We started off the day by eating a fairly good breakfast included in our accommodation at the hostel, we’re not sure how 4 mornings of eggs and toast would go down! We spent a short while documenting the hostel downstairs as it really is a lovely space. Following on we took the number 56 bus to the Chatuchak weekend market which took around 45 minutes to get to. It’s a much cheaper option than taxiing or getting a tuk-tuk there and cost 26 baht between us. When we got there we went straight to the information office for a guide of the area, there are more than 8000 market stalls in a 35 acre area of land so we thought it would be good to know where we were going and plan our route.  We wanted to pick up a few items ready for the south and some replacement clothes for one’s we’ve been wearing over and over since we started travelling in October.

We started by exploring the vintage/second hand section which is any stylists and fashion designers dream. It houses anything from vintage tea dresses to leather bags, retro sports wear and re-worked seconds into new garments. It has to be said that the Thai’s on are top of their game when it comes to vintage trading, they know what sells to Westerners and they have a good depth of stock. Helen was very close to picking up some old tea dresses for when we get back home but managed to resist spending the pennies. We crossed through many fashion stalls and picked up sandals, shorts, t-shirts and vests whilst taking a few shots along the way.

The most memorable photo for us from this collection is of the giant tattooed man sleeping next to his market stall, surrounded by badges, paintings, bags and handmade crafts. He was covered all over in tattoos, piercing’s and leather and was disguised by the goods that swamped him…There were certainly many characters around. We walked by the music area and watched young children playing on their violins and we passed through the antiques section too. Seriously though you can buy pretty much anything you want at this market, we’ve read about illegal animal trading going on here too so if you do see anything you’re not happy about you can always report it to the police that patrol the site. We think we got what we wanted though with little fuss and enjoyed some decent street food too.

Later that night we took the ferry south and made our way to the flower market, it’s a 24 hour place with fresh flowers being prepared day in day out. If you get there late or very early in the morning it will be a real hive of activity. We got there at about 6.30pm at night and wandered through the street area and also some back street warehouses where we saw some of the work that goes on behind the scenes. We did want to go to other markets but with only one weekend in Bangkok most of the better markets take place on Saturdays and Sundays and there’s only so many markets you can get to in 2 days!

We ended the evening at a lovely restaurant overlooking the river right next to our ferry stop in Thewet, we had great views but the service was a bit of a mess, good job we weren’t in much of a rush.

We arrived at 8am in Hue after a bumpy overnight sleeper journey. The bus was packed with westerners which made a change from those our travels in China, but it was nice as Helen befriended a South-American Fashion journalist and watched a few episodes of Arrested Development. When we got to Hue we took our bags off the coach and were pointed towards the Google Hotel, here we had a quick pick me up in the form of some fruit and coffee and then went off to see a few sights before our onward bus scheduled at 1.30pm.

Hue is quite small so it’s easy enough to walk across the river and over to the main sights. It was raining and quite humid, and we passed by a war museum so stopped to take a look and saw some old American army tanks before taking in an exhibition on the Vietnam war. It’s not that big an exhibition but was a good introduction to the developments of the Vietnam war. As we left along very slippery paths we walked to the Imperial Palace which is probably the main attraction in Hue. It only cost 10,000 dong each which is around 33p so we forked out the cash and went inside along with several other tourists. After a brief stop to feed the fish we continued to walk around the Palace grounds and ruins, the site is mainly made up of old Palace rooms, some have been preserved to their original use whilst many others are still as they were since being bombed in the war. Tiled floors still form the ground to many rooms but only have wooden structures and the odd wall that show where the walls would have been.

After taking in the Palace grounds we walked to a Vegetarian restaurant on our way back to the hotel to meet the bus. We chose a few local dishes along with some rice and really enjoyed it. We then made our way back to the hotel and got the bus at 1.30pm as scheduled bound for Hoi An. We arrived there at around 5pm and went to find a hotel, we had provisionally booked one place but en-route were offered a cheaper and quite decent room so we opted for this one, breakfast was included and the room was a good size with en-suite. After checking in we went to explore this picturesque river-side town, as we ventured towards the riverside we became enveloped by old quaint houses, tailoring shops, restaurants and souvenirs. It is a very pretty town indeed and almost felt like a stage-set at times, perhaps a little over the top in terms of restoration and just oozed hundreds of western tourists on every street.

