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We are currently on a sleeper train to Xian, we have now left Beijing, we have been so busy and tired so haven't had chance to update the blog.
On Thursday we went to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square, the weather was good and definetely the hottest day we've had in Beijing, although the Chinese dont seem to like the sun, and constantly cover themselves up, I think it is fashionable to be pale.
It was a huge place! I think we seen most of it. The Forbidden City was home to the Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasty and is the largest and best preserved ancient buildings in China (a bit of history for you there).There are 3 main courtyards and then smaller living quarters around, where you can look inside and see what the rooms were like and also see the antiques, such as clothes, pots, ornamental stuff, and weapons (which Craig liked because boys like guns).
We didnt do much else that day, just went down the food stalls for tea and got some noodles, but I was nearlly sick, they weren't nice, Craig wasn't keen either.
Friday we woke up after having the worst night sleep ever! We aren't sleeping well at all, plus the fact that I have to sleep with the light on because Im paranoid about cockroaches probably doesnt help..
So we just had a lazy day that day, which we think we are allowed every now and then as it is actually very tiring travelling!
On the night we decided to go to a recommended duck restaurant that we have read about in lonely planet. Craig worked out where it was on the map, and we got the metro to where it was meant to be, after walking around for a bit, we couldn't find it and I looked at the map..we were in the complete wrong place! We have decidied I will be navigator from now! Anyway, we headed in the right direction and had to get on 2 metro's to get there, only to find it closed at 8pm, and was about 7.45 when we got there!! So we had a wonder round and had some street food...again not that nice, but ok.
Saturday we went to the Olympic stadium, although Ive had a cold, and a bad sore throat, proabably because of all the smog, so first we went to the pharmacy to try and get some throat lozenges which proved unsuccessful, as the man could not understand anything at all and gave me a medical dictionary that translated english into chinese but it was full of medicines, and how do I know what medicine I needed? So we just left it.
The Olympic stadium was very busy and some chinese men came over and wanted their picture taken with us! It was so funny they were probably taking the mick but was funny anyway.. then some more people came and they wanted a picture aswell! We do get a lot of stares here, maybe some of them havent seen Western people before?
We ate in the hostel on the night. Craig had chicken curry and rice which he liked, and I had fried rice which was ok.
Sunday we went to the train station to find out how to book our train tickets to Xian. The station was packed full, there are load of ticket offices, so we asked at one and she didnt speak English. Eventually we found a desk saying "Tickets for foreign people", so we booked a soft sleeper train to Xian which takes about 12 hours.
That night we went to this bar street which was good. It also had a shopping centre next to it and a market, so we looked around the shops, I wanted to buy some pumps as its not quite warm enough for sandals but not quite cold enough for my uggs, she tried to charge me about £20 for a pair of black pumps! I said we can buy them in England for about £3, as you can in Primark! She wasnt having any of it so we walked away, she tried to tell me that someone paid as much as £38 for that particualr pair....well they were stupid.
We found a bar and grill, and it was a nice change to eat some food that we enjoyed! Craig got pasta and I got half a chicken and ribs...I was stuffed but it was gorgeous. We walked down bar street and had a few drinks, seen a few entertainers including a Michael Jackson impersonator who was really good!
We have also been to the great wall, walked a lot and its very steep on bits of it, we were knackered. It wasnt the best weather as it was quite foggy but the view was still good. We went up the mountain on a cable car (it was either that or walk, so I braved it...although I couldnt look down!), then we got a tabboggan down, we could have gone so much faster but there was an anoying woman in front of me going ridiculously slow so we ended up bumping into her: Me, Craig and the people behind us, she wasnt happy.
Oh and we did go back to that duck restaurant and it was lovely! We got a full duck and all the trimmings, it even came out with the head on..nice. We didnt eat the head but the table next to us with a chinese family on ate the brains. Waste not want not.
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