Monday 29th-Tuesday 30th September
slept in and over my alarm clock yet again missing my first lesson which had the practice paper, I quickly did it before they went over the section, need to brush
up on my pin yin and need to go over initials and finals as there will be a dictation part. the joys!
lunch left me feeling queasy to say the least, I think i will forgo the black bean sauce and aborigine from now on, just too oily and greasy! was able to pick up my residents visa though, 400RMB and I think it means i can come and go throughout china and back home or whatever for a year?
makes sense as from what the others has said the break between first and second semester is nearly 2 months!
Rebeka and I went to CAOXI road station near ikea and near the shops we found, unfortunately the massage place we were aiming for needed prebooked but was a cheap 58 RMB for an hour. we walked onwards the opposite direction from IKEA looking for a massage place, before finishing a really lovely one which i got a
massage for 108RMB. we had slippers and were given pyjamas to wear. the room was dark and there was soft music playing.
the massage was more rough than I remembered, or perhaps i had merely just forgotten about it, there was a certain part on my back ribs that was particularly sore. however when he did my arms, legs and head it was
very relaxing and I felt ready for a nap. it was a different sort of chinese massage as they were not blind like in Nanjing. however later on that night my neck and shoulders were killing me trying to sleep!! not cool.
Rosie arrived in about half 6 to Shanghai, met her at my station around 7.30 for food and a brief tour around my campus before chilling in the canteen. she then left me to my revision for my unit exam the next morning.
It went ok, thankfully the initials and finals weren't too hard and I recognized and answered my questions happily enough, later in the paper characters were wrote with pin yin so I was able to fix some of the tones on my answers from the first section. hopefully I didn’t do too bad.
Monday 29th-Tuesday 30th September
slept in and over my alarm clock yet again missing my first lesson which had the practice paper, I quickly did it before they went over the section, need to brush
up on my pin yin and need to go over initials and finals as there will be a dictation part. the joys!
lunch left me feeling queasy to say the least, I think i will forgo the black bean sauce and aborigine from now on, just too oily and greasy! was able to pick up my residents visa though, 400RMB and I think it means i can come and go throughout china and back home or whatever for a year?
makes sense as from what the others has said the break between first and second semester is nearly 2 months!
Rebeka and I went to CAOXI road station near ikea and near the shops we found, unfortunately the massage place we were aiming for needed prebooked but was a
cheap 58 RMB for an hour. we walked onwards the opposite direction from IKEA looking for a massage place, before finishing a really lovely one which i got a
massage for 108RMB. we had slippers and were given pyjamas to wear. the room was dark and there was soft music playing.
the massage was more rough than I remembered, or perhaps i had merely just forgotten about it, there wasa certain part on my back robs that was particularly sore. however when he did my arms, legs and head it was
very relaxing and I felt ready for a nap. it was a different sort of chinese massage as they were not blind like in Nanjing. however later on that night my neck and shoulders were killing me trying to sleep!! not cool. Rosie arrived in about half 6 to Shanghai, met her at my station around 7.30 or food and a brief tour around my campus before chilling in the canteen. she then left me for to my revision for my unit exam the nest morning.
It went ok, thankfully the initials and finals weren't too hard and I recognized and answered my questions happily enough. also, later int eh paper characters were wrote with pin yin so I was able to fix some of the tones on my answers from the first section. hopefully I didn’t do too bad.
after I met Rosie at the Shanghai museum, thankfully it had stopped raining but it wasn’t the nicest. we did a brief look around the hancity market, close to people square station on Nanjing Road west. we continued on up Nanjing road until finally arriving at Jing'an temple. We weren't able to get student discount so it was a steep price of 50RMB(for china) it’s a golden roofed temple amongst the high raising buildings of Shanghai, we lit incense and took some lovely photos. however it seemed a bit too touristy, especially when the monks got in some photos with people. not very respectful is it? but it was still lovely.
afterwards we headed to Zhongshan park, finding a great electronic store after exit gate 7 which did steamers for £60! we walked to Rosie's really nice hostel and relaxed before finding the really short way to my university! were we got "pancake" from a local stall, a pancake shaped puff pastry with fried egg, cheese mayo and lettuce. didn’t taste any cheese and the mayo was sweet which was confusing but very tasty and filling. we finished up with a box of fresh and ripe melon very cheap! we then relaxed at my canteen area after a bigger tour of the campus before calling it a night.
