Zhongyan Pinggu Training Center Beijing

... and when the gates open everyone runs to grab seats. They weren't wrong. Thankfully we had positioned ourselves at the front of the gate and got to our carriage in time to get two seats together. The train was clean, left and arrived on time and the leg room was better than any train / plane or bus i've been on. The only down side was that the seats didn't recline. So, snuggled up in my sleeping bag from the great wall I managed to get some sleep, unfortunately Tom was not so lucky.

... I learned that new detail on the morning of the fourth day, w hen you said to me: "I am very fond of sunsets. Come, let us go look at a sunset now." "But we must wait," I said. "Wait? For what?" "For the sunset. We must wait until it is time." runescape accounts At first you seemed to be very much surprised. And then you laughed to yourself. You said ...

... are traditionally measured as having a total floor space of 9,900 bays - some even say 9,999 bays. The towers guarding the four corners of the palace compound have each 9 beams and 18 columns. The number "nine" was sometimes combined with "five" to represent imperial majesty. The great hall on Tian'anmen is 9 bays wide by 5 bays deep. There is a seventeen-arched bridge in the Summer Palace of Beijing. This, too, has much to do with "nine". Count ...

... palace, we entered the Buddhist temple grounds and visited the decorative buildings with their majestic gold buddhas. Worshippers were burning incense and leaving gifts in the temples and this added to the atmosphere of the site. My main interest was in the last temple, where there was a 26 metre tall Buddha, carved out of a single piece of sandalwood. This majestic idol, covered in gold leaf, towered over all and was a very impressive sight A taxi back through the rush hour ...

... ceremony fireworks over the birds nest and the natatorium. Along with tens of thousands of people wandering down the streets, climbing fences, and trampling flower beds, we made our way to within a few hundred meters of the stadium and watched in awe as fireworks exploded above the graceful structures that also changed colors on their exteriors. I think I took about 100 pictures attempting to capture the feeling of being there on film...but it just doesnt match ...

... is right there waiting for me!!! KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN!!!! and lots of other places with pictures. I can't resist so in I go. Here is where the fun starts, I want chicken, dark meat, what?? dededededed back and forth and then the kindness of strangers!! May I help you says this very nice Chinese man. Yes please Im starving (*not) so I get my chicken and an ear of corn and an iced tea. there is no diet soda in China. Yumm ...

... and another guy whose name I forget. I ahd met Alex once before for about,ooo, 20 minutes so I considered him a firm friend. Nadine and Mr x were new Beijingers. Even fresher than me! I felt a a veritable Beijing big sister to them all (Alex was only 2 weeks old, Nadine 3 days and the other one 2 days) (obviously my big sisterly-ness did not extend to actually knowing my surrogate sibs names). But you can't let a thing like being out with 3 complete ...

Thank you everyone who called me and sent me greetings on my birthday. I was very happy that so many people remembered it and although I'm not in Sweden to celebrate it I felt very happy to know that so many celebrated it in my absence. I was very well taken care of that day and I was invited to some friends' house to have dinner ...

... place we quickly figured out that the quality was not that good so we passed. I did find some pretty good deals on dress socks and I also picked up 2 Nike t-shirts for extremely cheap after extensive bargaining. Andrea found some nice clothes and purses but they were much less open to bargaining so we decided to pass. Overall it was an OK experience but definitely not the great shopping we were expecting. Then we headed to the pearl market. This place was also massive, it had 5 ...

... tell you what you could start a revolution with those arms. and no pictures, but a visit to Beijing is never complete withour sighting the all mighty Mao... I'll let Jon comment on this one. Ok, Jon here... I find the continued worship of Mao absolutely mind boggling! The Chinese people see him as a hero and the person who turned their country around... this couldn't be further from the truth. We have read many books on this man.. he was ...