Day 1 - Beijing - 13th July

Day 1

Beijing

Sunday 13th July

Well today we are going to head out and about to see the sights of Beijing

 

 

Amy’s wish list for Beijing xxx

 

We had a lazy-ish morning and went exploring the hotel, a restaurant and corridor looks onto this lake area.  We were using the free Wifi in the room to find out where places were and what to do when a lot of the sites were coming up with ‘Unable to open page’ so I did a search on blocked websites in China and was surprised at what I found were blocked – every site related to google, blogspot (hence no blog done in China!), facebook, youtube and a few others!!  Wow reminds you that you are in a Communist country and the control that people have over you is greater than we have experienced before!

 

 

The lake with three Black Swans.  Black Swans are the symbol of Western Australia with a picture of a black swan on Western Australia’s flag too, oh gosh we are so close to being Australian citizens it is scary and we are all now just wanting to get there and get started on building our new lives!!

 

Here they are settled down in the lake.  We love swans as Colin and I always think that we are cushioned on a swan's back by our guardian angels, nice to see 3 swans representing the three of us!!

 

Here is Colin looking at the prices of getting a haircut he says it is a bargain I’m just not sure you would get what you bargained for ha ha!!

 

The hotel’s swimming pool, there was a sign saying the temperature of the pool, room temperature and chlorine content, never seen chlorine content before!

 

One of the restaurants in the hotel

 

Kid’s play area for 3-8 year olds, can’t believe it Amy you look like a giant in there and this time next year you won’t even be able to play in there!!!

 

Cakes on offer at the Lobby Bar

 

Looking out to the entrance area

 

One of the entrances was closed as they were re-painting the design on the doorframe

 

Colin checking our tickets as we have just booked a Great Wall Tour with a company through the hotel, that is the plan tomorrow, woop woop!!

 

Ok here is the junction we need to tackle to get ourselves to the subway.  So coming from Tokyo where green man meant you could cross over the road and traffic would stop, Beijing means that cars and bikes still have the right of way on the crossings as they are bigger than us and they honk their horn louder than us too, so move out of the way!!!  So doesn’t matter when you cross the roads you potentially still could get ran over!!!  And where is the logic in that?!?!?!

 

Here is our local convenience store with some interesting goodies…..

 

not sure about that flavour

 

I was curious as to which part of you went numb with the crisps!!!

 

And look dried chrysanthemum’s for making tea with, oh not sure about sticking flowers in tea and drinking it!  Lucky I don’t drink tea either!!

 

Here is my tipple!! Coke Zero 500mls here is only 35p for a bottle, bargain!!

 

Here is Amy waiting patiently after I popped into the shop to get a second battery for my camera, don’t want to miss a photo!

 

And look where our ticket is going to take us!!!  Beijing Zoo all for the sum of 6Yuan which is 60p for the three of us, bargain!!

 

 

Here we go Colin is grabbing the tickets for the subway

 

Amy has got a seat on this subway, Colin and I are standing!!

 

We are only a tiny bit squished in this subway compared to Tokyo!!

 

So we headed onto Line 2 subway then transferred onto Line 4 and here we are we have arrived at Beijing Zoo subway station.  We walked up the stairs and seen this man selling puppies (he didn’t like me taking a photograph of him!) but he was next to a woman selling corn on the cob for 20p and then another woman selling tiny parasols for children at 10 yuan £1!  We walked through the underground walkway where there were loads of homeless people lying sleeping on the main thoroughfare.  This is a bit of an eye opener already as to what is acceptable here from the Western culture that is for sure!

 

We bought a mini parasol for Amy as a shade but not long after this she was too hot carrying the umbrella!!  We should have got one that stuck onto her head with elastic, Amy would have been thrilled NOT!

 

So we are in amongst bedlam trying to buy tickets for the Zoo and the Panda House, this is crazy system but we gotta go with it!!  Amy is like a rabbit in headlights at this queueing system and the amount of people but this is her wish to go in the zoo!!  And Colin had to show his passport to get the tickets for the zoo I’m not sure why??

