Beijing - Friday 04 May

Last day in Beijing - yippee! We've seen some great sights and have experienced a different and unusual culture, but this is one city i'm not sad to leave and have no inclination to return to. I'm really not sure how this city and it's inhabitants will be able to cope with the influx of westerners for the Olympic games next year, and they are a long way off with infrastructure, amenities, language and manners. But I suppose anything is possible...

This morning we set off in a cab ($5 for a 25 minute drive) to visit the Temple of Heaven, which is more park than temple but has exceptional and unique Ming buildings. Basically it was built in 1420 for the Emperor, who came here to pray for good harvests. Again we experienced the tourists galore but it wasn't as quantified as yesterday. We also experienced the Chinese pretending to take photos of their friends/family but there camera was focused at us. And we'd turn around to find others standing behind us while someone took a photo with the tall westerners. I thought I'd get my own back and start running up behind people who were having their photos' taken. A couple of people were surprised, and once they realised what was happening they were more than happy for me to be in their shot. Others welcomed us girls with open arms. Welcome to the family Aussies!

Ok we didn't stay too long here, as you start to get sick of looking at Chinese architecture - it's all the same. So we trotted off to the Pearl Markets which is a massive warehouse of six levels, the top three being pearls and jewellery, where we did our first shopping, our first bargains of the trip. We bargained fabulous deals for silk place mats, wine holders, cushion covers, journals....a pretty funny experience because we're all good bargainers. When we were trying to bargain, we gave the price we wanted to pay the lady and she was yelling back to us "no, no, this is a killing me price! you killing me!". It was hard to bargain with a straight face. haha So we left the markets with a berry berry goot price - you kill me lady! and went down to catch our cab home. We love the cabs here!

Later Rani and I went DVD shopping while the other girls washed clothes. The washing was so much harder than it should be. For six levels of the hotel, including the capacity of housekeeping, there was a cupboard with one tiny washing machine and a drier that could only hold 4kg at a time and dry your washing in over 2 hours. Right outside the door was all the washing housekeeping needed to do for the next day. Ouch. We needed to get ready for our rickshaw ride at 4, so we thought we put in a whites wash . . . and we broke the machine so had to decanter all our whites out of the machine again, already encrusted with soap suds. It was pretty funny and we were laughing about it though. I actually had to go out and buy undies for the next few days seeing I doubt we'll see a washing machine for the most part of next week in Mongolia. The only ones I could find were beige coloured granny undies in the equivilent of a $2 shop. I even tried them on over the clothes I was wearing because I had no idea how I was going to fit into chinese womans size undies, and once the store owner realised I was actually trying them on, he obviously didnt think I should have been but didn't know how to tell me not to and was fighting with himself as to whether he should tell me not to or just turn his head. He turned his head, I bought three pairs and we were off in search of cheap dvds.

4pm was a rickshaw ride through the old city. A rickshaw for those who don't know is
a bike attached to a small carriage seat. A guy older enough to be my grandfather peddled Rani and Dom while Katie and I were looked after by a younger bloke. Lisa our tour guide was excellent. She talked openly about the one child policy and the lengths some families go to ensure that their one child is a male. We also learnt about the virtual line that runs from the north to the south of Beijing that runs through the Tianamen Square, Forbidden City, Prospect Hill, the Bell and Drum Tower and now the Olympic City. Only rich people could live on this line. We climbed the drum tower to view a 2 minute drum spectacle that meant it was 5pm. In ancient China the bell was drummed on the hour every hour during the day to tell the time, at night, the drums were beaten as it was quieter. We also learnt about the class statuses. If a family had four blue beams on their door, they were very rich. No beams meant poor. A stone drum meant the family was from a military family, a book meant scholars. Colour = rich, no colour = poor.

So after a very interesting tour, we were driven home by our rickshaw peddlers and checked our washing in the drier . . still sopping wet. Turned it on for another 2 hours and went out to dinner for a brilliant meal of snow peas, tofu, squid and leek pies. SO incredible on the taste buds. Yummo.

So now we're back from dinner and shopping and just preparing ourselves for a 530am start tomorrow morning. We're catching a 7:40 train to Ulanbaatar (Mongolia) that's meant to be about 13 hours.

Oh, and the best part of the evening has been discovering that Rani and Dom are one level up from a brothel. That's right, you read correctly, level two of our hostel is reserved for those men who wish to rent rooms by the minute. It has disco mirrored walls and funky red carpet and a big guy who pushes you out when you enter. . . nice!! Goodbye Beijing.

As we will be somewhere in the desert in Mongolia without computers, I won't be blogging again until sometime next week. Fun times ahead, and we've just heard from another traveller that's just arrived from Mongolia that she had the time of her life at the Ger camp - horseriding, archery, bon fires, vodka rituals around the bon fire...I can't wait.