ni hao, chairman mao

'welcome to the forbidden city'
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day two in beijing was a very full 12 hour affair.  (by the way, we are still very happy travellers...all good!)  first stop was the forbidden city and, any preconceptions were blown away!  the sheer size,scale and detail of the place were amazing.  we were very lucky as this time of year (lunar new year and winter) in that we did not have to jostle too much once we got there.  the only downside was the number of buildings being renovated prior to the 2008 olympics. 

one confession though, and we hate ourselves for this:  there is a starbucks smack-bang in the middle of the forbidden city...and we became terribly excited (and mildly disgusted), worse still, our tour guide cindy was a starbucks virgin.  yep, we lured her to the dark side.  i (cam) got snatched by a mongolian artist who insisted strongly that i inspect her work...pen loved watching me squirm and didn't help get me back.  one feels  a proper shit not buying from these lovely people.  it's not that their prices are unreasonable, it's just that there are so many of them and once you say 'good morning/ni hao', you're stuck...anyway, i got away without prints of whispy dancing horses and fishing peasants. 

mao looked really cool, not at all manky...

starbucks in china!
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the afternoon saw us touring the summer palace...in winter.  oh, to be the emperor.  it was very picturesque.  the emperess cixi decided that a massive marble boat to sit and drink tea in would be more use than a functioning navy...good for her.  nice boat.  the grounds were immaculate and renovations surprisingly sympathetic.

after a cool dinner in a dai (chinese indigenous minority from the south)restaurant we went to a wicked kung fu perfomance.  it was literally a 'show' that had just returned from touring the states and europe.  there were about 30 performers ageing from 6 to about 25.  the kids were spectacular!  they were doing head stands and backflips and breaking stuff on their heads.  our kids (when we have them) are definitely going to do kung fu...in all seriousness, the discipline is awesome.

cam and quilan (one of the dragons sons and cam's mate)
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today, we arose unusually early to beat the crowds.  not to the sales, but to see mao tse tung in his mausoleum.  i think we were the only westerners there.  i struck up a brief conversation (the same words over and over) with a lovely bloke.  he was very enthusiastic.  his wife took a picture of me and him.  sometimes the queues wrap around for up to a two hour wait...we only had to wait 30 minutes or so.  it's a very stern affair, kind of like lenin's in moscow.  we dilly dallied along and the guards got humpy with us, so we quickened our pace.  mao looked really cool,  not at all manky...after brekkie, we had to travel about an hour out of beijing to see the ming tombs and the great wall (at badaling).  the imperial family really knew how to 'go out' in style.  we went to the 'changling' tomb.  there were numerous massive buildings which served as a headstone really...a reminder of who the emperor was and what his contribution was...very cool indeed.  there was lots of jewels and personal effects on show that had been excavated from the undergroud palace (yes, really) and displayed for all to see.  one disturbing fact we were told was that the concubines were given two choices when thier emperor died: they either killed themselves to go into the tomb (and afterlife) with the big guy...or were killed.  simple enough.  nasty business really, but cool tomb. 

the great wall. we actually walked to the furthest peak you can see behind us!
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the great wall, as the name indicates is well, great!  we walked, or should i say,  at some points almost dragged our sorry arses up the steps to the top of several peaks.  it was surreal.  if not for the generous helpings of home cooked smog, the vista would have been unreal...still looked great through the pea soup anyway.  lots of bizarre touristy type of things along the trail to do too...like dress up as the emperor and play with a real live camel or sit on a white horse and make it do wheelies.  we opted just to walk.  knackered upon our descent, pen slept in the car ride home...well until we reached dr.tea's tea house, where we sampled several beautiful traditional teas...it's going to be our next 'thing' i  reckon.  tea.  lovely. 

anyway, tomorrow, we are flying down to nanjing to pen's uncle's place for new year and to see her mum (it's been a month!!), cousin etc, where i can try out my garbled mandarin on seven year olds...love yas, kung hey fat choi

xx.