Beijing

We arrived here late on Saturday - it was after midnight. We had no hotel reservation and just headed for Chaoyang - the party district - hoping to find a place to stay. So we walked around aimlessly for 2 hours before we finally checked into some place. we were too tired at that point to do any more walking.

the next morning - or more like afternoon - we took off to explore Tiananman square and the area around it. it was sunday and the square itself was pretty busy - loads of locals being around. it didnt take long before we were approached by a group of girls claiming to be students - one of the most obvious and best known scams.



the heaven peace gate (or gate of heavenly peace) looked amazing with a large picture of Mao hanging above the gate [check the picture below]. it seemed like he was watching us.

we spent the evening ain chaoyang - dinner being an all-you-can-eat place for about 4 euro with an endless supply of self-draught beer. the rest of the night we spent around sanlitun (bar) street where we had endless fun (and beer) until 3 in the morning.



the next morning we checked out of our hotel to move a few hundred meters down the road to check into a clean and friendly hostel which is only about half price. we then left to explore the forbidden city. we expected the visit to last about 2 hours - however we spent much more time here just seeing all the buldings and structures housed. the forbidden city seemes like a big maze - us never really knowning where to start and where to continue. shawn said something really funny which describes it perfectly : "how did the emperor get around ? ... he probably used a tourist guide himself."