27 January 2009

Just a quick entry to say that we've arrived safely in Beijing! The flight took 9 hours but went quite quickly as we watched films, tv and had two meals. Our flight was underbooked (59 passengers out of a capacity for 350!) so we had extra room and attention from the 16 cabin crew onboard. I lay down on 4 seats with lots of pillows and blankets, which I've realised was actually more comfortable than the beds we've got now..!

We're at the hostel now and have our own room which is nice (don't want to say much about it as a girl who works here is sitting next to me...she's also singing really loudly in Chinese..)It's very cold here and Beijing's different to anywhere we've been before. There's hardly any English and during our whole day today we didn't see another non-Chinese person- so we've been stared at pretty much the whole time (and I think not just because we're wearing a strange outfit of jogging bottoms, trainers and coats with furry hoods). Feel a bit like celebs and might wear the big sunglasses tomorrow..

Also we've noticed that people seem to cough/spit/blow their noses onto the street without covering their face and making a really horrible noise! We are tempted to buy one of those face masks.

In the evening we went to the night market which sold an assortment of chinese souvenirs we were very tempted to buy but we manged to resist due to the lack of room in our backpacks. Lucy tried to haggle with a chinese lady over a waving cat but she wasn't having any of it. We may go back and try again to get some bargains. There was also a food market where a random chinese man mistook me for Britney Spears ( think it was the only western person he knew). The food ranged from fruit and chicken on skewers to bugs and seahorses which didn't look quite so appetising.

This side of Beijing was buzzing and had lots of bright lights and new years decorations. It was definately more lively than what we had seen in the daytime. We then had a good walk round (about 5 hours) looking for the sanlitun district which i had read was the best place for bars and nightlife. We later realised that it definately wasn't walking distance as it took about 15 minutes in the taxi!

28 January 2009

Today jet lag had kicked in so we got up quite late. We decided to go to Beijing Zoo this afternoon to see the pandas. We have been travelling by subway, which is really cheap (about 50p for a single journey) but quite frantic and busy as everyone just pushes onto the train. We attempted to find the zoo for about an hour on our own, but luckily Jess had brought the mandarin phrase book with her so we found a woman and pointed to zoo in the book (we dont feel confident enough to try to pronouce it!). She then actually took us to the zoo even though it was out of her way. We found 'thank you very much' in the book and pointed to it when we got there!

The zoo was really cheap, around a couple of pounds to get in. We went straight to the panda house, and the pandas were lovely. However we were quite worried about some that looked dead in the enclosure, possibly drugged?!

We then went to find the elephants. On the way something quite strange happened - a couple came up to us with a camera and asked for a photo. We assumed they wanted us to take a photo of their family for them, but they actually wanted a photo of us with their child! We then had photos with 3 different chinese children!

In the evening we had a rest and then went back to the night market that we found last night. Unfortunately it was closed (possibly as we had slept until 11pm!) so we got a taxi to Sanlitun and went to a couple of bars. This area is definately more lively and each bar had singers (and pole dancers). We'll probably come back here on another night, hopefully early enough for happy hour! Had a bit of trouble getting home - the taxi drivers don't speak any english and didnt seem to understand our map, so we got dropped off at the nearest place we recognised and walked back!

29 January 2009

Today we left our hotel at 12 to get to the hotel where our Intrepid trip was starting. This was the first time we had properly carried our backpacks (and even this was a 5 min walk to the main road to get a taxi!) and they were really heavy! hopefully we'll get used to them. We got to the new hotel and it was so much nicer than the New dragon youth hostel we'd been staying in! it even had a bath and english tv channels. We were very impressed!

We then spent the afternoon visiting the Olympic sights. We paid to go inside the birds nest and have a look round which was impressive. We really wanted to have a photo on the podiums with medals and flowers but it was too expensive! The song 'One dream one world' theme song from the Olympics was played continuously on loud speakers all over the Olympic green area so it was really atmospheric.

Our group meeting was at 6.30 in the hotel that night. Our leader is called Bruce (he's Chinese and has done that thing where he has adopted an english name....) and there are 10 other people in our group, all really nice, from Australia, Peru, Sweden and England. We then went out for dinner and had Peking duck, which everyone says you have to have when you come to Beijing.

Unfortunately I (Lucy) was sick all night when we got back, not sure why as me and Jess had eaten all the same food. So I only had about half an hours sleep all night and felt really tired and ill!

30 January 2009

Lucy was a real trouper and decided to come to great wall despite being sick all night! We set off early morning on a two hour bus ride to the great wall. We went to a section further outside of Beijing that the guide explained would be less chaotic than the city centre section as most tourists visit that part. When we arrived we decided to take the cable car up to the top rather than walk which was a very wise decision. I walked to the one end of the wall and nearly died. I was absolutely exhausted as the last section was a really steep climb with massive steps. Several Chinese children ran passed me smiling and laughing and taking it all in their stride as i stood hyperventilating! It felt like an anchievement to reach the end but not sure i could manage it again. We then went back to the hotel and rested for most the night. Lucy as she wasn't well and me because i was knackered!

Don't think we've mentioned that there have been fireworks every night since we have arrived in China for New Year. Tonight there were a particularly loud set of fireworks from about 5pm til after midnight. Luckily we had rested all afternoon so we didn't need to sleep as much!

31 January 2009

I was feeling much better this morning and everyone in the group said I looked better too. They are all really nice and they offered me lots of medications when I was ill yesterday! I didn't eat or drink anything all day so was feeling quite weak but pleased I managed to get to the wall even if I couldn't climb it.

Today we went out with the group to see the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. It was probably the coldest day so far so wasn't the most fun walking about in it but nevertheless it was very interesting and a lot bigger than we thought it would be. Bruce told us the history as we walked round which was good. It has definately been useful being on a tour here because no one speaks English and it is really frustrating not being able to communicate.

We've not mentioned the toilets so far - in China they have squatting toilets. They are so horrible we have been attempting to avoid them whenever possible! (Thank god for KFCs and our hotel with normal toilets!) Apparently they are more hygenic than normal toilets but we find that very hard to believe as they are always in such a bad state. Seeing them makes us want to drink less!

This evening we were all quite nervous as we were going to Xi'an by overnight train, a journey of 12 hours. Bruce had told us that this is a really busy time for train travel in China with people returning home after the holiday and people would be pushing and shoving onto the train. We were also in hard sleepers which didn't sound like it would be very comfortable!