Beijing

Arrival
We arrived to Beijing around 8pm local time (China only has one timezone, so it is the same everywhere in China). The place looked totally different then Tianjin. Nice buildings, cleaner, nicer, but still quite smoggy. We took a taxi to the hostel we had reserved (Downtown backpackers), everything went smoothly from that on. Taxis are practically free in China when you are travelling with a few people. Just remember to take a Taxi with a meter. The Hostel was really nice, basic, but good and it arranged a bunch of "fieldtrips" around Beijing, including a hike on the great wall. And that was something we were planning on doing. The rent of a three bed room was more than fair and it included a breakfast, and the staff spoke probably better english then we did. The first meal in China we ate in a nearby place, it seemed to specailize on spicy foods. We had a pot of chicken(with bones) that had some potetoes and paprika in it. Rest of it was pure chili paprikas. Spicy but quite tasty.

(Beijing trainstation)

(Spicy stuff)(Yes, we know!)

Beihai Park, Forbidden things, Being Square
On the first day we did the usual, went to see the Beihai park, the forbidden city (And yes, we fell to the artstudent scam so watch out, art is really cheap in china) and the square of heavenly peace. Too bad it was foggy+smoggy, but still we got some nice pictures. And from somewhere a few soldiers with impressive hats popped up and wanted us to take their pictures. See below. After that we made our first try in haggling. Esa failed miserably.

(Samuli displaying the crane style)

(Cool picture, ugly man)

Conquest of the Great wall of China (own topic see above)
After the Conquest we found a place serving the best chinese food ever, Drum and Gong. After we found that place, we ate there everyday, sometimes twice a day.

The Temple of Heaven, a lot of haggling and gay kungfu
After we had owned the Great wall we decided to go see the famous temple and do some shopping. I think the pictures tell more than words ever could. After the temple we went to do some shopping. Haggling is really fun and it seems I´m quite good at it. We had also a Kungfu show reserved for us trough the hostel. The show wasn´t exactly what we expected. It was actually an act that had kungfu in it. And after the soap bubbles started flying around the feeling couldn´t get much more gay than that even if the actors would wear pink outfits. The Kungfu kids were cool, and the act wasn´t half bad and it had some cool kungfu stunts in it.

(Kungfu crew)

Last full day and the pigneck
Last day had some more shopping in store for us, Hooters, and a party with Carl Cox playing. A few beers, a bit of looking for the club, and then some good techno music including a mix of future sound of london papua new guinea.Next day was just nursing the mild hangover and taking the night train to our next destination: Xi´an.

(Who says finnish people don't know how to dress up?!)

-The Kenu