Well after saying our goodbyes to Joyce and thanking her very much for her hospitality we started making our way to Beijing, the train ride was about 2 and half hours and fairly simply, we were told when we get off at Colombo Fort just cross the road and take the number 187 bus to the airport....simple.
We soon found out that trying to get on a bus is not so easy here, they don't actually stop as such, but just slow down. It was also dark and very busy with about 20 buses flying past the stops every minute and we seemed to be the only tourists around. We seen a 187 bus heading our way so we started jogging with our massive rucksacks, when we got to the door we shouted "airport" and the guy shook his head, we were puzzled, so asked a local which bus to the airport and he pointed at the one we just tried to get on which was now speeding away at about 100mph lol. This then repeated itself another 2 times, we couldn't help but laugh and wonder why we were not being allowed on the bus.
Enough was enough so we decided the next 187 bus to come we were just jumping on and see what happened, finally we managed and we were on our way to the airport, the bus driver was crazy, he drove so fast along the roads, weaving in and out of the traffic and slamming on the breaks at the bus stops....but not quite stopping, just slowing down so people can jump on and off without breaking bones haha, quite amusing.
Our plane journey was uneventful, apart from a German man trying to push in front of Jonny in the queue and when he started to tell him to get to the back of the queue his response to Jonny was "are you crazy" (in a funny German accent) and preceded to push in front, Jonny wasn't best pleased haha. Although i did have the last laugh when later i looked at the departures screen to see the only flight to Germany going to Frankfurt delayed by 6 hours lol Justice!
After a 10 hour flight we arrived in Beijing.....ITS COLD. Feels just like home haha. We got a taxi to take us to our hotel, with a bit of difficulty, he spoke no English and couldn't really read the address we wrote down, but we got there in the end.
This is our first experience with hostels and a mixed dorm. We are very impressed, we have a room with two sets of bunk beds and a private bathroom with shower, clean sheets and clean towels, with a locker to keep our rucksacks safe. They have loads of information on tours and are helping us book our onwards train. We were pretty shattered so decided to grab some lunch at a nearby McDonald's...yum. Then walked back to the hostel for a nap.
We decided to go along to the bar in the hostel for some tea as we were still shattered and needed an early night, its a nice small place with loads of decent priced food and drink, we met a Scottish guy that has just started working there, he asked us to join him and his mates but we are a bit tired after the flight so its off to bed for us, maybe see them tomorrow night.
There is still no sign of the other two people that we will be sharing our room with so we have it to ourselves for tonight, which is good. We are off to Tiananem Square with a load of other places tomorrow, should be good.
Today is Saturday 26th of February and to start off our day of sightseeing we woke up to.....SNOW, great, just like being at home haha!! We set off at 9.30am all wrapped up to keep warm and headed to The Forbidden City. We had a map of Beijing and started walking as it didn't seem too far away. After about 10 minutes we realised it was actually really cold, neither of us had hats, Shay didn't have gloves and Jonny didn't have a scarf, not a smart idea.
Anyway we arrived at the Forbidden City and it was amazing, the perimeter wall from the outside was miles long, we walked around the inside for about two hours, exploring as much sections as we could, but it was like a maze, so hard to know which bits you had already seen. The size and paintings on the buildings were unbelievable, you could spend a whole day here easy and still not sure if you would be able to see the whole city.
When we got outside there was a guy selling hats, gloves etc so Shay purchased some gloves and a hat, Jonny also bought a hat and managed to haggle the guy down to less than half his original asking......wait until you see this hat.....Jonny looks like one of the Chinese Policemen haha, check out the photos once we get them uploaded lol!! So now we were both all wrapped up and a lot warmer, that's when we seen this guy walking along with his baby which must have only been about 1 year old with the babies bum completely out.....very strange, even stranger considering it was like -5 degrees haha.
We then headed to Tiananmen Square which was just a two minute walk away, it was also really nice to see, Jonny thinks this is where the Scotland fans would hang out pre-match if they were to be playing China haha.
After a quick glance at our map, we were then off to the Temple of Heaven, didn't look too far on the map but it was quite a walk, good though, kept us warm. The temple is in a massive park, everything here seems to be huge, we walked around the park for a while, was really nice with the snow on the trees. We then headed into the "temple of good farming" the architecture was amazing, got some good photos.