 

Here we are, we are in the zoo and heading towards the Panda House first.  This is one of Amy’s wishes to see the Panda’s so she is excited!!  But as you can see we are using our elbows to get through and still getting trodden on, this is crazy no-one has any regard for anyone else they just railroad to where they would like to go!!  Amy has put on her pose of a rabbit in headlights again as she is just not sure why people barge the way that they do!!

 

We see our first Panda and the enclosure is so small.  The Panda looks so sad that we start thinking that the zoo being 100 years old is showing it's age :O(  Everything seems to be a bit neglected, sad to see!

 

This is the Panda’s enclosure and the sad looking Panda.  Amy didn’t like seeing the Panda looking so sad so we moved on and we were getting stood on and pushed aside so people and even children were pushing us aside!!

 

And this is the next Panda looking just as sad L

 

Amy bought a Panda with her money from Grandma and Grandpa, thank you Grandma and Grandpa Amy has named her Bamboo!!  Whilst Amy was trying to decide what Panda to buy someone came up to ask for a photograph with Amy, eh no but she was pointing to her child and Amy and then pointing at her camera, don’t think so!!!  This is bizarre and Amy is starting to feel even more uncomfortable, people are touching her hair and staring at her!!  We know she is beautiful but this is starting to feel creepy!!

 

Now here was a bigger Panda enclosure but no Panda’s in here L

 

We did see a Panda wandering around in an outside enclosure looking a little happier!

 

And Amy’s favourite animal ,monkey’s!!  Never seen these type of monkey's before, a Snub-Nosed Monkey!!

 

We stopped for a snack and Alison here is your handy Ziploc box we got from you being used on our travels!!  We got a take out from Alison and Bill of gorgeous fruit salad in a Ziploc box and look how far the box has travelled from Orlando!!  So thank you very much both for a lovely time, lovely food and all the extra’s we got from you too xxx

 

We headed to Pleasant Gardens, it better be pleasant as we are not really feeling the love from the zoo at all and feeling sorry for the animals!!

 

Colin likes the tree though with its different colours whereas I think is it meant to be that way or is it showing signs of stress and sadness too!!!

 

Amy thought if you looked at the fake mountain with the clouds behind it looked like snow on top!  We are having a wander to get to the next exhibit when we see loads of men with their t-shirts pushed up to their chest and they are walking around with their bellies hanging out, Colin don’t even think about embracing this acceptable behaviour in China, not pretty at all!

 

 

This Indian Tiger looks sad too L

 

 So the name in Chinese with the English translation, wow!!  Each Chinese symbol represents three or four letters!!!

 

 

This is Shi the cute Lion, I wouldn't be saying that if there wasn't a big fence between us though!

 

A massive dragon or is it a lion or tiger statue, not sure but it was MASSIVE!!

 

And here is Mei Zhuo Bao Panther

 

We went to see the Polar House next and what a sad sight we saw LL  The poor Polar Bear had his back turned to the viewing area so people were banging on the glass to try make him turn round, idiots!!!  The enclosure had nothing to play with and just looked so neglected!!  It is hard trying to tell people to stop banging the glass when everyone around us only spoke Chinese!!!  It was funny though as Colin and I went back to using noises that we used to use when Amy was tiny and doing something that she wasn’t supposed to (the sharp eh, tut or oi!), but it was a bit like being surrounded by toddlers even though these people were fully grown adults!!

 

The pool looks like it is either mouldy or the paint is all coming off LLL

 

His sad face :O(

 

The full enclosure looking so glum LLL

 

 

And then we went for a walk further in and saw this happier looking Polar Bear

 

Here is his enclosure

 

 

And then he comes over and splashes into the pool!

 

And when he was swimming he found his tyre and ball to play with!

 

He looked happyswimming and playing with his toys so that made us happy too!!

 

In the middle of the zoo there was a river and they had old fashioned Chinese sedate boats which was very fitting for the environment.  But then there were also speed boats tearing up and down the skinny river which caused such a swell.  We didn’t like the noise or the speedboats it just didn’t seem right but you know who fancied going on them?? Yes, the need for speed girl but they just didn’t look that safe so it was a ‘no’ from us!!  As we were walking along the river the attention to Amy started getting high again with people tapping her on the shoulder so they would make her turn round, gosh I feel like punching these people as it was really winding me up!!  Would I go and tap them on the shoulder, try and take a photograph of them or stare at them, NO so why make Amy feel so uncomfortable!!  But to be fair we are the only white people in the zoo and the only English speaking people too!

