A week in Beijing

We met two Irish people on the Beijing subway on our way to the hostel - not really a big deal, but we hadn't heard an Irish accent since we left Krakow in Poland almost a month earlier so it stood out when we heard it here and it was nice to talk to Irish people again :-)

We really landed on our feet when we picked a hostel - it was a great little spot with cheap food and drink, a charming courtyard where many of the travellers congregated in the evenings discussing what they got up to that day, it was walking distance from Tiananmen square and most of the sights of Beijing and - most importantly - it was right in the middle of a Hutong so had a real chinese atmosphere to it.

A Hutong is an area of backstreets and alleyways full of little shops and stalls. It was constantly bustling with rickshaws whizzing past and with many steaming stoves and lovely smelling foods. (The public toilets in the hutong didn't smell so nice though!)

We visited many of the local sights during our time there, including the Great Wall of China, Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, but unfortunately didn't get to see Mao in his Mausoleum due to a mix up with opening hours (one of the many times Lonely Planet let us down). We also got to try the Beijing Duck, or as they call it in Beijing, the Duck ;-) The food in general was fabulous, and at a cost of about 2 Euro per person for a huge meal, eating out became a frequent luxury :-)

I also got an overdue haircut here, but since the barber spoke about as much english as I can speak chinese (none!), it took a few attempts before the barber had an idea of what I wanted - at which point there wasn't much hair left! Oh well, on the plus side he maximised the length of time I can wait before my next haircut.

We were sad to leave Beijing since we met up with a nice group in the hostel and had one of our best weeks of our travels so far. But all good things must come to an end, so on 11th Sep (yes, I'm a little behind in writing these entries, but am catching up) we caught the overnight train to Shanghai and then the 2 day ferry to Osaka in Japan.