Ni Hao Beijing! I eagerly waited for mum and dad at the airport in Beijing with our tour guide for the week - Alan. It was amazing to see them, and what a weird but extraordinary place to have to come together. We reached the hotel - yes you did read that correctly. I have been spoilt with luxury for a week! Believe or not, I was completely taken aback by the niceness of the hotel and just wanted to curl up with m'julie on the floor. It is winter in Beijing and about -5 degrees so mum and dad had to bring me out some warm clothes. It is freezing! I had a well-needed bubble bath and slept in the grandest of beds, not forgetting with a duvet. (Not a sleep liner like I am used to but a warm, fluffy duvet.) I also had Italian for dinner - penne arribiata, to those who do not know me that well this may seem trivial but to everyone else - I am sure you can understand how excited this made me.

Our first full day in Beijing I went a bit crazy over the hotel breakfast, I had sushi, pot stickers, eggs, noodles, potatoes, gherkins and more. A strange breakfast to say the least. I knew this couldn't continue. We left the hotel with our guide Allan at 8.30am. Our first stop was the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City was built in the 1400s, and it took 14 years to build. It was home to the emperor and empress of the Ming dynasty. The city was 72hectares so pretty large. It was phenomenal with the most stunning architecture and fine detail. They had renovated it for the Olympics so the whole city was newly painted and just amazing. We walked around for a couple of hours, seeing where the empress and emperor lived, rested and worked.
The next stop was the Temple of Heaven, which once used to be the largest temple in China but now is just used as a park. It was beautiful but the best part of this was watching all the locals hanging out in the park. We saw groups of people playing cards, an orchestra with people singing, dancing…it was great fun!
We stopped to have lunch at a Chinese restaurant where one of the waitresses stood next to mum for the whole meal - she really should have just pulled up a chair. After lunch we went to the Summer Palace in the North West of Beijing. Her son as a present in 1750 built this palace for the empress. The whole area of the palace is 4 times as big as the Forbidden City and we thought that was huge. A lake that was overlooked from the palace took up most of the area. The palace was stunning and has the longest outdoor corridor in the world. The whole corridor runs along the lake so the empress could take leisurely walks in the summer - it is also painted with different pictures of Beijing. It was nice in the winter but I can imagine it is just amazing in the summer.
Before going home, we stopped of at a Chinese Tea House where we learnt the art of tea tasting and even got to taste some local teas, including Jasmine, Pu-eh, Oolong and a rose tea. This was more just a con to make us buy teas at the end but we had a laugh watching this ceramic boy pee water out his pee pee when the water was hot enough to make tea. J
We went back to the hotel for a quick rest before heading out again to watch a Kung-Fu show. The show was at the Red Theatre and called the Legend of Kung-Fu. It probably wasn't something we all would have chosen to go see (as it was part of the tour package); however it fit nicely into the Chinese experience and was thoroughly enjoyable.

The next day we started the day off visiting the Ding Tomb - where the emperor from the Ding Dynasty was buried. The Chinese were quite like the Egyptians in that they wanted to be buried in tombs and before they died, they had chosen the location of their tomb, The Chinese are also buried with their riches and curses are sometimes put on the tombs. However the Chinese tombs weren't nearly as impressive as the Egyptians.
We went to a Jade stone-carving museum where we were introduced to jade and shown how it is carved into different pieces, we were also taught how to recognise between fake and real jade.
At lunchtime, we went to a Cloisonné factory where we were shown how copper is made into the most beautiful of pieces, through gluing thin pieces of copper and this then being enamelled, they go into an oven and finally are polished and gilded. I never before knew how much work had gone into making one jug - definitely worth every penny.
After lunch we drove to the Great Wall of China, one of the 7th wonders of the modern world. Unfortunately the weather wasn't all the great and it was quite foggy. We could still see the wall but not much of the views from it. The badaling section of the wall was fascinating, although quite touristy. However it definitely is great and must have been a real feat building it.
The next day started with a visit to the Lama Temple - this is a Buddhist temple still in use today. The architecture was from Tibet, mongolia and china - stunning! The temple also contained a 60foot buddha carved from one single piece of sandalwood (the largest in the world.) The temple was comprised of lots of different buildings, one building had 3 buddhas in it - one for past, present and future and people would pray to them accordingly. This temple was very large and the most beautiful that i have seen in China.
