which tests the temperature of the water or something. As all 4 of us were backpacking we couldn't buy anything so the offer kept getting better &amp; better. Still we stood our ground &amp; in the end she stood there for about 5 minutes ...

... until she gets her answer. Her English is quite good). We had so much fun with them. After the Forbidden City, we were off to explore Beijing on our own. Without a map or even a sense of where we were, we headed off to shop and eat. I finally saw a mall (home away from home) and we went in and ate at the food court. We all agreed it was the best Chinese we had since we had been here. We had fried noodles, which were square ...