Sacrifices and cadavers

I feel like we had a little bit of a China Day today. We made it to Xi'an, but this hote, the Xi'an is not, as Ms Joe described it, at a great location. It's outside the walls and away from the bright lights and I've only had pot noodles and junk food for dinner...

This morning we checked out of our hotel in Beijing and caught a taxi to the Temple of Heaven. The temple is actually a complex of buildings located within a park. It was here that the Emporer and his retinue sacrificed animals to the gods in order to ensure a good harvest.

I wanted to sacrifice some of the singers making awful noise in the park, like shrieking birds. Chinese song cannot be defined as music. Or maybe it's just the effects of karaoke, the single worst invention in the history of mankind.

We were walking the wrong way through the complex, from north to south. So we hit the highlight first, the Hall for Prayer for Good Harvests. The empty space around this octagonal/circular building highlights its impressive architecture. It's colours are rich reds, blues, greens and gold and it sits on three levels of white marble.

The marble carvings come in three types - the dragon, the phoenix and clouds. I especially like the dragons poking horizontally outwards from the walls. One type in particular looks fat and silly rather than fearsome. He even has flat teeth.

From the park we walked around to the nearby Museum of Natural History. The animated dinosaurs and various animal skeletons are particularly interesting. Other exhibits would be more so if their English captions were better. The aquarium section smelled like a fish shop.

The most gruesome exhibits were not, as the Lonely Planet says, on the top floor, but in a separate white building near the exit gate. Here were human cadavers and organs, cut away to demonstrate different parts of the body. There was a tank containing just the male sexual and liquid waste disposal system, baby and children's faces half cut away to show the brain and teeth. I guess some would find this disgusting, but for me it was a fascinating anatomy lesson. Chinese parents seemed to have no problem with it either, as they showed their young kids around.

We walked back to our hotel, past recently demolished hutongs. Vendors were hawking hairdressing wares outside one, including bunches of human hair. We passed some local shops and bought some sweets, or so they claimed to be for we both found them awful.

After purchasing some souveniers of the Beijing 2008 Olympics from the shop beside Tiananmen Square and some more footslogging we finally reached the hotel. Our legs had given up.

Both of us slept a short while on the taxi ride to the airport, though I did catch a glimpse of the ancient observatory and crumbling remains of the city wall. I wonder if the driver pushed a button to speed up the meter, because the fare cost us more than RMB100 and seemed to tick over quickly near the end.

Beijing's airport is quite nice. There are actually decent food places after security, prior to security your best bet seems to be in the basement where a number of food vendors reside, including KFC. The pre-pay system dissuaded us from eating there, despite our hunger. Anyway, we were running out of time.

Our Hainan airlines flight morphed into a Chang'an Airlines Airbus 319, but I don't pretend to understand Chinese airline ownership. Clean aircraft, fairly comfortable and the announcements were in Chinese and sometimes unintelligible English. We even got a box of noodles or rice, a bun and pickles on the plane, though I found my inedible. I couldn't believe they continued to serve during turbulence, although considering the whole flight was rough I guess they had no choice. I couldn't wait to land.

At Xian we ignored the taxi touts and hoped on a minibus. The "conductor" did her best to explain in English that our stop was a distance away from our hotel. We passed motorways and parts of the city wall lit up like some futuristic world. Xian seems to be an interesting place and I am now regretting our short stay.

Once off the bus we made our first big taxi mistake, with a tout grabbing our bags and hustling on board, then refusing to use the meter. At the hotel RMB13 turned into RMB30 and he took our RMB20 note and drove off. Bastard, but our fault.

The hotel seems designed to absorb our money, though at least the internet access is free (I hope). The bellboy who brought our luggage (he wouldn't let us take it up ourselves) redeemed himself by being very friendly and helpful, assisting us in changing rooms when we were given a twin instead of a double (we did ask Ms Joe for doubles!).

It was late, we were away from any shops and only the western restaurant was open and changing high prices. We were "forced" to purchase pot noodles from the hotel shop. The hotel has no message to say that we are booked on tomorrow's tour of the terracotta warriors, despite us having paid for it. Finally, I can't find my ATM card - must have misplaced it.

I hope things are back to smooth tomorrow. I'm tired (too much late night blogging) and a little disappointed with the results of letting someone else book. I don't like this hotel's location and I don't like the one in Shanghai either. For both places I had better options I found myself. Already I'm wondering if we are pushing things too quickly now.

