20th June
Arrived in Beijing around 2 pm. The train from UB was pretty nice. I had 2 Mongolian girls in my cabin whom were down to party. The were sipping on wine and beer the whole night. They were clearly ready to have some fun in Beijing.
You can still hear whispers about the olympics everywhere you go. Faded rings on the street, obsolete advertisements. I went to Tiananmen square my first day. And sweated in the heat surrounded by loads of local tourists.
Went into a restaurant and ordered a dish and got a huge plate of chilis with some chopped up chicken parts. It was absolutely delicious. Took a tour with the cooking class to a local morning market and irritated all the Chinese trying to get there daily shopping done by standing in they're way. Then became a spring roll master.
Went to the Lama Temple (just a block from my hostel). It was very overcast and made the buildings seem like they floated in the sky. Unfortunately the day I went to the great wall it was impossible to see more then a few feet. The Ming tombs were interesting and a little macabre feeling.
The pearl market was flustering until I discovered a nice place on the roof with a view of temple of heaven park. There was a garden with a pond and it was absolutely the opposite of what was happening on the floors below. The Beijing night market was my favorite by far and I ended Beijing with a lovely Peking Duck dinner.
I made a mistake and bought by train ticket a couple days earlier then I thought. Oh well. Overnight train to Chengdu in Sichuan province.