Kat (the 18 year old German girl from my class) met us today as we planned to go to Yuyuan gardens. we found the place absolutely packed. it was the first day of national holiday and the streets had been taken over by Asian pedestrians. it was crazy. we went first to Chenxiangge nunnery, only 5rmb for students. it was lovely, not many people, very rustic and pretty, the garden courtyard areas were full of plant life the interior shrines were golden and painted. lots of beautiful colour for a 400 year old temple. worth a visit, I much preferred it to Jing'an temple, however you aren't meant to take photos. so I recommend a phone and look sorry for a bit if you get caught!
we went into Shanghai old street area and Yu garden area but you could barely move with the amount of people, we left, going left of the entrance gate to Yuyuan gardens we came across a fabric market and accessories outlets along the way before chilling in the nearby park. it was very strict however, you weren't allowed to sit on the grass and anyone that did was whistled at by an angry chinese officer. (everywhere there seem to be police!) saw some lovely mothers letting their children urinate into bins. charming. we continued on, taking a break in a shaded grass area near a bus stop on the way to the bund, it had become very hot today and was very buy. Chinese flock to the capitals during the holiday, especially ones from the country and therefore they haven't seen many white people, needless to say photos were taken of us. we walked along the promenade of the bund and got a silly picture holding the ball of the oriental pearl tower. it was here that we were harassed by a chinese television company with a film camera, I ended up agreeing to be interviewed haha. they asked if I was here for a holiday and I said no I'm a student they weren't to happy with the answer so they talked about the national holiday and what did I make of how busy it was and did it make me tired. I replied that I'd never seen it so busy, having just been to Yuyuan gardens and now the bund, I found it hard to move, along with the heat and stairs I was tired indeed. so random. even more random is just said I was from England. hopefully no British people see the program haha, I clearly do not have an english accent.
trying to walk along the streets was difficult amongst the sea of people. the only other time I've seen a place so busy was during the Queens golden Jubilee in london! we took a side street to the metro station to try and move quicker and went to Zhonghan park. here, rosie ended up spat on, on her foot in which she wore an opened sandal (my absolute worst nightmare, I always panic and imagine that happening so gross!) literally not even 20 minutes after we had witnessed a woman let her child pee in the metro station floor. Chinese are gross.
Zhongshan park was lovely however, full of people with some stalls. it was still sunny and we were pleased to find and area with a broken gate were the chinese had ignored the signpost and we sitting, playing and lying on the grass. so we joined them too! very relaxing.
was pleased to discover my package had arrived at my dorm (having bricked it as id just snuck Rosie in and they called me over!) plus Rosie found an english speaking channel in my room. Success!