We are walking along and then you here some litter getting thrown down and the kids were just throwing down their bottles of water or juice empty or not after they had finished with them and the parents were just as bad!  The worst one was they threw their bottle down and the bin was just 10yards away from them, the zoo was just littered everywhere!!

 

Ah here is a larger version of the tiger or lion certainly doesn’t look like a dragon now that is for sure!!

 

G’day mate

 

Struth Sheila look who I found??

 

 

And then a Lama enclosure which reminded us of the Guanaco at the Isle of Man Wildlife Park

 

Oryx

 

Zebra

 

And then some idiots decided to stroke and feed the zebra, these people are just idiots!!

 

Another favourite animal of Amy’s the giraffes and you could feed them for 50p!!!  We fed Giraffe’s in Sydney Taronga Zoo and these giraffe’s looked sad, so we thought they might be more unpredictable and decided against feeding them

 

 

Next was the monkey house!!

 

The Golden Monkey’s one of the few things Amy wanted to see in the zoo, he was a cheeky chappy but also really cute!!

 

He looks like he is smiling!!

 

 

So we are walking through the zoo when we are just looking around and then we see parents are just pulling down their child’s pants for the children to have a wee in the middle of the pavement or next to exhibits, real nice NOT!!  I spied this about 3 times inside the zoo, are there no toilets around here!??!  And there were toilets so not sure why they decide to put their booty’s on show!

 

 

 

Turtle sculptures



 

Amy and I on the turtles but the other photo’s didn’t come out very well so this was the best one of the fancy shots!!

 

Meep meep Police cart inside the zoo!

 

And a full police station too still inside the zoo!!!

 

China Post still inside the zoo we could try and post all the sad animals to another zoo??

 

Now we are outside of the zoo and there is a health stand checking people’s blood pressures, would love to stop and help but no-one would understand me!!

 

We spied a McDonald’s across the road so we headed over into a precinct where McDonald’s was, next to the bus station.  We headed up the escalator and the place was just so filthy, litter everywhere and drinks spilt so loads of wet patches well we presume it was drinks?!?!?  So we headed into McDonald’s and the place was absolutely heaving and filthy too with rubbish being left on tables and no-one clearing up very effectively.  There was a real lack of tables and chairs with the amount of people around but we hovered around for a while!!  So we managed to get a table and the girls that moved for us left a real mess on the table for us, thanks for the seats girls I will now tidy up your left over food and boxes!!  So the wipes were out, the hand gel was double squirted everywhere and we sat down to enjoy our food.  McDonald’s was good, this was the cheapest McDonald’s we have been too in the world with all our food and drinks costing only £4!!!  So we headed out and thought McDonald’s toilets are normally decent so we headed there before we went back onto the subway.  We headed into the toilet which was one cubicle for men and one cubicle for woman so a lady pushed Amy and I to use the men’s cubicle but oh my gosh we have gone from Tokyo having an all singing and dancing toilet to a toilet that was covered in poo everywhere and used sanitary towels lying around the floor!!  DISGUSTING!!!!  The girl’s toilet was a squatting toilet!!!  So I promptly push Amy back out of the toilet area and get our hands gelled up and we can go to another toilet somewhere else if we dare, gross!!!!!! 

When we came out of McDonald’s we spied a sign for toilets in the precinct so we thought we would go there, so the ladies toilet was behind a blue curtain that was covering the door, not looking hopeful at all so we walk in and the place has a putrid smell of urine, yuck yuck and when I look up there is just a row of squatting holes in the floor with all these faces peering at us, oh my gosh there are no doors on the toilets, OH WHAT GET OUT OF HERE NOW AMY!!!  We come out of the toilets with faces on us like there was no describing what we have just witnessed we are sure to have nightmare’s tonight!!!

