A perfect first day on holiday with my Dad!
Up about 8.30 and went for a buffet breakfast! Awesome. I have been eating really well and was quiet skinny. Normally I have porridge for breakfast. This morning, in contrast ,I gorged myself silly. Apparently, just because there are loads of dishes to choose from on a buffet breakfast does not mean that you have to try them all. What madness this is! People who think that are obviously not biking round the world on a budget...
It took about 2 hours for me to finally stop eating and drinking endless cups of coffee. It was lovely to have a chilled, relaxed morning. We decided to walk around Bejing and to the Forbidden City in order to take in the place.
We tried to walk via the bike hire shop (to choose a bike for my Dad for the next few days) that has an arrangement with our hotel to provide bikes. The hotel gave us a map to get there but when we arrived it turned out that they had moved and where now located in a different part of the city. These 2 lovely girls tried to help us find it and also showed us their art work. They were students at the university and where trying to sell their paintings. The paintings were actually really fantastic and my Dad bought one.
It was about 3pm by the time we actually arrived at the Forbidden City. We hired a guide to take us round. He was very informative and fun. He even managed to handle me and my Dad remembering all of the dates that he quoted and asking difficult questions.
Mao was ever present at the entrance to the City.
The Forbidden City was extremely impressive and very very big. The detail on the art work was incredible. It is amazing to think the Chinese had such a developed civilisation while we were still throwing mud about the place in England.
Our guide took us to meet a man who was allegedly the last Empirer of China's Uncle. We really were not sure whether this was a scam or not! He apparently sells his calligraphy and donates the proceeds to the restoration work. His shop is in a room within the city so it seemed unlikely that it was a scam but it was so strange. We did not want to buy any calligraphy for £100 and shuck his hand but then did not really know where to look or what to do as our guide tried to persuade us to buy his works.
The Chinese associate dark skin with being poor (as do most Asian cultures) and so the umbrellas were out in force!
Tweety Pie enjoyed his day trip.
After the city our guide took us to the public gardens to the North of the Forbidden City and to a Chinese tea house where we could sample the different teas. It was of course a tourist trap and the tea's were very expensive but we really enjoyed the whole experience. Dad bought some teas and a silly little peeing Budda.
This little girl had made fab wings.
There was also some amateur Opera going on in the middle of the park which was fun to stop and listen too for a while.
The trees in the gardens were camouflaged.
It did not look like it was far from the Forbidden City to the Opera house on my map and we were surprised when the taxi drivers tried to charge loads of money to take us. I knew that on the meter traveling by taxi in China is actually very cheep. Eventually as it got closer and closer to the performance time and we were worried we would be late, we jumped into a little motorcycle taxi thing. What a good call that was! It was about 5km from where we were and we would have missed the performance if we had tried to walk. The motorcycle taxis can travel on the cycle lanes and so he by-passed all of the congested traffic and still only got us there with about 2 minutes to spare before the start of the performance! He was a really funny chap and seemed to love to race to get us there.
The Chinese Opera was great fun. There were 2 parts. The first half was about 30mins long and was literally just 2 actors singing about trying to get on to a boat - that was it! No other story line.
The second half was acrobatics of a group of people trying to capture or kill the Monkey god.
It was all very flamboyant and sounded a bit like a dying cat but is was fun.
We had good seats close to the stage with a table and nibbles. Very civilised but very touristy. I wonder where the Chinese people actually go to see Chinese opera?
We had actually walked about 35km by the end of the day according to my GPS and we both had blisters on our feet. We got back to the hotel about 11pm. What a great day :-)
Up about 8.30 and went for a buffet breakfast! Awesome. I have been eating really well and was quiet skinny. Normally I have porridge for breakfast. This morning, in contrast ,I gorged myself silly. Apparently, just because there are loads of dishes to choose from on a buffet breakfast does not mean that you have to try them all. What madness this is! People who think that are obviously not biking round the world on a budget...
It took about 2 hours for me to finally stop eating and drinking endless cups of coffee. It was lovely to have a chilled, relaxed morning. We decided to walk around Bejing and to the Forbidden City in order to take in the place.
We tried to walk via the bike hire shop (to choose a bike for my Dad for the next few days) that has an arrangement with our hotel to provide bikes. The hotel gave us a map to get there but when we arrived it turned out that they had moved and where now located in a different part of the city. These 2 lovely girls tried to help us find it and also showed us their art work. They were students at the university and where trying to sell their paintings. The paintings were actually really fantastic and my Dad bought one.
It was about 3pm by the time we actually arrived at the Forbidden City. We hired a guide to take us round. He was very informative and fun. He even managed to handle me and my Dad remembering all of the dates that he quoted and asking difficult questions.
Mao was ever present at the entrance to the City.
The Forbidden City was extremely impressive and very very big. The detail on the art work was incredible. It is amazing to think the Chinese had such a developed civilisation while we were still throwing mud about the place in England.
Our guide took us to meet a man who was allegedly the last Empirer of China's Uncle. We really were not sure whether this was a scam or not! He apparently sells his calligraphy and donates the proceeds to the restoration work. His shop is in a room within the city so it seemed unlikely that it was a scam but it was so strange. We did not want to buy any calligraphy for £100 and shuck his hand but then did not really know where to look or what to do as our guide tried to persuade us to buy his works.
The Chinese associate dark skin with being poor (as do most Asian cultures) and so the umbrellas were out in force!
Tweety Pie enjoyed his day trip.
After the city our guide took us to the public gardens to the North of the Forbidden City and to a Chinese tea house where we could sample the different teas. It was of course a tourist trap and the tea's were very expensive but we really enjoyed the whole experience. Dad bought some teas and a silly little peeing Budda.
This little girl had made fab wings.
There was also some amateur Opera going on in the middle of the park which was fun to stop and listen too for a while.
The trees in the gardens were camouflaged.
It did not look like it was far from the Forbidden City to the Opera house on my map and we were surprised when the taxi drivers tried to charge loads of money to take us. I knew that on the meter traveling by taxi in China is actually very cheep. Eventually as it got closer and closer to the performance time and we were worried we would be late, we jumped into a little motorcycle taxi thing. What a good call that was! It was about 5km from where we were and we would have missed the performance if we had tried to walk. The motorcycle taxis can travel on the cycle lanes and so he by-passed all of the congested traffic and still only got us there with about 2 minutes to spare before the start of the performance! He was a really funny chap and seemed to love to race to get us there.
The Chinese Opera was great fun. There were 2 parts. The first half was about 30mins long and was literally just 2 actors singing about trying to get on to a boat - that was it! No other story line.
The second half was acrobatics of a group of people trying to capture or kill the Monkey god.
It was all very flamboyant and sounded a bit like a dying cat but is was fun.
We had good seats close to the stage with a table and nibbles. Very civilised but very touristy. I wonder where the Chinese people actually go to see Chinese opera?
We had actually walked about 35km by the end of the day according to my GPS and we both had blisters on our feet. We got back to the hotel about 11pm. What a great day :-)
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