Xindongfang Business And Convention Hotel Taiyuan

... insisted that everyone take off their shoes on entry! So we lay on our sides enveloped in smelly feet odour! Pleasant! In fairness, it was cosy and warm though! The journey passed uneventfully. A toilet stop, a cheesy kung fu movie and some snoring..... Until....<br><br>The Bus pulled up to the side of the road, a few got out. Then the bus driver decided he'd have a nap. He had a ciggarette, climbed into one of the bunks and fell asleep. For about five hours ...

... br>Taiyuan mel byt pro nas jen prestupni stanice, ale nakonec jsme v nem stravili cele odpoledne. Taiyaun je vice nezmilionove mesto, prestavbu centra dokoncili pred 2 roky. Hlavni ulice je misty az dvanacti proudova dalnice. Nikde tu nikdy nedelaji nic maleho. Asi sem nejezdi moc turistu. Vsude na nas zirali a v obchodech se nas ani nesnazili moc natahnout, takze jsme tam vubec nesmlouvali. Zasli jsme na jidlo, do muzea umeni provnicie Shanxi a posedeli v mistnim parku.<br>

How to learn Chinese is a frequently asked question. Occasionally, people would like to find a tutor to help them learn Chinese. Actually, in modern times with fast development of internet, online mandarin Chinese seems more ...

... to the water, which is the first time I have seen that. You can wash your hands in the water, which is supposed to be from the mountains and very clean. It has sacred powers. It was really funny how many people stared at us. Lots of people wanted pictures with Matt and I. I'm not really sure why they wanted them, but we would catch people taking sneak pictures of us or they would just ask us outright <br><br>After the temple we went ...

We get dropped off at the Qingxu service station at 2:30am. There's a 24hr convenient store, we find a row of plastic seats and tries to make it until the sun comes up. We have been on the road nonstop for 18 hours, have to wait 7 more hours before we can find a bed.

... and we should consider paying 150 yuan for a english speaking guide. Since Mike had really wanted to come here and we had made the extra moves to get here we paid the extra for the guide. Our guide's english name was Lucy, a young woman who just graduated with a degree as a tour guide. She met us at the hotel which was good since we had to change buses along the way. The weather was forecast to rain an ...

... chram (jedina vyjimka, studentske vstupne za 2 yuany), kde se mimo jine nachazi provincialni muzeum. Chram pekny, muzeum nic moc. Pak jsme vyrazili na autobusove nadrazi koupit listek, tam nam pratelsky sdelili, ze listek si muzeme koupit az v den odjezdu. Famy o tom, ze cestovani autobusem je levnejsi nez vlaky, jsou skutecne jenom famy. A studentske listky taky nemaji. Druhy den jsme se sbalili a s pevnym rozhodnutim se do Taiyuanu nikdy nevratit (haha) jsme ...

... of Xian - about an hour and a half bus ride. The bus ride was rough - everywhere we glanced, it seemed, there were dogs, which was uncanny since up to this day we had seen so few dogs in China. Even the bus seat covers had dogs on them!!! We missed, and still do miss, Seamus badly :( As it turned out, however, a hike up to Mount Hua Shan's west peak was just what we needed. I had initally feared that I had under-dressed ...

... in his Ireland Jersey we are the only Westerners and get looks from everyone as we walk through the square to get to the main street. We got hassled a few times but not as much as I was expecting, Dec did get cheated out of 1 yuan (10 cents) when he got his shoes shined which was funny, there 3 women trying to tell us I don't know what but 2 yuan seamed to make them happy. Now this was a interesting day, at home I very rarely eat Mc Donalds ...

Who knew they only roll the old man's bones out for a couple of hours? Formaldehyde Mao is only on display for two or three hours in the early morning. So we missed him. Maybe we should have called first. "Yes, hello? Can we come and see the Chairman? Is this a good time for him?" We'll have to hit up Mao when we're back in Beijing in August. That night we left on a night train from Beijing's Central Station ...