Enemy of the State

Allo,

For some reason, this blog falls foul of China's government firewall which blocks questionable content to China's inhabitants, so we can't actually see it ourselves. There's probably some way round it, but I haven't worked it out yet. I'm not even sure whether this is going to post properly or not, but I'll give it a shot anyway.

Wonder what we've said that they don't like? Hope they don't catch us before we get to Hong Kong.

Anyway, hello from Beijing. Unfortunately, because I wasn't really paying attention when I had to tweak our itinerary to fit in with the train times, we're only here for 2 full days, so it's all a bit rushed. Today we had a look round the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. Tomorrow, we're off on a walking tour of part of the Great Wall. Then we head off to Shanghai the next day.

What we have seen of Beijing so far, though, is very nice. Between us and whoever we're talking to, there's normally enough knowledge of English and/or sign language to get our message across. And if the people trying to sell tourist crap are a bit too persistent, stringing together random German words seems to confuse them enough for us to make our escape.

The hostel here is great. It's in an old courtyard-style building in one of the Hutong districts about 400 yards away from the Forbidden City. The room's tiny, but there's a common-room which is warm, comfortable and the staff are friendly. I'd recommend it.

Now, it's about time for dinner, so we're off to find a restaurant. Or the maybe the night market; Triny's fascinated by the idea of starfish-on-a-stick. Can't say I'm too keen on it myself. I might have to stick to the beef or something equally boring.