Thursday 2nd October
Rosie ended up a bit worse for wear last night. we had went to M18 on the bund (the same building as Bar Rouge) Rebeka had contacted the promo guy so not only was it free entry it was also free drinks, champagne and vodka and orange. I had a few, Rosie had more, the music was good for the start but by 1 it had turned poor and so we left. we met today about 12.30 and headed to Jiashan road where I go for work, we headed to the nearby western road and had a delicious lunch, free drinks and crisp salad along with a pizza for 38rmb! stuffed to say the least. We had a look around some of the shops starting into the French concession area, passing the Russian Mosque, "St. Nicholas church' before finding ourselves all too tired and got a taxi back to campus were Rosie and I chilled in my room, napped and headed for the train station. was pretty gross in the station's toilets, mothers just letting their children go on the ground outside them, like animals! disgusting! we were on a sleeper train "hard seat" it had 2 bunks and a sofa seat, there were 6 of us, including and older woman, young woman and two men, all Chinese. the old woman grabbed a bunk and kept answering her phone with a constant and repetitive "wei" sounding like a quaking duck, very irritating, and very loud, ironic that there's a game called Chinese whispers when I actually think they are incapable of whispering! One of the guys stuck an annoying disco light in the plug socket was so annoying, thought I was going to have some sort of epileptic fit! Thank goodness I had my eye mask. Rosie grabbed the other mask and we turned out the lights, I curled up in a ball with my blanket but the other Chinese guy on the other side said I could just lie my legs in the corners and the other guy would sleep upside down on the outside. but oh how silly I am! hadn't been half an hour in the dark when I felt a hand on my leg, a curved hand, not an accidental touch. I moved further towards the wall and his hand slipped off. but, 10 minutes later its happened again!! i got up and went to the toilet and then told Rosie what happened and slept up with her. creepy Chinese men!
Friday 3rd October
It was freezing when we arrived, well in comparison to warm hot Shanghai. we got on the metro to head towards our hostel to find "Qian'men" is shut due to the holidays as its so close to Tian'amen. we had a 20 minute walk from the nearest station but found where to go okay from one of my map apps. Too early to check in we decided to check out the local area around Tian'amen. lots of security checks, policemen and chinese tourists all pushing and shoving in the queues. The square is so huge! lots of pictures and statues of Mao (including a memorial hall) along with communist themed statues - similar to something you'd see in the Hunger Games films. Rosie has been filling me in a bit on what she has learnt about Mao (he got rid of grass, flowers and wanted everything grey and boring in name) he caused the death of thousands by starvation by making them work in factories instead of farming.
WE queued for nearly and hour to get into the National Museum of China, showing our passports we got in for free, its to the right of the square facing north. WE began with the bottom floor, all dedicated to the history of China from the stone age, right from the @Peking man the ceramics and bronze's, terracotta warriors, Qing and Ming dynasties, jades etc, to the revolution and the beginning of the Peoples republic (which is what this weeks holiday is for) it was interesting and well displayed, we then went upstairs (its quite confusing layout as there's a left wing and right wing and half floors with no real signage as to what we're visiting) we looked at some lovely paintings of landscapes done in the calligraphy style, an amazing Afrcian sculpture section, skipping a few (such as the extra fee Italian Baroque exhibition and Totlesky's exhibition) We checked out the architecture section, which was all about the building we were in and was all rather grey and dull, and a rather strange BausHaus design, which the chinese are apparently aspiring too (The chinese could not be futuristic like that particualry as its still classed as a 3rd world country)
nearing 1 we went to our hotel having checked out some nearby shopping streets such as "Qiubao shi"
we had some much needed showers to warm ourselves up and relaxed before walking to the Temple of Heaven, we just missed the last entrance for the buildings ticket, but paid cheap to enter the ark which is open will 10. It was loving, very relaxing and open, the building were beautiful, outside one, a group of elderly men sat and played their traditional Chinese instruments like an orchestra, very charming! people were walking about, children playing, couples dancing etc. we walked around all the buildings and the garden area, admiring the rose garden especially. everything was well kept and beautiful, the lovely fresh scent of garden life,. we spent quite a while at some lovely old Gazebo's, with a charming view and only a few people at it only leaving when it became dark there were only soft glow lanterns to lead us out. we explored some of the local Hutongs before grabbing some dinner, some tasty "banfan" vegetables noodles for only 18RMB. used the wifi in the lobby before going to bed (only problem there is the really creepy large fish they have in the fish tank")
Monday 29th-Tuesday 30th September
slept in and over my alarm clock yet again missing my first lesson which had the practice paper, I quickly did it before they went over the section, need to brush
up on my pin yin and need to go over initials and finals as there will be a dictation part. the joys!
lunch left me feeling queasy to say the least, I think i will forgo the black bean sauce and aborigine from now on, just too oily and greasy! was able to pick up my residents visa though, 400RMB and I think it means i can come and go throughout china and back home or whatever for a year?
makes sense as from what the others has said the break between first and second semester is nearly 2 months!
