Beijing

Trip Start Jul 07, 2008

Trip End Oct 01, 2008

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Flag of China Beijing, China
Friday, August 1, 2008

Another border crossing on the way here, and we are now in China!! At this border though something of a little interest though. The trains in China run on a different gauge than in Russia/Mongolia so all of the wheels (bogies) had to be changed. This takes a few hours as all of the carriages have to be lifted, old wheels removed and new ones put in, it's pretty impressive.

First stop in Beijing Tiananmen Square. Olympic fever is well and trully gripping this place! We wanted to see the evening flag lowering ceremony but really had to battle with the thousands of locals wanting to display their national pride. As it turns out it's not really a ceremony but just some soldiers taking down a flag...

Early in the morning we went to the Temple of Heaven which is a large temple complex and garden

Acrobat troupe

. It was amazing to see the temples but what really took us was the local people who had turned out in force here to do all kinds of exercise, tai chi, gymnastics, dancing, singing, playing games and socialising. It was 7.30 on Saturday morning but everyone was really into it! Most people were older than 50 and so this made us feel pretty weak. Later in the evening to add to this feeling we went to the Beijing Acrobatic Troupe to be really amazed by balancing, jumping, flipping, handstanding and all sorts of other feats.

The next day was easily the most gruelling of the trip so far, our trek on the Great Wall. We went from the Jinshaling area to Simatai and were told that it was a 10km walk from one to the other. We both had a somewhat ignorant belief that the Wall, once you get to it is pretty straight and flat and it would be a nice stroll along taking in the sights, we couldn't have been more wrong. The walk was very hard work with very steep sections of the wall both up and down through the hills and steps that were crumbling at best and non existent at worst in some sections. We were blessed by a clear blue sky for the day which did make for great views but the sun beating down did little to make the walk easier. The vendors along the way selling ice water were very welcome, the ice melted in about 5 seconds. The descent from the wall was fun, when we finally got there, a zipline down which takes about 30 seconds.

A smogy and humid morning greeted us for our trip to the Forbidden City, the palace complex that dominates the centre of Beijing. It was amazing to walk around here and read about the history and how the Emperor, his wives and concubines lived through the many dynasties. There's a basketball court in there, which I'm pretty sure is a recent addition..

Acrobats with drums!

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The Panda is the symbol of China so we had to go and see one. Unfortunately the recent earthquake in Sichuan Province destroyed the sanctuary there but we were lucky in a way because this meant that some of the Pandas had been moved to Beijing Zoo, which is where we went to see them. Not as good as the wild but still Pandas.

Overall Beijing has been great, friendly people, very clean, great food, great new metro system but one wonders how much of this is Olympic inspired and how much of this is normal Beijing. Will have to come back and find out...
Off to Shanghai!

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

Gate to the Fobidden City	Great Wall	In Tiananmen Square	KA and MP at the Great Wall
KA negotiating the Great Wall	MP playing at the Temple of Heaven	New bogies going in	Old Man exercising at the Temple of Heaven
Olympic Symbol in Tiananmen Square	Pandas	Plate Spinners	Summer Palace - Temple of Buddha Incense
Temple of Heaven - Olympic Volunteers	The train with no wheels!