Beijing

China was a breath of fresh air after Mongolia. As soon as we crossed the border everything started to go green and the magic of the Chinese culture began to unravel. Gardens, small communities, farmlands and chinese writing! Oh yes! We have reached some kind of civilisation at last. First impressions of Beijing were that it was a modern and clean city...and finally we had arrived to some heat. The hostel that we stayed at was pretty close to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Everything is being redeveloped for the Olympics so its a little bit of a mess on the streets. You can look forward to seeing plenty of "traditional" chinese buildings all painted in grey with fake bricks attached to the walls with red trim on your screens when the Olympics starts. The first thing you notice about Beijing is the smog. After visiting other cities in China I doubt that it is all down to pollution. I think that China gets a pretty bad rap from the west. China is an incredible monster and reform in regard to pollution/manufacturing is a slow process. We read that some Olympians were pulling out of the games to due to the pollution. Their loss. The Chinese are not stupid. They are going to impress the pants off everyone. Once they stop the factories for two weeks and shoot that shit up into the sky to make it rain it will be perfect weather with beautiful blue skys.

It's a pity i loath athletics....

Beer is cheap in China - And good! Tsingtao large bottles were less that .50p and thats kick ass! Food is also fantastic but where there is no english and you are just pointing at pictures it can be kind of random. I had a lovely dish of what appeared to be spicy, battered, fried chicken bones with cashew nuts.

Yum.