Beijing Diary

Tuesday 22nd July 2008

We are in Beijing!!

We arrived at about 11am this morning (4am UK time) with just a small ish delay ofabout half an hour at Heathrow. The flight was good - not a great deal of sleep happened but the 9.5 hours seemed to fly by really! A taxi from the hotel was waiting for us at the airport ( a bit of a squeeze getting all the bags in - quite amusing as the driver spoke no english!) but it was a nice air conditioned Mercedes which was a real relief as it is so hot and humid here (about 35degrees)

Had a fairly quiet day as everyone is quite tired - but we have walked about 4.5 miles (Sam and his pedometer reliabaly tell me!) - and then we got a taxi back as we were shattered and too hot to move!

We visited the Forbidden City from the outside - that is being done properly on Thursday - but we spent most time in Jingshan Park directly opposite. It has 5 Chinese pagodas each with full views over Beijing - they were steep to get up to but worth it! Loads of pictures down below!

Tomorrow we have arranged for the hotel car and driver to take us to the Great Wall at Mutianyu and the Ming Tombs - we are leaving at 8.30am so are hoping for a good nights sleep. Sam has fallen aleep while I write this but Jack is still reading! The photos of Jack with a book are for a school project and Sam is with Dillo for obvious reasons! We have taken pics today on two other cameras but couldn't be bothered to download them all today!!

The hotel is lovely - based in a Hutong which is the old traditional part of Beijing - tiny narrow streets full of bikes (I think there really are 9 million bicycles in Beijing!) and little shops that seem to have more staff than produce! Will take photos when we get a chance.

Anyway off to sleep this is just to let you know we are here!

Speak soon x

There is a description of the picture if you hold your mouse over it!

Wednesday 23rd July 2008

We have been to the Great Wall at Mutianyu and The Summer Palace at Beijing!

Wow. They didn't call it the Great Wall for no reason. It really is quite big. We took the chaffeur driven hotel car (well, we got the hotel's driver to take us in his battered VW Jetta - bit of a come down from the Merc yesterday!) the 50 miles or so North from the city to the village of Mutianyu, and then took the chairlift up to the top of the mountains - there is the option of hiking up - but at 1400 steps in 35 degree humid heat, with the option of a 5-minute chairlift for £2, guess which won! I'd never really thought getting to the Wall would be difficult, but then it is by its nature at the top of the mountains! So once there, we walked a mile East to where the restored section finished, then back to the start, and maybe half a mile West.

It is a mammoth construction, leading on for mile after mile over the mountains - I'm told it contains enough stone to build a wall 5 metres high circling the Earth. The Mutianyu section was a good choice, really quiet as you can see, and much less commercialised, considering it is quite well restored (the other options were Badaling - which is apparently swarming with tourists and street sellers, or Simatai - which aparently requires some "strength and fortitude" to negotiate as it is not restored and is crumbling away in places!). The steps (boy, were there a lot of steps!) up and down on the section we visited were very steep at times and hard work in the heat - the watchtowers were a welcome respite from the sun. What I hadn't realised either is that it is not one long wall - there are sections that are T-shaped, and different spurs of the wall going off in odd directions - all to keep the Mongols, amongst other armies, out of China I believe. The Mutianyu section is also in a beatiful mountain and forest setting with far reaching views, despite the heat haze.

It is a funny old world - we were chatting to a couple on the Wall, and discovered the man was from just down the road from us in Oxford, the woman was from Leura in Australia - the village we are staying in next week, and they were doing an almost identical tour to us including Kangaroo Island and Ayers Rock. It's a small world!

(see below for some more words, including the toboggan run down!)

So once we had walked up and down a few thousand steps and appreciated the fact that we were on THE Great Wall (apparently it is a myth you can see it from space), Claire took the sensible option of getting the chairlift back down, and all three boys took advantage of the slightly tacky, but very fun, toboggan run 2km down the mountain, which was fab, all be it a little scary over the rickety bridge. We also partook in the ritual of haggling as Sam wanted a traditional Chinese hat; I'm sure we paid way over the odds, but at £3 (despite his first offer of £7), it was so little money to us, and a lot more to him I am sure - makes you quite humble to hear them offering 2 T-shirts for 1 US dollar, but you can't buy everything!

So - after the Great Wall we came back towards Beijing and to the Summer Palace - a HUGE park built by the Emperor using funds "misappropriated" from the Navy, as a little city retreat! With over 650 acres of park and a huge lake, there are countless temples and pavillions - perhaps 50 or more that are all quite stunning in their architecture and painting. We strolled around, taking it easy, through the "Long Corridor" - an aptly named walkway that at 728 metres with 14,000 paintings is the longest painted gallery in the world. We hired a pedal boat and spent a while exporing the lake, and the fantastic 17-arch bridge (can't think why it is called that...). The water was lovely and warm to dip your feet in - would have been tempted to swim apart from the thought of all those leaches... One other thing to remember here - never ever be tempted to try a Green Bean Ice Lolly - it really is pea flavoured with whole pease in it. Mmmmm. Check out the local fashion - most bizarre combination of high heels and pop-socks. Even saw someone negotiating the Great Wall in high-heeled sandals (and pop socks)!

On the way back to the hotel, more Olympics readiness - it really is everywhere you look which is a great sight - policemen and flags and signs and banners and sculptures all proudly promoting the Olympics. Check out the bizarre Olympic hotel below, and yes, that is a TV screen in the middle, and the ubiqitous Birds Nest stadium which is surprsingly close to the city centre.

Finally back at the hotel, the peaceful courtyard outside our room where we ate a fantastic Chinese meal tonight for less than £10 for all of us. Inside our room (through the double doors behind the courtyard table), our pretty special bed with orange silk hangings, and the boy's beds. Sorry about the essay - lots to share today! Tomorrow we are off to the Forbidden City....

Thursday 24th July 2008

We have been to Tiananmen Square and The Forbidden City

Really quick update today! Not sure when we will update again as we fly to sydney tomorrow and not sure how easy internet access will be at the hotel there!

We have been to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City today. It has been an odd day in some ways. Tiananmen Square is massive - huge amounts of security - bag searches etc to get through the underpass to make sure you have no dangerous substances/weapons etc. The monument is sealed off and guarded as are the flag poles etc - and to be honest we appeared to be one of the biggest attractions! People stopped in their tracks and stared - Sam had his photo taken more times than I can remember - as did all of us as a family - very few white people there and we certainly stood out and were noticed!! Here are some pics - still unbearable heat - Beijing descends into a smog like plae with the high humidity so don't be fooled by the lack of sun in the photos it really was unbearably hot (and we walked for 7 miles in it today!)

Then on from Tiananmen Square it leads directly to the Forbidden City - it is huge - you can't get the scale of it all from photos but by this stage we were so hot we could pass out - we were still being photographed at every move and we were on a mission to the nearest cafe - which was about a mile from here - but was air conditioned and very welcome!! Here are some pictures of the Forbidden City - and at the end of the Hutong - traditional chinese streets where the majority of chinese people live and where our hotel is based.

Friday 25th July 2008

We have been to The Temple of Heaven

Our last day in Beijing and again it was very hot!! Beijing seemed to have descended into a big smog today and it was more cloudy so again just more oppressive heat! We took the hotel car to The Temple of Heaven (after packing and making sure we could have a late check out of 5.30pm as there was no way you could spend a day in Beijing without having a shower before a 12 hour flight!!)

The Temple of Heaven was a park with a number of Temples in all again linked to the official rituals of the Chinese Emperors. Th main Teple of Heaven is supposed to be the symbol of China (but we didn't know that!) and these round buildings apparantly have no nails or bolts etc holding them together. They were very pretty and all based in a lovely park - we were very amused before even getting inside the park by this sign though

We especally liked not being able to bring footballs, pets or watermelons - and we did try our hardes not to leak - but in that heat it really was quite difficult!! We refrained from playing percussion or dancing anywhere though - although tempted!!

Here are a few pictures of the temples

The heat was really too much today and after a few hours we walked to the Natural History Museum as it was air conditioned!! A real welcome relief. We then took a taxi back to the hotel where we showered etc ready for the hotel car to take us to the airport.

Beijing has been a real experience. We wlked over 6 miles in 3 days - in 35 degree plus heat - ridiculous humidity - we ourselves became a tourist attraction - we had a great time but are also relieved to be moving on to somewhere cooler!!

Round the world home, Dillo home, eek home

Beijing, Sydney, Blue Mountains, Kangaroo Island, Ayers Rock , Daintree ,New Zealand,Fiji, Los Angeles