Beijing - take 2

So we finally arrived in Beijing, early afternoon on Saturday, unfortunately not leaving time to see the great wall. By the time we'd collected our luggage, we arrived in the city centre with about 5 hours in which to see as much of Beijing as we could...

Entrance to the forbidden city

We were dropped off at Tienanmen square. At four times its original size, this is the 3rd largest city square in the world, and indeed it is hard not to be slightly overwhelmed by its size. In the middle, stands the Monument to the People's Heroes, a huge, imposing obelisk. We moved through the square at a pace to reach the forbidden city on one side of it. To reach the official forbidden city entrance, we walked through two large quadrangles, with red walls, full of street sellers trying to get us to buy geisha hats and statuettes of Chairman Mao. On reaching the official entrance, we were told the visiting hours were nearly over so we couldn't go in. Instead we made our way to the gardens, which were open for longer. Using our Chinese student cards from the University, we paid only 15p to see the gardens, rather than 30p! The gardens were extensive and pretty, although not as grand and manicured as I'd expect palatial gardens to be. It was interesting to see people had etched into bamboo as we may etch into trees.

For dinner, the only option we would consider was Beijing duck (Beijing used to be called Peking). We found a restaurant and had a great meal of duck pancakes, with a few extra dishes. The duck was amazing! We had just slices but apparently you're often given the whole duck carcass and expected to eat it all - even the bill! We also ordered bullfrog, mainly for the novelty. It had a meaty texture but a slightly fishy taste, the main off-putting factor was that it had lots of small bones in, making it pretty tricky to eat. On the subject of food, back in Dalian we had delicious pancakes from the street stalls, filled with egg inside the actual pancake. They were served with a sweet, spicy sauce and are one of the things I now miss most about China!



















Before we left the city, we wandered through a vibrant night market, including a huge silk shop and many tourist souvenirs. On the way to the hotel, the bus driver stopped outside the bird's nest Olympic stadium, so we could hop off the bus, take a few photos and jump back on!
The next day it was on the plane to old blighty. What a packed and fantastic 3 weeks. I met some great people, not only from Durham but also from China, Sweden and Russia. I learnt huge amounts about many cultures, developed an undying love for dumplings and egg pancakes, experienced the paparazzi of China, saw so many amazing things, and I even learnt about 3 whole sentences in Chinese...