 

So we headed to the subway and look at the way the queueing system works, eh well really it is whoever can get their money into the machine the quickest gets first!!  I at this point just wanted to go back to the hotel and just stay there for the next few days!!!!!  

 

But to be fair to Colin he had been sharpening the ends of his elbows and went in for the kill to get the tickets, good lad!!

 

Good job Col you survived and got the tickets, bedlam!!!!  But then no-one lets you out!!! 

Elbows out again!!!

 

Next we need to go through security, at every station there is a scanning machine for your bags

 

We thought the subway was going to be busy with the crowds of people we have just experienced but we managed to get a seat on the train, woop woop!!

 

Amy spinning on the pole that is how much room we have on this train, amazing!!

 

And this is where we are heading to Summer Palace!!

 

Ok so my directions said to go west, the sun was setting so we headed towards the sun but we didn’t know which way from there so we crossed the road as there was a beautiful building on the other side of the road, holy moly green man and the bikes, cars and buses are just coming straight for us so we have to bomb it across the road.  We crossed the road to then see a tourist sign pointing towards Summer Palace but it was on the other side of the road where we had just come from, doh!!!  Now we had to take our lives in our hands again and cross the road, RUN everyone!!!

 

 

Some people were much braver than us and just went for it and walked right through the middle of the junction at least we stayed at the green man crossing I’m sure that would help if we did an insurance claim, fingers crossed though!!

 

No signs around or anything so we presumed this is the Summer Palace??

 

This was Summer Palace so we queue for tickets but we were only allowed to purchase the gate entrance fee as the lady said we wouldn’t get round all the different temples and palaces, okay then an entrance fee it is then!!  But as we were getting our tickets to go into the Summer Palace the thunder started, oh dear!!  Then the big raindrops started too!!!  Oh dear oh dear!!!

 

 

 

So here we are in amongst the crowds sheltering from the rain, thunder and lightning!!!  As it was forecast for sun all day we had not taken our umbrella’s, doh!!

 

So the people on the street not missing a trick turned from being water sellers to poncho sellers and yep we had to do the pleb tourist thing at some point so here we are looking like a right pair of tools!!!  Amy had bought her Panda called Bamboo and she was in a paper bag so I strapped that bag onto my belt and kept it under my poncho and had the backpack under my poncho too!!  Everything dry and Amy decided she didn’t want a poncho as she was happy with her parasol, she saw how silly we looked I don’t blame her really!  So we trundled off now sweating like real troopers and the plastic sticking to our skin, NICE!!!

 

Suzhou Street with over 60 shops along the river’s edge, we didn’t venture down but it looked pretty!

 

One of the gates leading through to the Tower of Buddhist Incense

 

Bit moist still!!

 

Wow let’s get climbing up those steps to see what is at the top!!

 

The steps were so slippy and uneven that we got so far up then didn’t climb any further

 

The roofs of the buildings all brightly coloured

 

We had made it to the Tower of Buddhist Incense which was a room with quite a few gold Buddha’s inside

 

Beautiful paintings on the guttering!

 

 

Rooftop view out over Beijing.  The Summer Palace is 9 miles out of the city centre of Beijing

 

I thought I would climb further up but I got up a few uneven steep steps and decided we have done so well this trip with no injuries the steps were so slippy I was sure I was going to fall so I took a couple of pics and headed back down again!!

 

The blue skies are coming back, woop woop as we are melting in our fashionable poncho’s!!

 

Closer up view of the bridge we could see over the rooftops

 

These were some of the best steps that we had to climb

 

 

 

Poncho’s are off, way too hot and the rain has gone off!  Here we go again as we were coming down the stairs another Chinese person pushed her child next to Amy for a photograph so the stern looks from me, shaking of heads and the NO was enough for them to back off but then they were trying to take sneaky photo’s of Amy walking down the stairs, this is awful!!

 

Going down!!

 

We walked through a courtyard and saw a Panda but we are a bit suspicious now going near characters as we are sure they are after it for money so we avoided the Panda!!

 

We walked through the Garden of Virtue and Harmony, it was pretty but the paths were still slippy from the rain and steep too!

