So we finally made it to Hong Kong and out of the great Chinese firewall! There's a lot to catch up on, so I'll try and give a taste of everything. Once we arrived in Beijing we went to our first hostel, to find our room had an amazing huge king size bed, with an en suite bathroom. Just what we needed after the two weeks on the train. The hostel was really cosy and a good base to explore beijing from. Plus they had access to facebook which was a bonus.
On the first day we visited Beihai park and hired a little boat to pootle around on the lake with. We ate some oranges and slowly watched the sun set behind the big white pagoda. We also walked up to the Pagoda and saw some locals having a sing song wth various traditional instruments. It was very atmospheric surrounded by temples and gnarly cedar trees. That evening we attempted to meet some of our trans siberian train friends who were staying in a nearby hostel, but got totally lost on the way there, so we missed them. Instead we asked their hostel to recommend a good food place and were directed to a nearby restaurant that did amazing peking roast duck and lamb. We had some really tasty food, but my stomach wasn't quite up to eating much of it as I still didn't have much of an appetite post food poisoning.
The next day we explored some of the market and shopping districts. Including a great area near Beixingtao which is is famous old hutong filled with funky bars, cafes, restaurants and shops. We bought a few souvenirs and even sampled a pizza, which wasn't too bad, considering its not really a Bejing signature dish. We also met with our trans siberian friends properly and took them to the restaurant we'd been to the night before, and they were really impressed with the food. Caused a bit of havoc with knocking over coke bottles domino style and smashing some glasses by mistake, but the watiting staff were very understanding.
The next day we visited the forbidden city and saw all the sites there were too see. It was very drizzly with rain though so it wasn't as much fun as we hoped. Really enjoyed the gardens at the end though as some of the ancient trees and rocks looked amazing.
As the weather wasn't great the next day we decided to skip the great wall tour and explore the art zone on the outskirts of Beijing. Its been set up in an old industrial district thats been taken over by and art community. This is where lots of local artists and designers have studios. There's also lots of galleries and exhibitions, and great cafes bars and shops selling unusual clothes, often with designers working away on their sewing machines at the back of the shop. We got a taxi back into the centre of town afterwards and came across the famous red lantern restuarant district where we had some great spicy sichuan seafood.
The next day we headed off to Xi'an in the evening. We got the overnight train on the hard sleeper on the way there which was pretty chaotic, noisy and smelly but certainly an experience. Its a lot more sociable too so we swapped some food and booze with the locals and figured out when to get off the train as it was really delayed when it left. Eventually it arrrived in Xianan which was an hours drive in a taxi from the city centre. We teamed up with some americans and a czech australian we met on the train to get a taxi and then we all ended up staying in the same hostel. It was a really sociable hostel, with some great really tasty street food stalls just outside. Beer was only 25p as well! bonus! We also went on a city wall cycle tour which was a lovely way to spend an afternoon, and then went to explore the nearby hutongs with lots of tradtional calligraphy equipment shops and calligraphy artists painting in the street. We also visited the oldest mosque in China as there was a big muslim community in Xian. It was really beautiful, and I enjoyed it more than most of the temples we'd seen so far, as it was more dilapidated and felt like you really were stepping back 1,200 years in time.
We're off to a Korean BBQ with Laura and some of her friends tonight, so will have to follow with more Chinese adventure updates soon. Photos to follow soon too! H x
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