Our travel to Beijing was long, over 30 hours from hotel to hotel, as we had stop
-over in Zurich and Shanghai. Still stepping off the plane in Beijing gave us a refreshing feeling, that humid, polluted smell… Yes were back in Asia! An hour on the shuttle bus got us to our hotel at about 5pm, exhausted we climbed into bed for a few hours. At 8pm we headed back to the bus stop to pick up Maree, it was great to see her, we found a restaurant in the area for some noodles and dumplings before heading back to the hotel.
Sunday we slept to midday, with one interruption in the early morning, we ha
ve to change rooms later today according to the hotel. After changing rooms and finding some Chinese pancakes with egg and chives for brunch, we went for a walk around the area. We ended up in a shopping centre, of course! The night city bus tour that we joined started off ok, apart from no English, but after 5 minutes the bus broke down and there wasn’t enough room on the next tour, so we gave up on that company.We saw a kid (1yo) wearing a one piece jump suit, except there were holes in the front and the back, where a nappy would go, if he were wearing one. It was very funny at first, but it turns out it is what all the babies wear over here!
We found a food market which was very interesting, but none of us were brave enough to eat much, although Maree was very keen to try the Skewered Snake or Sheep Penis!Monday morning we slept in again… Ooops! We ate some more pancakes, and Christine and I stooped to a new low. We found some washing machines in a nearby youth hostel, but couldn’t find a laundromat anywhere, in desperate need of some clean clothes, we thought we would sneak into the hostel to do our laundry. Somehow we
were able to buy some laundry tokens, the machines weren’t coin operated like we hoped, although to get these we had to tell them ‘our room number’ and then sign for them. The girl at front desk matched our signatures to those on file, and noticed they didn’t match, but we assured her that our surname was Campbell!Our timing in Beijing has been good and bad. The next few days is a public holiday to celebrate 60 years of Chinese independence. This means there will be a march, fireworks and everything is looking great, but also means that much of the city will be ‘off limits’. We spent the afternoon doing a rushed visit to the Forbidden City. It had many buildings with
old traditional Chinese architecture, nice gardens, sculptures and antiques. We didn’t get the best out of it as we were so rushed and didn’t have a guide or a map, but what we saw was nice. We then took a taxi (lazy, I know) to Tiananmen Square, which has a big monument in the middle and was looking fantastic with red lanterns and flowers everywhere for the celebrations. Both Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City were going to be closed from tomorrow, so that’s why we rushed it all in today.Something we need to get use to is everyone staring at us gorgeous whities!
Next morning we were shattered to wake up and see cloudy skies. Today we had booked a tour to 
the Great Wall of China. We were picked up early from our hotel by our ‘English speaking’ guide. In fairness he was speaking English, although it was a bit difficult to understand at times. The drive up into the mountains to the Great Wall took about 2 hours, meaning we arrived as one of the first tours for the day, at about 9am. The mountains were amazing and we would have loved to spend days there doing some hiking. As it turns out we only 
had 2 hours, so we were pretty much forced to pay for the cable car from the car park to the wall, rather than take the scenic walk. Sadly being so early in the morning the cloud was still quite low and being so high in the mountains visibility was poor, we could only see about 15-20 meters. The wall was still amazing, and being so early there was no one else on it for about the first hour. We spent the best part of 2 hours ambling along it looking and climbing the guard towers scattered along it. The highlights were finding a broomstick that we pretended to ride like a witch and seeing a donkey on the Great (cloudy) Wall of China. 
As with any tour in Asia, our next stop was in a Jade factory, for a demonstration and then to visit the gift shop. We also had a Chinese banquet for lunch, outrageous, no Lemon Chicken!
On the way back to Beijing we had another stop at some of the Ming Tombs, which were actually underground. Very touristy, but interesting none the less. The gardens around the tombs were also very impressive, in the traditional Chinese style. Another stop in a silk shop and then it was back to the hotel by about 5pm. We were all exhausted, had some noodles in our room for dinner, then
to bed for an early night! The great wall was great but the clouds, which didn’t clear at all during the day were disappointing, plus for such a long day we would have liked longer at the actual wall.
The following day we took it pretty easy, slept in and had bit of a rest day. Most of the city was on lock down due to the preparation for the celebrations. The girls went to do a
bit of shopping in the afternoon and Damien headed down to the Olympic village for a look at the Birds Nest and Water Cube. They were both quite interesting and well worth a look. Struggling to find any shops open I ended up having a bag of chips and a banana for dinner, even McDonalds was closed.
Damien caught the bus, which took forever, to the Summer Palace. This place was unbelievable, and the blue skies and sun only made it better. It was a series of old buildings and gardens in the mountains that were built in the old traditional Chinese architecture. It was similar in some ways to the Forbidden Palace but the weather, mountains, and extra time to look around properly made it far more enjoyable.
