Beijing

Hey all,

have been in Beijing for about 3 days and visited a load of tourist sites (and traps for that matter). Beijing is a lot more spaced out than Shanghai, but the pedestrian and traffic recklessness is the same (am getting used to crossing at red lights and jaywalking anywhere). Weather is cold, about freezing, and we've had some light flurries. The Badaling Great Wall section is very steep, mostly stairs, but some breath-taking views at the top. Visited the Temple of Heaven and the Forbidden Palace, which were very cool (and old, Yi adds). If you ignore the hundreds of tourists, you can almost imagine what life would be like back then. Well, maybe not. Went and got lost in the hutongs a couple times, ate some Peking duck, saw some ancient astronomical instruments (about the size of you or me), and watched a Beijing acrobatics show (holy cow, those people are built and flexible!). Yi is crying right now because he took some good pics but had some memory card technical issues and lost them. Boohoo...

Here's a few pics, of the Great Wall, Temple of Heaven and Memorial of the War Heroes in Tiananmen Square (seriously, the Square is about the size of the U of A campus it seems). When you get into the Mao Mausoleum, no pictures are allowed, and you're reminded who holds the real power and firepower (definitely not the tourists!).

Next, we're heading off to Chengdu, and Jiuzhaigou National Park (park of a thousand crystal coloured pools or something). We'll hopefully have a place to stay in the Park, otherwise we'll be sleeping under newspaper... keep you posted!


cheers, Ange & Yi