Dingsheng Garden Hotel Beijing

... click to choose scissors and then use
shears with sheep elections], careful not to charge energy
In those very fat, and those are wolf in sheep's clothing ~
~ ~, to force the attention of those sheep To the corner, it
is not easy to escape the sheep. Obtained after 20 wool
[20pieces of wool], and then return to Lumbridge Castle
climb the second floor, in a room where there is a textile
machine [a ...

... uploaded pictures and then went back to sleep. I do hope that we are finished with this crazy sleep cycle, but the sleep sure felt good. We were very energetic until that time.

Yesterday morning we took a walk to see where his parents live. The fun and fortunate experience is that we met his parents while they were walking to the market. Very cool, walking and meeting family on the street in Beijing. It was the first time that Liangs parents had met Pia. It ...

... for your dollar. We headed straight to the pearls, and with Glenn's help and advice, located the 'best' stall. I got a 18" strand of high quality pink pearls for ¥220 or about $44 cdn. They are beautiful, and I had to walk away before getting more, or one in every colour. (I did end up going back later...) After that I wandered a little more, and found a little oil painting I liked, but didn't want to repeat Lviv and carry around forever. I can't remember now what ...

... deliberate??? After we went on to the Forbidden City...awesome place Soooo many temples all with wonderful names, just not enough time and we spent about 7 hours there, and were kicked out at closing time. Monday was a bit more relaxed, we went to the Temple of Heaven, which is located in a large and beautiful park. The temples were magnificent, but the locals were the stars, as they hang out in two places in the park, one playing cards/music ...

... was most likely jaywalking. The main road fronting the school is undergoing construction and so basically there is no sidewalk. Pedestrians have to walk on the road, it's nuts. I've become somewhat accustomed to the insanity here, having jaywalked myself, and also riding my bike whenever I can. This will serve as a reminder for me to be more careful. Moral of the story: DO NOT JAYWALK!!

... people seem to find it hard to aim - one girl in our group, Clare, didn't go once on any of the sleeper trains! But the worst thing about the trains is that most Chinese smoke, and they are allowed to smoke in between the carriages (the windows don't open), so throughout the night you can feel your throat filling up and a passive smokers cough developing! After the smoking ban in the UK it is a massive shock! And of course, where there's smoking, there's spitting!

... failure of immense proportions. Several million people starved to death as a result of the program and China was set back another generation. Fortunately, the Chinese have been able to put a neutral spin on the period. Since 1976 when Mao's sometimes arch-rival Deng Xiaoping began economic and political reforms, China and Beijing have had a good ride. Beijing today has everything a modern city can offer - high rise buildings ...

... sleeping the whole night through in a lovely quiet neighbourhood...shock! Today we decided to head off for Tian'an Men Square and the Forbidden City. Wow! I couldn't believe how big this place is...in this heat it was impossible to explore every inch of it....so we walked through the main parts and then decided that that was enough for us. There is so much incredible architecture in this city - buildings which have been around for so long and everything is so ...

... like Thailand teaching English. She'd done a volunteer program soon after she graduated as a result of her SAS experience, and ultimately wound up doing international work because of it as well. So, Semester at Sea really can change your life. Once we got into the Forbidden City, we walked around with earphones and an electronic tour guide (my lady spoke in French for the first few minutes, but then her batteries died). The others finally took theirs off as well and ...

... more expensive then a dorm room for 2 more nights. Spent a couple of days just chilling out at the hostel as it was just nice to be out of the madness that was and is the streets of beijing. The hostel was on a street full of musical instrument shops which was cool as i got to jam on guitars for a few hours. The guys who ran the shops were all musicians so it was an experience to just walk past the shops as the sounds coming out were a feast for the ears. It was mix of ...