Have you been drinking?

We still cant get our brains around the fact that in less than a year it is THIS city that will be hosting the Olympics! The organisation and craziness is mind boggling! Dont get us wrong we've had an amazing time exploring the sights and making many a sales girl angry with fierce bargaining but the Olympics....seriously?

Day one: we arrived at the airport and smoothly found our way to the city shuttle bus but for the life of us once in downtown Beijing could not get a cab to our hostel. We tired everything... evenutally J found one lingering in a side street and in broken chinese and exchanges of notes we finally managed to get to our hostel. At our hostel we booked in for a night at the Kung Fu Mastery Show. Which was in a word, amazing! The things some of the men could do ... crazy! The height they can jump and spin to in the air would make you think they were on strings!!! Plus the weapons used during the second half of the show... wow! They were smashing their heads against what you would swear was lead! AND in one act one gentleman laid down on sharp blades and had a bed of nails placed on his stomach which another man laid on and then with a plank of wood across his stomach another man smashed it with a sledge hammer! But perhaps the funniest thing of the evening was racing the little chinese women for good seats! you see in China you are not assigned a seat number for shows you just buy your ticket as early as possible and then its every man for himself as the doors open! ..... we got great seats! hahahaha

Day two: The Great Wall!!!! WHAT AN EXPERIENCE!!!! Waking up at the ridiculous hour of 5:30am and boarding a bus we drove 2 hours out to Mutianyu. An amazingly section of the wall comprising of both restored and unrestored sections, numerous watchtowers and steep climbs! When we arrived we took the chair lift to the wall and were the only people on the wall for MILES! The benefits of getting up early are two-fold, no one is on the wall at that time AND the hot chinese sun is not out yet! We had three hours on the wall and climbed roughly 7kms. Very exhausting!!! That evening we headed to the Acrobats, which was quite disappointing - it really was nothing like we had seen earlier in Guilin!

Day three: we walked rounghly 30kms covering the forbidden city, tiananmen square, mao's resting place, the bell tower, drum tower and the famous hutong area of Beijing! The forbidden city was amazing, despite the fact that large sections where engulfed by scaffolding! In the evening we had a great street meal. A hotpot of chicken, vegetables and rice - which fast became the best meal we'd had the entire trip!

Day four we visited the Lama Temple, which for all the hype was really just another temple, with another oversized buddha! We also spent a very painful hour on a boat trying to get to the summer palace!!!! Which had come so highly recommended. Disappointed with the Summer palace and the sworms of Chinese tour groups we decided to head home via bus... which was twice as long and just as painful as the boat! Crowded, smelly and blantant being stared at which we paid 2.5 yuan each for the pleasure! And yes, the Olympics are being held here in LESS THAN A YEAR! Should be interesting....

Day five and six we possibly spent more money than on our entire trip! But we did shop up a storm!!! Jarratt is one fierce bargaining and Bec plays a good second (support) fiddle. That is when she isnt giggling at the whole situation! But picture this..... One rip off designer bag starts at 1250 yuan, so J in a countering move throws out a ridiculous 20 yuan.... when you have seen the expression on the sale girls face first hand and are able to not laugh I'll be impressed. The BEST bit is that without blinking J manages to get the bag for 80!!! WHY OH WHY DO THEY START SO HIGH!!!!!! Over the days of shopping we became a very good team and left many a miserable sales girl in our wake!!! While weaving through the markets we became all to familiar with the following choice phrases when throwing out our 'best price' for things such as: "You're Killing Me!"; "In which money? Euro?"; "No joking price, Serious now!" and Bec's personal favourite for when J counter with 20 yuan for a polo when the "special price" was 240 yuan the girl shouted "Have you been drinking?" At the end of day five J was told by one VERY impressed Sales girl that he is a 'better bargainer than most asians!'

Tomorrow we are getting up at 3am to leave our hostel at 3:30am to arrive at the airport at 4:30am to check in at 5am for our 7am flight to Dubai... and boy!!!! are we thrilled at the idea!!!
Talk soon,
Bec and J.

PS - apologise to all, stamps are a bit of a novelty here in China and incredibly hard to find - unless you want the collectable kind. So while we have the postcards (in our VERY packed backpacks now) they will most likely be sent from London!