We made it to Beijing!

Yes, we made it! It's a fantastic place, too. Beijing seems to have everything: it's clean, people are friendly, it's modern and things work, it seems really safe, and yet it's still by far the cheapest place we've been to so far. The weather is also fantastic here at the moment (around 25 degrees) which is really nice after the freezing nights camping in Mongolia. And the food is a hundred times better, too!





We arrived here two days before China's National Day (1st October) when the whole nation takes a week of holiday. Plenty of people told us it's a crazy time to be travelling in China but we figured that if we had managed to book transport into China and accommodation in Beijing then it couldn't be too bad. It turns out (of course!) that they were right and we were wrong; it is absolute chaos around any tourist attraction (we tried to get to Tiananmen Square to see if there was anything happening on the 1st, but couldn't get near enough to tell!). But it's so nice here that we really don't mind taking it easy for a week and waiting for the tourist madness to die down a bit.



On our first day we went shopping and managed to find ourselves a new camera at quite a bargain price. After selling us the new one they told us they could mend the old one for around 50 euros, and true to their word, they did. So now we have two cameras! But the new one seems much better than the old one, so no harm done.



Yesterday, after our failed attempt to get to Tiananmen Square we spent some time in a nearby park (Beihai Park) and then went for a walk around the hutongs (narrow alleyways around the older traditional residential areas). There we found a massage place, and decided to go for it as we were quite tired from all the walking. We both took a half an hour back massage, and although it hurt like hell, I think that part of the experience was quite beneficial. But, stupid tourists that we are, we don't know when to stop. So when they offered us some traditional Chinese medicine, we thought "why not?" Famous last words...! Our backs were scraped with something which felt like a fine toothed comb until we were almost bleeding, and then rubbed with some kind of oitment. I stopped at this point but Mikko went one step further. They offered him the "cupping" treatment, which is apparently supposed to straighten your spine. At this point I'd like to say a special thank-you to my Mum and Dad for blessing me with a straight spine! So, they burn something inside glass cups so that it creates a vacuum and the cups stick to your skin and suck your skin inside the cups. Im still not sure how it's supposed to straighten the spine though, and the masseur "doctor" didn't have the English skills to explain. It wasn't very pretty to watch, but according to Mikko, it was not as painful as the scraping thing we both suffered. One day (and one sleepless night) later, we are still bruised, and feeling quite foolish! :-)



Today, we've had a more lazy day. We went to an impressive Lama temple and did some more walking around, trying to avoid any of the major tourist hotspots, and any centres of Chinese medicine, and stopping off regularly to refresh ourselves with a local Tsingtao beer. We're psyching ourselves up to getting up early tomorrow to check out the Summer palace. But another day of lazyness would suit me fine too!