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We continued our couchsurfing experience here with two different stays. The first couple of nights we stayed with Hawkthor and his wife, slap bang in the centre, very close to Tian'anmen Square. The final couple of days we stayed with Li Fei and her family.
Hawk and his wife are both engineers but their place is small and very basic. Their location meant that it was very easy for us to stroll around some lovely old streets, have a wander around Tian'anmen Square, and check out the Forbidden City. KC was very impressed with the ancient imperial city. Jingshan Park was a nice place to watch the sunset and get great views over the Forbidden City.
Li Fei's was a five-star couch! She is a self-made millionairess, a success story of modern China, having started various companies, buying various properties, and making a fortune on her daily dealings on the futures market. Her husband is a professor at the police university and their son is a super intelligent 13 year old. A really lovely, down to earth family, we enjoyed staying there alot.
We decided we weren't bothered about seeing the Great Wall, preferring to spend our time in the city. We did, however, stroll around the Forbidden City which impressed KC. The Temple of Heaven park was my highlight; it was very pleasant to stroll around the park in the warm spring sunshine and watch all the locals doing what the locals do on a lovely spring day: dancing, playing Chinese chess, playing some sort of foot hacky-sack game, practicing Kung Fu. One guy had an enormous sword, just like a shaolin monk from a movie.
On our final night we met up with Shawn and Emma at their 5 star hotel and all went to a posh restaurant for Peking Duck ... Mmmm! One feels their experience of China will be very different from ours!
So now it's goodbye to China and hello, Korea....
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Rick What a fantastic way to end your stay in china. I too have fond memories of Beijing.