Beijing was better than I expected.

Me, Matt, and the beautiful scenery.
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Beijing: You could tell there were significant

improvements that had been made to the city for the Olympics, and overall

Beijing was a nice place, very safe and easy to navigate. In open areas and parks, people would gather

to do Tai Chi and paddle-ball exercises in unison, creating a very surreal

Not-so-“great” toilets. I noted even the locals passed these ones by.
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scene of robot- like order. The Great

Wall was impressive and worth a climb, even though we probably did not see or

set foot on any stone laid down before the 1960’s. The Summer Palace, Forbidden City, and Temple

of Heaven were worth a visit. I would

Some steps were a little worn!
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have had a better time there if I would have known the significance of

things. Our guide helped a little- I

wonder if the head sets with the guided tour would have given a more

interesting step by step tour. It is

Little animals on the roof indicated rank and protected against fire.
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possible that so many of the original objects were lost, and so much of the

original meaning was unknown to make a good tour. In the hutong area of central Beijing, we

passed right next to the drum tower where the tourists were stabbed during the

summer Olympics. The site was apparently

The Summer Palace would have been much better in the summer.
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closed due to the incident. Hip young

tourists were lounging around the bars serving very western beverages. We watched the evening flag lowering at Tian

An Men Square, which had the biggest security police presence I had seen

anywhere in China. We had to go through

The male lion holds the ball and the female has the cub.
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an airport-like check in to the square. A couple demonstrators were hauled off kicking- probably to disappear

forever. Beijing would have been much

more interesting and comfortable to visit in the summer time. But the good thing was the crowds were very

small in the touristic areas, and the crowds were composed of Chinese people

mostly, rather than westerners.