Rebeka and I went to CAOXI road station near ikea and near the shops we found, unfortunately the massage place we were aiming for needed prebooked but was a
cheap 58 RMB for an hour. we walked onwards the opposite direction from IKEA looking for a massage place, before finishing a really lovely one which i got a
massage for 108RMB. we had slippers and were given pyjamas to wear. the room was dark and there was soft music playing.
the massage was more rough than I remembered, or perhaps i had merely just forgotten about it, there wasa certain part on my back robs that was particularly sore. however when he did my arms, legs and head it was
very relaxing and I felt ready for a nap. it was a different sort of chinese massage as they were not blind like in Nanjing. however later on that night my neck and shoulders were killing me trying to sleep!! not cool. Rosie arrived in about half 6 to Shanghai, met her at my station around 7.30 or food and a brief tour around my campus before chilling in the canteen. she then left me for to my revision for my unit exam the nest morning.
It went ok, thankfully the initials and finals weren't too hard and I recognized and answered my questions happily enough. also, later int eh paper characters were wrote with pin yin so I was able to fix some of the tones on my answers from the first section. hopefully I didn’t do too bad.
afterwards we headed to Zhongshan park, finding a great electronic store after exit gate 7 which did steamers for £60! we walked to Rosie's really nice hostel and relaxed before finding the really short way to my university! were we got "pancake" from a local stall, a pancake shaped puff pastry with fried egg, cheese mayo and lettuce. didn’t taste any cheese and the mayo was sweet which was confusing but very tasty and filling. we finished up with a box of fresh and ripe melon very cheap! we then relaxed at my canteen area after a bigger tour of the campus before calling it a night.
Kat (the 18 year old German girl from my class) met us today as we planned to go to Yuyuan gardens. we found the place absolutely packed. it was the first day of national holiday and the streets had been taken over by Asian pedestrians. it was crazy. we went first to Chenxiangge nunnery, only 5rmb for students. it was lovely, not many people, very rustic and pretty, the garden courtyard areas were full of plant life the interior shrines were golden and painted. lots of beautiful colour for a 400 year old temple. worth a visit, I much preferred it to Jing'an temple, however you aren't meant to take photos. so I recommend a phone and look sorry for a bit if you get caught! we went into Shanghai old street area and Yu garden area but you could barely move with the amount of people, we left, going left of the entrance gate to Yuyuan gardens we came across a fabric market and accessories outlets along the way before chilling in the nearby park. it was very strict however, you weren't allowed to sit on the grass and anyone that did was whistled at by an angry chinese officer. (everywhere there seem to be police!) saw some lovely mothers letting their children urinate into bins. charming. we continued on, taking a break in a shaded grass area near a bus stop on the way to the bund, it had become very hot today and was very buy. Chinese flock to the capitals during the holiday, especially ones from the country and therefore they haven't seen many white people, needless to say photos were taken of us. we walked along the promenade of the bund and got a silly picture holding the ball of the oriental pearl tower. it was here that we were harassed by a chinese television company with a film camera, I ended up agreeing to be interviewed haha. they asked if I was here for a holiday and I said no I'm a student they weren't to happy with the answer so they talked about the national holiday and what did I make of how busy it was and did it make me tired. I replied that I'd never seen it so busy, having just been to Yuyuan gardens and now the bund, I found it hard to move, along with the heat and stairs I was tired indeed. so random. even more random is just said I was from England. hopefully no British people see the program haha, I clearly do not have an english accent.
