Beijing

Arrived in Beijing nearly a week ago now. Was a bit of a shock arriving from Mongolia, the least densely populated country in the world, but have got used to all the crowds of people everywhere and have been enjoying the city. Spent the first couple of days looking round Tianaman Square and the Forbidden City, which are both very impressive due to the size of them. Yesterday I went to the Emeprors summer palace, which is a bit further out of the city and is set around a massive lake. Also had a day trip out to the Great Wall. The restored sections of the wall closest to the city are also very crowded so I went on a tour with a few other people to a section a bit further away that hadn't been restored. Spent the day walking along the wall up in the mountains, so it was a very nice break from the crowds and the smog in the city. Went to the Beijing Opera in the evening, which was very strange to see but quite enjoyed it. Luckily there were subtitles at the side of the stage in both Chinese and English because without them you would have no idea what was going on. The costumes and everything were all very elaborate but I think there was a lot of symbolic gestures and things that were all a bit lost on me, but it was good to see even if the singing was a bit painful at times.

So far the food in China has been very good, a lot more varied then in Mongolia. Never really now what you are going to get though, but sticking to the rule of only going in places where there are only Chinese people and not Western people seems to be working well. Went to the night market for dinner one night. There were loads of stalls baisically selling skewers of anything and everything, things like scorpians, starfish, seahorses, centipedes (and thats just the things we could recognise).

Have also speant alot of time just walking round different areas of the city, as the place is so varied. There are very modern areas with massive skyscrappers and roadsd with 8 lanes of traffic and then 10 minutes walk down the road you can be in an area of narrow alleyways where everyone is on bikes and rickshaws, so its a very intersting city to be in. Its definetly developing fast and they are getting ready for the olympics next year. Went passed the main athletics stadium and swimming pool. They are not quite finished yet but look amazing.

Staying in Beijing until the weekend and then I'm getting the train to Datong, a city about 6 hours from here. other than that I still don't actually have much of a plan where I'm going to be going in China