Hey Y'all!!

Greetings from China....had an amazing train journey up here which was awesome and amazingly comfortable....got shoved off the train at the border with HK and China marched up some steps through the immigration hall and down the steps the other side and back onto the train, very funny... I met a couple from Rotherham on the train, who I bumped into again at the same hotel I'm staying at a couple of days later, so it was kind of nice to hear a Northern accent! I am currently in Beijing and am leaving here tonight on the overnight train to Xi'an to check out the Army of the Terracotta Warriors..

Anyway back to Beijing.. It's huge, well about the size of Belgium to be precise so strolling around the city is an impossibility... I am staying in the south of the city about half an hour by bus from the centre and it's a great hotel (cheers Neil for the recommendation and you're right Waley is completely mad!)

It took me the first two days I was here to actually find the Vietnamese embassy to get my visa sorted. Even with enlisting the help of lots of pointing and the Lonely Planet phrase book, it became a frustratingly impossible task the first day so gave up but managed to sort it on Friday!!! Got the joy of going back there to collect it later...that'll be fun!!

Beijing is just so massive and everything is on such a huge scale.. Hardly anyone speaks English which is kind of good in a way too! I have spent most of my time just wandering around and spent a couple of great days in Tiananmen Square and around. The square itself is massive and is usually packed out with people and tourists and in the evening people come to fly kites and stroll around. A far difference from the events that made it famous those years ago. Around the edge of the square there are the Chinese museums and the Great Hall of the People that are well worth a visit... In the middle of the square is a the Monument to the People's Heroes with Mao's writing on it and behind it is, what is affectionately called the "Maosoleum" a building where the body of the Chairman is on display in a crystal coffin for all to see. Apparently every now and then the body needs some work to plug some holes with plastacene (?sp) or something and this is the only time it's not on display. I declined the kind and free invitation for a peek at the corpse. Not my cup of green tea!! The surrounding area of Tiananmen is really great to wander round through the streets and the markets and along to the Temple of Heaven which is a really good place to chill away from the enormous crowds and chill with the not so enormous crowds!!

The Forbidden City to the North of Tiananmen Square is awesome and again large! It is where the emperors and their courts used to hang out in ignorant bliss to what was going on outside. You would have been put to death instantly for wandering in during this time but now 40 Yuan gets you in and guarantees you'll keep your head while you look around! The buildings are wonderful and ornately decorated each with individual purposes and some fantastic names. However, I couldn't help but think as I was trundling around that it could do with a damn good dose of Brasso and a squirt of Mr Sheen !!! Some of the buildings date back as far as 1400's up to 1600's so you can kind of forgive them for looking a bit grubby and after all they have also managed to survive the Cultural Revolution too! As usual I opted to visit on school trip, organised tour trip and Japanese tourist trip visiting day so it was mobbed in there ..... I have met lots of "Art students" who have "exhibitions" on display which is the local scam. Apparently the more paintings they sell the better mark they get for their graduation!!!!! Hmmmmmm!!! Usually if you ask them to draw something for you they usually work out they've been rumbled!!!!

Had a great day at the weekend escaping from the city and headed to the great Wall with Keith and Sarah the Brits I met on the train. It was really hot though and managed to get a wee but sun burnt too. We visited the Wall at Simatai which is a slightly steep and well preserved section of the wall but now lined with the t-shirt stalls etc!!! It is quite a hike up but well worth it from the top to look down and along the wall stretching out way off into the distance. It was really great to escape into the countryside too and away from the bustle of Beijing...

On the way back into the city we passed through what is going to be the Olympic area for the 2008 games.... I think they usually call it the Olympic village, this is more of a city. It is again massive and looks really, really smart and there's loads of work going on but it's gonna be awesome when it's done!!

A good opportunity for the CELTA lot as they are surely gonna need a whole lot of English teachers to teach the staff before the games! Everyone who is staying in this hotel seems to be an English teacher and has been here a few months! With all these teachers about you'd think you could find someone who could speak it!

The rest of the time I've been chilling out around the hotel area, there's some great food stalls in the evening just down the road with loads of fab food for about 50p and people come to dance in the evening so it's a great people watching spot with food, beer and dancing! I am sharing a dorm with an Aussie guy, two Essex girls who carry a back pack full of glitter and make up each, and a Japanese couple who are completely bonkers and sleeping in dorms and it's their honeymoon!!

We have also been to the Beijing Opera and watched some really random stories about Chinese "culture" and then we went to the acrobatics show the other night which was doubly impressive!! Not quite on a par with cirque du soleil (sp?) but pretty damn impressive... Now I understand why blokes always want to date gymnasts!

Anyway folks, time for me to trot off. My website is updated with the photos of Nepal and Hong Kong if anyone wants a look...!

Will be in touch from Xi'an....

Take care

lots of love

Lisa / Lillie

xxx