Time to relax for tomorrow's early start.

Forbidden City and the onwards journey

We now know what we are doing for the rest of our time in China. I returned to the CITS headquarters before 9am and met Ms Joe to book our onwards itinerary. Over two hours later we had thrashed out a plan.

By this time B had come looking for me. Joe had to contact the various other agencies to book our travel and told us to return at in an hour. So we checked out of our hotel and grabbed some local "pancakes" from a small vendor. When we return Joe still had more to do, so we caught a taxi to our new hotel, the Novotel Xinqiao and dumped off our bags.

We then walked a kilometre and a half to Ti'ananmen Square. It was the final day of the Communist Party's Congress and the square was closed off by soldiers and security officers. So we continued walking up through the Gate of Heavenly Peace, Mao's visage gazing down upon us.

The Forbidden City was, to be blunt, a disappointment to us. A couple of the major palaces were hidden by scaffolding and sheets as they underwent a major renovation. This removed the feeling of grand history of the location.

The audio guide, now without Roger Moore and instead looking more like a Bond gadget with location lights on a map and wireless postion sensors, was a waste of money, suppling only a little more information than the signs. At least the crowds were not too bad. In fact, we had few problems with crowds at any of the sights in and around Beijing. Perhaps March is a good time to visit! Tomorrow will give some indication of the differences between weekday and weekend crowds.

Exiting the Forbidden City from the rear, we returned to Wednesday's location opposite Jingshan Park. We took a different route back to the CITS building, walking past trendy little stores and through a hutong. We stopped off to buy some little dough and vegetable balls, hot snack food, from a small vendor.

I followed Joe out of the CITS shopfront and up into the main building. In order to make train, hotel and tour bookings the travel agents need to contact local branches of CITS, who in turn contact the hotels or buy train tickets in bulk. Thankfully the airline tickets are electronic now, but the rest of the system seems very inefficient.

I made the payment up in their offices, paying the 4% credit card surcharge, then we returned to the shopfront. Joe then required time to write up the itinerary for us and for the local agents. So we returned to the nearby restaurant where we ate the previous night, this time eating noodles and half a Peking Duck. Not as good as Quanjude, but still tasty.

Finally, by 8pm, our itinerary and tickets were finalised. Everyone else in the office was long gone. We presented Joe with a cake for her extraordinary efforts. She was so much more helpful than any other travel agent we have dealt with before. What is more, she was prepared to let us travel independently rather than pushing us on tours. We did choose a couple of local tours, but for these there was little choice anyway.

Though it did take up a big chunk of our day, I'm glad we booked the rest of the trip now. It would not have been fun to repeat the exercise continuously at each stop, not knowing if there were seats available (it did happen a number of times today).

Here goes:

• Mar 17 - Fly Beijing to Xian
• Mar 18 - Xian tour
• Mar 19 - Fly Xian to Chengdu - drive to Leshan and the Big Buddha
• Mar 20 - Chengdu, visiting the panda research centre
• Mar 21 - Fly Chengdu to Yichang
• Mar 22 - Hydrofoil up the Yangtze to Fengjie and return to Yichang
• Mar 23 - Tour the dam, overnight train to Nanjing
• Mar 24 - Explore Nanjing, overnight train to Huangshan (Yellow Mountain)
  
• Mar 25 - Climb Huangshan, overnight on summit
• Mar 26 - Overnight train to Shanghai
• Mar 27 - Shanghai
• Mar 28 - Shanghai, intend to visit Suzhou and canal town
• Mar 29 - Fly Shanghai to Guilin
• Mar 30 - River cruise to Yangshuo, fly to Shenzen
• Mar 31 - Hong Kong
• Apr 1 - Hong Kong to Tokyo
  

It's more rushed than perhaps is good, but there are rest stops built in. Anyway, it's done.

Took us an hour and a half to walk back to the Novotel Xinqiao, after getting a little lost and passing through the Oriental Plaza, a refuge for foreigners. I prefer the Novotel Peace Hotel, calmer atmosphere, but this is okay.

There has been a lot of electricity between B and I in Beijing and the sparks have been flying between us. Yep, the air is cold and very dry and there is a lot of static build up. At least the dry air means that clothes dry quickly. Over the previous two nights we have hand washed our clothes in the bath and hung them around the hotel room to dry.