trying to walk along the streets was difficult amongst the sea of people. the only other time I've seen a place so busy was during the Queens golden Jubilee in london! we took a side street to the metro station to try and move quicker and went to Zhonghan park. here, rosie ended up spat on, on her foot in which she wore an opened sandal (my absolute worst nightmare, I always panic and imagine that happening so gross!) literally not even 20 minutes after we had witnessed a woman let her child pee in the metro station floor. Chinese are gross. Zhongshan park was lovely however, full of people with some stalls. it was still sunny and we were pleased to find and area with a broken gate were the chinese had ignored the signpost and we sitting, playing and lying on the grass. so we joined them too! very relaxing.
was pleased to discover my package had arrived at my dorm (having bricked it as id just snuck Rosie in and they called me over!) plus Rosie found an english speaking channel in my room. Success!
Thursday 2nd October
Rosie ended up a bit worse for wear last night. we had went to M18 on the bund (the same building as Bar Rouge) Rebeka had contacted the promo guy so not only was it free entry it was also free drinks, champagne and vodka and orange. I had a few, Rosie had more, the music was good for the start but by 1 it had turned poor and so we left. we met today about 12.30 and headed to Jiashan road where I go for work, we headed to the nearby western road and had a delicious lunch, free drinks and crisp salad along with a pizza for 38rmb! stuffed to say the least. We had a look around some of the shops starting into the French concession area, passing the Russian Mosque, "St. Nicholas church' before finding ourselves all too tired and got a taxi back to campus were Rosie and I chilled in my room, napped and headed for the train station. was pretty gross in the station's toilets, mothers just letting their children go on the ground outside them, like animals! disgusting! we were on a sleeper train "hard seat" it had 2 bunks and a sofa seat, there were 6 of us, including and older woman, young woman and two men, all Chinese. the old woman grabbed a bunk and kept answering her phone with a constant and repetitive "wei" sounding like a quaking duck, very irritating, and very loud, ironic that there's a game called Chinese whispers when I actually think they are incapable of whispering! One of the guys stuck an annoying disco light in the plug socket was so annoying, thought I was going to have some sort of epileptic fit! Thank goodness I had my eye mask. Rosie grabbed the other mask and we turned out the lights, I curled up in a ball with my blanket but the other Chinese guy on the other side said I could just lie my legs in the corners and the other guy would sleep upside down on the outside. but oh how silly I am! hadn't been half an hour in the dark when I felt a hand on my leg, a curved hand, not an accidental touch. I moved further towards the wall and his hand slipped off. but, 10 minutes later its happened again!! i got up and went to the toilet and then told Rosie what happened and slept up with her. creepy Chinese men! Friday 3rd October
It was freezing when we arrived, well in comparison to warm hot Shanghai. we got on the metro to head towards our hostel to find "Qian'men" is shut due to the holidays as its so close to Tian'amen. we had a 20 minute walk from the nearest station but found where to go okay from one of my map apps. Too early to check in we decided to check out the local area around Tian'amen. lots of security checks, policemen and chinese tourists all pushing and shoving in the queues. The square is so huge! lots of pictures and statues of Mao (including a memorial hall) along with communist themed statues - similar to something you'd see in the Hunger Games films. Rosie has been filling me in a bit on what she has learnt about Mao (he got rid of grass, flowers and wanted everything grey and boring in name) he caused the death of thousands by starvation by making them work in factories instead of farming.
