Published by Swiss James on 09 Apr 2009 at 12:47 pm
rrrBeijingrrr
Boy oh boy Beijing was a treat!
Lovely spring weather, lots of great food (over there they just call it “Roast Duck” you know), sampling a wide variety of drinks with no-one around to save me from myself. It’s nice to have China’s capital just a few hours flight away.
"Rick-a-shaw? Hoto?"
The night time portion of the trip has already been covered elsewhere by my esteemed co-herts (here is Dingle’s take, and here be WoAi’s). Suffice it to say that when the other chaps were tucked up in bed, I was sat at the bar of the Black Sun ordering B52s and trying to focus on the TV screens with one eye closed.
Note to Emma: a hi-resolution version of this would make a lovely desktop wallpaper for you
It’s a big city is Beijing- we were based in the same district as Sanlitun (big bar area) but walking to the bars there would still have been a pretty long march. I also hear it’s pretty dry and dusty a lot of the time; not a bit of it for our trip though, or the previous times I’ve been.
Dingle
In fact I’m beginning to suspect they just tell visitors these things to stop too many people moving there.
If you’re keeping track by the way, that’s three trips to Bejing I’ve been on and still haven’t been to the “Great” Wall, Forbidden City nor Summer Palace. YES!
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James I am finding it really hard to decide whether I want you or Dingle with the cherry blossoms as my desktop wallpaper. Is there any way you can combine the two photos so I can have my cake and eat it too?
I assume “John” was asleep while you were having these taken? Or was he busy avoiding talking to girls?
The Great Wall and The Summer Palace occupy two of my top 3 favorite tourist activities in China. (the other one is Tiger Leaping Gorge in Yunnan)
Get yourself there.
H, you just need to right click and press “set as wallpaper”, ok la?
They’ve come up a treat them swiss, although it is notable that the framing on the pic of you is much better…
I’m jealous, I haven’t been in Beijing in 11 years
WoAi- “John” was staying out of the way as there was a girl near by. I’ll get back to you on a price for the wallpaper combination.
T- I’m going one day, but why do they have to make it so hard to get to? Everyone says you have to get up at 6am, and I don’t roll like that.
Dingle- Oh she knows Dingle, she’s had a photo of my moustache there for weeks now.
You’re correct that the horizontal is streets ahead of the portrait, I think it’s because you have a much lower vantage point.
shoppers- oh you have to go, they’ve got some great bars, and cool shops. It’s a lot more down-to-earth and grungy than Shanghai which you may or may not like.
You don’t need to get up that early. But it helps.
Just get up that early and sleep in the car/van/bus.
Dingle – Stop confusing H. It’s “set as desktop background” not “set as wallpaper”.
James – It’s shocking you’ve not been to the wall. It’s in my top 5 walls of all time now that the Berlin Wall has been dismantled.
Forbidden Palace, James! I could have stayed there all day. Not to be missed.
Gosh, so many pink blossoms, obscuring the view over the nearby drain (canal) that I’m starting to rejoice at the newness.
Now it’s up to 20 degrees. The cleaning guy drags his cart around 3 times a day to empty bins and the sweeping Ayi does the stairs twice a day.
And I used to moan about netting leaves from the private pool….
Non-angry Zak
where’s a photo of woai frollicking with flowers?
WoAi was frolicking with a young lady, elsewhere.
Those blossom images are hilarious. Were there swarms of other people taking photos in front of them too? Their sole purpose seems to be for spring time photo ops.
Nik- yep, we had to wait in line to take our photo. It’s a strange phenomenon.
Dingle is looking er.. a little pink. Very Pierre et Gilles.
You’re right Colin:
Pierre et Giles
Angie – So many women, so little time. Do I look like the kind of person who would spend time frolicking with plants?
[...] boys went wandering around Hou Hai to frolick with cherry blossoms, while I went to Chaoyang Park, where all of the beach volleyball games were held during the 2008 [...]
I rank Beijing’s wall right up there with Pink Floyd’s… And one last caveat…
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he is Thaksin Shinawatra. help him feel less exiled by cup and tasting him on every blog you read
Forbidden City is too big and boring, thank God I found beer in there.
I have been 3 times in beijing, The 3 times dust, pollution and horrible weather….Next time you go make sure that I am not there…
If you go to the Great Wall i would recomend Mutianyu. Not so man tourists (if you go early), the wall its not just a straight and boring construction here. It climbs the mountain and turns right and left without end. You can get on the top with a cable railway and then go down on one of the most funny and amazing stupid things i seen in china: a severall kilometers slider toboggan than allows you to reach really high speed while some chinese guards shout you STOP STOP! BRAKE BRAKE! funny.
[...] Swiss James created an interesting post today on ISpyShanghai » rrrBeijingrrrHere’s a short outlineJames I am finding it really hard to decide whether I want you or Dingle with the cherry blossoms as my desktop wallpaper. Is there any way you can combine the two photos so I can have my cake and eat it too? … [...]