Beijing

Our  holiday in China has been and gone .... and it was definately an experience!

We flew from Belfast to Heathrow to Frankfurt to be delayed meaning we missed our connection to Beijing - after a harrowing hour we were moved to a China Airways flight to Beijing - so we arrived only 2 hours after we were supposed to arrive - not too bad!

Our hotel was a basic but decent 3 star and was well located close to Waifunjing Road the main shopping drag.

We had a Peking Duck meal on our first evening which was nice and wandered down to Ti'anmen Square to see it lit up at night, we then were there again on Sunday 4th June for the 17th anniversary of the famous uprising - to see the flag being lowered.

We did all the major sites:

Forbidden City - this is huge but quite a bit is under construction at the moment.

  Still there was enough to see and take pictures of.  I must say l was unimpressed with site  - l think l was expecting the opulence on the scale of Grand Palace in Thailand but no.  We were approached by the usual students wanting to act as tour guides which we declined. 

 

Beihai Park - this was close by the Forbidden City, after getting through the rick shaw drivers touting for business, we had a lovely rest in the Park - watched families on the Paddle boats, and had a few beers - for only 5 yuan (about 40p!)

 

Temple of Heaven - again this was under construction but was a nice park for wandering about, and some of the errections were finished renovation. 

 

Summer Palace - a UNSECO world heritage site - this was a great site - a huge park on the outskirts of Beijing with a lake and wonderful builts - the playing ground Chinese emperors to get out of the city during summer.

 

The Great Wall at Badaling - a heavily reconstructed part of the wall - we went to the section with 20 towers. I dont know what l was expecting it was very steep and was a stair way all the way!  In the searing heat it was not the easiest to climb!!

 

Ming Tombs - resting place of Ming emperors.  This was part of our tour and if you do not visit youre not really missing much!

 

Silk road - Market - to go shopping and haggling is a must!  Here is the best place to grow for all your presents and souviners, but you need to barter and if you are not getting anywhere just walk away 9 times out of 10 they will chase after you.  Also if you are after fake brands you will find them here!

 

So my overall thoughts - Beijing definately grows on you, though the city is heavily polluted - the smog was evident for the first 4 days, some of the local habits (ie spitting takes a lot of getting used too!), there really are 10 million bicycles in Beijing, crossing roads and taking taxi rides is not for the faint hearted!  The city is definately becoming Westernised - there are KFC, McDonalds and Starbucks to be found.

  Construction is rife in preparation for the heavily advertised 2008 olympics.