Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Hi everyone,
After an emotional departure from Heathrow here we are in China and our first stop was Bejing.
We were concerned that we would not even make it this far after we had some sort of chinese convict sitting in front of us on the plane handcuffed between two English police escorts and they kept trying to chat both of us up! Well we are pleased to say that he didn't try anything (and neither did the policemen) and we made it through the flight safe and sound.
Upon arrival to China we quickly realised that people were not lying about nobody speaking or understanding English...OMG what a culture shock!
Anyway, after a lot of chower chowering with about five chinese people crowing around us and us fractically pointing to a map (our voices getting louder and louder) we managed to buy a bus ticket and we were on our way to our hostel.
This was clean and tidy and so was to be our base for the first three nights.
We had a quiet first day orientating ourselves with Bejing and the chinese way of life. We managed to book a couple of tours through our hostel, a city tour and a tour to The Great Wall.
So the next day we set off on our city tour of Bejing. The first stop was one of Bejing's most visited sights, the Summer Palace. This is a mixture of palace temples, gardens and pavillions surrounded by a huge lake and is absolutely beautiful and very quaint, just what we imaged China to be like. Next was The Temple of Heaven originally used for prayer and forgiveness. (Really hope you're liking all my facts, thanks Lonely Planet for reminding me!!) After a traditional chinese lunch which was lovely, we took a stroll through Tiananmen Square which is the largest public square in the world and was absolutely massive. This lead into the Forbidden City which again is huge and really is magnificant, with all the different architecture in each section. Check out the piccies...
After a full and very enjoyable cultural day, we sampled the traditional "Peking Roast Duck". It was nice, but not as good as "Lotus" or "The Honeymoon"!!!
The following morning we put on our hiking shoes for what we thought was going to be a full day trekking along the "Great Wall". This was something we were really looking forward to even though we knew it would be bloody hard work! Our tour picked us up and off we went. However the trip was not quite "as advertised"....First to give you a bit of an in sight into chinese people, they are quite rude to say the least, they don't que for anything and literally barge you out of the way, they gob all the time, spitting it out in front of you, nice! and most of all they are always trying to sell you something and con you out of money (sorry, don't think we know any chinese people that might be reading this, this is only our experience here, at home they are lovely!). Anyway so back to the trip and our day at the Great Wall....so on the bus our guide starts gabbling on about jade and how fantastic it is and then lets on that we are stopping at a jade factory to see how it is made and that we must buy some (yeah right, we are backpackers, on a budget) so we both refused and stayed in the bus. Next stop was the Ming Tomb, not the most exciting of places, where emporhas are buried. Then to a pearl factory and yet more bloody jade!! Then it was lunchtime but not before they walked us through another factory selling more chinese souvenirs....
After lunch, which was lgorgeous, at 2pm we were finally on our way to the "Great Wall" - yay, at last! We arrived and were given an hour and a half to climb it. As we thought it was not that long (considering all the time we had spent at the sodding factories) we quickly started our climb. However our enthusiasm was short lived when we rapidly realised how hard it is. The steps were all different sizes and heights,it was tough.I'm pleased to say that we managed to climb three quarters of the way up at the section we were at which was all up the side of the mountain and despite the sweat, it was completely worth it. The views were stunning and was well worth the wait. We would definately recommend it to anyone.
So feeling all chuffed with ourselves we were heading back to our hostel or so we thought...nope the trip was not quite over, just time to squeeze in a visit to a silk factory and then finally a chinese tea house. We couldn't believe it, all we want to do was have a proper drink, not chinese tea!!!!!
Anyway, to sum up Bejing, we are glad we went and despite being ripped off on the tour (big learning curve!), it was a great "experience" and definately worth a visit with the Great Wall being by far the highlight.
So with our first stage complete, it was an overnight train to Xian....look out for our next update soon, the train journey was our next classic backpacker "experience"....
Lots of Love to you all.
Claire and Carly xxxx
- comments