Beijing

Beijing is an amazing place. First it is HUGE. Its boundaries stretch to 168,000 sq kms - ie its diameter must be about 460kms. Not all of it has been built on yet but it is planned. The boundary extends beyond the Great Wall which is currently in open countryside, Next, within its boundaries, it has some of the most beautiful man-made sights including the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace (which of course used to be way out of town!)

Because of the olympics last year the majority of the power stations were relocated out of the city and much of the public transport converted to electric - thus the city air is noticeably cleaner than everywhere else we have visited in China. Beijing also had a facelift on a massive scale - thus it feels clean, looks bright and inviting. Food here looks edible too and we had some very good meals including Beijing Duck (previously known as Peking Duck).

The Forbidden City is huge. Andy and I spent a whole day there and were kicked out at closing time with more to see. Probably the best part is the House of Treasures, not visited by guided tours and not actually a house but about 1/3 of the entire City. I will not even try to describe what we saw - you just need to see it!!

In the Forbidden City we picked up a guide called "John". We nick-named him Benny Hill - he was a funny man in both senses of the word. Somehow he persuaded us that he should take us to thew Great Wall with the promise of visits to other sights en-route. He did not bargain on our energy or determination to spend proper time at each sight and in the end we parted company amicably as we were obviously not earning him enough commissions. He kept telling us he was "middle class, middle class" and a "two car family" ... "my time is more valuable than money". We were really at a loss as to why he took us in the first place but we did learn a few interesting facts from him about life in China for a middle class family and their aspirations. He claimed to earn about $20,000 US per year and owned a family property in the suburbs where his wife and son lived with his parents and a small flat in the city where he lived. He wanted to go to Canada to study (he was 40 years old) and buy an investment property but fully intended to come home and set up a student recruiting company (the students would study in Canada). He felt that this was going to be "easy money". He was obviously a very busy man as he made several phone calls while he drove us (very badly - "no accidents this year. Only three last year") But more of this later.

Three wonderful hours on the Great Wall where we climbed 2,000 metres of renovated wall following the top of the mountain ridge 1,000 metres above sea level. To our right Mongolia and our left China (soon to all be city). The wall snakes with the mountain ridge and you can see parts of the wall left, right, in front and behind. John told us that 1/3rd of Chinas population were involved in building it. John was impatient and called us to find out where we were. We descended in our own time. But on the way back into town he had a very important call to make - we were making him late. He pressed last number redial. Piers said he felt his phone ring as John made the call and realised Johns mistake. He was sitting in the front seat and turned to look at John as he answered the call. John was fully occupied driving and talking. He had not heard Piers speaking Chinese before and so did not realise his mistake and kept on talking. Piers Andy and I could not hold back our mirth anymore and after a full half minute John looked to see why we were laughing. We parted company still laughing.

We stayed in a delightful hostel called "Sitting on the City Wall Courtyard House" in a Hutton right next to the Forbidden City. The Huttons are traditional Bejing houses that are built with all the windows facing in around a courtyard. Within this complex was a playground...for adults. We went in to investigate. Here elderly people wee playing Chinese Chess, ping pong and exercising on varius swings and bars. We were the youngest people there and attracted some attention. I tried some of the exercises after being shown what to do but when I saw the statue of a man in a suit holding his leg up next to his ear while standing on the other I felt I had really met my match. I indicated to the man helping me .. could he do that ? Well the answer was yes! Could I do that .. well the answer was a rather painful NO!!! Much hilarity all round.

The elderly in Beijing seem to have got life sussed. We saw them dancing, singing, playing instruments, chatting while their birds sang from cages hung in the trees and generally having a good time. We enjoyed the parks, Summer Palace and Forbidden City alot and felt we could have stayed another week to do the place justice.