Alan is writing the blog although we’ve done very little today, so it won’t be a long one.
Today was our last full day here in Beijing before we fly back home. I can’t believe the last 4 weeks have gone by so quickly. It’s always the way when you’re on holiday. Having said that though, I think the 3 of us will all be happy to leave China behind. We enjoyed our time in Shanghai, but Xian and Beijing really have not been to our liking. The people are just so rude and selfish that it leaves something of a bad taste in your mouth. When we’re getting off a train, having to fight our way through people who simply refuse to move to the side of the doors while they wait to get on, is annoying. As it is when we’re standing in a queue at a shop, or buying tickets somewhere, and someone just pushes in front of us. And why they all feel the need to spit everywhere is beyond me. I fully realise this is all the way they’re brought up and their nature, but that doesn’t make it ok. All right then, rant over. I did get groped by a Chinese man twice in the subway. Not sure whether I should be upset or flattered.
We had no plans for today, so the toss up was whether to go to the Forbidden City, or the Olympic venue. We settled on the Forbidden City. Outvoted again, the bastards!!!! We had made the long walk there 3 days ago but didn’t go inside. This time, however, we caught the train there. The subway here is easy to use. There’s a station just near our apartment and we just have to go 1 station, change to another line, and go another 3 stations and we’re at Tiananmen Square and the entrance to the Forbidden City.
It was about 7 degrees when we went out this morning, so quite a bit warmer than when we walked here on that bitterly cold day. We walked through the crowds up to the ticket office, all the way being approached by dodgy locals offering us tours. We’ve learned over the past few days to simply say no and continue walking. One guy thought we were Americans and had something derogatory to say about them.
Once inside, we found it was much the same as the area leading into it; very large paved courtyard areas surrounded by buildings. On and on we went, with the crowds, through gates, up and down stairs and ramps, seemingly never getting anywhere and being shoved out of the way by rabid locals whenever there was anything of note to look at.
We did some Chinese military type personnel running through exercises.
We could see a pagoda high on a hill in the distance. We didn’t fancy walking all the way up to that, see we headed back. On the way we looked in some of the many side rooms which house relics from past dynasties. There’s some pretty neat stuff in there to look at. Apparently the Forbidden City contains over 8000 rooms. I think we probably walked through about half of them today.
We exited through the east gate and were happy to find a little cart to transport us back to the main entrance. It actually only took us back to the ticket office, saving us maybe a minute or two of walking. So we wandered back to the subway station and caught the train. We went into the shopping centre next door to our apartment building to find some lunch. We decided on a Chinese place and had a decent feed. It does seem rather difficult to get a Coke around here. Today when I asked for one, they brought me an orange juice instead.
We came back to our room and had a rest after lunch. We thought we may get to the Olympic site this afternoon, but that didn’t happen. When we woke up, Sarah was very dizzy and her head was spinning. I think she was dehydrated. Our room was too hot while we were sleeping, plus she was under the doona.
After she recovered, Sarah and I went out tonight scouting for a suitable restaurant for our last dinner here. We had 3 options and when we returned to our room, the 3 of us decided on Japanese. It was a pretty good meal, like the ones Sarah and I had enjoyed when we were in Kyoto 3 years ago.
Back in our room now and preparing for a long day of travelling ahead. We check out of here at around midday or just after, so we’ll probably head to the airport then and wait for our flight which is due to leave at, I believe, 4.40 pm. We fly to Singapore and if all goes according to plan we’ll be just in time for our connecting flight to Sydney, (if the flight arrives on time, we will have about 80 minutes between flights) which should see us home at lunch time on Saturday. There are 4 cute little fuzzballs who will no doubt be happy to see us, although they may punish us for a little while for having left them again.
Well that’s about it. Sarah will do one last blog to wrap things up some time on the weekend after we’re home.
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