 

A tea house by the river

 

Beautiful setting over to the Marble Boat

 

Another gateway

 

Dragon boats that were parked I am not sure if they took jo public out on those of if they were for private hire?

 

The photo does not do the Marble Boat any justice, this was stunningly beautiful

 

 

 

 

And a view over Beijing to the TV Tower

 

Sneaky peak into the Marble Boat we would have loved to go on it and have a look around but this is as much as I could zoom in on, no access to the public :o(

 

Stained glass windows at the front of the boat and the sun is out shining through!

 

My new hat!!

 

The start of the Long Corridor

 

A section of the Long Corridor

 

Beautiful ceiling at the entrance of the Long Corridor

 

 

Looking across the river to the Seventeen-Arch Bridge

 

That looks a cool boat coming into dock!

 

 

We walked along the river edge

 

The TV Tower and the Seventeen-Arch Bridge

 

The rolling hills

 

 

The entrance to the Hall of Joyful Longevity which was closed as we got there as the Summer Palace was closing at 6pm and it was now 5.30pm

 

Shuimuziqin Gate

 

Mean looking dragon

 

That is what we have missed out on and Amy was glad the entrance was closed as she has melted walking along the long corridor and certainly didn’t want to climb any more hills and steps!!!

 

 

The sun was causing problems with getting the true colours on the building as it was so vibrant reds!

 

Bamboo is out of the bag and having a cuddle

 

Beautiful buildings and lovely colours

 

 

Here we are going back along the Long Corridor

 

Ceiling on the Long Corridor

Gate

 



 

Another beautiful building, not sure what this was as things were closed by this point!

 

Sun is certainly shining now before it goes down!

 

Here we go now up the hill!  Well here we go again the worst bit of walking up the hill was we came across a boy weeing at the edge of the path in full view of everyone but even worse was the toilets were only about 75yards away!!  GROSS poor Amy didn’t know where to look!!  And whilst we are on the gross topics, people generally men try and get the phlegm up from the souls of their boots with a horrendous noise and then aim and fire, spit out whatever they have got off their chest and it doesn’t matter what or where they just spit it anywhere, absolutely gross, would be easy to get sputum samples here just hope they haven’t got TB or else we are all doomed!!!  Absolutely minging to put it politely!!!

 

Rooftop view

 

 

A surprise building when we climbed a bit further up

 

Love the different shapes on the rooftops

 

Amy has had a burst of energy for climbing the hill!!

 

She is power walking up the hill!!

 

So we saw a similar positioned Hollywood sign on a hill in the distance through the trees only trouble is we don’t know what this one says or means??

The resting spot, beautiful place to rest but no resting for us we are heading back on the subway to go to Silk Street for Colin to see about getting a new suit.  We have had some delays on our shipment and also our postal and courier things coming across to Adelaide so we are trying to get ourselves organised for what we need for our interviews and meetings when we arrive

 

 

Holy moly we just watched the guy at the bottom with the wheelbarrow thing full of rubbish go down the very steep hill, gosh!!

 

Unusual shaped tree there were lots of people stopping to take photographs with this tree so is it may be the oldest tree in the forest or a special tree or just any random tree who knows??

 

Here is the dude away to go down the hill again, wow health and safety would have a hairy mary fit if you tried this in the UK!

 

Mr Panda is still in the courtyard

 

In the park there were locals playing with looked like a shuttle cock used for badminton but this one they kicked with their feet, never seen that before??

 

And the Chinese love their Karaoke so we had a taste of Karaoke too and can you see just at the edge of the photo a picture of a belly hanging out, good self air conditioning Mr!!

 

And here is a very sweaty person standing in front of the Suzhou Street, Colin was proud of himself saying that he had captured the sweat in the photo too!!

 

The other side of Suzhou Street

 

So here we are on the bridge and I thought wow these guys are good taking all those bottles of water up and down the humpy bridge but then we heard …………….

 

CRASH!!  maybe it was the driver’s belly hanging out that caused the topple ha ha!!!

 

And here we are at the exit of Summer Palace

 

Wow that is amazing the tourist numbers that flock here but the place isn’t really geared up for tourists as there few signs up inside the Palace grounds to direct you to the main places of interest and no signs telling you what the buildings are in Chinese or English??  It was only £3 to get in though!!

