West Palace Hotel Beijing

... according to Emperor Mao for having climbed the wall.. (he didnt say how far!!) Some great pictures, and some casualties along the way, but a real physical test was had by all!! An unbeliveable experience to have seen one of the eight wonders of the world in all its glory.. A peaceful oasis apart from the locals hounding you to buy souvenirs!!

Back to Beijing and caught up with Mr Aleem again tonight, had a wonderful dinner in the China ...

... in such a small space, with so many bodies, I decide to look out the windows, only to see the street-lines painted on the side of the road. Even with the best of my squirming, the most I can view is grass on the median beside streetlines. After five minutes of riding like this I begin to feel nauseous, so I decide to count people. Keep in mind this bus is three seats wide; two on one side, one on the other. The aisles are meant for ONE person to walk through… I counted 17 ...

... regions far inland. Most of the people he encountered had never seen a Westerner or camera before. His expeditions were also especially challenging because he had to transport his bulky wooden camera, many large, fragile glass plates, and potentially explosive chemicals. He photographed in a wide variety of conditions and often had to improvise because chemicals were difficult to acquire. His subject matter varied enormously: from humble beggars and street people to ...

... enough English to make it clear they did not think much of the activists, the four were taken to a disused university building. There, they were questioned separately. "The first session lasted for four hours. There were five of them. They filmed me," says Ms McKeown. "They didn't even give me a glass of water. They wanted to know everything: names, e-mail addresses. I decided to tell them anything that was in the public domain, that they could find out using the internet." The ...

... the prestige of the family. Thresholds can never be stepped on, which is like wiping your feet on the shoulders of the host, and must be stepped over with the right foot by women and the left foot by men. I have to get going - my time on the Internet is up. We're visiting the Great Wall today - I have so much more to tell you about my trip, but it will have to wait. I hope to be adding pictures soon, so look forward to them!

... see how silk was made. We went around the tour and even had a go at making silk quilts and then daddy got his wallet out lmao. I bought myself a lovely bag and a purse to match hehe. We waited for everyone to gather and then we went to the theatre. Richard and Carol opted out and chose to go bar hopping instead so so hopped off the bus to catch the subway to bar street hehe. I'm glad we didn't opt ...

... on saturdays? Not quite the worst possible moment, but nearly. Well, I slept intermittently as the noise from the street below woke me fairly often and I awoke as usual before my alarm went off. Knowing if the bank would be open, it wouldn't be before 8:30 or 9:00 so I pottered around for awhile, then left on my quest. Which direction to head was a 50/50 decision, which are never good odds for me. Beijing is designed around ring roads, the Forbidden City walls ...

... happen and I better go back. Five minutes after a got back to the apartment, huge wind gusts began blowing things all over and then the rain came. A lot of it. I had not seen rain like that since El Nino. We had planned to go out to eat Peking duck again, but the rain as so bad that we had to wait a little whole for it to calm down. There are no sewers or storms drains here so the streets and sidewalks turn into rivers and are impassable. Eventually, we got to the restaurant and ...

... meer in Beijing verdwijnen en plaats moeten maken voor nieuwe versies hiervan. Uiteindelijk houden de twee dames het voor gezien en taaien ze af. Rob en ik lopen nog even door de hutong en bekijken de wijk. Het ziet er allemaal wat armoediger uit dan de wijk waar wij wonen. Na een tijdje rondgekeken te hebben lopen we terug over het plein naar onze fiets en gaan we terug naar ons appartement. Ons eerste weekend zit er alweer bijna op. Time flies when you're having fun!!

... is glaring. I wanted to write today even though I took it easy and didn't do all that much, recovering from the long ride. However, here in China's capitol you don't have to do much to see a lot. As I strolled through the bustling streets looking for something to eat, I saw everything you can imagine. Businesses hidden underneath ancient Chinese architecture storefronts - I wonder how old these are, Chinese characters and writing on ...