Redwall Beijing

despite being told that it's not quite worth the time, and it being compounded by my own personal expectations (or lack thereof?) i knew i couldn't be in beijing without seeing the forbidden city with my own eyes. conveniently enough, our hotel was located not just within walking distance to this massive palatial fortress, but even closer to a local park that gave us access to elevated ground (actually made from land dug up to build the moat around the forbidden city itself) from where we cou...

the 15th of march, 2008, a date marked on all the calendars i've owned for the past several months (just one), had finally arrived after a wait encroaching on two years. the whole waiting process was interesting, to say the least. of course, both jesse and i'd had the pleasure of experiencing the anticipation that waiting for a trip this immense could bring, but beyond that, the excitement of this anticipation was mired in two quite unordinary and unexpected circumstances. one, the bog that i...

Hello Friendly Americans (as the Chinese call us), I am finally able to write all of you to let you know about China. We are here. The plane ride was a bit grueling, especially because we have a 4 hour delay before taking off. But when we arrived in China, I forgot about all of that. China is an incredible place. I have wanted to go for so long, and had high expectations. All I can say is that all of my expectations have been exceeded. We are exactly 12 hours ahead of Eastern Time Zone, just ...

Tues 20th June Woke up still feeling a little tired, something somewhere needs oiling as it squeaked all night and the ride was a little bumpy. At 7am we pull into the station and head out to find a taxi to the hotel. We get in a taxi queue but no-one will take us! Only the expensive touts wanting to charge 20yuan are hovering around trying to pick off the remains. No, we're not getting screwed again and tried in vain to find a metered taxi. Still no luck. We think the hotel is too near for t...

After an uneventful flight (short delay seems to be the norm) we arrived in the Capital, Beijing for a four day stay. Kim, another winner. The hotel was so-so but the location was great. We tried out the hotel's dining room and were less than impressed but we've been spoiled by some great hotels in the past. The first morning we walked down the street about 2 blocks to the North Entrance to the Forbidden City, called the Palace Museum here. Remember your walking shoes as this place is immense...