Beijing

Due partly to a mistake by us and partly a mistake by a stranger from the internet we would be spending quite a lot of time in Beijing rather than elsewhere in China. Our first experience wasn't great; a taxi driver (not having much luck with them!) tried to massively rip us off though we luckily managed to dodge his advances. We ended up staying on a really nice little street; a good balance between local restaurants and people with the occaisional hostel.

Since we arrived quite late we ended up just going for a walk and then out to an R 'n' B club called Mix in the grounds of the local football stadium in the evening with a group of people we had met earlier in Mongolia. With our first full day we visited the Olympic park which was very impressive except for the constant attempts to sell us kites and other tourist crap. 

The second day we visited some of the markets around the city and discovered how crazy the bartering is here! For example we were first quoted about £37 for one fake Beijing football shirt and ended up paying £15 for 2 shirts and 2 pairs of shorts. We also witnessed a lot of what appears to be the number 1 past time of Chinese people; clearing their throats and spitting... EVERYWHERE. The worst example of this was when a man actually got up and spat on the floor of a restaurant we were eating in! China was weird in so many ways; a simple example being the regular subway vents that appeared as mushrooms dotted all around the city.

 On our fifth day in Beijing my degree results were due to be released, though due to the time difference and the usual efficiency of Manchester University I was expecting this to happen at about 5pm Beijing time. Luckily I checked just before we left the hostel in the afternoon and discovered them already there (for anyone who didn't already know I somehow managed to swindle a Distinction). That made for a very happy Nelson so we decided to visit Beijing zoo the highlight of which was the Pandas though they weren't as giant as the name suggested and I didn't see any of the fall over all day.

The next day we decided to tick off a few easy must do's in Beijing since we were hanging from celebrating the night before. We had a leisurely walk around the Temple of Heaven park and located an acrobatics theatre to visit that night. The acrobatics was really as amazing as you could imagine with human bodies flying everywhere on various ropes, poles and other obstacles. The skill in controlling other props; such as drums with their feet and throwing hats was also impeccable and made the whole show well worth the money. Afterwards we decided to continue the theme and visited a restaurant for some Peking duck from it's home town. Though the price somehow managed to largely increase during the meal we were still satisfied as it was easily the best duck any of us had every had. Overall the food in China was really good and a nice break from both the expense of Russian and the blandness of Mongolian cuisine. 

 On our final full day in Beijing we finally made it out of the city to visit the great wall. To make sure it was a little more interesting and quieter we were heading for a section that was a few hours from the capital but had not seen any restoration since the 1500's. The views from the wall as it ran along the tops of the biggest hills in the area were truly stunning and Carl Pilkington was right it really does stretch out as far as you can see, just like the M6. Certain sections where we were we also almost vertical and required climbing using hands as well. The only thing was missing from the day were the Mongolians attacking; they must have been having a day off.

On our final morning me and Pete visited forbidden city and whilst impressive neither of us would recommend viewing it from inside. It is quite expensive very samey with the more interesting run down sections hidden from public view. Instead the best way to see it is from the top of a man made hill at the North end. Entry to this little park worked out at about 20p and from the temple on the top of the hill there were perfect views of not only the forbidden city but also Beijing as a whole. We also spotted a few older Chinese women dancing in time, with fans amongst the parks features. 

Before leaving the city we made sure to donate some of our winter clothes to a group of homeless people we had noticed not far from our hostel, they seemed very happy though quite confused to be receiving gifts from strange foreigners!