Originally we had planned a 2 week trip to China which would have included trips further to the west and south but we decided we were trying to pack too much in and China is just far too huge to try to do
it justice in such a short time. We decided to limit our stops to Shanghai and Beijing only and leave the rest of China for another trip when we have a few months rather than weeks to spare!
As we go from place to place there are so many places we have decided we will have to come back to - Adventure No. 2 is beginning to take shape nicely!
Shanghai 22 - 24 July - ahoy matey!
Arriving by boat into Shanghai was pretty cool! We sailed into downtown Shanghai on the Huangpu River which connects the Yangzi River to the East China Sea. We ported at the colourful ferry terminal just before we reached the famous Bund. We were glad to be on dry land and took in the sights as our taxi made its way to our hostel.
Our hostel had a restaurant on the ground floor and served up the best dumplings we had tasted so far! So good that we had them every day that we were in Shangai! After lunch we went for a wander into the big city - past the Peoples Park and down Nanjing Road to the Bund.
1st impressions of China are ace - really busy, loads going on and new food to try! Our first dinner was Hot Pot - slightly concerned that we would give ourselves food poisoning but all was well and our self cooked dinner went down a treat! We finished our first night in China with a beery toast on our roof top bar - cheers!
Day 2 took us on a wander round the French Quarter and Old Town. We did a spot of shopping and put our negotiation skills we honed in India to the test. Best tactic we found to work here is to appear really interested, push the price down as low as you think they will go and then appear to change your mind and walk away - 9 out of 10 times the traders will drop their "lowest" price by at least another 50%! Bargain! We went back to the Bund at night time to see the Shanghai skyline in lights and take some pics.
On our final day in Shanghai we went to the slightly dated Natural History Gallery where we saw some weird things in jars and lots of stuffed creatures. A good way to pass a few hours before heading to the train station for our overnight train to Beijing!
After some confusion about how to get our tickets and some last minute dashing about we eventually boarded our train and found our berths. We had the top, middle and bottom bunks and feeling a long way from home we all snuggled into the bottom bunk to watch Braveheart on Cal E's phone! With thoughts of home we all clambered into our bunks and tried to catch some sleep before arriving in Beijing the following morning.
Beijing - 25 - 28 July
We arrived in Beijing having all slept alright but no better than expected on the overnight trains. We fought our way through the crowds at the central station and made our way on the metro to the hostel. It fortunately wasn't too far away and before long we had found our dorm and had some well needed showers. We made a collective decision to have a quiet first day in Beijing. We got some lunch then spent the rest of the afternoon playing pool and drinking the excellent draft beer. We had a look at the tours and decided to book the tour to the great wall and an acrobatics show for the following day. The highlight of the first day was dinner that night. The hostel put on a "Hot Pot Party" which involved a big pot of spicy broth and then lots of lamb, prawns, potatoes and veg to cook in the broth. It was delicious (if pretty spicy) and the gathering round one pot meant we met some great people including a cool American, Michelle, a couple of awesome Aussies Nikki and Cherie and a great dutch boy Sref. We stayed up drinking with everyone (some for longer than others, ahem Calum E and one other) before heading for bed before the early start to the Great Wall in the morning.
We rose early for the trip to the Wall, feeling a little fragile from the night before we only managed some toast before jumping on the bus to enjoy an extra couple of hours sleep en route to the wall. Michelle was also doing the tour and we were joined by Norman, a Canadian teacher, so with the 5 of us we had a good group for exploring the wall. Unfortunately we were extremely disappointed to arrive at the wall when it was covered in mist and a "light drizzle" falling. You might say it was a tad driech!! We got the chairlift up which gave us a good view of nothing else except the forest below and toboggan run which takes you back down in dry weather.
We agreed to walk the longer side of the wall first and then back and end with the short/steep side. We were unlucky with the weather in the end as the mist only lifted momentarily for a couple of photos before descending again.
The 5 of us had a good laugh though and Cal Y acted as cameraman for Michelle's video blog which he still hopes will appear on Fox News soon as Michelle revealed she works as a journalist for them.The light drizzle persisted too so the toboggan remained closed and we had to make do with the chairlift back down. Feeling a little down due to the weather we were given a great pick up by Mr Yang's restaurant that served up a fantastic array of local Chinese dishes that we shared for lunch before heading back to the hostel.
