Chinglish

Chinglish still exists despite the government's efforts prior to the Olympics. Here are a few signs that made us giggle and wonder...

Tian'anmen Square

Tian'anmen Square is an enormous outdoor square (the largest city square in the world) with a number of significant buildings, including the Great Hall of the Peoples and the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong. The picture above shows Tian'anmen Gate, behind which is the entrance to the Forbidden City. The 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China will be celebrated on the 1st October 2009 so there was high security in wandering around. It definitely has atmosphere, and great importance tanks to the many significant events that have happened there.
This is Mao's Mausoleum (not too dissimilar to Ho Chi Minh's in Hanoi actually). And below is the Monument to the Peoples Heros.

why not try a 3-point turn in the middle of traffic

...there are some things that just have to be seen to be believed (the silver van is trying to reverse from facing 180degrees the wrong way on a major route through the city...why is not the only question i was asking???)

Beautiful parks in Beijing

Beijing has a number of beautiful parks with lots of green space to walk around, interesting pagodas and temples and lots of lakes too. Here are some pictures from Jingshan Park, and Beihai Park.

These guys were playing traditional Chinese music and had a small choir of ladies singing along too!

Forbidden City

The Forbidden City is the centrepiece of Beijing and the home of the Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties. They lived in absolute luxury, basically cut off from their people, so the court eunuchs did most of the governing. The palace museum (as it is called by the Chinese) is enormous with many large buildings for ceremonial purposes as well as residences for the emperor, his wife and concubines. Although most of the treasures and artefacts have long since been plundered the place itself still speaks of wealth beyond measure. The entry price for hundreds of years was instant death but fortunately for us it has come down significantly since then and we enjoyed visiting with most of the rest of Beijing - very crowded!



This is the view from the park behind the city looking down over the golden roofs.

Great Wall of China - to keep the rabbits out

We took a day to hike along the Great Wall from Jinshanling to Simatai - 8 km of seriously hard work, through 30 watch towers and up and down countless steps. This is the non-touristy section of the Wall, which has not been altered much since it was originally built. Of course, there were still locals offering "iced-water-coca-beer" at every tower (the price more expensive the higher you climb!) And we didn't see a single rabbit!The scenery was spectacular, the weather perfect, the company entertaining and the photos...(well see for yourselves). But gee my legs hurt the next day!

Settlers champion

We have an ongoing Settlers competition in the village - with fabulous cash and prizes for the winner each time (actually just the fame and glory of being the Champion and holding the Settlers cup!) This might be be one and only time as champion as the competition is fierce!