I just want to say thanks to everyone who is commenting. While I am not responding directly to them, I read them all and it makes me feel like writing this blog is actually a worth while way of communicating my travels to all of you back home. My Chinese is very basic… thank you, hello, one, i don’t understand, no, i don’t want, essentially all you need to get you into tourist attractions, order food, other simple pleasures. Thanks for the Canuck scores dad, and good luck with the fireworks Mom.
Last night we went out to dinner at a Japanese place of all places, and oh my god the food was amazing. It was all you can eat Teppinyaki, as well as all you can drink. I had soo much, but it was really just the right amount. Today we checked out the “tailor market” where they custom make your clothes for you, then we went to the “fake” market (aka the cheap market) where they sell knock-off everything. Some of it is pretty tempting, but i didn’t bite on anything there. After we went and got a blind massage, where you get a massage by a blind person. I loved it of course… a full hour for like 7 or so dollars.
Plans are dinner tonight, don’t really know where, but it will probably be yummy, and most likely a decent adventure again.
Well if this was the Amazing Race, this would have been one of those “to be continued” episodes.
We had a lot better luck at the forbidden city… aka, it wasn’t closed. It was neat to see, but I wasn’t blown away by it. Tienanmen Square was nice to visit. Impressive, and I am glad to say I have been there… the amount of security in the area is crazy. After we hit the metro/subway to get towards the Summer Palace. Turns out there are two Summer Palaces. One isn’t so impressive… that’s the one we found first. A couple picture of fake cherry blossoms on the trees and we were off to look for the “real/better” one.
When we finally arrived, we were a little taken back. It is an immense area and it was not really clear what everything was. A guide approached us and we took her up on her offer. She was nice, hard to understand, but clearly smart and really into this one Empress. I think Opa would LOVE this place. It might have been my favorite place over all in Beijing. The great wall was exciting because of how famous it is, but the Summer Palace was just beautiful. It takes some work but if you can in your head remove the thousands of tourists, and instead picture what it was like “back in the day” you really cannot help but be even more impressed with the area.
Our guide really wanted to stretch out the tour (plus I think she really really likes everything in the area, and wanted to tell us all the stories of all the pictures, legends, and buildings.) We finally convinced her we were in a rush, and she took us through what i found one of the more beautiful areas really quickly. There were few people around, and it was up in the hill (which was built by dredging the lake by hand.) We cabbed back, had an awesome meal at the Hutong (alleyway) around the hotel, and then had to head off to the night train (and therefore the “to be continued” part)
The train was interesting. Small would be a word to describe it. Also crowded, hot, smoke smelly, and generally speaking something I do not think Marijke would have enjoyed/had the patience for at all 
14 hours later we were in Shanghai. The cabs tried to take us for all we were worth, so we took the metro to Amy’s apartment. Now after some lazing about we are off for some fun times tonight. I suppose that update will need to come later.
Did it. Beautiful area. Lots of pictures. BusesChinese are confusing.
This morning Jen and I went for a walk after we realized we had no idea what people eat for breakfast (best guesses were something with eggs or bread-like things) — we settled for a hot-dog-like item from a bakery we found near the hotel. After that we walked around even further that we did the night we arrived. We found an outdoor gym which had several old men stretching around. After a picture or two on the elliptical machine we headed back to the hotel to meet Amy, Sandra (Amy’s roommate) and Melanie (Sandra’s friend.)
We got organized and headed for the forbidden city, and found it to be forbidden. It was closed, but we got a really nice view of it from up a hill across the street.
Checking the guide book for something open we decided on the temple of heaven. We ended up cramming Amy, Jen and I into a single rickshaw and made it there, but just barely. We had to scam our way in to see the actual temple as it was also closed, only the park was open.
Looking for food we ended up in what is now my favorite part of Beijing. A market/restaurant cluster of beautiful old buildings surrounding a massive skating rink. Think Granville Island, but bigger, older, and Chinese… with a massive skating rink in the middle.
After some hot pot we went back, planning on the great wall tomorrow.
hmmm… long entry. I wonder if that will keep happening.
Well, we landed in China, got past the 3 or 4 checkpoints making sure we weren’t swine flu carriers and got our bags. We got a real taxi and almost were able to give directions to the hotel which tried it’s best to stay hidden. After getting into the room we went for a walk (holy crap cold, holy crap impossible to cross streets!)
We got some food into us, and now we are back (about 9pm’ish our time) in our room. We have a friend to make sure we don’t become lonely. His name is paul, maybe tomorrow i will show him to you.
Well, last minute everything of course. At the moment I am in the blissful state where I still think I actually remembered everything. In 6 hours I leave for the airport, meet up with Jen, and fly to China. I suppose you could colour me excited 