I think that we will miss Beijing when we leave. It is a grand city of wide boulevardes and imposing buildings, yet narrow alleyways and tiny shops are never far away. Now to see what the rest of China has to offer!

The Great Wall

The Great Wall of China is truly one of the world's great engineering wonders. I have read much about it recently and seen many photos. But they cannot prepare you for standing upon Chang Cheng with your own feet and seeing the wall snake across the tops of the mountains with your own eyes.

We had booked a private car to take us to Jinshanling and to pick us up from Simatai, expensive but convenient. Mr Zhao was waiting for us outisde his black "limousine" (not stretched, okay). The best word to describe him would be "oily". His balding hair was permed at the rear, hairs falling on the his white woolen jumper, he had a silver earring. However, his English was good and he was quite talkative.

The drive was at times smooth, at others downright terrifying. We took the expressway out of Beijing city, passing by Beijing's often decrepit satellite towns. According to Mr Zhao twenty years ago Beijing's government had wisely moved industry out from the city proper and out to these towns in order to improve the air quality. It showed. Rather than Beijing's mildly smoggy air, here the air was thick with smoke. I could smell it in the car.

As we passed into the hills around the Miyun Reservoir we could see big gutted fish hung from trellises beside the road, available for sale. Unlike the expressway the road was now nominally two lanes. Beijing drivers tend to go very slowly. Out here, the little blue tri-wheel trucks and overloaded vans chugged along even slower. Mr Zhao and other drivers would get impatient and we would overtake on the opposite side of the road, often into incoming traffic. We just had to trust his skills, but it wasn't easy.

Approaching the destination, we could see the wall running along the tops of the mountains. We stopped at a shop for some snacks, not having had any breakfast or even brought any food; our fault for waking too late.

Jinshanling's car park was quiet. The hotel and restaurant seemed closed, although we saw a German group walking in the opposite direction. The cable car was also shutdown.

We were alone as we took the bush path up to the Hairou Pass. The only indication that we were going the right way was the shoeprints in the mud. Soon snow drifts appeared to the sides, then on the path itself, interspersed with brown mud. The grass and small shrubs lining the path were all grey and yellow with winter.

As the path wound upwards we were joined by a young hawker. He pointed out where to walk in the snow for grip. I was glad for the grip on my new shoes but already B was doubting that she could handle the 10 kilometre walk ahead.

Our "friend" was soon joined by one of his own. Zhang Tie Jun could speak some English, the original, younger man, Zhang Guo Jun could not. Together the pointed us up the path and helped B when she started to slip in the ice.

At last we made it up to the top of the dirt path and arrived at the brick battlement marking the start of our walk along the Great Wall proper. The Jinshanling section of the wall is unrestored with very steep, broken steps and stones. I often had to climb up the steps on all fours.

After each set of steps we would wonder if we could make it all the way, but the brilliant scenery drove us onwards. The going was slow, walking and climbing punctuated by recovery breaks, but more by photo shoots. The land was brown and white, rock, dry grass and snow. Across the tall ridgetops snaked the wall, punctuated by watchtowers. After a few watchtowers the elder Zhang told us the way was now downhill.

Not quite, for we would go down, then up to the next watchtower atop the peak. And further own we could see the wall rising high into even taller mountains. But it gave us hope and made the walk easier. Certainly the walk became easier as we became more practiced.

Eventually we made it to the Simatai section. The two Zhangs said their goodbyes, asking us to purchase a book and t-shirt respectively at prices that were high. But they had helped when we needed help, took photos of the two of us (saving B from asking the rare other hiker) and had proved to be pleasant companions. What could we do but pay them? To do otherwise would have been wrong and I don't care what the Lonely Planet would say.

The Simatai section was partially restored and much easier than the Jinshanling stretch. However, when we finally reached the exit we no longer had the energy to climb the steep stretch up the other side of Simatai and high into the mountains, higher than we had been before on the wall. I think that, after no breakfast or lunch, our bodies had finally run out of energy, so we left the wall and walk the 1.3 kilometres to the carpark and exit.

The Simatai restaurant was surprisingly reasonable for a tourist trap. We just needed to eat. A young Texan, alone in the restaurant, told us that he wished that his group had taken a private car rather than a minibus tour. I gather his journey wasn't very pleasant.

