China - Beijing

We got to Beijing West railway station pretty much on time – about 13:45 – and decided to try and buy our tickets to Xi'An. Tried at one desk and the lady didn't speak any English, so she couldn't tell us that there were no tickets! I asked a policeman and he was very helpful in shouting at people to find out who spoke english, before telling us to go upstairs and find counter 16! When we got there, there were still no tickets for a week!

We jumped in a cab to our hostel and booked up a tour to the great wall and Ming tombs. Just took a little wander along Wangfujing road which was pretty touristy and had countless number of shops there including many watch shops!

We were picked up at 7:30 to go on our tour, stopping off at a Jade factory on the way. We learnt about mining Jade and how the jewellery was produced. From there we arrived at the Ming tombs at about 10am. We went to one of the tombs as they all appear to be the same. Of the 16 emperors, 13 are buried at the tombs and they have their own place, with their empresses and concubines. This one had an extra chair at his dinner table as he had 3 wives due to conception of an heir problem!

The frenchies on our trip decided that they wanted to see more so we went off to the spectacular sacred way of the tombs. They went and had a look and we waited for them, only half an hour but we weren't in a rush.

We then headed off to the great wall which is an awesome sight, just stretching for miles on end up and down the mountains. So we had 1 ½ hours to go climb and play around and it was hard work. The steps were uneven and some very steep indeed. It was hard work and we were ready for our lunch by the time we'd finished. It was just a shame (and a blessing) that it was a dank, cloudy, cool day. No way we'd have climbed as far on a hot day. But the downside was the lack of visibility.

On the way back we made a few stops, I didn't expect them to be interesting but they were. Lunch, in a traditional chinese way then off to the traditional chinese medicine research centre. The old doctor gave us an old school check up, told Jenni she needed to lose weight and that I had back problems and numbness. Prescribed some medicines that I took a trial of but Jenni declined.

Next was a silk factory where we followed how silk is made from worm, to cocoon to making the quilts or clothes. If there are 2 or more worms in a cocoon then it is used for quilts and only one for clothes. We saw how the cocoons are wetted and stretched or weaved to make them strong. Very interesting, and very nice stuff too.

Next on the list we passed the Birds Nest stadium on the way to a China Teahouse where we saw a tea ceremony. We tried some different types of tea before leaving for the hotel. We actually got dropped off at the railway station as we had to buy tickets to Shanghai instead of Xi'an. The train station experience was no better. You'd think they'd have a better system, but it is a shambles... 45 minutes in a queue (1 of 30) with people pushing in, wandering about, shift changes, people buying 20 tickets. Manic! Anyway, we got the tickets for the day after tomorrow, so we get a bonus day in Beijing. Back to the hotel via the steak factory – the food was pretty good on the whole, but the ribs were a bit fatty :(

Next day was spent market shopping and relaxing and trying to sort out our room that the hostel managed to cock up - “yes you can have your room for one more night” and next day “oh sorry you have to move we have already given your room away”. Mean Jenni got on the case and sorted them out, so we got a dorm to ourselves for dorm prices.

Our final day in Beijing was one of hanging about until our train at 9:35pm. We ventured out of our room at the last minute, stored our luggage and headed out for lunch. We then wandered through a lovely little park along a stream to Tianamen square and there we spent about 5 minutes – maybe less. It's a square, a big one. It was also baking hot with scorching sunshine, we weren't for hanging about. We went across the road to the forbidden city – again maybe due to the searing heat – it was disappointing. Lots of gates. All the same. You seen one, you've seen them all! If you want to see any of the exhibits inside, you have to pay more, and the ones that are free you have to peer from the edge of the gate!! Annoying and we found it a bit of a waste really, the architecture is lovely, but same as the Ming Tombs really... Off to Shanghai we went...