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Arriving in Beijing in the morning following the night train, we were met by our guide Emma who is working for The Trip over the summer between uni years. We had a bit of much needed downtime in the morning to have a chill, regroup and wash after the train from further south.
Our first activity was the Great Wall which was an exciting first destination. With bright blue sky, Emma said that it was the best day she had known to visit the wall. The trek up was difficult and took about an hour in the baking sun but the view once at the wall was incredible. We took some really good photos on the wall and enjoyed the view for a while. The stars that evening were incredible and I've never seen such a clear sky. I was beaten however at a game of shooting star spotting, 3-1.
We visited Tiananmen Square and the forbidden temple a couple of days later. The forbidden city was the seat of power for the Ming and Qing dynasties. It was immense. The city sits in the centre of Beijing and is huge historic site that takes about an hour to get from one end to the other. We also went to the Jingshan park for an incredible view over the forbidden city and across Beijing.
In the afternoon we visited the 'fake goods market' to grab a few bargains including a 'designer' watch, belt and wallet costing a grand total of £9.50. The shop owners at the market are great fun to barter with and Barry and I had a process of one haggling down to a lower initial cost and then the other pretending to try and move us both on to get the price down further, worked a treat.
Before departing on our final day we visited the Temple of heaven which was built for the emperor to get closer to the heavens - The temple is round as it was believed that the earth was square and the heavens round. The surrounding park was the highlight of the day where locals go to workout in the outside gym, play games, sing and dance. We got very involved with the dancing and was enticed into a dance by being handed a cutting from a nearby tree by a fairly scary lady. As in Shaolin, we busted out the Macarina at one point. At the outside gym we were also not able to beat the local pensioners who work out daily and are immensely strong. Walking further we saw a choir who were practising their song about chairman Mao.
We sadly said our goodbyes to Becky and Barry today prior to leaving Beijing and I continue on the tour with Paul. Barry will however be joining us in Shanghai later on in the week in time for the bar crawl!
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