The East is Red

We've been in Beijing for a week now and we're settling in nicely here! It's a cool and crazy town with lots of positive things going for it, as well as the inevitable negative ones as well.

If you're arriving into the city from the railway station watch out for taxi touts and make sure you have the phone number of your hotel so that even if you don't have the name of the place you're staying in Chinese script at least a phone call can be made to get directions!

We stayed pretty quiet for the first few days, we were lucky enough to have chosen a hotel right in the middle of the Chinese, not tourist, shopping district so there was plenty to keep us occupied for the first few days without us having to travel too far! Once we ventured into Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden city we were glad we had gathered our energy first! Unfortunately most of the buildings around Tiananmen are closed for renovations before the Olympics next year. So we weren't able to gaze on the face of Mao this time round! But we did encounter a very persuasive scam operation whilst just hanging out!

As westerners we are attracting a lot of attention where-ever we go. This came as a surprise to me to be honest and everytime we get our photos taken or just stared out of it I have to laugh! We're like mini celebrities! But the biggest surprise I've had is when a lovely looking Chinese girl approached me to stroke my arm and to tell me that my skin was beautiful! I didn't know where to put myself! But apparantly that's the reason for all the attention... She also invited us to view some paintings in the Forbidden City which in turn became a hard sell routine to get us to pay massively inflated prices for student art! Be warned flattery is a weapon too!


The Forbidden City

We did meet a real artist whilst wandering along minding our own business who was great fun and filled us in on loads of info about Chinese paintings etc. It made me glad we hadn't shelled out in the Forbidden City.



For now we can't upload any of our photos from the Trans Siberian trip or any of the ones we got here in Beijing as the facilities just aren't available here, which is a pity. As soon as we have any I'll post some to the relevant posts, promise!

We're heading off to Tibet tomorrow night on the train! I'm really looking forward to it. The train at it's highest point goes up to 5000m. We'll be provided with oxygen and will be on the train for 2 nights. One of the apparant slogans for the staff on the train is "Lack of oxygen is no excuse for not working". I'll leave you with that one and will hopefully report back after our foray into Tibet...