recap on beijing - round one, 7th october

with time on my hands (six days) i reread my blog notes which i'd been typing at breakneck speed on a range of naff keyboards in a variety of internet lounges, often amongst excited young male game players who yelled and/or smoked.

btw let's hear it for gavin! thank you, gav, for loading up all mother's waffle! :)

the impact of beijing on me first time around seems to have obliterated any thoughts or mention of the 'sights' we 'did'. so sorry to all the chinese culture fans out there and here goes!

day one
1 tian. square (still can't spell it from memory) is big, so big the buildings around it seemed dwarfed by it including the gate of heavenly peace. as we approached the gate macy was in full flow with facts and figures. you become immune to all mention of 'the tallest, the biggest, the furthest, the oldest...in the world' after a while! :) we posed for the obligatory photo under that of mao!

2 the forbidden city is so vast, reportedly containing 3,000 rooms, that you can only hope to scratch the surface of it especially if you are 'on the tour'. you end up pressing your nose against windows and peering in at doorways as most of the halls are closed to the public. as i said somewhere else, it was very crowded, and always is, with chinese tourists. i found myself looking upwards and taking photos of the roofs so as to get people free shots! the chinese love to photograph one another against things; incense burners, steps, walls, nice tubs of flowers...and always with two fingers in the air...no, not that!...v for...victory?
fascinating fact one- macy told us that the wooden fretwork windows used to be covered with paper. if you wanted to peer inside you only had to lick your finger and press it against the paper to create a perfect spyhole!
the emperor's garden at the north end of the city is a charming space with very old fir trees that have grown into some incredible shapes. if they had an 'a' on them they were over four hundred years old and if they had a 'b on them they were relative youngsters of only three hundred years old.
as we emerged from the city, macy suggested a hutong rickshaw tour. as we had been told that the hutongs are fast disappearing we readily agreed.

3 hutong rickshaw tour
bumping along in the rickshaw we felt very embarrassed for the poor driver/cyclist pedalling all our weight (and lou's camera bag!) around the narrow alleys. our male guide, who reminded us of bertrand parroux, was full of information. at one point we became involved in a rickshaw jam caused by a lorry trying to negotiate a corner. every man in the vicinity was telling him what to do. i half expected lou to jump out and join in with the all the advice!

:oops time's up!