Zai jian Beijing

At the airport on our way to Xi'an. Beijing has been great - so much history (although a little hard to know what's the truth and what's the official truth), and so many people! Our hotel was out of the centre of the city, in a suburban street, so we had plenty of stares when we went walking, but it was good to see more of what ordinary people were doing rather than just the tourist centre.

Our first 2 days were fully organised by our tour guide Lily. She is a Manchurian girl in her mid 20s who is just lovely, and tried very hard to please us. She taught the kids to play Chinese poker and Chinese chess, and gave them a chess set when she left us today. She has promised to send us photos of her wedding later this year.

On our first day we went to Tiananmen Square, and the to the Forbidden City, and the Temple of Heaven, all of which was very interesting, and better for having the explanation and little stories as we went along. The extravagance of the old imperial lifestyle sounds like a huge contrast with the peasnants of the time, and also the communist years. The beautiful old builings and gardens are surprisingly peaceful in the middle of the busy city, even though they are crawling with tourists (mainly Chinese, although obviously quite a few Europeans and Japanese, Koreans, etc).

We had Peking duck for dinner, and went to a performance of Chinese opera, similar to the one Kate and I went to last time. It didn't sound any less like cats screeching on a wall (I think it must be an aquired taste, requiring more than 2 exposures!), but the acrobatics and swordplay was spectacular, and the costumes and makeup were amazing.

On Friday we visited the Ming tombs, burial sites for 16 Emperors from about 12th to 17th centuries (I think). The underground tomb itself was really just a reconstruction as it had all been looted in the past, and only three tombs have been opened as they decided after that that the contents were safer buried than exposed to wars, corruption, etc. It was lovely in the gardens and the long walkway to the tombs lined with statues of lions, elephants, dragons and other mythical creatures (it seems the old emperors were very fond of their mythical creatures). We had lunch at a restaurant built in old country house style, with lots of rooms leading off each other through circular doors and archways, and balconies looking down onto the eating area. apparently the owner is a traditional wood carver, and all through there were old carvings he had collected and bits he had carved himself, even the frames of the mirrors in the loos!

From there we went on to the Great Wall, and spent a lovely afternoon climbing up the wall winding over the hills to the top of that section, where we could see the Wall stretching away for miles over the hills to either side of us. Its hard to describe the sensation of standing up there on the Great Wall of china - nothing else quite compares to it.

In the evening we went to a Kung fu show - a great display of their powers plus a story about the mental discipline required and that it should only be used for peace.

We had a couple of days on our own over the weekend, spent largely at markets, although we also had a few walks, and spent a lot of time just gazing about us. Charlotte, kate and I had a lot of fun going for a foot massage where we had 3 very friendly girls who chatted away to us in a mix of kates Cinese, their worse English, and sign language while they pounded our feet!

Today we have been to the Summer palace of the Emperors, and to a Budhist lamasery to see the worlds largest wooden buddha ( he was pretty huge too!)

More news later...
Love to all xxx