 

Thirsty work walking round there so the lady that sold us the poncho’s is back on selling water so 20p for a bottle of water that she has had in her freezer, oh yes please, 3 please!!

 

The reminder that there was a lot of rain but also the puddle was just absolutely filthy looking water and the litter around too, this area is disgusting!!

 

And someone else who has a death wish to try and cross the roads, don’t think there are any statistics to share with you on amount of casualties on Chinese roads, I am sure the government would keep those figures under wraps!!

 

 

And look at how close the cars etc are getting to the dude!!

 

Here we are back at the subway to go to Yangalin station

 

And this is the walkway from the subway to Silk Street, wow we are walking through a building site!!  This station has got to be the worst for being filthy with the building works going on and nobody had tidied up the plaster, dust, cables, paper and just all builder’s rubbish lying everywhere!!  Yes for sure health and safety hasn’t made it to China yet!!!

 

This is just as you go on the escalator!

 

Here we are we supposed to be near Silk Street

 

But we don’t know where the street is so we headed to the main road and then ………..

 

we turned round and here we are Silk Street is an actual shopping mall rather than a street so we were looking for the wrong thing, oh well here we are now!!

 

And the place was just full of little shops where the shopkeepers were not allowed to leave their shops and as soon as you walked by they were shouting at you to buy whatever they had in their shops!!  So haggling had to be done inside the shops!!

 

 

So we headed up into the lift for floor 3 and we landed on the floor for custom made suits!  We stopped at the first one to see how much suits were to be made but then we got into which material, size etc etc and then how much would you like to pay etc etc.  There are no easy questions or answers in this place!??!? 

 

So Colin did his very best at haggling, something that we forgot to prepare Amy about before we came into the shops and here he is getting measured for 2 suits at a very good price!!

 

Next Colin got measured and haggled again for 5 custom made shirts too, bargains galore with your haggling Colin, well done you Mr!  Tomorrow we need to come back for a fitting and then we can collect the suits the next day, perfect timings for us!!

 

So here we are heading to tea in the Food Court, heaven help us we are just expecting to go in have a look and bail out as we have spied a McDonald’s across the road!!  Gosh it is just like the shops the people from the eateries are trying to catch our attention and listing off what is on their menu at us all at the same time!  Feel like putting my hands over my ears and shouting ‘BE QUIET I CAN READ AND SEE YOUR MENU THANK YOU!!’ or maybe just dance around and say ‘I’m not listening’ but think that would be lost in translation and wouldn’t really work.  Some of the Chinese we have come across appear to have some English but when you reply they have no clue so think they are only words that they know and they don’t really know what they are saying!! 

 

We sat down with a lovely view over some buildings and ………

 

Colin went to order Shredded Beef, Kung Po Chicken and a bowl of rice for Amy from the first guys that we saw as they were the quietest, less imposing and didn’t run after us your tactics worked boys you get the sale!

 

Here we are having a well-deserved drink after a long day exploring!!  Amy has her Chinese water and Colin has local beer I am staying away from local things after being stung in Alaska so I stuck to what I know agrees with me Budweiser!

 

And look at our gorgeous food that arrived, how sweet a love heart

 

Colin's food

 

XXX  So pretty presentation!! XXX

 

Food finished now it’s time to get home on the subway on Line 1 then change onto Line 2.  So each time you go into the subway you go through security and the final time we went through we got stopped for having an aerosol in the bag it was Amy’s sun tan lotion but they looked at it all in English and then gave it back!!

 

 

We popped in by the local fruit and nut shop for snacks for tomorrow as we are heading to the Great Wall day trip and no food is included in the price

 

We grabbed some apples, cashew nuts and almonds there were no bananas on sale and we bought a couple of peaches to try too.  We stopped off at the convenience store too to grab a packet of biscuits and crisps to take with us too!  We headed back to the hotel and went straight to bed as it was 9pm-ish, way past all of our bedtimes!!

Exciting we are going to the Great Wall tomorrow the tour is picking us up at the hotel at 10am and tour supposed to finish at 6pm