Beijing

The following morning we moved through the countryside towards the capital. At one point we passed the great Wall and there was much excitement as people tried to get their first photos.

We arrived n Beijing mid afternoon and could after Mongolia were instantly shocked at the vast number of people everywhere you look. It seemed that most of the near 13 million inhabitants had congregated on the train station that day.

Sparia the city guide took us to our hotel which was just at the top of the road with the bell and drum towers for those who may know the city. After a rest we went locally for dinner and had a feast with beers for about a quid each, beers cost about 20p in this restaurant, very pleased.

Sparia directed us to a bar area not far from the hotel, this was a lovely area on a large lake with bars and restaurants all around it, the Olympics was starting up that night and we watched the closing ceremony from Sydney four years previously, the time difference meant we didn't stay up to watch the opening ceremony for Athens though. Beers here were 25 Yuan each for a much smaller bottle so didn't drink much either!!

The next day we were back on the tourist trail and went first to Tianamen Square where Chairman Mao Zedongs mausoleum is situated. This one is also open to the public so we joined the long queue. This moved fairly rapidly. The building is much larger and grander than Lenins in Moscow but it is also incredibly tacky. There are plastic flowers being sold to the 'mourners' on the way in that are basically thrown in front of a large statue of the man as you enter the building. The actual room housing the embalmed body is somber but literally as you step out of the other side there is a gift shop!

The Monument to the People's Heroes is opposite the entrance to the Forbidden City in the square, this is dedicated to the men and women who died in the struggles to make China an independent nation in the century before the Communists came to power. It has since seen terrible struggles and deaths of those wishing to live in a democratic country.

We followed this up with a look inside the Forbidden City, called Gu Gon in Chinese, this was the imperial palace during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Now known as the Palace Museum. It is the world's largest palace complex and covers 74 hectares. It is surrounded by a six meter deep moat and a ten meter high wall and there are 9,999 buildings. Enough history, it is exceptionally grand in every sense of the word, Mao's portrait hangs over the gate as you enter, the people still praise the him which I find hard to understand it is said people believe he was 70 percent right and honor him for that.

We did a quick walk through with Sparia giving a brief outline of what each building was to honor or worship, it was possible to spend days looking round but time was not on our side.

The far side of the Forbidden City takes you to Jingsham Park with a walk up to a view point of the city below. The weather wasn't good that day though so pictures not the best. When we came down the other side Sparia took us to a building where a tea ceremony was held. This involved tasting many different types of tea in tiny ceramic cups and having the 'health' benefits of each explained. This was all good and there was plenty of tea to buy at the end of the tasting. We decided to buy our favorite a few days later from a local market but unfortunately didn't get exactly the same one.

In the evening Sparia took us across town to see a theatre production, this involved acrobats, dancing dragons and contortionists, an excellent show. This was the end of our organised Trans-Siberian trip and from here on we had nothing booked and not much more planned for certain.

We decided Beijing was worthy of a lot more exploration and booked in for an extra four nights, not nearly enough to do the city justice!

The following day we explored the Temple of Heaven in the southern part of the city in Chongwen district. In ancient China, the emperor was regarded as the "Son of Heaven", who administered matters on the earth on behalf of the heavenly authority. To show respect to the heaven, ceremonies for sacrifices to heaven were extremely important to the emperor. The temple was built for the worship of heaven and prayers for good harvests.

There is a raised circular alter where if you were to stand on the centre stone and speak in a normal voice the sound would resonate all around. On this day though I spend a few amused minutes watching as several thousand Chinese tourists all tried to climb on the centre stone at the same time for a picture, mad people. This was just on of the things that Chinese tourists do with great energy. Pushing and shoving everywhere is extremely common and they have an inbuilt need to touch everything. Ancient artifacts that you would expect to be behind barriers have several thousand hands rubbing them on every summers day. There won't be much left soon.

Once we'd given this a god going over we headed on to a local market, bought the wrong tea, and tried our mandarin skills on our own in a little restaurant. This involved pointing at what others were already eating and getting the same.

That evening we met up with some of the guys and girls from the train, the three from Birmingham, John, Becky and Lisa and the New Zealand couple, Jason and Jaquie. It appeared that Jason and Jaquie were planning on doing some of the same things in China as were so we decided to join up for a while.

The next day we decided not to take on the Summer Palace as we'd seen a lot of that sort of thing but instead headed off to see the Lama Temple. This was extremely peaceful in the bustling city, there were hundreds of worshipers burning incense by the ton to each and every icon in the place. The final room held a large, 18m budda carved from a single piece of sandalwood, this is in the big book of records.

We followed this with a trip to a lovely place called Liuyin Park on the north of the city to relax, have a picnic and read up about some of the other places we would visit. This was very relaxing.

In the evening we headed back into town and checked out the night market which sell all sorts of food from across China. This included; scorpions, silk worms, goats testicles and star fish. We had a few kebabs and I tried a star fish, not very tasty and expensive.

The following day we were off to see one of the contenders for eighth wonder of the world, the seven are a bit un fair as the men who put together the list didn't know about the wall or the terracotta army. We'd decided to take a bus quite a distance out of town to see a section that is not swarming with other tourists. This involved a long ride with a driver who loved the sound of his horn; see Chinese Driving Rules.

We started the walk at Jinshanling and walked about 15K up and down the wall to Simatai. This was hard work, some of the sections are almost vertical and the footing on the non restored sections was terrible. It was also the hottest day we had experienced since arriving which didn't help matters. There were lots of ladies from the village we had left from selling books, postcards and water that would not take no for an answer, in the end they had followed us until we were at the final downhill section and left a little annoyed that we had only purchased a couple of waters from them.

As we left the wall at Simatai there were some stall holders selling the usual tourist rubbish, one of them became quite interested in a pen I had sticking out of my bag, this was a freebie I'd picked up at a conference the previous month and had four colors in one, he thought it was great and his daughter wanted it so I got a really tacky 'I climbed the Great Wall' plaque in exchange. Hopefully there will be a place for this at home. Instead of walking the final few miles back to the bus we took a flying fox across the valley and a boat instead, a much better idea after the walk.

The following day we set out to hire bikes and see the city's hutongs but in the end hired a rickshaw to show us the area. He took us to the drum tower and we were treated to a drum extravaganza put on for the tourists every half hour. There was also a great view of some of the surrounding hutongs.

Then we went through some hutongs and he stopped at a house we could go in and take a look round, this was owned by an enterprising young man who called himself Jimmy and his family. They had turned two rooms into guest accommodation and let tourists in during the day to see a 'traditional' family home. It was fitted out beautifully and Jimmy had some of the most expensive computer and sound systems I've ever seen in a teenagers room, big money in this game. The courtyard is arranged on four sides with the building all at different heights, the elder family members traditionally take the north side as it is the highest and takes the warmth of the sun in the winter but not the heat in the summer. The others become gradually smaller with the girl children given the lowest part of the block.

Met up with the others again that evening for a large goodbye feast before we headed off to Tai-an.