We found Mr Zhao asleep in his car. Then it was back from the (smoggy) blue skies above the Wall into the smog around Beijing, the afternoon sun red above leafless lines of poplars. At one village we had to detour around an injured dog lying on the road. I wish that we could stop for him, I hope that the person walking towards him helped the friendly looking canine. It made me think of Kita, our puppy, and hope that he was safe with our in-law's dogs, a sad element to the day.

On our way back to the hotel Mr Zhao took us past the Beijing Olympic site. The main stadium, the "birdsnest", looks more interesting in design than any other stadium that I have seen, while the bubbled rectangular prism of the swimming centre is very impressive. I have a feeling that Beijing will have a very good Olympics.

We also passed by the artificial mosque towers, trees and other strange designs of the "ethnic minorities" museum. After forcing his way into oncoming traffic, Mr Zhao finally brought us back to the hotel.

We made it as far as the lobby before leaving again to the China International Travel Service headquarters across the road, to make some onward bookings. Ms Jo was extremely helpful, staying back past their 5pm closing time to assist us in looking at our options. It's a pity we didn't do this earlier, otherwise we could have caught the train to Lhasa in Tibet. Maybe we still can, if we leave enough time for someone in some other city to arrange the permit.

For now, I think that we may discard some of our plans and follow a more traditional route. So far it's fly to Chengdu, then back to Xian and onwards to Shanghai. From Shanghai we will see where else we can go. B doesn't want to catch trains, though I still do. Tomorrow morning we will go in to make our bookings. Some other westerner rudely pushed in after us and demanded assistance booking flights to other parts of Asia, despite being told that no bookings were possible. Giving foreigners a bad name.

We went looking for a supermarket to buy fruits, but I don't think that supermarkets play the same role in China as they do in Australia. We did find a whole lot of interesting local snackfoods and bakeries. Then, after giving up, there on the corner was a couple of street vendors selling pineapples, apples, pears and strawberries. Yum!

Changing hotels tomorrow, so we can spend an extra day in Beijing.

Marble boats and fried scorpions

We've done it! Tonight we ate scorpion and silkworm on a stick. The former was just a crispy shell and the silkworm so disgusting that it did not go down the throat but straight out into a rubbish bin. Crispy on the outside, squishy inside. Awful! In fact all of the street food that we ate along Dongfuwen Street tonight was bad.

It was an unpleasant end to an otherwise good day. In the morning we started walking towards the Forbidden City. I found the Lonely Planet China book to be too big to carry around for city use, so we purchased an LP Beijing City Guide from the Wangfujing Foreign Book store. You need to ask at the information counter where they are hidden.

Breakfast was purchased from a street vendor selling pancakes topped with egg, spring onions and chilli paste. Delicious. At one point the vendor ran out of batter in the middle of cooking a pancake and one of his customers popped into the booth and continued cooking her breakfast!

We then changed our mind and decided to go to the Summer Palace instead. This involved three different metro lines and a taxi ride. The taxis are scary, weaving across the road, narrowly missing other cars and pedestrians. Fortunately, the traffic is slow, unlike in Sydney.

Walking around the Summer Palace was a very pleasant way to spend the day. Crowds were few, allowing us to wander without constantly running into tour groups. We watched musicians and dancers perform on stage, playing bells and drums. It's a long hike up the hill to the Tower of Fragrant Buddha, past Tibetan style architecture, but visually worth it.


I wish that we had time to walk around the lake, across the many stone bridges. Instead we walked to the famous marble boat. It wasn't as impressive as its reputation would suggest. The boat does not actually float, but then neither can it sink, a good omen for China. The Lonely Planet states that the boat was built using money earmarked for modernisation of the Chinese navy, but according to the television documentary Around the World in 80 Treasures the boat already existed before the Dowager Empress Cixi's reign, but that she had had it redecorated with paddle steamer wheels to represent modernity. She sounds like a nasty piece of work, does Cixi.

Another taxi ride took us to Jingshan Park. We ate a delicious beef and vegetable noodle soup and pork and shallot dumplings for lunch in a small shop. Basic, but very tasty. Then it was on the back of a trishaw for a tour of the hutongs. The rider's grip of English was basic, but he really tried.

The hutongs were not as impressive from street level as they appeared looking down upon them from the train. However, it was a very pleasant way to spend an hour. The guide stopped us outside on hutong and an old lady showed us around for a fee of RMB20 per person. She did not speak English, but had descriptions written on cards. Expensive, but interesting and she seemed nice.
We had to go to an ATM when we realised we didn't have enough money to pay the guide. We are so unfamiliar with living in a cash society now.