We opted for the Morning Glory restaurant close to the riverside but not on the river front for our evening meal. This came in the form of Vegetarian curry, salad, soup and grilled aubergine, each dish was bursting with flavour so based on this we decided to book ourselves onto their cooking class in two days time. Back to the hotel via some more quaint streets, tailoring shops and light displays. before an much needed early night was had.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

When we arrived in Yangshou we’d heard that the main cooking school ‘Yangshou Cooking School‘ offered some great half day classes so we booked this for the first part of the day. We had a pick up from our cookery master from Bamboo after checking out and we were taken to the local market, en route we picked up a few others who were also booked onto the cooking class and we arrived at the market ready for our first part of the class. It was really good to see the market in full swing, we’ve obviously seen many markets since traveling but each one always has something different. This one for example sold freshly cooked Dog meat, rabbit and a few sad cats were kept in baskets ready to await their doom. Both of us are cat lovers so seeing them there was pretty distressing, the dogs were already cooked and ready to eat. It’s a veer strange thing for westerners to witness but we don’t have them same approach to food as the east and especially in China food is food and you eat what you can, when you can. This mind set is still very much in place in the south. We were told not to photograph the dogs, and to be fair it wasn’t a pleasant experience, but it’s all part of the process of finding out about different cultures. The rest of the market place was bustling with energy and it was great to see all of the fresh produce and also have an explanation into the different food types.

Following the market tour we were piled into a van and taken to the cooking school. They are situated very close to the harbour where we got the boat to and they’re location is perfect for the environment. They have an open kitchen where everyone has their own cooking place, wok and sauces, the head chef stays at the front of the class for demonstration purposes and then we cooked what she did straight after, as she came around the make sure everything was going to plan. This is the best cooking class we’ve done so far as we did most of the preparation and all of the cooking for each dish. In total we had 4-5 dishes varying from stuffed vegetable/canopy style appetisers to the local delicacy beer soaked fish. The latter really was a delight. After each course we sat outside and ate as a group, except for the last two courses which we ate as 2 dishes togethers.

All in all the cooking class was excellent, the teacher was really coherent and patient and we enjoyed good food and company in a wonderful setting. We would recommend the school to anyone visiting Yangshou for sure.

After the class we went back to Bamboo to collect our bags and walked to the next village along from the pier Shi Ban Qiao the hostel we were moving to ‘Trippers Carp Diem‘ had been recommended to us by fellow travellers and we’d already scouted out the area on our bikes a few days ago so we knew it was in a good location. We sacrificed comfort for location on this one and saved our pennies in booking a dorm room. There is always plenty of space in the dorms in China but the beds are often a little hard. This was the case, but considering the quality of the service, food and location we couldn’t complain too much.

We had some food at the hostel and then set off for our New Years Eve bash at Monkey Jane’s. When we arrived it was pretty quiet, but before long the card playing crew came along and Helen succumbed to wearing the official Monkey Jane t-shirt. We enjoyed some more card games and the beer flowed freely. More and more people arrived and before long the rooftop bar was rammed. The cards stopped and we enjoyed a funny game of beer pong against a couple of the lads, much to our despair we lost!! And we watched them win time and time again afterwards, we think this was something to do with their distracting crazy dancing each time the opposition took a turn!

We met some fun people and a other travellers making the same trip as us – over many drinks, dances and ole langs sine we agreed to meet Emma and Doug the following night for food. The party was a good laugh, it was just great to go out, have a few drinkies and lot’s of fun too!! We enjoyed a good little boogy when the music hit it right and there were even a few fireworks to keep us entertained!

We left at around 2am and walked home along the dark paths to the village. What a fab end to 2010!! Happy New Year!!

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

We were picked up at 8am by the taxi to take us to the tour bus in the centre of Guilin where we were met by a coach and several other tourists waiting for a little adventure. Our tour guide was a lovely camp chap who was very sweet indeed often repeating the delights of Yangshou “the most beautiful town in the province and the one of the most beautiful towns in all of China!”. We were promptly told that we would be in his team and our instruction was to follow the panda flag. So far we’ve managed to escape the tour groups led by flags so this was our first encounter of this, and we wondered whether we had chosen to do the right thing at 380 RMB each this better be good!!