We then went to the temple of Confucius which contained 198 stone tablets of scholars that have passed exams and ancient 700 year old cypress trees planted in 1302AD. However this temple wasnt as impressive as the lama temple. Next we took a rickshaw tour - which is a man on a bike carting us around the hutongs (little chinese alleys). This wasn't as impressive as i thought it would be but we got out and walked around the hutongs -we went to a homestay which was used for people in the olympics. They had a parrot outside which repeated what you said so he kept saying 'ni hao' to me - it was very cute. We also went to the drum tour in beijing. After lunch we headed to the panda garden in beijing zoo. The pandas were amazing but I hated seeing them in the zoo. Finally we went to a white peacock silk carpet factory where we learnt how silk worms (single ones) grow into making silk, however the chinese worms are twins and make thick silk used for duvets. This was really interesting to see and learn about. Before heading home we went to an electronics market which was in one word - exhausting!
We got up at 5am the next day to fly to Xi'an (a city in the middle of China about 2 hours flight away). We had a lot of waiting around at the airport so dad and i went on the search for coffee but we were unsuccessful! all we found was some water and low fat biscuits (it was that or pork noodles!) We met Sandra our tour guide in xi'an and went straight to a mosque which wasn't nearly as impressive as some of the buddhist temples. After mosque we went to the city wall which is about 16km around the city , really incredible. The city itself had a very cool atmosphere, very buzzing with lots of people, street markets and amazing smelling food. I actually preferred the city to Beijing. Lunch was unsuccessful (as were many of our lunches in beijing) - mum and dad couldnt eat much and what they could eat was either cold or vegetable spring rolls with the vegetables! they werent happy and had a go at Sandra which was very awkward - i had nice food though! After lunch we went to the Terracotta factory to see how they made the terracotta army however this was just a scam to make you buy things (like everywhere else in China and it didnt work!)
The Terracotta army was unbelievable - they had 3 pits that had been discovered. The army and horses had been broken into lots of pieces though so they had to be reconstructed to show how it would have looked 2000 years ago. it was only discovered in the 1970s and the guy who found it was actually there signing books which was pretty amazing. The emperor at the time employed 6% of the population to help build the army and so every soldier had a different face and was completely unique. It was an unbelievable sight to see.
On friday we to 798 art area which is a load of streets full of art galleries and street art. I can imagine it to be really busy and full of atmosphere in the summer but it was still a really cool place. We went to a calligraphy place where i got my name written in chinese and got given lots of chinese tea which was lovely. Then we went to the Olympic stadium which was very impressive from the outside but pretty much like any other stadium from the inside. We went for lunch although dad had told the tour guide we didnt want lunch today (they had had enough of these lunches) but the driver was hungry so we had to stop, It was a nightmare - a chinese wedding at the restaurant so we had to sit in this room on our own. We had to sit there for an hour waiting for the driver to eat so i decided as we had already paid for it, that i would eat. They brought out 6 huge dishes of meat, soup, lots of veg and rice whilst mum and dad just sat there drinking tea. The last stop of the day was the national gallery which was an impressive building surrounded by a lake but not a whole lot to see inside.
In the evening I headed out with a friend of a friend who was living in Beijing. We went to a Russian restaurant and there were lots of international people from all over so it was a nice evening meeting lots of people. I didn't last very long on the russian vodka and found a cab home on my own. the cab drivers dont speak english so my tour guide had given me his card with the hotels name in chinese to give the driver however in a rush, earlier that day - I picked up the card i got given from the calligraphy shop and not the hotels name...not good! I managed to find my tour guides number and get back to the hotel but the cab driver stole my phone which i didnt realise till the next morning. It was a sad day! Especially because I had to say bye to mum and dad. I had an amazing trip with them and saw some incredible sights. However i didnt appreciate the -5 weather!
I am in Melbourne now and really enjoying the 39degree heat. As soon as i arrived at the airport - i was picked up and taken straight to the beach with these people i was staying with. Spent the day at a gorgeous beach and then went to a vineyard in the hills overlooking the sea - not a bad first day! The evening was spent at some local aussie girls house with a new Zealand wine and cheese night! I am not complaining. The next day me and emily were pretty burnt and found most things difficult. We decided to go shopping and spent the whole day wondering around Melbourne city - this was fun having a look around, we ate in a quirky cafe in one of the side streets and walked until our legs fell off. In the evening we had a picnic in the garden terrace of the apartment we are staying at, it was so warm and with stunning views of the city. It was a gorgeous night. We were taken out by 2 aussie girls the next day for some vintage and boutique shopping in the suburbs of Melbourne, this was lots of fun, a real girly day. The apartment we are staying in is on the 34th floor of a stunning building on the southbank of melbourne, 5 star accommodation - me and emily are very lucky and loving every minute before we have to become real backpackers again!