Park Hyatt Beijing

... of Heaven is in a huge park and we watched some bizarre ear piercing kareoke sessions taking place! - The markets were fantastic but quite mad especially the pearl market...our first real experience of in your face marketeers and the lengths some will go to to get you into their shop! - Great Wall. We did an amazing day trip out to the great wall. Walked a 8km section from Jinshaling to Simitai organised through Downtown Backpackers in Beijing. 100 plus ...

... that Second Brother, the Taoist priest Wu Chen, should be leader. At present, the matter is deadlocked. The meeting to choose a new Helmsman will not start until Brother Wen and Luo Bing arrive." <br> Yu turned to Wen, his superior in the society's heirarchy. "Should I first return to Anxi to report?" he asked. <br> Wen hesitated, uncertain of what to say.

... are lots of interesting places to stumble across and surprises around every corner. In the end ...

... on vacation. "The Chinese go on vacation to sit and eat and drink, not to fly," he told us. <br><br>I am absolutely hooked on hot air ballooning now. I will take any and every opportunity to go ballooning from now on, because it is just about the awesomest coolest thing in the world. I suggest you take the opportunity as well. <br><br>The balloon had a basket that was about 3 feet by 6 feet, so it was very cramped with the 5 of us and the balloon ...

... for instance, preventing her from continuing to stay in China on a student visa. She was preparing to leave for Hong Kong to find another visa alternative when she was informed she would have to pay another 5,000 RMB again, as she had overstayed her visa beyond the 10 allotted days after paying the previous fine. Sisca didn't want to pay. She was way short on cash at this point, and had been led to believe she could renew her visa by various government ...

In the Jing Summer Palace and the Olympics After a day touring around some of the older parts of the city, I decided to make my final day in Beijing a major blow out day, hitting the last three big sites I had left to see. The big three were the Summer Palace, The Olympics, and Mao. I had attempted ot go see the remains of Chairman Mao my first day, but the mausoleum is only open in the morning. Thus, my ...

On arrival in Beijing we found the metered taxi rank, which was a multi-lane crowded chaotic nightmare. Several drivers refused to take us because we were Westerners. Finally we got in a cab but the driver spoke no English and so we had to call the hotel for directions. The Olympics will be a disaster unless they improve! The Red Wall hotel was right next to the Forbidden City. In our room was a collection of interesting condiments next to the mini-bar including vibrating condoms and a ...

... when I visited. 2008 demands much of the nation's treasures. The city is enormous, nearly 1km square. The architectural principles of the dynasty Chinese ellicit awe. Even if it's not your style, it's impressive. The imperial garden had all sorts of random types of wood, sculptures, pieces of sea coral, things like that. A big hodgepodge of interesting things in nature to contemplate. And in wintertime, expats and local Chinese play pickup hockey on the Forbidden City ...

... has way more charm. At the moment i'm having a great time here; after the organised tour was over, i decided to stay a bit longer in Tibet. Got a visa till the 18th. of this month, and feel that there's still lots more to see, do and experience. For the next couple of days i'm just gonna take it easy, exploring the rest of Lhasa at my own pace. Got to take it easy anyway, since i just got out of the hospital for the second time of this asia-trip ...

... jade carving with lots of little guys with pickaxes on a mountain. The size of the jade was amazing, as was the detail. Unfortunately, there's a lot of construction work going on (Mao's Mausoleum is closed!!), but there was still a lot to see. Most of the buildings weren't covered with scaffolding and netting, just a few.