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So, apart from the smoking and spitting I have really enjoyed my first few days in China. On Friday on the way back from the wall to Beijing we stopped off at a jade factory where we got to see them carving and polishing pieces of jade. I hadn't realised that there were different types and colours of jade and that emerald is the highest quality of the mineral. It was fascinating to see the pieces of art.
We arrived into Beijing just in time to drop some of the group at their excursions. The rest of us travelled to the hotel and I made the most of having two nights in a hotel and unpacked properly! We then met up again for dinner, another lazy susan. The area we were staying in didn't really have any bars so after dinner we went back to the hotel and drank some of the drinks we had bought earlier. I think the excitement of the day had taken it's toll and everyone headed to bed before too long.
Saturday morning and we were up and ready to see our first proper taste of Beijing. Beijing is a massive city, over 100 square miles in size so there is quite a lot to see! First stop for us was the Temple of Heaven. This is a number of beautiful temples set in a large park where emperors used to pray for good weather and harvests. The temples are beautiful but what really got me was the huge number of people just congregating and relaxing in the park. There were sessions of tai chi, badminton, games of marjon, chinese chess, cards, singing and dancing all going on all over the place and people just enjoying being outside in the sunshine together. It was like Hyde park but without the beer cans. We walked around the park for a while enjoying the sights.
We crossed the park and then we had a tea ceremony at the tea house nearby. This was great too as you learnt a little about how the Chinese prepare and pour the tea but also got a chance to try different types of tea and find out what the benefits of each type of tea was. Very interesting. After this we got back onto our bus and the next stop was a silk factory.
First of all we were told a little about the stages of life of a silk worm. Then we saw the threads being separated and stretched to create the different types of working material. There was then a huge shop with all things silk available.
Back on the bus and we got dropped off at Tiananmen Square, the largest public square in the world. It is quite a sight with so many people walking around, not least of which the queues outside Chairman Mao's mausoleum. Similar to Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi, Mao was embalmed against his wishes to be cremated and now is viewed by the queuing public every morning for a majority of the year.
We walked through the square and onto a restaurant for lunch. After lunch we then went to visit the Forbidden City. This was home to number of Ming and Qing emperors and used to be closed to 'normal people' hence the forbidden city. After our sightseeing, we then headed to the pearl Market. An indoor Market that sells everything from souvenirs to fake handbags to pearls and everything in between and we all had a chance to practice our bartering skills. I had decided I was going to send a parcel home anyway so I was able to shop too!
Back to the hotel and we got ready for our celebratory dinner. The restaurant we went to specialised in Peking duck which was my first taste of this in China. It is a bit different to home in that it is carved instead of shredded but still was lovely. We had a few speeches about our week together and I gave the thank you speech for the group. We then went back to the hotel and carried on drinking until the small hours and bed time. A lovely evening.
I got up early to see the rest of the group off and then went back to bed for a lie in. I packed my bag up and then used the hotel wifi for a bit before getting a taxi to my new hotel. It was sad to say goodbye to another set of new friends but onto the next one. We met up at 6pm for our welcome meeting and learnt a bit more about our itinerary then we went for food near the hotel. It was the first lazy Susan meal that I actually had to pay for (the previous ones were all included) so I was pleasantly surprised that between 10 of us and loads of food, it only cost us £2.50 each for dinner! After dinner we sat up in the hotel for a bit longer, chatting and also using the Internet and then headed to bed.
An early start on Monday to head back to the Great Wall! Unfortunately it was to the area I had visited on Friday but I took the opportunity to do it a bit differently and caught the cable car up to the high point. We only had a couple of hours so we walked back down to the end admiring the views along the way. It was much quieter on the wall than Friday had been and also a beautiful sunny day. Once back from the wall I sorted some stuff out on the Internet and relaxed and then we met for dinner. The hotel was close to the main shopping street in Beijing, Wufujing. We headed down there for some food and then looked at the night food Market with all sorts of weird and wonderful things including scorpions, grass hoppers, dog pot and bubbling tea. We had some drinks in the hotel bar and then headed to bed.
Tuesday morning and the schedule was to do a city tour. I joined the group to head to Tiananman square but then left them when they headed to the forbidden city as I had already been there. I instead used the time to actually do some me stuff including sending a my parcel of souvenirs back home. I ventured out on my own for dinner (as others had eaten earlier) and then we met up to have some drinks. The intention was to head to a different part of Beijing where the bars were but it never happened as we ended up in the restaurant next to the hotel and kept drinking there.
Wednesday we decided to go and see the lama temple which has an 18 metre wooden Budda, carved from a single piece of sandalwood. It is a really impressive sight. We had lunch in a vegetarian restaurant that seemed to have every kind of meat replacement possible but was an all you can eat buffet so was all good! We headed back to the hotel and all met up to travel to the train station to catch our first chinese sleeper train. We are now heading to Shanghai and will arrive there tomorrow at around 10.30 am, a mere 14 hours later!!
- comments
Nicci Loving the blogs Sarah, it's great to hear what you are up to and also helps me plan my next travelling adventure following in your foot steps xxxx
Mum I wonder how long the latest parcel will take!! These blogs are amazing and will give us all something to reflect on at Christmas. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx