Novotel Beijing Sanyuan

Beijing has taken me utterly by surprise. I anticipated wanting to escape minutes after arrival, expecting a huge, smog-bound, noisy, dirty, smelly, unfriendly concrete jungle. But, while I'm sure there are areas fitting such a description, the city centre is very appealing: yes, it's polluted but the streets are clean and noise levels are low for a big city, and there are plenty of old ...

So we have now been in Beijing for 4 days and we are truly having the best time ever! Chinese people are so helpful with foreigners and even though the language barrier should be a problem it just isnt as they are so helpful when they see you looking a little lost (which has happened a few times)
We checked out the forbidden city which was absolutely huge! I never expected such a huge complex, I definitely think many of the Chinese emporers were ...

... returning half empty. Although there are clearly economic benefits, over 90% of the workers didn't come from Tibet and very few actually work on the trains. Our journey had started in Beijing and would cover a total distance of 4,064kms to Lhasa. Our route was to take us thro' Shijiazhuang to Xi'an, Tianshui, Lanzhou, Xining, Tuotuohe, Golmud, Amdo, Naqchu, Doingtso and Lhasa. This involved 2 nights sleeping and 2 full days viewing the ...

... This policy allows acces to some pretty amazing stuff all over the world. The portion of the wall that we went to is about 110km outside of Bejing. We took a bus and then hired a taxi to get there. We paid about 14 dollars in various entrance tickets, which is amazing for a World class site. Slightly more than a ****** movie in the states so I didn't feel ripped off paying more than double what I paid last time.

... Thus a fire hazard. Also you don't have modern plumbing in the area. Homes don't always have toilets and so have to use community toilets. Anyway, since they are trying to do some historical preservation, they are allowing tours through some of the hutongs. We were able to see one family's home and court yard. Natalie loved the bumpy rickshaw ride. We finished the rickshaw ride through the hutong at a Starbucks by the lake.

... Which is still impressive but not the same. The detail was amazing though. There was a short film too showing how they think things were done. Pretty interesting stuff. I sound a bit nonchalant about China, i like it, i think it has a lot to offer & the history is immense. I think I'm not used to the heat. I'd come back though to Xi'an. I know Beijing is the big place but Xi'an is just nicer on every level. A lot more honest.

... the lessons. He was just loving it. I am very confident that God is ready for Richard. It was very much an appointment made for me by God and I've been thinking about it all night. Richard sort of accidentally happened into my circle the night we lost the group in the taxi to McDonalds...and then Chelsea picked him to be in our group for shopping...and those groups were the same for the zoo...and he waited on me the whole time up the wall (lol)...and ...