We met a Dutch couple on holiday in China and exchanged travel tales as the boat set off. We shared the slow boat with a few other tour groups and every so often we would get called up onto the top deck for the best views in all of China. Unfortunately the weather didn’t really help in assisting it’s beauty but on a misty day it was still very beautiful indeed. The light was pretty flat for the most part but we hope the photos give you an idea of what we encountered. We were able to take our bags on board so we could carry on from Yangshou at the other end rather than making it a return journey to Guilin. The boat journey was around 4 hours and we had 4 main sights, although there are sights all the way and either on a bamboo raft or the slow boat you’ll get some amazing views on a clear day. There are various peaks names along the way such as Half-moon peak and 11 horse cliff, but the most memorable and probably famous is the one of that is pictured on a 20 Yuan note. The picture is a sketched out version of the Li River with several karst peaks jutting out of the landscape and a lonely man on a bamboo raft. Many moons ago this image would have been a reality but now there are so many tour boats and bamboo rafts on the river it’s pretty hard to enjoy the original views. Still it’s worth seeing and we were laughing at the count down to the view…5 more seconds and you will see the image on the 20 yuan note, 3 more seconds, 2 more seconds, 1 more second and so it went on. We saw the view, no bamboo raft but it was fun all the same.

We were provided with a buffet style lunch which was very fortunately served up just as we were exploring the downstairs part of the boat, this mean’t we were at the front of the queue and the food was hot. It wasn’t a bad lunch actually, you can pay more for the local dishes but there isn’t any point if you plan to go to Yangshou as you can eat there very cheaply. There were a few amusing tourists on board that captured our eye for a while until the boat got in to Yangshou at around 1pm.

We promptly said our goodbye’s and left the tour group to find our hotel/Inn; The Bamboo Inn. When we arrived they said we could move to their quieter hotel, The Bamboo Hotel down from the street if we wanted to go and have a look, we asked the see the room with balcony but there was a big gap in the door and as it was pretty chilly so we went to see the other hotel to compare. We were a little miffed about this as you have to wonder why are they taking us to their sister hotel and not showing us other rooms at the one we CHOSE to book? The room at the other hotel was fine and a little more modern but it’s still an odd one why they do this! The price was still the same though at 80yuan per night and we had only planned to stay 2 nights in the town itself before moving to a recommended hostel 15 minutes walk away in a quieter village out of town.

We walked around Yangshou’s busy streets that afternoon and bumped into Will again from TUL (The Unemployed Life) he was rounding up people for the Monkey Jane’s NYE party along with a few others. We had already heard about the infamous Monkey Jane’s hostel from other travelers along the way and knew this was where the party would be if any were going on in town for New Years. We dropped by to pick up our tickets and free t-shirt after meandering the streets of Yangshou it was pretty busy, we’d been told on our tour that Yangshou attracts around 15 million Chinese visitors each year…we were just glad we weren’t visiting during peak season as it was busy enough for us.

We enjoyed a quiet night and opted to do a bike ride the following day.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

We packed up and were ready to check out at around 11am. We’d read that we could leave our bags in luggage storage at the MTR station at Kowloon’s Hung Hom so that we could make the most of having some more time in Hong-Kong. Getting there is fairly easy on the metro with a few stops and walking distance. There is a little problem in that when you buy a through ticket to Hung Hom from Causeway Bay you’ll have to go through an unpaid walking zone to reach the connection to the western line. You wont find this out though until you’re ready to change lines at Tsim Shu Tsha and the machine takes your ticket and you have to buy another one way to Hung Hom!! We tried to explain that we didn’t know about this but they didn’t really want to know and told us we would need to buy another ticket to get there!! So we lost some more dollars on this and gritted our teeth in fury! Well Helen did but the moment soon passed and we found ourselves at Hung Hom with a decent one off fee of 20 HKD per bag for the day which isn’t too bad.

We walked across to the main strip in Kowloon via the Hollywood stars walk along the sea front. It was good to have clear views across to Hong-Kong Island and we enjoyed this along with several other tourists. The sun was out and it was very pleasant indeed. As we wandered through the streets and endless shopping malls we found ourselves a good little knife shop and bought us a wee Christmas gift in the form of a Swiss army pen knife. Sad but these things do make your lives a little easier when traveling and having those practical items to hand. It didn’t stretch the budget too much either which was a nice bonus.

