We flew into Beijing on Monday morning after enjoying a mini upgrade to premium economy. That small bit of extra legroom and greater recline on the seats does wonders.
We spent the first day wandering around and grabbed a pedalo on a lake near the Forbidden City. The well regimented changing of the guard passed us as we walked around the walls of the Forbidden City - topped off by the guy at the back carrying a tray with a box of noodles and chopsticks. I think he was assuming no-one was looking.
Our travelling companions for the first two weeks arrived later that day and we popped down to a nearby lake for food and an evening drink. Live music is the order of the day - we passed something like 30 bars in a row with live musicians playing to crowds of up to 2 or 3. The one bar which didn't have live music was rammed. I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions.
Beijing is a lively city and it's real charm is in the old hutong parts of town. So much of those areas have sadly been swept away to make way for almost ever present high rise - the city's unique features have been dismantled in favour of generic modernity.
On Tuesday we made our way up to the Great Wall. Not much more to say about that than has already been said, save that it appears that a country's defences are only as good as the people manning those defences. Turns out the Mongols found it relatively straightforward to get through if they gave the guards the correct incentives. Those of you who know the Wall will not be surprised to hear that the bit we went to had a toboggan run down to the car park - Ellie (one of our travelling companions) ignored the "slow down" cries to her detriment and has the friction burns to prove it.
Yan and Marc (whose wedding we are half way through as I write this) arrived on Tuesday evening and gave us our first introduction to turtle (amongst other exotic dishes). It was then on to the incomparable KTV - an all night karaoke experience - with a remarkably random set of English songs. Lingering memories include O Come All Ye Faithful - made all the more bizarre by the video which they had twinned it with. It started with Buddhist temples and moved on to a Chinese couple wandering around a park. Fear not, they had classics too - including the Final Countdown and Lennon's Imagine. It was probably the first time I had read Imagine's lyrics properly. He appears to think the afterlife provides an unwelcome distraction from the present - I think he and I differ on that front - for me, it provides hope.
As karaoke wrapped up at about 5am, we trotted down to Tianamen Square for the flag raising. We thought we might be all on our own, but were mistaken. Literally thousands of others were there to see a small number of troops march to the north side of the square and raise the flag. Once the flag was up and the music had stopped, quick as a flash they were all gone again as they disappeared into Beijing's wonderfully efficient (and air conditioned) underground system. It appears that it is a ceremony that most Chinese are expected to experience once in their lives.
Wednesday and Thursday were dedicated to Beijing's classic sites, which were great but I won't bore you with the details.
