Beijing is absolutely amazing. It is definately my favourite city so far. We are planning to spend 7 nights here but I think we will have to come back another time- there is so much to do.
In a way it is strange we like it so much when we have definately been hasseled, swindled and had people attempt to rip us off everytime we leave our hostel. My favourite is the women at the silk market. As you walk through they are constantly yelling at you the 'nice lady' to come and look into their shop. If you dare to casually look in the direction of their shop and then don't buy an item they scream at you 'you crazy! Why you waste my time!' in my case, or in Anthony's case "You are very very bad person'. Once you get used to it and learn how to haggle though, it becomes a game and you can get items for a reasonable price.
We have been to so many sites since we have been here and yet have only scraped the surface of what Beijing has to offer. We have visited the Forbidden City, Tianamin Square, The Temple of Heaven, The Summer Palace, Walked through the Hu Tongs and of course walked the Great Wall. Our hostel offered a tour inwhich you walk a 'non' tourist part of the wall. It was beautiful just to walk amongst mountains and ruins for a day and be out of cities for a while. I have to admit it was also pretty physical and at some points a tad scary. Another highlight of the week was to see the chinses acrobates perform. You couldn't help but 'ooh and ahh' throughout the performance and at times people in the audience (including me) cried out in concern over the feat the were about to attempt. Absolutely wicked.
Anna and Paul, who we met on the Trans mongolian railway has been with us this week and we will be sadly parting ways tomorrow. With them we have experienced as much of another wonderful feature of Beijing: food. Street food and resturaunt food alike it is delicious!
The only down side of Beijing is that heating is a luxury that isn't really offered with your accomodation. (I should not we do have heating, it just the rooms do not heat up)I am kind of tired of being permantly cold. But alas, I will have to get used to it as apparently hostels and hotels in Tibet also don't offer heating unless you stay in the Top end hotels. If this is true, the next update will be written by a broken woman.
all my love
tanya