Once back we got ready for the acrobatics show and Michelle decided to join us too. We arrived at the theatre and were treated so some spectacular acts including some high rise balancing, strong men and "5 men on motorbikes in a circular cage". It was a great show and we were disappointed it only lasted an hour! Afterwards Michelle suggested heading to the famous street food market in Beijing centre. We thought this was a great idea and headed along. We were met with not your usual array of street food......live crickets and scorpions on skewers snake meat on skewers, star fish, whole turtles and BBQ frogs. It was amazing to walk around and in the end we all mustered up the courage to try some snake. It was a bit of an anticlimax as it just tasted like chicken but we agreed we had all tried something different and that we'd give the rest a miss!!
Our final day in Beijing was to be spent seeing the main sights of the city. Sadly we missed Michelle in the morning as she just left before we got down to breakfast but we headed out first to Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City. As expected it was very busy with lots of people taking photos and heading into the Forbidden city. In the end we decided to just wander around the square and just got into the first section of the city as friends had recommended the summer palace as a better place to visit. That's where we headed next and we were delighted that we ended up here instead. It was a huge area with a beautiful lake and lots to see. We walked round the lake before heading to the top of the highest temple we had been to.
From there we visited the market street and got a boat ride across the lake where we met Barack H Obama. Considering Mr Obama was a 23 year old Chinese guy we assumed he wasn't the most powerful man in the western world but we had a good chat and no doubt soon will all be friends with Barack on Facebook. We then headed to see a couple of the Olympic venues "the Crows Nest" and "The Cube". There was even a Man City v Arsenal game on at the crows nest that we considered getting tickets for but in the end decided beers and dumplings back at the hostel sounded a better option.
Our final night in Beijing was a great one and resulted in very little sleep before our flight the following morning. We meet the Aussies, Sref and a few others and made and consumed some dumplings as part of the hostels dumpling party. 8 of us then decided to head out for some traditional Beijing duck at a local restaurant. Sadly there was only one duck left which we weren't told until we had started our round of beers so we ordered a few more things and made do with the one duck. It was delicious, just a shame there wasn't more to go around. 6 of us then headed to a nightclub not far from the hostel where we partied until 4am giving us exactly 2 hours sleep before our 6am departure to Beijing airport. It was a great night and brilliant way to sign off our week in China where we all hope to go back to and spend longer as there are just so many other places to go and things to see. It's definitely on the list for another time.
it justice in such a short time. We decided to limit our stops to Shanghai and Beijing only and leave the rest of China for another trip when we have a few months rather than weeks to spare!
As we go from place to place there are so many places we have decided we will have to come back to - Adventure No. 2 is beginning to take shape nicely!
Shanghai 22 - 24 July - ahoy matey!
Arriving by boat into Shanghai was pretty cool! We sailed into downtown Shanghai on the Huangpu River which connects the Yangzi River to the East China Sea. We ported at the colourful ferry terminal just before we reached the famous Bund. We were glad to be on dry land and took in the sights as our taxi made its way to our hostel.
Our hostel had a restaurant on the ground floor and served up the best dumplings we had tasted so far! So good that we had them every day that we were in Shangai! After lunch we went for a wander into the big city - past the Peoples Park and down Nanjing Road to the Bund.
1st impressions of China are ace - really busy, loads going on and new food to try! Our first dinner was Hot Pot - slightly concerned that we would give ourselves food poisoning but all was well and our self cooked dinner went down a treat! We finished our first night in China with a beery toast on our roof top bar - cheers!
Day 2 took us on a wander round the French Quarter and Old Town. We did a spot of shopping and put our negotiation skills we honed in India to the test. Best tactic we found to work here is to appear really interested, push the price down as low as you think they will go and then appear to change your mind and walk away - 9 out of 10 times the traders will drop their "lowest" price by at least another 50%! Bargain! We went back to the Bund at night time to see the Shanghai skyline in lights and take some pics.
On our final day in Shanghai we went to the slightly dated Natural History Gallery where we saw some weird things in jars and lots of stuffed creatures. A good way to pass a few hours before heading to the train station for our overnight train to Beijing!
After some confusion about how to get our tickets and some last minute dashing about we eventually boarded our train and found our berths. We had the top, middle and bottom bunks and feeling a long way from home we all snuggled into the bottom bunk to watch Braveheart on Cal E's phone! With thoughts of home we all clambered into our bunks and tried to catch some sleep before arriving in Beijing the following morning.