After the excitement of buying our little present we went on the search for some food before our over night bus journey. We found a street that had a mix of establishments and chose Red Ant, which appeared to have some nice rice, noodle and soup dishes. The food was average with Helens particularly bland. Not what you expect really but it did the job. Afterwards we made our way back to Hung Hom station, collected the bags and went for the next train to Shenzen. It’s a much cheaper method of getting to and from Hong Kong than using the Kowloon express from Guangzhou. For 33 HKD each we got the MTR to the furthest stop on the line Lo Wu, from here it was clearly signposted to get to Shenzen and the bus station, there are exit and entry points from Hong Kong to back into China and the whole process took around an hour and a half from leaving Hung Hom. When we arrived at the bus station we had another hours wait, so we proceeded to play some more card games. We thought we’d lost our other pack and managed to pick up a new pack of cards for around 20p! Bargain! The bus left at 7.30pm and we were pleasantly surprised to see that the bus wasn’t as bad as the reports we’d heard and also seen on the roads. We didn’t realise but this was the luxury bus and not the cheaper 3 tier sleeper option. The bedding was clean and fresh on and it was only a two tier bunk bed layout with only a handful of people on there. You need to use the seat belts as you’ll get jerked around quite a bit and there were a few stops coming out of Shenzen before we were well on our way.

Our destination was Guilin and we were told the bus would get in at around 6am, but we were way ahead of time and arrived at 4.15am. Luckily the station was very much anticipating the arrival of the buses so we weren’t alone at the drop off. It was a little confusing but we walked out of the station, found ourselves a taxi driver who knew where we were going and landed at the Wada hostel at around 5am. The hostel was all locked up and in the dark but eventually someone came out to let us in, fortunately the room was available and she checked us in at no additional cost. This is one thing that we’ve found to be really helpful in China, you can arrive at pretty much any time of the day/night and get into your room as long as the date is the same as your check in date then there’s no extra charges for getting your room early. So we were able to get some sleep and set the alarm for 10am.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

Last day in Shanghai and we had some catching up to do with the blog so we stayed in the hostel cafe until midday and then went out in search of some older looking parts of Shanghai. On our way to Shanghai old town and the YuYuan gardens we bought some fantastic street food in the form of potato noodles, chives and spice…yum! This definitely set us up for the rest of the day and we walked onwards to YuYuan. Shanghai does have historic sites but many of them have been very modernly updated, it’s difficult to see past the sparkling gold exteriors and more plasticy looking brick work.

In amongst the streets here are hundreds of tourist shops selling typical Chinese craft and souvenirs along with famously long queues for the most well known dumpling restaurants and tees houses around. It seems to be the place for tourists to swarm towards and have their photographs taken. We did however find the less frequented YuYuan gardens, perhaps because you have to pay 30yuan to get in…? Who knows, but it really isn’t a place you should miss if you do visit Shanghai because it contains it’s original features, stone work and gardens, it does take you away from the crowded streets and manages to keep a sense of serenity about it.

On our way back we walked by People’s Square, which wasn’t very busy and then caught a quick tube back to East Nanjing rd, back at the hostel more pool was played, more defeats but not for Dave. We stepped out for some local cuisine, experience the troff style toilet and we packed ready to leave the following day.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

We have quite a lot to fit in on this post so here we go…

We had a night train booked to go to Xian, leaving Beijing West on a hardsleeper. The train was full and we were 2 of 6 in our cabin in a carriage that houses around 10 or so cabins! There are also around 20 carriages so the trains are pretty massive. The price for our bottom bunk was 275 RMB each, not bad as it’s our accommodation and travel in one. Once we were ready to get into bed the lights went out and everyone went to sleep until our arrival the following morning at 8am.

When we got to Xian station our hostel Shiyuan were waiting with a sign saying Helen Roecoe…we knew it was for us! There were a few other backpackers on the taxi bus to the hostels, most were dropped off at Yin Tang Inn a few streets away from us. Shiyuan is a YHA hostel located near to the South Gate of the city wall. It’s a pretty good location and they were really helpful. We were impressed at being able to check into our room at 8.30 in the morning. For our time in Xian we booked a mixed dorm room so we could save some money and meet a few other backpackers. On the first night though we had the place to ourselves. They have a decent cafe at the hostel and breakfast is fairly substantial and at a good price. You also get free coffee and beer every day you’re there!! Not bad!

