Beijing Birthday
Trip Start
Apr 17, 2006
1
13
Trip End
May 31, 2006
Beijing,
China
Thursday, May 25, 2006
As is usual instead of opting for the easier taxi option we decided to get the local bus. We got on the bus not even knowing where we were intending to go. We got off the bus with no idea where we were. We were soon befriended by some seemingly friendly locals who put us in the pedicab and told the rider to take us to any cheap hotels he knew of close by. He took us to a hotel within our price range which was the dingiest and dirtest place I have ever seen and so we settled for a hotel up the road well outside our price range but which looked like it had been kitted out by IKEA. Moral of the story : if you ever want to get anything out of either of us do it in the morning when we are at our weakest
Boarding the Trans Mongolian
!We were expecting Beijing to be completely different - the first thing that struck us was that there was no spitting, and that the sky was overcast but rather clear. The best thing about Beijing is the Hutongs - it is the old streets which hold the spirit of the city. They are bustling with neighbourly activity - dancing lessons and games of mahjong out on the street. There are people peddling their wares from bicycles, yelling out their services or what the specials they have that day. It is so full of life - and it would be a tragedy if the Government continue to demolish these areas in favour of high rise apartment buildings as they are curently doing.
As it turned out we were going to spend Andrew´s birthday in China and on the Great Wall no less. It was an excellent day - we did the 9km walk from Jinshanling to Simatai. We had birthday muffin half way along. On our return to the city we had some beers, some indescribable stuff on sticks and then went to a nice restaurant for dinner.
The next day we were travelling a country closer to the World Cup on the Trans-Mongolian railway.
