Welcome to Beijing
Trip Start
Apr 21, 2008
1
4
26
Trip End
Sep 01, 2008
Beijing,
China
Monday, May 5, 2008
We made it on to a packed bus, they literally cram you on so you can't even move to get off and then set off on a very dangerous drive where we werent sure where to get off as no one to ask or signs to understand!! We randiomly got off and then had a 2 hour walk to our very hidden hostel (the distance looked alot shorter on the chinese map)
When we finally found it the hostel is the nicest place ever, its family run with 2 dogs, a cat, a fish pond and a duckling :), we are based in a courtyard with a library, lounge to watch films in, play snooker and eat. Our bedroom is huge and has a king sized bed with massive ensuite room and is clean, unlike the hong kong hostel we stayed in!!
So the story so far:
* Tian'nemmen Square is huge and leads to the forbidden city which we will be visting later this week- there is soo much to do here but we don't have the time to do it all so are a little dissappointed
* Silks Market- A five floor market which was very itimidating for me as the shop owners etc are hassling you to look at there stuff all the time ( i just prefer to look myself) Craig haggled for about 15 minutes for some t-shirts and managed to get the price fairly low, but i cpuldnt get into it at all!!
* Ritan Park - or Temple of the Sun God Park, this park was again huge and had a sacrificing table for when animals etc were sacrificed for the sun god, it also had a free climbing wall and exercise area with treadmills and bikes etc!! We had a go and it was lots of fun excerising with the chinese. We were also stared at a lot but i think they just wanted to speak as we said hello to a few children and there parents
* Donganmen Night Market- We just stumbled upon this and it was so busy and fascinating to see all the food, starfish, live scorpions, snakes and seahorses were among some of the skewers avaiable to eat. We had some kind of meat kebab and some strawberrys which were similar to toffee apples
Well thats all we have to say so far, we have to cram alot into the next few days so are going to be extremely tired!!!
