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Hey guys,
Well here is our first blog to let you all know what we have been up to.
We have been in Beijing since we arrived in China on Tuesday morning, we have walked so much around all of the main sites and it has been pretty awesome, what a place, there is so much history here and the people are crazy.
We are leaving tonight and there is still so much to see but with Beijing being almost the same size as Belgium I think that it will be pretty impossible. The key sites we have done so far are Tiannamon Square, Forbidden City, Great Wall, Ming Tombs and we were on our way to the Summer Palace today but were stopped by the police so have not made it yet.
Hmmm that was quite interesting actually, we had a knock at the door at 9am and 3 police officers at the door wanting our passports and asking whether we were tourists, they photographed our passports, said a lot - all in chinese so not really sure what it was all about and then left. We were then leaving our apartment to go out for the day when we were stopped by another 3 officers who were with a group of about 20 and they told us we had to go to the police station straight away, which we did, we had our passports taken away and sat there for about an hour while loads of police came back and forth asking questions. I did think at one point that we wouldn't be on the overnight sleeper to Xian tonight but in prison but luckily the apartment owner came to meet us and sorted it all out. With us being in Olympic season the authorities are demanding to know where all tourists are staying and when, in each location we go to we must go to the local police station and register within 24 hours of arriving or else face the consequences...what a pain!
Oh well there was a positive that came out of the whole experience, the apartment owner, who we had not met before showed us to the internet cafe which I am sitting in now, there is no way we would have found it as it is in a basement and the sign is in Chinese and we have been looking for one for ages!
So we have decided not to bore you with full on accounts of the sites we are seeing - thats what history books are for but we have seen some funny stuff, I have listed the top ones below...
1) Outdoor gyms - they look like kiddies playgrounds when empty but walk past at 8am and you will see grown men and women doing full on workouts outside, cross trainers, rowing machines, the lot!
2) Staring and Spitting - they don't seem to have the same conservative nature of us Brits, staring with mouths wide open hitting their friends arms to get their attention and giggling lots is quite acceptable. Oh and they spit, indoors and outdoors A LOT and VERY LOUDLY
3) Tai Chi - obviously seen everywhere - but 2 grannies, probably around 75-80 practising Tai Chi early in the morning with Samurai swords was a bit crazy.
4) Menu and Mystery meat - my most disturbing menu so far had turtle (with photo) snake, bulls penis, frog, chicken feet, pig face...I have decided to go veggie here.
And finally the time we were approached by an old chinese dude laughing his head off while playing quite aggresively with nun chucks in his hand was quite surreal, we got a picture of that one.
Ok well we have probably bored you enough and time is running out here for the Summer Palace, we hope you have a good read.
One more thing - our absolute highlight was the Great Wall, we were speechless , we will get photos on soon.
Bye for now
xxx
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