Beijing

I'm in Beijing! I've been here now for a couple of days, taking in the tourist sites... and I'm leaving early tomorrow morning for Mongolia.

What would a trip to Beijing be without a visit to Tianamen Square, Forbidden City, Summer Palace and the experience of being almost run over by traffic be?! China is developing so quickly... there is so much work going on in preparation for the olympics... new subway lines, widening roads, not to mention stadiums and housing etc, retouching famous temples... It feels more first world than I thought it would be, and greener with more gardens and wide streets than I thought, and a fair bit of english too. And its definitely more capatalist than communist, even though Mao looks down over Tianamen Square.

The Forbidden City was packed with tourists groups all wearing matching caps and following tour leaders with flags... should have been huge and impressive yet somehow managed to be squishy! I liked the relaxed atmosphere of the Summer palace, and the Temple of Heaven and its surrounding park where people practiced everything from singing, to waving ribbons, tai chi and a chinese version of happy sack with feathers.

I also got the chance to try street food from a back alley (yum), visit a silk shop, a pearl shop (23 pearls in one oyster!!) and go see an acrobatic troupe... impressive.

Today I visited the Great Wall of China out at Simitai. Unfortuneately weather wasn't great (rain all the time) but it was memorable nevertheless... wall disappearing off into the mist.