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Trip Start Aug 10, 2007 Previous
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  Beijing, China
Saturday, August 18, 2007

Just arrived in Beijing and checked into our new hostel this evening.  It is such a lovely place - a Hutong (which is an old traditional Chinese home).  All the rooms lead off from the central courtyard.  There are also lovely, homely, yet traditional shared areas to chat, eat and chill out with other travellers. It is in the Xicheng district which is quite suburban I think...but will find out tomorrow when we go off exploring for the first time here.  We plan to go to some of the markets tomorrow as Sunday is probably a good day for that.  Apparently there are also lovely parks and gardens to wander around in.  We are here for 5 days so we have plently of time to do everything we want to do.  We then plan to take a train to Xi'an to see the Terracotta Warriors and then another train on to Shanghai.  We certainly needed this peaceful oasis...as this is what it feels like after being in Hong Kong.  

We woke up today quite refreshed after sleeping the whole night through in a lovely quiet neighbourhood...shock

Checkers anyone?

!  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 beautifully decorated.  You can see some lovely close up shots of some of the ceilings on these buildings in the photo's we have posted.
On passing through the Forbidden City we carried on through into Jingshan Park and climbed up to the top of the hill to see 'Wanchung Ting' (Pavillion).  There is also a famous tree at the bottom of the hill where the
last Ming Emporer, Chongzhen, hanged himself in 1644, when rebel troops forced themselves into Beijing.  We took some time to just sit on a park bench and relax after all the walking through the Forbidden City.
We are still getting used to being 'stared' at by many of the locals who don't seem to see many European/Western people.  It is quite amusing at times.  We just smile and find that they then smile back.  After all
that sightseeing we decided it was time for some shopping

Decorative Rooftops

!  We decided to get a taxi down to one of the shopping areas where I had spotted some bargains when driving by on the bus.  But no - no taxi.  They don't
seem to stop for Europeans as they know that they are not going to be able to understand where you want to go!  So we walked some more...probably about 40 minutes in total until we reached our destination.
We saw some really interested 'local' sights along the way....see the pictures of locals playing games on the side of the road.  We also bought some fruit from a small shop and sweated out litres of water which you
seem to need to drink in this place.  We treated ourselves to a 'Mango and Passionfruit' Frescata which was awesome and gave us 'brainfreeze!'  We shopped for a while after that and Greg managed to find some
nice light, comfortable shorts to use tomorrow for our 'great trek' along the Great Wall of China.  I must say that I am slightly nervous about doing a 4 hour walk in this heat and with my denim shorts on, but
couldn't find any shorts that were suitable - only 'tennis-type' skirts which I don't think will look very good or prove in the least practical for clambering along a stony wall for 4 hours!  After being all shopped out we
returned to our wonderful hostel to enjoy a meal in the courtyard which they cooked in their restaurant.  It was great.  We were lucky enough to find the lounge area empty after that and decided to watch a DVD....
so all in all a lovely day and a really chilled out evening....here's hoping for more of those!
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Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

Four season pillars	Imperial Garden	Imperial Garden Gate	Jingshan Park
Jules and mates	Lioness	Lost?	Ming Dynasty
Ming Dynasty Gate	Rooftop Houtong	Rose amongst the thorns	Squat
Starbucks	The Bicycle Lane	The Lotus	Tian'anmen Square
Weary	Zhengyang Men

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