Beijing and the sex shop Photos

March 7thThis town is absolutely choked with pollution, i can not believe it, it is so hazy with smog. On top of that they are also rebuilding everything within eyesight of the games so there is also dust from all the building work as well.Tiananmen square is huge and really impressive, and you can really feel the communist control. Add on top of that all the protests with Tibet and the Olympics, and a huge mistrust of foreigners, and you have a Government and a military that is really nervous, and absolutely everywhere you look.After the incident at customs, and also wearing flip flops and shorts, i was feeling a little self conscious as all the police kept looking at me with that tough ninja look they have.well, one night i had to go for some cash but the ATM had run out of money, so a local bloke took me to the next nearest one, which was miles away, and on the way back i decided to go a different way back, but ended up in a maze of alleyways that were littered with sex accessory shops.Being mature, and sensible, i ran straight back to the hostel and told steve, a canadian that had become my partner in crime.Being like minded in maturity and sensibility we spent the next hour touring the shops and giggling like a pair of schoolboys, but even worse, Steve started taking photos of some of it.I thought we were going to get beat up big style, but he managed to get away with it somehow, and i am glad he did, as you can all witness the super chinese version of viagra called "Vigera" which has an advertising slogan i kid you not that says it will help you"make love like an african man!"ha ha how funnny is that? As soon as he emails the photos i will put them on, but he went to mongolia and could well be dead now. oh well. Got an invite out on the town with a couple of others that were staying in the hostel, and sadly steve and i had to lower the tone that when we saw that Beijing had a "hooters" ( if you are a fan off south park they took the mickey out of it with their version called "raisins") we had to stop and take pictures of it, and then on the way back we had to call in for a beer.Apparently this is true as well, so i am reliably informed, you need to tell the girls you really fancy their "steamed clam !"Apparently it is very tasty but you should always rinse the clam before eating.no further comment as mother is reading.Well other than that, i drank way too much beer, had way too much peking duck which was absolutely delicious, and visited the great wallwhich is something i have always wanted to do.We had a tour guide to help us. I went for the non touristy version, where you are dropped off in the middle of nowhere and then hike up the mountain to an original piece of wall. The one you see in the pictures has been restored, so this was a bit more run down, but you are literally the only people there, and then you walk along about a mile of it and then back down the mountain.So on the way we pick up this little old woman, a sort of female version of yoda. I thought it must be one of the guides mothers that we were giving a lift to, and it turns out she was the tour guide! She must have been at least 70, and she put us all to shame as we were stopping to catch our breath.It was yet another surreal moment though, standing on the top of one of the highest turrets on one of the wonders of the world on top of the mountains and hardly a soul in sight apart from the 20 others in my group. Luckily it was a really nice day as well and you could see for miles and there was no wind.The Beijing Palace and the Forbidden city behind it was absolutely massive, and i saw it on my last day, just as the sun came out and i was lugging a 30lb rucksack around so as i write this sat on the train to Xian i am absolutely battered, but just as well though, as i am getting fatter than ever on cheap beer and crispy duck.i also went and saw a park as well that has a palace at the top, and that had about a million steps as well, and then i wanted to walk down to the main shopping area, as the search for my Brother's watch continues without success, and that was absolutely miles away as well. I keep forgetting that not all town centres are the same size as Huddersfield.I decided to give the night market a miss where you can get dog and fried starfish and fried seahorse etc and animals meat and 2 veg.The train is an overnight jobbie, and once again we are packed in like sardines, but at least this time i have a bunk. Last train i only saw one other western face, but so far on this one i am the only one.need to buy some deodourant but they do not use it here so it is hard to find. Having said that though i have yet to come accross one that smells.Unlike me after my routemarch. I must be giving the English a bad name.Wonder what their secret is?So only another 12 hours to go and then i will be more or less in central China in the city of Xi'an. The train gets in at about 6am, but the hostel i booked sound really good and they will come and collect me.Hoping there might be some fit nymphomaniacs that prefer balding older men at this one, what do you think?A couple of things before i finally sign off.I am getting a dab hand at the old chopsticks, and also as i am on the train i have noticed many fields with graves randomly in them. Maybe only 2 or 3, but they have the tombstone and then sow the crop right around it. I imagine as most of it is done by hand it is not a problem to leave them there, it just seems a bit strange.I shall have to find out.Also they have national "Grave sweeping" weekend as a bank holiday this time each year. Everyone is off for 3 days in order that they can pay their respects to their dead, and tidy up the graves.Did you also know that when English papers were reporting the protests and the violence of people fighting with coppers when the torch went through london, the National Paper of china showed a picture of Gordon Brown saying hello to a man in a wheelchair (from China i presume) with the headline "warm reception in london".Did you also know that they employ 30,000 people purely to monitor the internet and what people are sending etc and to block many sites.?Chances are this one has been looked at, and if they have then i am in trouble.Did you also know that unofficially thousands of people have been kicked out of their homes in order that they be knocked down as they look too scruffy for the olympics.Did you also know that unofficially, all factories and local power stations are to be forcibly shut down 2 weeks before the olympics in order to reduce the smog problem, and that 2.5 million motorists will be banned from the town centre in order that the traffic does not look so congested?Did you also know that at Hiroshima, the bomb detonated 600 metres above the city which is why there was no crater, and that only 5kg of the 50kg of nuclear explosives in the bomb actually detonated?Ooh, and did you know the cans still have ringpulls here? It reminds me of being 12 again.Oh, and local cigarettes are 16 pence a packet. did you know the chinese smoke more cigarettes than any other nation?I will keep the factoids coming as i have them. Next installment............Andy and the shoe shop and supermarket girls in the Alan Partridge incident at Beijing West Station