Hello All!! Hope all is well with everyone at home!
25/1
Since the last update, we have been to the Olympic Stadiums, didn't get to go in them though as they were shut, not sure whether it was because of Chinese New Year's Eve or just because it was a Sunday. Both were cool, although the Water Cube looked really weird in the daylight, would have been better to see lit up at night.
Had Beijing roast duck for dinner, it wasn't like what you get at home, well to start with it was and then they bought out a dish with what can only be described as "fried duck remains". That was confusing for a while and then they bought out a broth with more duck remains in it. I think the only part of the duck they didn't bring out was the head!
It was Chinese New Year's eve today and sure enough it went off with a bang, quite literally! Our hostel set off a load of fire crackers and gave us all some sparklers. There was no regard for safety like at home, they just set them off in the street, we did manage to hide around the odd corner when things came flying in our direction though. Surprisingly they did have a firework volunteer warden, not sure what he was doing though! What was really funny was when two fire trucks tried coming up the road while the fire crackers were going off. And bearing in mind we were staying in a little hutong (traditional Chinese streets, very narrow) it was quite amusing!!
Also moved rooms today and now have a twin room with ensuite so no more running down the corridor to go loo/shower! And it was a warm room.
26/1
Late start today after a late night watching the fireworks. Went to the train station to book our tickets for the train to Xi'an, 40 quid, seemed like a lot but I will explain further down it wasn't that bad.
Also went to the Summer Palace today, that was really nice. Set on a lake that was frzoen so people were walking across the lake. By the time we made it round the lake to the Summer Palace itself, it was shut to go in but we could still see it from the outside.
Ate out for dinner tonight again, and I used chopsticks for the first time for a whole meal!
More fireworks set off in the street tonight.
27/1
Finally made it to the Great Wall today. Early start, alarm off at 6.30 had to be ready for 7.30-thank god it wasn't a hairwash, I know some of you are thinking that!!
Got in the little mini van thing with some Americans. First stop was the Ming Tombs. That was ok, saw some treasures that one of the Emperors had had buried with him and then we left. Reading the China book when we got back, we missed half of the stuff there but seeing as the tour guide dude shepherded us back to the van what could we do?!
Next stop was a jade factory. Quite cool to see the patience that the workers have to carve everything out of one piece of jade. After our tour, we got told by the guide that we had to stay in the shop for at least 20-30 mins. We also got told that if anyone asked, our group was all from the same place. So we became Americans from New York for the day! Very random, think there was something dodgey with our tour guide!
Then we finally made it to the Great Wall! It was pretty awesome, quite a trek to get up some of the bits as it was really steep. Full of Chinese people shoving everyone to get out of the way, they then looked at me as if I was rude for shoving them back!
Next stop was lunch, nice Chinese meal-again I used chopsticks!
Then we went to have a "free foot massage" It was going ok until they got some Tibetan hand readers in to read our palms to tell us what was wrong with us and that they would prescribe some herbal medicine to correct everything, they seemed very anti western medicine.
Finally we went to a tea ceremony, again free but with a hard sale at the end trying to get us to buy some tea.
28/1
Last day in Beijing, packed up our stuff and put it in the luggage storage at the hostel and then made our way to the Temple of Heaven park, where the emperors used to go to pray for a good harvest etc. It was a massive nice park to wander around.
Made our way back to the hostel and then had a long drawn out dinner, we had ages until our train. Got our stuff back out the luggage store, attached sleeping bags to the big bags and then the really nice guy in the hostel came and gave us a little kite and thanked us for staying there. Would definitely recommend the hostel we stayed in, 365 Inn, Beijing (on hostels.com)
Made our way to the train station, nice walk to and from the subway loaded up like a pack horse! So back to the price of the train ticket, we had a nice little room that slept four and there was only us and a Chinese man in it. Was actually easy to sleep on the train. The journey was 11 hours, that was more than our flight to Beijing from Heathrow! To start with we thought we were had got our own room, it wasn't until a train staff member came and told us we were in the wrong room-couldn't be helped, the ticket was in Chinese!!
Well that is it for now, got a room booked for 2 nights in Xi'an and are hopefully going to see the Terracota Army tomorrow.
Update you again soon
x
