Back to the 21st Century

Trip Start Aug 15, 2006

Trip End Aug 13, 2007

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Where I stayed

beijing city centre youth hostel

(Beijing hotels)

Flag of China Beijing, China
Tuesday, September 5, 2006

After making our way from Kathmandu via Dehli to Honk Kong and on to Beijing in 36hrs we were shattered. But we felt great to be in China. We spent 5 nights in Beijing and saw alot of the sights. The hostel had told us to get the bus no.3 to the last stop,which was perfect as we would have been screwed if we had to try and read the names on the bus stops. We are starting to see already how it can be difficult to get around China. After getting off the bus we were met by 20 or so people trying to sell us accomodation & tuk tuk rides. One of the guys was so persistant, funny & because we had no idea where we were, we got on his motorised bike. He cycled around for 10mins & droped us off around the corner from where we started... we got done.. at least it only cost 2euro!!!
We found our hostel anyway & rested till lunchtime the next day,when we made our way to Tian'anmen Square. The roads are 10 lanes wide & the Forbidden Palace inside is huge. Its very interesting in the Forbidden Palace,but because of the heat & the hunger we left after 2hrs

01 Tin'nmen Square

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We hit the Amusement Park on the 2nd day, great craic!!! The Sky Swing is a must for people who like rides that leave you upside down for a few seconds...we walked 30mins to the Temple of Heaven park. Again interesting, but hunger won the competition..
3rd day. The weather wasn't great this morning so we put off the Great Wall & hit the Zoo. The cats are Amazing, apart from being in a Zoo, they look well fed with beautiful coats. Home also to 4 pandas. Got some cheap T-shirts on the way home on the main shopping street.
Day 4 & we missed the bus to the Great Wall, got up too late, so spent the day doing nothing, got our train tickets to Pingyao.
Eventually got to the Great Wall, Jeasus its steep!!! after climbing it for 90mins we took the sliding cars back down which were cool. They leave you at Bear park, there are maybe 15 bears climbing on steel bars, where for a small price you can buy a plate of apples to throw too them. Its like watching circus bears, CRAP LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That evening we made our way to the train station by bus. The Chinese moto is "theres always more room" so we crammed our way onto the bus with our rucksacks and endured the hour journey. Got to the train station & found our waiting area. It was packed, & once we walked in the fun started... "HEY EVERYBODY,THERES WHITE PEOPLE,LETS STARE & POINT AT THEM" after an hour they got bored & we stopped noticing as much. We had been told that we had bought Hard sleeper tickets, which of course we hadn't. Hard Seats was what we got anyway. Jam-Packed in with the locals for 10hrs until we got our shout that we'd made it to Pingyao.