Beijing!

Well it's been hectic, haven't had much time to check emails or call home but i've finally managed to get this laptop on and connect to the net, im heading off to Jinan tomorrow afternoon so we are just chilling tonight (hence why im able to write this :))

So where to start, well we arrived around midday on the Thursday and i have to say it was the most uncomfortable journey i have ever made. Being 6ft3 i know i was going to struggle fitting in the seats. Fella in front put his chair back on recline as soon as we lifted off, as you can imagine -_- face .

It was like sleep torture, i hadn't slept a wink the night before leaving and felt really really tired on the plane and also in Vienna airport while we was waiting 7 HOURS for the flight to Beijing. I wanted to sleep but just couldnt get in a comfortable position on the plane, i was shattered when i landed but it all soon went away when we landed in Beijing Aiport!



The place is huge, really clean and quite peaceful. We managed to find our bags really easily and then came face to face with our first challenge....getting on a bus.

Cut a long story short it basically took us about 45 mins to find the right bus. Once we was on we noticed something that would bug us still now. Everybody, and i mean EVERYBODY starred at us. We both really wasnt expecting it. As we walked to the end of the bus we was greeted with long cold stares, no smiles, just stares. We thought we had done something wrong and kept asking each other why the fuck is everyone looking at us??? (few days later we found out they are just curious as most hardly ever see a white westerner, and as a whole are really really nice people.)



So once we arrived in Beijing we managed to get our way through the swarm of people, hagglers, salesman and into our hostel (took us about 40 mins to find :D)

For £3 a night its really not too bad. The mattress is really really thin and you can only sleep on your back because you wake up with a dead leg if you sleep on your side. Shared toilets, bathrooms are generally kept really clean. There is free wireless internet for laptops, 24 hour security, you can walk in and out when you please. Only problem is we have 4 other people sleeping in our room and all of them snore. I just play music and wake up with it still playing, does the job.



Me and Tom have had some trouble navigating the city, we have walked hours and hours around the city, usually in the wrong direction but the last day before we leave we have got the hang of it.



We have travelled around the city mostly by train. They are very quick, clean, air conditioned and cost 40 pence for a return. Bit different to the £14 i use to pay travelling into London.

Ok so some things we have done since we arrived, i cant remember everything -

• Visited the Temple of Heaven

• Took a bike ride around Beijing (nearly got run over, within 5 seconds on the bike i pedalled out into the road and remembered they drive on the other side of the road). We got a a free guided tour by 3 students, they wanted to show us around as it helps improve their english as not many people from London come over, so they relished at the chance. We rode around all the main sites (Tianamen square etc) for about 3 hours and was very good fun.
• Visited The Forbidden City
  

• Visited the snack street, which sells really good cheap food
  

• Trekked the Great wall of China and got a tobogen slide back down, best day so far.

• Tasted proper Peking duck, we ordered a whole duck and got it cut off the duck right in front of us. Tom and i both agree its the best duck pancake we have ever tasted.
• We got chatted up by 3 different groups of prostitutes whilst walking down 1 road, quite an achievement.

I have taken a ton of pics and have managed to get a few uploaded to include in this post.

Keep checking on my FLickr account as thats where they will be uploaded to - http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_invalid/

Ill leave it there. Beijing is an amazing city and the people are equally amazing.

Peace

Pauli