WE queued for nearly and hour to get into the National Museum of China, showing our passports we got in for free, its to the right of the square facing north. WE began with the bottom floor, all dedicated to the history of China from the stone age, right from the @Peking man the ceramics and bronze's, terracotta warriors, Qing and Ming dynasties, jades etc, to the revolution and the beginning of the Peoples republic (which is what this weeks holiday is for) it was interesting and well displayed, we then went upstairs (its quite confusing layout as there's a left wing and right wing and half floors with no real signage as to what we're visiting) we looked at some lovely paintings of landscapes done in the calligraphy style, an amazing Afrcian sculpture section, skipping a few (such as the extra fee Italian Baroque exhibition and Totlesky's exhibition) We checked out the architecture section, which was all about the building we were in and was all rather grey and dull, and a rather strange BausHaus design, which the chinese are apparently aspiring too (The chinese could not be futuristic like that particualry as its still classed as a 3rd world country)
nearing 1 we went to our hotel having checked out some nearby shopping streets such as "Qiubao shi" we had some much needed showers to warm ourselves up and relaxed before walking to the Temple of Heaven, we just missed the last entrance for the buildings ticket, but paid cheap to enter the ark which is open will 10. It was loving, very relaxing and open, the building were beautiful, outside one, a group of elderly men sat and played their traditional Chinese instruments like an orchestra, very charming! people were walking about, children playing, couples dancing etc. we walked around all the buildings and the garden area, admiring the rose garden especially. everything was well kept and beautiful, the lovely fresh scent of garden life,. we spent quite a while at some lovely old Gazebo's, with a charming view and only a few people at it only leaving when it became dark there were only soft glow lanterns to lead us out. we explored some of the local Hutongs before grabbing some dinner, some tasty "banfan" vegetables noodles for only 18RMB. used the wifi in the lobby before going to bed (only problem there is the really creepy large fish they have in the fish tank") 
(
Saturday 4th October
we went to the Forbidden city, leaving at 8am we had to wait 15minutes for the pedestrian subway to be opened by police to get to the other side to enter the palace. We were unable to get student Discount, not particularly sure why, so it was 60RMB in. Rosie paid another 40Rmb for an audio tour which sort of had a map on it, otherwise we would have got very lost!it was a cold, grey day and it was already packed an swarming with chinese tourists, it was exceedingly annoying as people kept trying to get photo's with or of us. nothing was open to look inside, Meridan gate was also closed for renovation, there was no real directions, not signposts really, and even the audio tour didn’t give too many interesting facts or background information. there was lots of pushing and shoving, especially for buildings hat were opened to look inside, such as the throne room. the toilets were awful to use as well, lots of people bumping the queue! not fair and very rude. some of the exterior paintwork of the buildings seem too new as parts had been refurbished.
it just didn’t seem real? it all seemed like a sort of gimmick. The imperial gardens were nice however, though of course packed full of people. some nice gazebo's not refurbished, and the area's where the concubines left were the same, more real and natural. some were open and refurbished inside, holding some artifacts. others had the windows clear to look in and see the old rooms and artifacts. these areas, not on the main route were not as busy and were nicer to see. (apparently the concubines could not leave the palace, and one went blind from crying as her son was moved to another city...strange, a new wife was chosen ever 3 years, aged 14-16, gross) there wasn’t really any historical or personal feel to the place, it was all quite cold, secretive, , and even though it was a UNESCO heritage site, it wasn’t well organised and chinese visitors with children were very disrespectful, I saw 2 mothers let their children pee against the buildings! there wasn’t much dimension or heart to the place, but perhaps that’s how its meant to be, a secret, it fits in well t the secret communist idea i guess.
we excited via the North gate passing Jingshan park and the Art museum before going to Yonghe area, and eating some lunch in the lovely Confuscious temple area. we got a student rate into the Yonghe temple (also referred to as the lama temple as its lama Tibetan Buddhist) originally a palace, it was partly converted to a temple and then fully given to the Tibetan monks after one emperor requested to be buried here with the monks. it was very beautiful. , colourful, full of life and a lovely smell of incense. it wasn’t full of people either which was good. it was nice to see a real temple in comparison to the tourist one I was in Shanghai "jing'an"
the temple also holds a gunniess world record for one of its buddha statues for being the largest single carved piece of sandal wood. very beautiful! after we strolled down a great street,, right of the temple, full of quirky shops, on down to the old hutongs and the drum and bell tower.
unfortunately they were closed for some reason (it said so on a sign) we explored the hutongs, some were very tourist orientated but others were very grey and small, resembling a miltary camp or concentration camp I thought, very mao!) we then got the metro and strolled along the fmaous shopping street "wangfujing" and chilled outside "st Jospehs church" or "Dongtang" before heading back towards tian'namen and exploring the Hutongs around it.
