Back in China
This will have to be a very quick entry as I’m wanting to get myself showered and in bed before a trip to the 10,000 Li Wall (The Great Wall) tomorrow morning.
All four of us are back in China, this time in Beijing. The day we flew from Phnom Penh temperatures soared to 39C! Landing in Beijing was quite a shock… snow was all over the place and the weather was beyond belief. Temperatures of around -6C during the morning and evenings, I believe.
Yesterday (our first full day) we headed to Tiananmen Square in the morning for a quick visit. My Mum and Uncle Quentin then went on to visit The Forbidden City. Thanks to the shocking temperatures and wind-chill, Xiaoxiao and I decided to sit it out in a nearby cafe. After all, this would have been my third visit in three years!
Our plan had been to visit the Lama temple (yonghegong) in the afternoon, but we were pretty late after the Forbidden City, money changing, three stops at KFC for warm-up tea and some fun on the subway. In the afternoon we toured some of the hutong around Tiananmen before retiring to our hotel near Qianmen. For dinner we feasted at The Raj, my favourite Indian in Guomao at the base of the China Trade Centre tower 1.
Here’s me yesterday. That’s two hats and a crappy-looking scarf. Totally unprepared for the weather Xiaoxiao, Quentin and I went out and bought thermal body suits in the evening. I spent most of today wandering around feeling like Superted. Still, at least only my face was cold.
Today we managed to hit the sights we’d planned, but unfortunately didn’t make up lost time yesterday. We enjoyed the sights at the Summer Palace, made interesting by a near-solid lake and snow-topped roofs. Afterwards we visited the Temple of Heaven. Interestingly this is my third visit to Beijing but the first time I’ve actually been in to visit the Temple of Heaven—the last two times I got to the ticket office, but the roof was under construction, so I deliberately put it off.
Tomorrow at 9:30 we have a driver to take us to a section of the Great Wall. This is more-or-less the last thing we’ll be doing in Beijing. The following day we fly to Xi’an for the Terracotta Warriors at some unearthly hour in the morning (but fortunately not the 4:30AM start we had to fly to Beijing a few days ago).
It’s odd to think I’ll be back at work in about a week, but that’s how things go. In many ways it’ll be nice to get back to normality, but of course nothing beats the free and easy time you have when travelling around the world!
Tags: travel
March 8th, 2007 at 4:01 pm
Where’s some photos of the rest of the ‘gang’? Interested photo of you Lewis…. I am very envious of you. WHat a wonderful trip…..Great Wall next and the Terracotta Warriors….