Beijing - The final stop!
Trip Start
Jun 01, 2008
1
48
Trip End
Ongoing
Beijing, China
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Anyway got inside to the dead end of a christmas party and rinsed from delays and stuff went straight to bed.
Got up and over a coffee and my lonely planet i got chatting to an aussie guy and alas my travel pal for my last stop was born. We headed out to wander the tiny back alleys, which incidentally are not remotely terrifying in the day light!!
So we checked out the alleys, the local delicacies of squid on a stick, i personally stuck to mushroom and courgette. But it was all good, we found a park which we headed into and wandered around the huge lake that was frozen solid! It was filled with stunning buildings, temples and statues. We wandered aimlessly and heard a distant singing so after some climbing over some rocks and through a old building we found and choir practicing and we stood and listened silently. It was beautiful and very impressive.
We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering the park and checking out all the hidden buildings and the incredible artwork on them before taking to the hutongs and finding a restaraunt where the cutest little waitress patiently waited whilst in horrifically broken mandarin we ordered food. Good old tofu, it saved me!
Next day we were up at the crack of dawn for a day trip to the ming tombs and the great wall. All i have to say about ming tombs is - don't bother, they were shit, easily the most unimpressive thing i've ever seen. The great wall however was incredible. There isn't enough phrases to use to communicate just how incredible it was! Completely, breathtaking. I know it sounds dumb but it is so huge! Anyway after standing in awe for a little while we started u the slope, the the stairs then the steepest hill in the world. It was quite funny everyone was completely knackered but was grinning all the way!! We hiked up to a pretty high point and took in the view. About 100 photos later we hiked a bit further up and again stopped to catch our breath. It was about this time some lady stopped me and asked for a photo with me cause I'm pretty much blonde now, which was actually very amusing!!
We took like no time to walk down but i took us forever to get up the relentless hills! It really was mind blowingly beautiful!
That evening getting back to beijing we headed to Tiannamen square and by pure luck got there about a minute before the flag lowering ceremony began! It was amazing the soldiers are so regimented and such perfectionists there is not so much as a sign of a mistake! The flag comes down exactly as the sun sets! Now that is impressive!
Next came my favourite activity, shopping! We ventured to a flea market that was filled with stall after stall of the most incredible things you've ever seen, everything from jewelry to opium pipes!! It was immense, my bargaining skills were frankly brazen, i offered one guy such a low price he was offended! haha! Anyway after some hard bargaining i got what i wanted super cheap and he was happy, and so carried on the rest of the day! And at the end of the day, freezing cold and laden with bags we returned to our hostel before venturing out for a lovely dinner and returned to our hostel with a stick of caramalised strawberries! yummy!
I was by this time dying from the flu and freezing half to death, drinking beer was the only way to warm up, everyone in my hostel was litterally indoors in coats sneezing and freezing! I phoned qantas and they kindly agreed to bump my flight so i could go home early! I did however have 3 more things i wanted to do so i dragged myself out of bed and braved my last day of minus figure temperatures and headed to the Taoist white cloud temple, which was really cool as the people praying take offerings of insense and burn it in the huge stoves, so the temples look like they are enveloped in a white cloud! Beautiful smell everywhere too, the monks live here so i saw many of them wandering around, with their hair in topknots and in their traditional dress!
After that i went to a traditional garden which is a replica of a garden in a famous chinese novel, unfortunately because it was the dead of winter the plants were not up to much but the frozen lakes, stunning artwork on the buildings and the stone statues were beautiful!
By this time i have to say i was feeling awful, it was baltic, easily the coldest it had been the whole time i'd been there! I headed to the enormous grounds that held the temple of heaven, i made my way against the howling wind and headed first to the harvest temple which was the most incredibly painted building, and then through the huge grassy grounds to the temple of heaven which is miraculously a circular building, which has no nails or cement or glue it just holds itself up!! Insane, and again this building is beautiful! The most incredible paint work and interior!
It was a very busy but good last day and after that i pretty much crawled home and got into bed wishing for any type of relief from my flu! And after an evening of chatting with group of super friendly people i was lucky enough to meet in china i was ready for a bag packing session and a sleep. So the next day i headed back to the airport, managed to bag a seat with extra legroom and sat there watching films and films and drinking so much orange juice it wasn't true. I didn't sleep a wink the whole 11 hours cause i could'nt stop sneezing and was soon back in dear old blighty to be welcomed back by a lovely baggage man who went and found my missing bag that had fallen into the works of terminal fives baggage system!! He found it god love him and wished me a happy new year, so for the night i stayed in london, and slept and slept and slept and then got up super early to hit the road one final time to go to gatwick and aboard the final plane home, and believe me 45 minutes isn't enough time to even get comfortable!! And so alas i am home... now what to do?!
