So, today we have hustled our way through millions of chinese people on Tiananmen square to get into the Forbidden City. Before we even got into the palace, China lived up to it's well known push and shove game, making our way through the crowds was a sweaty event in itself. My dignity was also slightly lowered as i entered what looked like a cow holding barn- this is their public toilet. It was a large tent with lined up gated pens and holes in the ground. The chinese like to use them with the gates open for all to see them squating. The smell made pretty much all the westerners gag as they braved this toilet.
The Forbidden City is phenomenal. It puts Buckingham Palace to shame as its huge and the acrchitecture is so pretty. This wasn't my favourite palace, on our first day we visited the Summer Palace which i loved. It was like a little town inside the gates with shops along the river. We climbed to the top of the mountain to see the main temple.
We have also been to Beijing Zoo which was interesting. The way they keep their animals is not that nice but they have literally every animal to see here. The pandas were cool, seeing them was the main reason to visit the zoo. We felt like zoo animals here too as we had to pose with the chinese for so many photos.
The Panjiayuan flea market is really cool but the hardest place to haggle. the stalls (there were hundreds) were selling their jewellery and gem stones for £50, so haggling that price would have taken hours. They weigh the jewellery and stones so we think its some type of special rock, its definitely not rare though as every stall was selling the same stones. We saw some sights at the Wangfujing night market, lizards and live bugs on sticks. This had the funkiest smell too.
Hutons are fun and cute, they are like the Brighton lanes and back streets of London. We went to quite a commercial one called Nanluoguxiang so it was quite Western but still traditional at the same time. We went here with a friend we made at the hostel and she bought octupus for lunch. I was going to try a bit until i heard the hugest burp next to me, it was Cj trying hard not to puke up the octopus he just tried. That was enough to put me off.
The best thing i have done in China is the Great Wall. It was mind blowing seeing one of the 7 man made wonders of the world. We went to the less touristy part called Mutainyu here you can walk to the the un-restored part. Before we even got on to the wall we had to climb zillions of steps to the top of the mountain. We opted out of getting the rip off cable cars to the top. This day started off with the typical 'male' mistake by Cj. The hostel told us it was going to rain so i packed my mac and even reminded Cj to pack his, of course men being men he said he wouldn't need it and as soon as we get off the coach to climb the mountain is pours with rain. So a wet Cj walked the wall. Luckily, the rain was quite refreshing as it was hard work with all the climbing so it would have been horrible in the humidity that China has. The tour we went on offered a lunch at the end which was delicious.
China has had an interesting effect on me. I have learnt the art of spit dodging and am used to seeing male guts on a daily basis. The chinese here are not that rude and are quite nice apart from the pushing, but i put that down to the sheer volume of people as i am shocked at how many people there are here. I am most surprised about their lack of image as everybody here (even the more wealthy) spit with a loud wretching sound to go with it. This is particularly disgusting when they are doing this in restaurants and spitting on the floor next to you. The men walk around with their wife beaters rolled up to their man boobs and they do not work out so its the most beautiful sight in the morning:/. the children don't wear nappies either. So yes, that means they do all their business on the street. We witnessed this in the Forbidden Palace. Of course, this probably only exists in certain parts of Beijing as the poverty here is quite high. The famous smog was also really noticeable to begin with, you get used to it but it does feel like smoking the equivalent of 21 cigarettes a day, as apparently thats how bad it is.
I'm going to round this post up now as we have just met our new roomies who are 2 Crazy American girls, we'll be going down to the hostel bar.
