Arrival in Beijing

Arrived in Beijing yesterday on a flight from Xi'an. Beijing, it has to be said, is totally obsessed with the Olympics. I mean, I know there are only 3 days to go, but literally every lamppost in the city has a flag with some variant of "One World, One Dream" on it.

We met up with Cherry and her two nephews last night and they're going to be here for the next 12 days, the same as us, so we have tour guides again!

Beijing is rumoured as the city of smog, and I must say a definite haze was hanging over the city when we arrived yesterday. Although the locals assure us that it's much better than it used to be - so the mind boggles! Cherry tells us that the traffic isn't as bad as usual because only cars with numberplates ending in odd numbers drive one day and even numbers the next, effectively halving the traffic.

Last night Cherry took us out to an area of Beijing - don't ask me where - and we went pedal-boating on the lake. It was great fun, although I had to step in and do some steering because we were in danger of capsizing at one point！ Afterwards we had a walk around some shops/stalls and took in the atmosphere.

Now, I am not usually one for complaining about Youth Hostels being grungy, but the place we are staying in (P Loft) takes the biscuit. For the extortionate price of $34 I was entitled to toilet, but no sink, literally a cell made of grey bricks with 4 people in it, no room to put the luggage at all, and most importantly of all no air conditioner! So it was rather like sleeping in a furnace - it must have been 35C in there and no exaggeration. It made the outside seem quite cool. Was forced to strip down the duvet and sleep naked with the duvet cover just protecting my modesty! More on this later. Barry, meanwhile, had had his reservation messed up so they had put him in a single room with ensuite and air conditioning! Lucky boy!

After approx 3 hours sleep(!) Barry and I and one of Cherry's nephew's went to pick up the Olympic tickets. Thank goodness he came with us as I think we'd still be wandering around now! Luckily all was well, we found the place and we're in row 26 of section M on 15th August 7pm-11pm. It's rumoured that the 100m relay is that night but I can't be sure!

Later this morning we met Cherry and her nephews and went to see a garden. Apparently the only way to translate it is "Garden that the British and French Armies burned" So we gelt suitably guilty on behalf of our people as we went round! It was pretty hot today, and Cherry and Barry felt they were dying of heat-stroke. Perhaps it is the effect of sleeping in such a ridiculously hot room, but I didn't find it two bad. Perhaps those two blistering Japanese summers made me 'ard ;-)

In the afternoon we went to have a look around an electronics village, but the prices weren't cheap at all - mostly the same as at home, but at times more expensive! and mostly the same stuff．　Ｔｈｉｎｋ　Ｉ＇ｍ　ｇｏｉｎｇ　ｔｏ　ｈａｖｅ　ａ　ｌｏｏｋ　ｉｎ　Ｈｏｎｇ　Ｋｏｎｇ　ｉｎｓｔｅａｄ！　

Ｈｍｍ，ｍｙ　ｆｏｎｔ＇ｓ　ｇｏｎｅ　ａｌｌ　ｆｕｎｎｙ．　Ｎｅｖｅｒ　ｍｉｎｄ．　

After looking around the electrics, we made our way back to the Youth Hostel with Cherry in tow because she wanted to have a shout at the management about my sleeping hell-hole. Which she proceeded to do. It was all in Chinese, but I understand that she played the Olympic card "How can you enjoy the Olympics on 2 hours sleep a night" and so on. Anyway, I think Management were scared of her because the upshot of it is that they have given us a free upgrade to a twin room with air con for the rest of the 11 nights we are here (hooray!) It normally cost 960yuan against 240 yuan for a dormitory, so go Cherry!!

So it's looking good from a sleeping point of view for the rest of our stay. Tonight we went out to dinner with one of Cherry's friends from Essex and his wife. It had some very interesting translations on the menu. These included:

- Stewed forest frog's ovary in ice sugar
- Give birth to and fry the one of mushroom of lark
- Snake (meaning "Snack")!
- High Happy
- Aloe turtle and mythic fungus cream
- Tiger boils the sirloin in overcast work
- Highest ranking imperial Chicken leg

None of those sounded too appetising, so in the end I went for the duck. Well, this is Beijing after all ;-)

Now I am retreating to air-conditioned bliss and a nice sleep!