We had a few things to sort out when we got there – our ticket back to Beijing was one, breakfast another and looking into the tour to the Terracotta Warriors. Getting the train tickets was easy once we found the little ticket office a few streets away!! It’s well located to the hostel but it is tricky to find – appearing as a kiosk to an ICBC branch. You can’t buy return journeys over here, so each time you arrive in a place you need to pick up your return or the connection to your next destination. We got back to our hostel having purchased two hardsleeper tickets for two days time. After some breakfast at the cafe we went to the reception desk to book ourselves onto their tour the next day. We know we could have done this ourselves and got the bus to the site for a lot less, but we wanted to book a tour so that we could meet a few other backpackers/travellers in Xian. Having sorted this out we then walked up to the South Gate entrance to the City Wall, paid the entrance fee of 40 yuan each and then found a bike rental service quite easily once we were on top.

Cycling on the XIan city wall was really good fun and we stopped plenty of times for sights that we wanted to photograph. Construction of the city, demolition areas, temple rooftops, large apartment blocks on the other side of the wall, lanterns and a strange collection of animal shaped floats left on the top after some type of carnival…we couldn’t quite figure out how long they’d been left there and whether they’re still in use!! All of this mean’t that we were stopping every 50 meters or so at some points! We even managed to set up the self-timer on the Olympus to get a shot of us cycling toward the camera! Oh fun!

We cycled the wall for around 2.5 hours and paid an extra 10 yuan for the privilege. We would recommend doing this if you get to Xian! Later on we went for some street food in the city’s manic Muslim quarter. This is quite an experience with so much food being cooked right on the street under burning flames, hot pots and local delicacies are thrown into the limelight and under your nose. Mixed in with the food are a few streets of tourism gift stalls, dried fruit and restaurants. Again probably a must if you get to go. We had some of the Cool noodles, which is supposed to be a famous local snack but it is what it is…cold noodles!! Helen had a vegetable hot pot dish and Dave opted for the Chinese sandwich with beef. We got back to the hostel at a good time and Dave rang home.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

26th – Terracotta warriors

We left at 9am for the trip to the Terracotta Warriors with a few people from our hostel and went onto Yin Tang Inn to pick up some more people on the tour. We met a great group who’d all met at the hostel the night before, most of whom were traveling around China and had loads of tales to tell of their experiences. After some brief bonding we were interrupted by our tour guide Jha Jha (“Lady Jha Jha” apparently) who proceeded to inform us about the warriors and the local area that we were traveling through. She is quite a character and well known amongst travellers as she loves the line, “My name is Jha Jha, I’m 27 and single!” which made us all chuckle. Our fellow sight-seer Sam was her target on this trip and we all teased him about this as the day progressed.

Make sure you take some photo ID with you when you visit the warriors as security is tight and you have to go through airport style security twice before you get anywhere near. Whilst walking to the entrance from the bus drop-off point you have to walk through an 80′s style English pedestrianized shopping mall! It’s pretty kitsch!

The warriors are located in bunkers that are covered by huge structures. It did feel a little Indiana Jones with a smattering of easy tourism thrown in. Bunker 3 is the biggest and best site so with that in mind we were taken to 2,1,3 bunkers, saving the best until last.

It’s an impressive site with excavations continuing to be undertaken which all happens after 6pm when the sites close. The visit is a worthwhile one however we were expecting more!? We felt that you would be able to get closer to the masses of warriors, that it would be more of an under ground cave system and that in-fact there would be more warriors. We did learn that there are more sites around the area however they have not been officially located yet. The background story is an impressive one involving Mercury ingestion by a power hungry/eternal life seeking emperor and ultimate death for the workers under his control.

As we are in China and we are tourists we were taken to a gift shop selling various things such as jade jewellery, warriors and the man who discovered the site itself was sat behind a desk signing books for those seeking that extra special touch! We couldn’t quite believe that he was there…it was a little surreal but very typical of the levels tourism have reached here.

Following on from the trip to the warriors site we had a brief journey to the tomb where the crazed emperor is buried, it sounds like an amazing site, but it is yet to be reached due to the dangers of a mercury moat and oxygen damaging the hidden artefacts with his body. So you can see a hill in the distance and after about 5 minutes we went back to the bus to leave! On our way back we stopped at a hotel for a big lunch all at a bargain of 25 yuan. As Helen and Ian don’t eat meat they had to sit on a separate table to the rest of the group…romantic meal for two! The restaurant was huge and only had about 3 tables full so this looked pretty funny! David and the meat eaters gouged on pork and other unknown meat-like objects whilst Helen and Ian were very civilised in their Pak Choi and sticky potatoe spread.