On the way home I stopped off for a few beers at Hooters Beijing and bar district (most of the bars were karaoke), where I got to see some more of the celebrations on the TV. Finally heading home, I found out that the train station I was trying to get to was closed so I had to walk the last 3 stops, taking about an hour, but I didn’t mind this as the whole time I was walking closer and closer to the fireworks display at Tiananmen Square.
Friday morning we checked out of the hotel and took a cab to the airport, not our preferred method of transport! We then flew east, to Dalian where we met Amy and Alan at the airport. It was great to see them. We had a look around the area that the hotel was in and the
n some lunch. We gave them their wedding gift, a plate and bowls we bought in South of Spain, and carried all the way!
After a settling into the hotel and bit of a rest, it was off to dinner to meet the family. We were in awe of the banquet that was served up, but soon had to get used to eating wonderful food in plentiful quantities. We had a private room in the restaurant, with about 25 people from both sides of the family. Everyone was lovely, friendly and most people spoke none of very little English. The food was incredible, Dalian is known for its seafood, so there was abalone, craps, fish, prawns, calamari, sea cucumber, jelly fish, beef, chicken, veggies, soup, rice… All three of us needed to take it a bit easy, as we all felt a bit ill, but still managed to eat plenty of Chinese cuisine.
the Great Wall of China. We were picked up early from our hotel by our ‘English speaking’ guide. In fairness he was speaking English, although it was a bit difficult to understand at times. The drive up into the mountains to the Great Wall took about 2 hours, meaning we arrived as one of the first tours for the day, at about 9am. The mountains were amazing and we would have loved to spend days there doing some hiking. As it turns out we only 
had 2 hours, so we were pretty much forced to pay for the cable car from the car park to the wall, rather than take the scenic walk. Sadly being so early in the morning the cloud was still quite low and being so high in the mountains visibility was poor, we could only see about 15-20 meters. The wall was still amazing, and being so early there was no one else on it for about the first hour. We spent the best part of 2 hours ambling along it looking and climbing the guard towers scattered along it. The highlights were finding a broomstick that we pretended to ride like a witch and seeing a donkey on the Great (cloudy) Wall of China. As with any tour in Asia, our next stop was in a Jade factory, for a demonstration and then to visit the gift shop. We also had a Chinese banquet for lunch, outrageous, no Lemon Chicken!
On the way back to Beijing we had another stop at some of the Ming Tombs, which were actually underground. Very touristy, but interesting none the less. The gardens around the tombs were also very impressive, in the traditional Chinese style. Another stop in a silk shop and then it was back to the hotel by about 5pm. We were all exhausted, had some noodles in our room for dinner, then
to bed for an early night! The great wall was great but the clouds, which didn’t clear at all during the day were disappointing, plus for such a long day we would have liked longer at the actual wall.The following day we took it pretty easy, slept in and had bit of a rest day. Most of the city was on lock down due to the preparation for the celebrations. The girls went to do a
bit of shopping in the afternoon and Damien headed down to the Olympic village for a look at the Birds Nest and Water Cube. They were both quite interesting and well worth a look. Struggling to find any shops open I ended up having a bag of chips and a banana for dinner, even McDonalds was closed.Thursday was our last day in Beijing, and also the main day of the 60 year celebrations. After watching some of the parades on TV in the hotel room, Christine and Maree headed to the Zoo, to see a Panda. They had bit of an early night as they were both feeling a bit crook, probably something they ate.
Damien caught the bus, which took forever, to the Summer Palace. This place was unbelievable, and the blue skies and sun only made it better. It was a series of old buildings and gardens in the mountains that were built in the old traditional Chinese architecture. It was similar in some ways to the Forbidden Palace but the weather, mountains, and extra time to look around properly made it far more enjoyable.
On the way home I stopped off for a few beers at Hooters Beijing and bar district (most of the bars were karaoke), where I got to see some more of the celebrations on the TV. Finally heading home, I found out that the train station I was trying to get to was closed so I had to walk the last 3 stops, taking about an hour, but I didn’t mind this as the whole time I was walking closer and closer to the fireworks display at Tiananmen Square.
Friday morning we checked out of the hotel and took a cab to the airport, not our preferred method of transport! We then flew east, to Dalian where we met Amy and Alan at the airport. It was great to see them. We had a look around the area that the hotel was in and the
n some lunch. We gave them their wedding gift, a plate and bowls we bought in South of Spain, and carried all the way!After a settling into the hotel and bit of a rest, it was off to dinner to meet the family. We were in awe of the banquet that was served up, but soon had to get used to eating wonderful food in plentiful quantities. We had a private room in the restaurant, with about 25 people from both sides of the family. Everyone was lovely, friendly and most people spoke none of very little English. The food was incredible, Dalian is known for its seafood, so there was abalone, craps, fish, prawns, calamari, sea cucumber, jelly fish, beef, chicken, veggies, soup, rice… All three of us needed to take it a bit easy, as we all felt a bit ill, but still managed to eat plenty of Chinese cuisine.
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