Sunday 5th October The GREAT WALL
up super early and left at 6.30am, but it was all a bit of a disaster after that. we boarded the wrong metro on the loop line, so we took longer to get to our destination. as we'd researched online we went to a different station to get a different bus as "apparently" the usual bus to Moshin wasn’t running. was utter bullshit. though we later found out this is a direct 8am bus from where we went, we missed it. A chinese girl gave us directions to another bus stop (we I had to us a squat toilet with no door let alone cubicle, scarred for life!) needles to say that was wasted time.
we decided to check out our original plan fining that the online site was making up shit and instantly jumped on a busfor 15rmb. however with the horrendous traffic it took 4 hours nearly! my bladder felt like it was going to explode by the end!! the signposted tourist office did not exist, and the french people we met gave up at 1pm to get there. after an hour of walking up and down haggling for a taxi we agreed 300RMB for a return trip, (the book said 100...)
it took over an hour to get there (I have to admit when I first say the wall from the tai I did get excited again!) however when we got there, we were left at a random car park. no one really spoke English and those who did kept saying the entrance was too far, and our female driver said she wouldn’t driver further as she had a sore back. WHY BE A TAXI DRIVER THEN LOVE?! try sitting on a bus for 4 hours with full bladder!
we were charged 40 rmb for a 1km ride to the gate. good thing we took it though, as it was 3.20 and we just got the last entrance in by 10 minutes.
we literally ran the 20minute step hike in 8 minutes. and the view was breathtaking. clear skies, green mountains and hills full of life, and to the left and right close and far off we could see the wall!
Jinshanging is the furthest place to go, and luckily this means not as many tourists go, plus is hasn’t been rebuilt like Badaling. its raw and real, adventurous and fun. we felt on top of the world. I felt ready to guard against Mongels and look for lost treasures like Indiana Jones. seeing the wall snaking off in the distance and knowing I was standing on easily one of the greatest wonders of the world was fantastic, seeing the wall snake off into the distance. to feel the stones beneath my hands, old worn and weathered. real china, a china that has seen to many centuries, full of history life and secrets, but this sections was not a gimmick, this section was beautiful. I wish so much that we could have walked the 7km hike to Simotei. we only had 45minutes, definitely not enough time to enjoy this untarnished area of china, to explore and climb over the ruins, rocks ad bricks, to look down in the archer holes below. it would be a fantastic place to camp and see the sunrise. we didn’t have enough time to enjoy this euphoria unfortunately. and trudged back towards our taxi, walking the last km.
luckily 2 chinese students offered to share our taxi, and although charged a little extra we got dropped off at the bus station on time for the last bus having seen the sun set in the hills (and lots of traffic and a smoking car..) so our ride cost 250RMB altogether.
although a bad start, it was worth it. and id do it again in a heartbeat.
Monday 8th October Summer Palace
was able to book into a 6 bed room for the same price I had been paying with Rosie, Left my bag in nd we headed out having had a much needed lie in til after 9. got speaking to our roomates last night, two Korean girls, who choose to speak to me mainly in Chinese, and like my roomate in Shanghai, they also shed a lot of long dark black hairs everywhere. We had a very awkward metro ride to the Summer Palace. A woman and her husband were talking and staring at us whilst right beside us. nothing bad but it was very rude. usually by staring back it stops or sometimes I say something in chinese so they know that i know what they are saying and they usually cease. this woman however reacted the opposite. when i retorted "ta shi piaoliang" to rosie, she excitedly presumed i spoke fluent chinese and started having a full scale conversation with me. i did understand the majority and answered. like where we were from, our age did we like china, Beijing? I understood maybe 3/4 and replied which was good but i'd rather just be left alone. We were happy to finally get off.