It was well into the afternoon now but decided we had enough time to go visit the Olympic Stadiums, we took the subway as it was a fair distance, it was only 2 Yan for the subway which is about 20p, nice one. The Olympic Stadium and the Water Cube were very impressive. We got some really good photos. Both places are supposed to be even better at night when they are lit up, so we decided to hang around for 2 hours and wait for it to get dark. So we paid to get into the Olympic Stadium, although it was a bit disappointing as the grass and the track were completely covered with snow and they had some sort of winter festival being set up so there was lots of tractors etc on the field....not what you imagined it to be like lol. But they were showing the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Olympics inside, so we sat and watched that for a bit, made us wonder what London is going to do to compete with that.......
We then went into the Water Cube, which was good to see, but nothing impressive. By the time we got out it was dark and both Stadiums were lit up and it was so much better, the lights were switched on and the Olympic Stadium was an orange sort of colour and the Water Cube was blue, well worth seeing.
After a long and tiring day we headed back to our hostel to find our two room mates had arrived, both guys one called Thomas from Slovakia and Freddie from Germany, really nice guys.
We decided to head out and get some food and Thomas joined us, we found a local Chinese Restaurant. Our table had our cooker in the middle and you just ordered whatever meat you wanted and then had to cook it yourself. They had a very large choice of meat, anything you wanted......even DOG!!!! We decided to go for the "beef platter" and share it between the 3 of us, it didn't say what sort of beef it was, but it all looked good when it arrived. Once it was cooked it was awesome, we all really enjoyed it, no idea what part of the cow it was, but that's probably a good thing haha.
Our first day in China was not what we expected, we both thought it was going to be similar to Bangkok, but there is no hustle and bustle here, its a lot calmer and so much cleaner. We are both really impressed and loving China so far, cant wait to see more of it. Also everything here is in Chinese, I no we are in China but barely anything is in English. Its hard to tell what the buildings are if they are shops or restaurants, but it makes it much more fun.
Today is Sunday 27th of February and we had a very early start as we were heading to the great wall of China. We woke up to......MORE SNOW!!
The wall was a 1.5hour drive away, we set off on our way with a couple of other people from our hostel. On arriving, if it was possible it was even colder, you think being from Scotland we could handle it haha. We were a bit disappointed as the toboggan slide was shut due to all the snow, so we could either walk or take the cable car but walking wasn't suggested as it was wet and icy on the steps, so cable car it was.
The views from the wall were so good. We decided to walk along a few of the towers, which looks a lot easier than it was, the steps are so steep and there are hundreds of them. Was good to arrive at a tower as it gave you a rest from climbing up and down. The stretch of the wall is just crazy, you have seen so many pictures but when you are standing there looking at it run all along the mountain tops for miles thinking about how the people must have built it, its unbelievable. We got loads of photos and after a few hours of walking we decided to head down for some lunch and heat up.
We had lunch with our group and got given 11 different Chinese dishes with some rice, our second Chinese meal was just as good, both impressed and stuffed after trying all the dishes. We both even managed to use our chop sticks.....just haha.
At night the guys from our dorm asked us to join them and head out to the night market and then out for a few drinks. The night market was an experience......they had stall after stall selling all different types of food, snake, squails eggs, spiders, scorpions, silk worms, everything you could think of that crawls and they were all on sticks. It was horrible, Shay was walking around with her scarf over her nose so she couldn't smell anything haha. The photos are pretty good, we will get them uploaded to Facebook. Thomas bought 2 different Chinese masks, he was pretty good at getting them down in price.
We then headed out for some drinks, we headed to a few bars that were recommended to us, ended up having a really good night mixing with some of the locals. The beers were under £1 which was ace, even Shay was drinking them!! We headed home around 4am.
We are feeling a little bit tender today, but had to get up to check out of the hostel. We left our bags in the storage area and headed to the Lama Temple, largest Buddha temple in Beijing. It was good but not as impressive as we expected, not sure if we were maybe just not in the mood after a heavy night of drinking haha.
The past few days in Beijing have been so good, both really enjoyed our stay here. Would have been good to stay a few more days and spread out our sightseeing, but its still been amazing. China is our favourite stop so far and looking forward to seeing lots more.
Tonight we head off to Xi'an on a 12 hour sleeper train where we spend 3 nights and hoping to do lots more sightseeing.
J+B