We were there for the final couple of days of the week long 60th birthday (since becoming communist China) celebrations. So there were thousands more Chinese tourists there than normal and its normally pretty crowded anyway – it is China.
Generally they find it hilarious to see foreigners wandering around and many try to sneak a photo of you while you’re not looking or just come and grab you by the arm and drag you into their group photo. We felt somewhere in between rock star and freak.
Apart from one windy day, Beijing was covered in smog but footage of the main 60th parade the week before, being shown on giant screens in Tianamen square, had perfect blue skies. Apparently they can conjure up blue sky at will by firing special stuff into the sky that makes the smog rain down, then sending planes up with big fans to blow the rest away. Only in China.
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To quote one American president, the Great Wall “sure is a great wall”. It’s a good way to do some hill walking across the peaks of some amazing mountains using a convenient foot path laid out a few thousand years ago. The trick is to buy just the right amount of postcards to stop the souvenir touts from following you.
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We saw “Diabolic Love Machine” on tour from Germany after a tip off from Robert (you know, from the Trans SIberian 2 blog)
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The forbidden city was all a bit much after a few beers with Diabolic Love Machine.
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Olympic things happened here.
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Food pic #12. Our first Chinese food. Wow it was tasty but we ordered a little bit too much.
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Lots of different ‘food’ is available on sticks at the night market. We skipped the scorpion, snake and silk worm and tried the banana fritters instead.
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Food pic #13: Banana fritters (with no banana).
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