When we got back to Xian we decided to get a taxi over to their hostel a little later on as there would be a dumpling making party! A couple games of pool some beer and a few snacks later and we were all making speed dumplings! We’d say a little more atmospheric than the one at the CCC earlier in the month…Jackson 5 on the soundsystem and we were on our way to dumpling heaven!! They weren’t much better though than the last one’s we made and after a while when they’re cooked they do tend to be very samey! Still it’s all in the fun of making them!!

A couple we’d met the day before came to join us for beers at the bar after the dumpling making session and we chatted about plans for China travel, we are doing a very similar route but at a different time so it was good to get some ideas. We then went to the bar street…hmmm not really Liverpool’s Matthew St but there were a few bars offering cheap beer so we went in for an hour or so before saying goodbye to our warrior buddies and went back to our dorm.

27th – Next day Helen was ill, we didn’t do much as she had some kind of tummy bug so it was a light and slightly teary stroll to the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, which was a lot further than we had anticipated, we followed this up with a taxi back to the hostel where we managed to get a room for the day. We decided later on that it wasn’t a good idea for us to leave that night for the train. The hostel were very accommodating and let us have a dorm room for 4 just for the two of us. Helen slept and Dave went out for food. We didn’t know this at the time but we could have taken our train tickets back up to 2 hours before leaving Xian in exchange for a refund with only a fifth of the price lost. We didn’t know this so we did loose out on some money and had to buy tickets for the next night. 28th – Helen was feeling better the following day although we laid low in Xian and ventured to a local park in between hanging out at the hostel for most of the day. We could only get a soft sleeper back to Beijing, which was okay but not that much better than a hardsleeper! Still it mean’t we had a quitter cabin. The train left Xian at 8.34pm and arrived in Beijing at around 7am. It took us around half an hour to catch the metro back to Xinjeikou on line 1 as the rush hour was pretty crazy! We literally only just managed to squeeze on with our bags after watching several locals climbing their way off the train. Madness.

On the 29th we spent the main part of the day at the apartment resting, writing, washing clothes, watching Peep Show and only ventured out once to the supermarket. Sometimes you just need to have a lazy day (and have a washing day)! We followed this up the next day with a spot of Christmas Shopping at the Yashow clothing market on the other side of town, it was fun bartering and we managed to buy most of our prezzies too. Good times! The bookworm also delighted us by providing some nice solid western food. We also went out for food with our hosts the chen family, but for some stupid reason we forgot to take our cameras out with us!! What were we thinking! The food was really good aswell…ah well we think you are enjoying the food pics so we will have plenty more to show and we had a very enjoyable evening – big thanks to them for helping us out with our accommodation whilst we have been staying in Beijing.

We arranged to meet Jen who we’d met on the hike at the weekend at midday outside the ticket office area of the Aquatics centre in the Olympic park. It was a really foggy/polluted day so we didn’t have great weather for photographing the Birds Nest and the Water cube, but it’s still a worth while thing to do if you have time in the city. The Birds Nest is an amazing structure and certainly draws in the sightseers for a spot of photo time. We spent around half an hour or so walking around the site before making our way to the ticket area for the Water Cube. We had planned to do a swim with Jen in the Olympic pool but when you start enquiring about tickets it goes a little like this: Entrance only: 50 RMB. Swim in training pool: 70 RMB. Water park: 200 RMB.

So if you want to swim it’s for 2.5 hours only, and it’s not the Olympic pool itself it is the warm up pool. The water park is unlimited in one entry so you can spend the whole day there but you can’t use the same ticket if you want to swim. So our dilemma was should we swim…in a cold pool, buy goggles (which takes it up to around 200RMB) and only have two hours or so? Or should we have a really good laugh, go on the slides, wavepool, yes it’s over our budget but we thought we would have loads of fun! So what did we do? Well of course we wanted to have fun, and we managed to persuade Jen to do the same. It’s an interesting experience being in the water park area, it’s not quite warm enough for you to feel fully comfortable in your swim suit and many of the locals don’t really like swimming, so you tend to see people in lifejackets a lot. The slides weren’t being used so we soon started getting ourselves onto the slides and Dave went for the scariest looking one first. A slide that both Helen and Jen thought they wouldn’t end up doing!