Beijing - 25 - 28 July
We arrived in Beijing having all slept alright but no better than expected on the overnight trains. We fought our way through the crowds at the central station and made our way on the metro to the hostel. It fortunately wasn't too far away and before long we had found our dorm and had some well needed showers. We made a collective decision to have a quiet first day in Beijing. We got some lunch then spent the rest of the afternoon playing pool and drinking the excellent draft beer. We had a look at the tours and decided to book the tour to the great wall and an acrobatics show for the following day. The highlight of the first day was dinner that night. The hostel put on a "Hot Pot Party" which involved a big pot of spicy broth and then lots of lamb, prawns, potatoes and veg to cook in the broth. It was delicious (if pretty spicy) and the gathering round one pot meant we met some great people including a cool American, Michelle, a couple of awesome Aussies Nikki and Cherie and a great dutch boy Sref. We stayed up drinking with everyone (some for longer than others, ahem Calum E and one other) before heading for bed before the early start to the Great Wall in the morning.
We rose early for the trip to the Wall, feeling a little fragile from the night before we only managed some toast before jumping on the bus to enjoy an extra couple of hours sleep en route to the wall. Michelle was also doing the tour and we were joined by Norman, a Canadian teacher, so with the 5 of us we had a good group for exploring the wall. Unfortunately we were extremely disappointed to arrive at the wall when it was covered in mist and a "light drizzle" falling. You might say it was a tad driech!! We got the chairlift up which gave us a good view of nothing else except the forest below and toboggan run which takes you back down in dry weather.
We agreed to walk the longer side of the wall first and then back and end with the short/steep side. We were unlucky with the weather in the end as the mist only lifted momentarily for a couple of photos before descending again.
The 5 of us had a good laugh though and Cal Y acted as cameraman for Michelle's video blog which he still hopes will appear on Fox News soon as Michelle revealed she works as a journalist for them.The light drizzle persisted too so the toboggan remained closed and we had to make do with the chairlift back down. Feeling a little down due to the weather we were given a great pick up by Mr Yang's restaurant that served up a fantastic array of local Chinese dishes that we shared for lunch before heading back to the hostel.
Once back we got ready for the acrobatics show and Michelle decided to join us too. We arrived at the theatre and were treated so some spectacular acts including some high rise balancing, strong men and "5 men on motorbikes in a circular cage". It was a great show and we were disappointed it only lasted an hour! Afterwards Michelle suggested heading to the famous street food market in Beijing centre. We thought this was a great idea and headed along. We were met with not your usual array of street food......live crickets and scorpions on skewers snake meat on skewers, star fish, whole turtles and BBQ frogs. It was amazing to walk around and in the end we all mustered up the courage to try some snake. It was a bit of an anticlimax as it just tasted like chicken but we agreed we had all tried something different and that we'd give the rest a miss!!
Our final day in Beijing was to be spent seeing the main sights of the city. Sadly we missed Michelle in the morning as she just left before we got down to breakfast but we headed out first to Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City. As expected it was very busy with lots of people taking photos and heading into the Forbidden city. In the end we decided to just wander around the square and just got into the first section of the city as friends had recommended the summer palace as a better place to visit. That's where we headed next and we were delighted that we ended up here instead. It was a huge area with a beautiful lake and lots to see. We walked round the lake before heading to the top of the highest temple we had been to.
From there we visited the market street and got a boat ride across the lake where we met Barack H Obama. Considering Mr Obama was a 23 year old Chinese guy we assumed he wasn't the most powerful man in the western world but we had a good chat and no doubt soon will all be friends with Barack on Facebook. We then headed to see a couple of the Olympic venues "the Crows Nest" and "The Cube". There was even a Man City v Arsenal game on at the crows nest that we considered getting tickets for but in the end decided beers and dumplings back at the hostel sounded a better option.
Our final night in Beijing was a great one and resulted in very little sleep before our flight the following morning. We meet the Aussies, Sref and a few others and made and consumed some dumplings as part of the hostels dumpling party. 8 of us then decided to head out for some traditional Beijing duck at a local restaurant. Sadly there was only one duck left which we weren't told until we had started our round of beers so we ordered a few more things and made do with the one duck. It was delicious, just a shame there wasn't more to go around. 6 of us then headed to a nightclub not far from the hostel where we partied until 4am giving us exactly 2 hours sleep before our 6am departure to Beijing airport. It was a great night and brilliant way to sign off our week in China where we all hope to go back to and spend longer as there are just so many other places to go and things to see. It's definitely on the list for another time.
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