however, as per usual with china and its lack of signs we headed the wrong direction to the Summer Palace, instead heading East. we did however find a great chinese market with lots of cheap fruit veg and seeds/nuts. I also bought i lovely think furry plaid wool cardigan for only 50RMB success! we ended back at the station and this time turned left, finding the Summer Palace right beside it. we got some great pancake with crisp wraps for 5rmb and I had one of Rosie Egg custard tarts she got this morning, very tasty!
We paid for student and entry only into the Palace as according to hour travel book you can pay at the door of the ones you wish to go to, we only saw about 3, and you could go all around the gardens and some of the buildings, we only paid 15RMB.
we climbed high, to a temple which exterior was covered in carved Buddha's overlooking the huge lake and the summer palace buildings, all the little boats and the people.
It had turned into a very beautiful warm sunny day. We relaxed in the beautiful "pleasure garden" with its canal like waters and traditional chinese pavilion sitting areas. we headed back to the entrance and headed left, to where the palace buildings were and the beautiful huge lake. i could easily have slept beside the waters, it was so charming. Some chinese men starting taking my photo and were hugely surprised when Rosie took off her glasses and they saw she was not chinese (its the skin, tied up hair and dark glasses) 
said goodbye to Rosie at the train station and narrowly missed the last entrance to the "national Library" one of the biggest in Asia with over 30 million books including many ancient ones. Instead I headed to the olympic park, and the famous "birds nest" Olympic stadium where the 2008 olypmics was held. there was lots of people about, especially in roller blades. I then visited Tian'men at night a its very pretty all lit up. security was still very tight too, even though it was dark and after 7pm. I visited the Hutongs and bought a mens jacket for 100RMB and some cute red chinese pumps for 15rmb
Tuesday 7th October
up early checked out, left my bags in the luggage room and headed to ,Jingshan park had to walk quite a distance around the side of the forbidden city, finding a bus stop that takes people to the great wall and Ming Tombs. It wasn’t very busy, and only 2 rmb in. there were eldery doing their exercises and tai chi, middle aged groups playing keepsy upsy's with a weighted sort of shuttlecock. very fun to watch and good to see people being so proactive. I climbed up to the temples and pavillions at the top, high above the city I got a full birds eye view of the Forbidden city.
from here I continued straight and visited the China Art museum. as it’s the 65th anniversary of the establishment of the People's republic there was a huge exhibition of china, the republic and communism. some fantastic pieces, such skill, so many looked like a photograph.True art! could easily bring one to tears! saw a chinese down syndrome kid at it, very unexpected. the upstairs was some calligraphy pieces. nothing special. but the exhibits change monthly a lot. from here I got the tube and discovered that Qian'amen station was finally open!
I then walked over 1.5km to Fayuan temple. one of the oldest Buddhist temples in Beijing. in the real Hutongs, old housing areas quite run down, 5 rmb in but it was sooo nice. there was maybe 10 people in it. it was rustic, peaceful, lots of overgrown trees and old Buddha's so nice to see a true glimpse of a temple, not a tourist one.
on my way back I bumped into 2 Australians, a middle aged couple on a cruise who looking for the forbidden city had went the wrong way, it was lovely talking to them, and I suggested the temple of heaven as it was really good and they followed my direction. having picked up my bags I headed to Beijing south station and got my fast train, it went to over 305km/h! researched on my app a bit about Tian'anmen. apparently its always really tight security, the checks and all the police were not just because it was national holiday, apparently there's lots of uncover police and there's lots of fire extinguishers incase anyone sets fire to themselves, I think its 24 hour security and all the lights have security cameras fitted.. hundreds were killed in the massacre maybe thousands. it can fit 600,000 and was extended in the 50s to become the biggest square, though now it is 4th
