New and old Beijing

Did I mention how crazy drivers are here?! They make Korean drivers look safe!!!! Trying to cross a road is a nightmare.

Today is my third day in China. I booked another tour to see other sites in Beijing. First we went to the panda house in Beijing zoo. There were some baby pandas that are so cute! They were play fighting! I’ll upload my video to you tube account asap. We then rode over to the birds nest aka the Olympic stadium. Opposite the stadium is a 7 star hotel!! I never knew you could get that many stars haha.

Birds nest

7 star hotel

After we went and looked around the Lama temple. See pictures

Lama temple

We went to a Tea house to try the different traditional Chinese teas. I ended up buying some as I’m British so I naturally love tea.  We also got a free pee pee boy. You use him to test if your water is hot enough. If it’s hot, it pees, if not …well it doesn’t (I think that’s the right way round).

Just before lunch we got to go in to the hutongs around the old part of Beijing and have lunch in a Chinese home cooked by the family. The food was so delicious. We all wanted cooking lessons. Finally we looked around a china factory before heading back to our hotels.

After an hours break I went to watch the kung fu show. It was really good. I think it’s good for both men and women, as it has a story but it also has awesome kung fu moves, and which guy doesn’t secretly wish he was a kung fu master . All the guys were monks and I felt like I was watching a live action movie.

If you want to book any tours in Beijing I went with www.tour-beijing.com which was a good price for what you get for your money. I think most money is made on commission but I don’t mind as everything is cheap.

Beijing day 1

For my second day I went on my first tour of the week. We first saw the Tian’anmen square (from afar) then went in to the Forbidden city. I really didn’t think it was that huge!! We spent 3 hours looking around and didn’t see everything. Our tour guide told us it was called the Forbidden City as in the days of the Emperor, people weren’t allowed in and people weren’t allowed out.  She also told us the emperor had about 200 beautiful women in the palace (he makes Henry 8^th look like a good boy). Other males who lived in the palace had to have their pee pees cut off :O

Forbidden City

Forbidden City

Forbidden City



Forbidden City

Forbidden City

We went to a Chinese medicine place where doctors could tell our health conditions by checking out heart beat etc. I was okay luckily as some of the herbs were expensive.

Next was the temple of heaven ^^

Temple of heaven

We had lunch at a restaurant. I was expected rice or sandwiches so I was shocked we had a buffet.  It tasted soooo good! After, we went to the temple of heaven. See pictures ^^ I started getting worn out by then.

We popped in to a spring water pearl factory. Of course they always try to sell you stuff on tours. I ended up buying some jewellery for 650yuan and some pearl cream for 200. I thought since it’s so cheap I should treat myself ^^

Lastly we went to the summer palace. Boy was it busy. It seemed this part of the tour was rushed and we didn’t get to see inside the palace. We went on a boat across the lake for 20yuan though which was nice. I actually didn’t like the tour guide on this tour.

so busy!

Summer palace

I then went to have Peking duck with some tour group members in the evening as we all were in nearby hotels. It was so tasty. The restaurant is quite famous so it was a bit dearer than my previous night’s meal (25yuan) at 300 yuan each but was worth the experience of having proper Beijing Peking duck.

Prices in Beijing-

Water 2-3yuan

Subway – around 2yuan

Airport subway- 25yuan

Street food – around 5+ yuan

On my way to China....

On Friday night I still hadn’t packed for China!!! It’s so unlike me. I packed weeks before I came to Korea.  Anyways, I ended up finishing packing for China and cleaning my apartment by 11pm……

Luckily, Gimpo airport is on the same line as my apartment so it wasn’t too bad. The airport itself was so quiet! It is also in a weird location. It’s right in the middle of the city so you can see apartment buildings surrounding the airport.

I went with China Southern airlines, which was surprising good considering the reviews I have read about them. The food was a proper lunch (the flight was only 2 hours), which I was grateful for because I spent my time at the airport in duty free instead of getting food.  I actually thought we were going to crash as the plane was shaking and the seat belt sign was on throughout the whole journey. But that could be to do with the typhoon that is around China and Korea.

I will say this in the nicest was possible but Chinese older woman are worse than adjummas. Adjummas have some competition. They literally stand in front of the train doors here so you can’t get out. At one point I was walking out of the station up the stairs (on the exit side) and these Chinese older women started walking towards me and wouldn’t move and I swear they said something bad in Chinese. Now first it was my side of the stairs and I have to get passed them somehow (I can’t fly…) plus I had a suitcase!!!!

Finding my hotel was easy enough as I printed out maps before. I think finding my hotel in Shanghai will be a lot harder as it’s a long way from the subway station so I will probably get a cab. The hotel itself is ok. It’s clean and in a good location. The hotels here are a lot cheaper than the UK but then again most countries are cheaper than the UK.  Plus I have a king size bed! Yay!

After checking in I went for a walk and happened to come across a market.  On closer inspection I discovered it was Donghuamen market. There were stalls selling cooked starfish, scorpions and other things……. Some of the scorpions were still moving on the skewers.  I couldn’t stay too long in that area as the smell was so bad, as there was food going rotten in bins everywhere.

I ended up going for a walk in a small park near my hotel then to a restaurant for dinner. I liked it but I already miss Korean food ><

P.s I don’t think I could live in Beijing. Everywhere I go people are trying to sell me stuff or tours.

Tomorrow I will go on my first tour.

China

I've finally gathered the courage and booked my flights to China. I don't mind travelling alone but it's the overnight night trains I am worried about. I get paranoid easily and I feel like everyone is going to rob me. I will end up sleeping with one eye open and have to wear sunglasses to cover my panda eyes throughout the trip!

Anyways, the plan is 4 days in Beijing, 2 in Xian and 3 in Shanghai. I can't wait! I have always wanted to see the Great wall!! It's on my list of things I want to do before I die (It's a long list). ^^