Rather than catch a taxi, we decided to walk back to the hotel from our location. On the way we stopped in at Jingshan Park, climbing yet another hill to another pagoda. Wonderful view of the Forbidden City.

And so it was that we arrived back at the food stalls along Dongfuwen Street and learned that not all Beijing food is delicious.

Off to walk the Great Wall tomorrow.

From Hong Kong to Beijing

I am writing this on the train to Beijing. We are near Zhengzhou in Henan Province. The brown stained concrete apartment blocks are back, bare deciduous trees between the gaps, untouched yet by Spring. The sky is grey, with morning myst or coal smog I am not sure. I'm certain that, for the first time since we arrived in Asia, I saw some blue somewhere behind the cloud.

Stopped at Zhengzhou station and the lights are out, just like at Guangzhou. It is dark inside the compartment, I guess the locomotive is in the process of being exchanged, hence the lack of electricity. B is watching the Chinese portion of the “Around the World in Eighty Treasures” documentary that I copied from the television and on to a Personal Media Player. The narrator, Dan Cruikshank, visits the Forbidden City, Great Wall at Jinshanling, Summer Palace, Xian and Shanghai and eats silkworm and snake from a street vendor. All part of our plans – maybe! I hear B laugh out loud and crunch on the Korean prawn crackers we brought along as snacks.

We had spent our last morning in Hong Kong sleeping in, after a late night (very late night for me, posting to the blog). Finally packed, we left our bags at the hotel and wandered the local area in search of food, as usual taking forever to decide. She wants congee (rice porridge) or roast duck, I could stomach neither. Our explorations took us past a street devoted not to restaurants, but to supplies for restaurants; burners, cutlery, plates and more. We tried to purchase a couple of plastic mugs for the train trip, but all sales were in bulk only.

Lunch was finally eaten in a decrepit shed adorned with photos of stir fried dishes. It looked local, although the english signs were an indication that their clientel may speak languages other than Cantonese. I swear that it was B, not I, that ordered the sweet and sour pork. I went for pretzel fish (fried fish pieces in batter).

With some bananas and mandarines in hand, purchased from a street vendor, we rushed back to the hotel to collect our bags and onwards to Hung Hom train station, with a couple of MTR and KCRC train changes along the way. In a hurry, as usual leaving everything to the last moment.

Passing through Chinese immigration was surprisingly simple, no x-ray checks at all. A uniformed train attendant exchanged our paper tickets for decorative tickets. Our cabin is decked out in beech wood, brass fittings and pink and white fabrics, two low beds separated by a small table. There is a luggage storage comparment above the door, though it is mostly full of linen. The doors are lockable and there is a small brass level that, when extended down, prevents the door being opened fully. We feel a lot safer for this. The attendant can lock the door for you if both occupants need to leave at once.
There are plenty of examples of mangled English throughout the train:

“Beware of Nipping Hand”
“Needles and threats are provided for your convenience.”
“Do not panic, squeeze or jump off the train”.

The route out of Hong Kong passes by the tall tenement blocks and hills of the New Territories. Many looked much cleaner and newer than those we had passed by in Kowloon. The architecture and the tropical greenery are reminiscent of many of asian locations, Korea, Japan, even Malaysia.

Barbed wire and Chinese flags mark our transition from the Special Autonomous Region of Hong Kong into China proper. Gleaming new office skyscrapers with golden windows and pink tiled residential blocks proudly displayed the new money of Shenzen. Yet soon the cityscape disappear, to be replaced by fish farms and vegetable gardens. Small cities with buildings of dirty grey concrete and peeling paint. Everywhere demolition, with people living amongst the rubbish. The rubbish is ever present, colourful bags, bottles, plastic and everything else besides, building materials brick and concrete. Vegetables growing amongst the rubbish make you think, do I really want to eat that food?

I get an SMS from a Chinese mobile phone network, welcoming me to their country. Then another SMS from Mum announcing the birth of my niece. I SMS back a congratulations to my brother. Global roaming is great!

I see water buffalos and ancient looking sampans in canals. B is already asleep on the comfortable bed. As dusk falls we pass by a river running through mountains, hinting at beautiful scenery obscured by the dark. I wish that I knew where we were.

