Back in Beijing

Smog over the water at the Summer Palace - beautiful!
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Since we have been back in Beijing we have barely seen the sky - Beijing is covered by fog/smog.  I am unsure what it is exactly, as I cant believe that us humans could cause this much damage - but the taste in my mouth, the burning in my throat, the tightness in my chest and the sick feeling I get every time I go out tells me something different.

The highlight of being back in Beijing so far, apart from us three girls being back together again ofcourse!, has been the Summer Palace.  This is a palace on the outskirts of Beijing built in the 1750s as a summer retreat for the Emperor and his entourage.  It was burnt down by the Anglo-France forces in 1900, and rebuilt in 1902.  It is very impressive - massive parkland dominated by lakes with gorgeous buildings and corridors surrounding the main lake.   For those planning to go there - plan to spend a full morning or afternoon as we were running around it trying to see everything in the 3 hours we had.   The only slight disappointment we had was the day was hazy - luckily some sun and blue sky, but enough haze to ensure our photos weren't the best.

the pollution capital of the world

Tammy pleased to get out of the strangers car alive!
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After we had seen the main sites, involving climbing up many steps to the main temple, giving a gorgeous view of the whole complex, we walked around to the other side of the lake and out the opposite gate to the one we came in on.  To find nothing - no taxis, no buildings, just a few people waiting for a bus.  After some discussion on exactly how far we were away from the subway, and the impossibility of walking, held in Tammys rudimentary Chinese and their nonexistent English, they offered us a ride for 40 yuan, twice what a taxi would cost.  Putting aside any slight misgivings and going on our gut instinct, we agreed to 35 yuan and the nice man took us to the subway station.  It was fine until we were almost there, when he locked all the doors of the car. Slightly concerned, I thought about how I could strangle him from the back seat with my bag strap, but we think he was just ensuring we didn't do a runner as we paid and it was all fine.  Don't worry Mum and Dad - I wont be hopping into any more strangers cars in the future!

Tammy and I below the temple of the fragrance of Buddha
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Yesterday Tammy and I spent the afternoon in the Tiannamen Square area, including walking up the hill behind the forbidden city in an attempt to get an idea of its scale.  The hill is supposedly man made, using the earth from the foundations of the city, pretty impressive.  We could just see the forbidden city through the smog, enough to see that my quick tour through the central part of it in the freezing cold last week barely scratched the surface of it.   Because we are geeks, we decided to test the theory that you can fit 1m people into Tiannemen square, by counting the flag stones that paves the entire area.  By our calculations there are about 200,000 flagstones in the area infront of Chairman Mao's masuleum, maybe you can fit 5 small Chinese people to a flagstone!

Bridge and Pagoda at the summer palace
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Last night Anna took us to a tea house where we watched performances of traditional Chinese arts, including acrobatics, chinese opera (an accustomed taste I think), Sichuan face changing opera, Kungfu, singing while holding candles in your teeth, and hand shadow puppets.  The hand shadow puppets were the best - they also imitated birds and dogs, while telling the story, and sang along with Wham making faces with their hands.  Anna has also taken us out to Sichuan hotpot - where you boil your food in a soup mixture with lots and lots of chilli, and to dinner with her work mates.  She has been a great hostess!