End of Beijing

Hi Everyone!

 

Sorry for the delay in postings, we have found it challenging to update our blog in China as the government does not allow Blogspot.  As it is pouring rain in beautiful Yangshou, we'll spend some time updating you on our latest adventures!

 

I believe Lisa left off at the Great Wall of China.  I'll do my best to fill you in on the rest of Beijing (Gillian here). 

 

We woke up tired, with very sore butts and legs but with full hearts after our spectacular day on the Great Wall of China.  The mood was an interesting one, as it was going to be Cat's final day in her Asian hometown of Beijing, and we were all so moved after our Great Wall trek the day before. 

 

The morning took us to Cat's favourite place in Beijing, the Summer Palace.   The Summer Palace is a huge area in Beijing with a number of temples, gardens and a man-made lake, it was so large we easily spent a morning wandering around!  For those history buffs among us, the Summer Palace was built in the 18th Century as a kind of resting place for the Emperors to visit, and to escape Beijing's blistering heat for the summer months.  We thoroughly enjoyed a lazy morning of popsicles and wandering.

 

Here we experienced something we've become pretty familiar with by now (but is still quite funny).  As four Westerners, we've attracted some quite interesting attention.  Not the same as in St. Lucia (where we get marriage proposals from the locals), but here the other tourists (who are 99% Asian and probably 95% Chinese) whip out their cameras in the hopes of capturing us Westerners busy enjoying the sights.  At Summer Palace, there was a particularly interested gentlemen who had a camera in one hand, camcorder in the other and followed about 6 inches behind us for a good 20 minutes.  Awkward.  Our response?  All four of us whipped out our cameras, turned around and got right in the guy's face, taking hundreds of shots of this totally unsuspecting Asian man.  I felt like the paparazzi following Jon & Kate, it was quite hilarous.  He immediately cracked up (and probably realized how creepy his lurking was) and after that we were pretty much left alone. 

 

After we departed the Summer Palace, we wandered over to another of Cat's favourite areas, old Beijing, featuring hutongs (old homes), where we met with Dave, one of Cat's exchange friends and had a fabulous lunch of hot dogs, complete with cheese whiz (for Justine only, as the can ran out after her dog).

 

Then, off to Beijing's man-made lake where we stumbled upon the much welcomed site of a STARBUCKS!!!!! YAY!!!!!!  Of course, it cost us more than a night at a hostel but it was SO WORTH IT.  Note that in Beijing, to get a Tim Hortons type quality coffee, you're looking at spending more than your entire day's meals would be, so we'd been caffiene starved up to this point.  We enjoyed our coffees by the water and chatted about books and movies, which was quite lovely.  For the Canadians reading, you should note that China chooses one Western movie per month and permits it in the theatres (all the rest don't make it across the ocean), so Cat and Dave were VERY behind on the latest trends in Western film, which made the conversation particularly interesting. 

 

After a fabulous day in Beijing, we returned to Cat's apartment to say goodbye, pack our bags and set off on our next journey, one that has brought us to the beautiful Guilin and Yangshou.