Out of Beijing...

We spent a couple of days in Beijing, a place I can't really say should be high on a priority list of things to do... The first night started off great. We had a great hot pot dinner at a local fast food place called Xiabu Xiabu. Amazingly to me, most places in Beijing have an English menu as compared to Tokyo where English menus were few and far between. The weather was nice, and we walked around the town a little at night before turning in.

After that, things didn't go quite as smoothly... When we had planned our trip, I insisted that we come to Beijing for at least a few days. The first day, we made our way to the Forbidden City in the center of town. Unfortunately for me, the halls were all closed for fixing-up pre-Olympics. So, I could walk around the plazas but not even get any worthwhile pictures since they were surrounded by a huge, ugly fence and covered in scaffolding... Certainly didn't get the feeling of awe that I was expecting. To top it off, the memorial museum where you can view Mao Zedong's body was closed. Tian'anmen Square was quite impressive at least.

The next day, we headed for the Great Wall of China, parts of which are fairly close to Beijing. The further we got from Beijing, the worse the weather. It was already cold to begin with, and as we drove further out, it began to rain quite heavily. When we got to the chair lift site that takes you up to the top, it was raining, bitterly cold, and some snow was mixed in. Emilie understandably hung back at the base to have some tea while I headed to the lift. As I got higher up, the fog settled in until I couldn't see more than 10 feet. At the top, the wall itself was covered in about 1 inch of new snow. I made the best of it trying to get some foggy, disturbing pictures, but you can imagine it wasn't very impressive... That's what I get I guess!

We left for Hong Kong the next day. If it can be believed it was actually colder that morning. As we landed, they announced that it was 80 degrees outside. Even with the 100% humidity, we were more than happy to sweat and be warm for the first time in days.

So... Beijing was not the best stop on our trip as of yet. It did seem to be full of excitement though as nearly everything was either being built, just finished (roads, etc.) or being torn down. It wasn't possible to walk 1 block without seeing construction on a massive scale. Terminal 3 at the airport is just insanely huge. The ceiling is so high that you feel as if you are outside to a degree.

One last thing... An awkward point was going to travel agents to talk about going to Tibet, them having huge calendars portraying Lhasa as a great destination to visit, asking about getting in and getting a very frank "No." So much for that part of the trip.

Here are our pictures from Beijing.