Tianxiang Courtyard Hotel Beijing

... of eight with a large lazy-susan type thing in the middle of the table and shared all of the dishes. The food was amazing - nothing at all like the Chinese food I've had back home. Loads of fantastic vegetarian dishes and lots of tofu. The local beer is also really good and comes in quite large bottles! After dinner we wandered around for a bit to buy some snacks for our day trip to the Great Wall and then headed back to the hotel for bed.

I have been in Beijing almost a week now so I have decided it is time to start my blog that I have promised so many back home.
The only thing I ask, is I am not the world’s best speller, so please bear with me. :)

Things have been going very well for me so far. Even though the there was about 30 hours of travel to get here, everything went off without a hitch so I had no complaints. I was able to watch ...

... material for making furniture. Here, the furniture made in Ming and Qing Dynasties, traditional furniture materials, designs, structures give a brand-new interpretation of the meaning of furniture. Some of my most frequented websites in Beijing: www.beijinghikers.com www.thebeijinger.com www.piao.com.cn/en_piao/shouye.asp www.beijingldtx.com/e_aboutldtx_intro.h tml www.danwei.org www.beijingpage.com www.timeout.com/cn/en/beijing/ www.couchsurfing.com www.artscenechina.com

Today we were going to the Great Wall of China. We booked to go on a tour through our hostel. This was a trip to the "secret" Great Wall of China. We weren't quite sure what was "secret" about it, but bright and early at 7.30am we were up and ready to go. We hopped into the minivan with 8 others; and English couple, a couple of young American girls, an Australian couple and another couple of Americans. It took about 2 1/2 ...

... museum though, and that is where I stopped to record some thoughts about the day. It is so strange to be in a situation where I am so obviously a foreigner; so different that people openly stare at me and shout "hello" or "English" just to get me to respond. And college and teenage girls stop me to practice their English and ask me to pose for pictures with them (I did this with two different groups; a family with ...

... school in this country but at least we are here and alive! We hike for about 30 minutes to reach the first ridge and section of the wall when you see it, it really hits you. The entire ridge is defined by this giant wall. It's seems endless. On every side you look its there. This is truly a wonder . We stayed for a while just appreciating the view but this is a trek not a museum so we need to start walking if we dont want to miss the crazy bus driver ...

Traveling can wear you down. The language barrier, the unfamiliar food, the uncomfortable hostel bunk beds; it can be draining. Beijing is especially frustrating and tiring given how big it is and how far flung all the sites seem to be. Add in the endless traffic, the constant, claustrophobic smog and the glutton of people and I was tired of the rigmarole ...

... was really professional and informed me about care & maintenance of the jacket. he also passed me a couple of china outdoor newsletters and mags. for lunch, i decided to try one of the local specialties, which is sour-hot er hai fish (from the er hai lake). and got the cafe owner to teach me how to cook the dish for an additional S$10. it was interesting to enter the small kitchen. the dish is q easy to cook ...