Dinner is a meal of stir fried beef and crab omelet in the dining car. Thankfully Hong Kong dollars are accepted for we have not had a chance to exchange them for yuan. We are seated behind a posh looking Australian couple and child. Australians everywhere the last few days, but then there are plenty of Chinese and Hong Kong citizens in Australia. It is the first time I have taken dinner in a train dining car and the food is surprisingly good.

B soon returns to sleep after the meal, but I lay back and read a book, listen to mp3's. Occasionally I peak out the window. As we pass though one city I see a very bright blue search light's beam stabbing across the sky from atop a skyscraper. Other white beams cross its path. It's a scene out of science fiction.

I sleep well during the night, only woken occasionally by a sharp bump. The cabin really is comfortable and it is good to have a decent rest.

I awake into a pale dawn landscape of bare poplars, birds nests in their branches, and cultivated fields. Frequently a village passes by, decaying red brick walls and tiled residences, looking old and very poor. On the doors and gates are red posters for the Chinese New Year. In the fields are burial markers for the ancestors of the villagers. Workers in their blue mao suits congregate or cycle out into the fields to begin the day's work.

The filth in which people live is astounding. Decay is everywhere, buildings are crumbling. And yet there is a certain beauty, a sense of age that cannot be found in Australia.

Occasionall, we see something that defies explanation. There were a series of pyramidal structure in the middle of a field. What were they? Then, after Zhengzhou was a giant sculpture of two heads at the edge of a hill. Who were they?

There is so much out there to see and so much that I don't understand. I am glad that we have caught the train rather than fly. We would have missed out on so much.

At last we arrive at Beijing West station. We pass through immigration, then exit out into a large square. Everywhere are locals, standing around, chatting, smoking, staring. Where do we go from here?

We wander along the main road in front of the station, pointed in that direction by a policeman. Taxis race past until we stick out a hand. The driver doesn't speak English, but seems to read a little. I have written down the Chinese name of the hotel, the Novotel Peace Hotel, in Pinyin and he says he knows the way.

All the buildings seem of monumental size, office blocks and genuine sights. The road is broad but still leaves little room for the constant weaving of the cars. As we approach the front of Tiananmen Square we pass a large silver dome. It's not on our maps or in the Lonely Planet. B asks the driver what it is, but he cannot make himself understood. Eventually, during a lull in the traffic, he reaches for our phrasebook and finds the English word he is looking for. “Theatre”.
The taxi ride to the hotel costs us maybe A$8. We give the friendly, helpful driver a clip-on koala, for making our trip in a nice experience.

The room in the Novotel is huge, especially in comparison to Hong Kong. The corner windows give a view towards Wangfujing Street, the television plays the National Geographic channel, but the internet is an expensive 1 RMB per minute, up to 100 RMB for the day. The hotel is super convenient for exploring central Beijing.

After a relaxing train ride we both have energy to burn, so we go in hunt of the Quanjude Duck restaurant along Wangfujing Street, past the department stores. It is easy to find, with a big neon sign. We are ushered up to the 5th floor.

The interior of the restaurant is ornately decorated in red and gold with a painted ceiling and glass chandeliers. A chef prepares the duck in front of our eyes, while a waiter demonstrates how to assemble the ingredients for the Peking Duck, duck skin and meat dipped in sauce and laid across the thin pancake, cucumber, chilli, garlic and spring onion added, then fold over the pancake. Eat. Delicious.

One whole duck provided the meal for the night and we leave very full. Not really expensive in comparison to Australia.

Afterwards we wandered the shopping strip on Wangfujing street, searching for a jacket for B. The only shop selling the jackets included an extremely pushy saleswoman. So pushy she pushes us out with her truly incessant haggling (and we know haggling). Eventually we end up in the same shop purchasing from a different woman who at least let us try some different styles. A$25 is about one tenth the price for a down jacket in Australia. B is feeling really cold and all the locals are rugged up. My fleece keeps me warm, I can't tell what the fuss was really.

On the way back to the hotel we detour along the night markets selling a wide variety of snack foods, from fried ice cream to fried scorpions. The worst is the big bowl of stewed dogs penises. I promise B that tomorrow night I will try a skewered insect, but I'm looking forward to the other dishes more.

So many things to do in Beijing. Tomorrow is the Forbidden City and whatever else we can fit in. Will three days be enough?