It has a vertical drop of around 40 foot, loops around and then splashes you out at the bottom. A capsule at the top of the slide holds you in place and a countdown begins. “3, 2, 1″ and the trap door opens and away you go. Pretty scary stuff but a real thrill. Helen and Jen were unsure and took some gentle persuading but eventually they climbed the stairs and took the plunge. Both loving it, Jen even went twice! Another favourite was The Tornado which places you in a large rubber ring two persons at a time and sends you thundering into a big bowl, lots and lots of screams and laughs by everyone.

After spending a good few hours inside the water park we headed off for some food before our Tai-Chi beginners class. We stopped by at Grandma’s Kitchen and to our dismay we realised that it was Western/American food, ooops, although Jen felt very at home and we enjoyed some American grub. After a meander through the local Hutong we headed to “The Hutong” cultural centre and began our lesson in the art of Tai-Chi. This was with Eric who was very keen to educate us about the history and tradition of Tai-Chi and what benefits it can bring to your life. We only practised for around 30 minutes out of the whole hour dedicated to the class so we left feeling a little disappointed and cold. We did go away with a better understanding of the martial art though and all of us are keen to explore it further.

It was time to say goodbye to Jen but we did have plans to meet again for some bargain shopping the following week. We’d had a really fun day and would like to thank Jen for hanging out with us, I think we all felt a little younger and satisfied with our brave efforts of going down the deadly red slide!

The following day we were leaving on an overnight train to Xian so we had planned to catch up on washing, buying some food for our trip and packing.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

Having visited the Forbidden City on a previous week we missed Tiananmen Square, so we decided to head that way and have a look. Subway line 1 is always very busy and today did not disappoint however we battled our way through the crowds and made it in one piece. Security is very tight at Tiananmen Square, but if you have nothing to hide you wont have any issues, the obligatory X-Ray scanners are put through their paces in Beijing’s Subway stations and check points. The percentage of plain clothes officers and military wandering around in the crowds would be an interesting fact to find out!

We wandered around the square with the other hundreds of Chinese tourists and felt the very patriotic grasp of China through flags, massive TV screens with more flags and music on loop, stone monoliths, the museum where you can visit Chairman Mao himself (preserved in a glass coffin for all to see) and large socialist “can do / power to the people” statues. We did not go to see Mao but you can still feel the past here in many ways. China is moving forward but relics of the past will be a continuous reminder of a grander/darker side depending on which side you lean towards.

Not too far from the historic and splendor of Tiananmen we went in search of Beijing’s underground city streets. Instead we found the deprived areas of Beijing with falling down Hutongs and streets, a big contrast from where we had come from. The underground city was closed (possibly due to safety concerns) so we headed for a Chinese massage which had been recommended to us. We eventually found the venue and enjoyed a 60 minute session at The Dragonfly Retreat which we both loved. Very low light, serene music and the full body massage were a lethal combination, Helen fell to sleep at one point! All for a bargain price of £15 each.

Within walking distance is the more commercial street Wangfujing. Here you have department stores and old electronics shops that appear to be waiting their doom as construction is happening all around. St Joseph’s Church is a little further up Wangfujing and as we approached there appeared to be some kind of fude going on in the grounds of the church. Like the locals we decided to have a little nosey at what was happening. We saw a bride wrapped up in a man’s coat, whilst her husband to be argued with an official from the church. The police were on the scene and there was some kind of dispute surrounding them having their wedding photos taken on the grounds of the church. They were all still there 15 minutes or so later and the bride and groom did not appear to budge from their request.

We have seen quite a few couples having their wedding photographs taken in Beijing, it’s a common site especially around the 798 area. We heard from a friend that they have their wedding photos done here one year before their wedding day!! So on the surface is the bride dressed in a beautiful dress, hair and make-up styled professionally and underneath is a pair of jeans and trainers with a coat nearby to cover themselves up. The wedding photography industry is booming here apparently! We can see why!

5 minutes further down the street and you find the city’s most famous snack street. Although this is relatively new to the city it is a short strip of several food stalls selling anything from souvenir tat to fried wriggling scorpions and star fish ready to eat, if you so desire. We passed on the offer of a char-grilled chicken fetus on a stick! We decided not to opt for the snack street that day. This really is one for the gallery! Street food in China is a big thing and we have seen people with sticks of fruit coated in sugar happily scoffing down this sweet treat. We purchased this Winter Beijing snack and can see why people love them, they are great, like little soft brambly apples covered in syrup, if you have a sweet tooth you would be hooked!

We headed back to the apartment and cooked up our own evening meal of noodles, vegetables and tofu in a soy sauce.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)