The Great FIREWALL...homeward bound

So, we've been in Beijing for a few days now and again, the blog isn't working because we are back in China.... oh well.. i can post and i'l upload photos another time!

Anyway, I can't believe we'll be heading home tomorrow. I feel like i havn't been home in forever but at the same time everything past very quickly. The past few days have been great. We climbed the great wall our first full day in the city. We woke up early to drive 3 hours out of town to go to a part of the wall that requires a 4 hour hike. We weren't told the conditions and the lady said we could do it in our flip flops no problem... ahahha right. There we were deserted on the great wall, Julie was feeling sick and we had an 'english speaking guide' who didn't speak english and all the locals were laughing at our choice of footare. We didn't have a choice because our runners were long gone in Thailand since they wer taking up souvenir space as well as being really really stinky form the jungle treck. The wall was amazing though. This section of the wall isn't visited as much and isn't completely restored o it was a peaceful experience. I expected to be surrounded by Japanese tourists in yellow hats but it was just us and 2 other couples ahead. We weren't prepared a tall fopr the 4 hour hike up and down stairs however it was well worth it in the end. The end bit of the wall was much more populated and i realized how lucky we were to have done the hike without so many people. It really would've changed the experience.

The next day we visited the Forbiden City and Tianamen suqare. The Forbidden city was beautiful and housed many ancient relics from its time. It was also massive. We were expecting a huge building and a few courtyards however each gate opened to an entire other setion larger than the one before. Tianamen quare really is just a masive square but neat to see anyhoe because of its history.

Yesterday we visited the temple of heaven park and were pretty much the only foreign toursits which was great. The locals use the park as their backyard and practice tai chi, kareoke and traditional dances... and anything else they feel like, chinese checkers (maybe they're just called checkers here??), cards... It was great fun and the temples were beautifully detailed. We followed by a visit to the antique market where i bought a great shadow puppet made of leather and then to the silk street market where i bought way more than i needed... These markets are insane.. anything you want you can find ...and a lot of things you didn't think you wanted but you do! It was halrious to bargin with the ladies. They would start at 340RMB and i would say no way maybe 40RMB and then it would continue like this until i purchased the item for 60RMB....and thats not the craziest price. They opften quote 10 times the amount they end up selling it for. It was the best to walk away and be chased by little chinese ladies when they realized you weren't going to budge and gave in anyway screaming "okay okay special price, lucky day for you...Canadian ..Canadian..okay..okay".

And finally, today we went to see the olympic buildings including the 'birds's nest' and the aquatic center that looks like a masive ice cube. It was diapointing that we couldn't get very close at all since everything is under such high security but it was great to see. The bulding are absolutely massive. From there we walked..foprever and finally decide dto take a taxi to the Hutong (i think thats what its called) This refers to the old narrow street of Beijing. It was really neat to see such change in the city. It is obvious the government has celaned up everything and built many walls top enclose the thing they cannopt clean up. The hutong walls were all painted greay and lgith grey which was disapointing because you really had to use your imagination to feel what it might have been like in Beijing hundreds of years ago. It was however amazing to see so many small abodes that people still live in in such tight spaces coutryard after courtyard. Later, we went back for some last minute bargainning at the silk street market for more things we couldn't resist!

Well, i better get packing all the goodies, i hope i have enough room! I can't wait to shower without wearing flip flops and to eat fruit and vegetables oh and cheese too!!!! mmmm cheese.. i'm thinking my welcome home meal should be Duffy's wings..mmm hot honey garlic here i come!

Can't wait to see everyone!