Bargaining in Beijing

Tiananmen Square
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13.04.06

After our big all you can eat breakfast, including dumplings, curried potatoes & rice porridge, we went to Tiananmen Square. It’s the worlds largest public square in the world, just at the entrance to the Forbidden City. The city itself is huge, and was home to two dynasties of emperors, The Ming & The Qing. It was laid out between 1406 and 1420 by the Ming emperor Yongle, and was off limits to commoners for more than 500 years. Today though it is packed with Chinese tour groups! It was worth the visit though to see the buildings and courtyards.

The Forbidden City
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In the afternoon we strolled through the nearby Behai Park, former playground for the emperors. In one of the temples there were there large Buddhas, and a bell you could ring for 10Y for good luck. We saved our cash though and tried our luck with some exciting teas and Tsingtao beer instead!

14.04.06

We got up early for our 3 hour trip to Jinshanling, a more remote area of The Great Wall. We did a 10K hike along the wall, many bits still in there original condition others having been restored. It was very dramatic scenery and almost unreal seeing the wall extend over the tops of the hills as far as the eye could see. To try and entice more of the tourits dollar there is a zip line at Simatai at the end of the hike. It crosses one side of the valley to the other, over the river, which we did together and was an exhilarating ending to the hike.

Giant Buddha
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15.04.06

Spent most of the day exploring the markets. “Looky, looky…good price for you my friend!” We got some good bargains and enjoyed playing good cop/bad cop. Damian was literally pulled by Jess on one arm and the market ladies on the other at lots of stalls! They got upset when you were tough on price, but normally always came down to what we wanted to pay rather than lose a sale.

16.04.06

We went to South Cathedral for mass. It was very, very, very busy! Every aisle full of people standing extending all the way out of the back of church. We didn’t come across any easter eggs over here though! After lunch we went to the temple of heaven park for a wander. There were some really nice cherry blossom trees.