Princess and Toolmans adventures: China: Beijing

We arrived from Shanghai on our bus, which now smelled of smoke and spit. Cultural differences are sometimes hard to sleep next to. Tired and needing somewhere quiet and clean, we got into a taxi and handed the driver the hostel address on paper.

We arrived to the hostel, which was right next to Beijing train station in the middle of the city. This is the train station across the road.

Our room was nice and had cable TV. We rested and watched CCVT-9 - the only Official English Chinese news channel. Very interesting to hear the official government take on issues (aka spin/PR), both local and abroad.

One of the first things we did was visit the Vietnamese embassy to acquire Visas for our forward travel. It was going to take 5 days, so we handed in our passports in and went off to explore Beijing.

While walking around we found an Audi showroom, and Toolman was lured in by the shiny cars.

This is the new Audi R8. Toolman really wants one of these.

They are new and expensive.

The Audi Avus quattro prototype was very nice also. The whole body is aluminum and is mirror polished.

Also while walking around, we learned something to be careful of. The student below, came up to us and asked to talk English with us as practice. After a few cursory lines, she invited us to go see some artwork. We had time, so we went along.

Of course, this is where the "everything is for sale" started. We ended up with a painting done in front of our eyes by a "master" professor. He came in and started drawing, and we were then told that the paper cost $10. Umm when did we ask for that? It got a bit akward, and we eventually just paid the $10 or so.

It is supposed to say something like "Toolman and Princess are in love". Its kinda pretty, but the scam was a bit annoying.

This was really just a hard sell tactic; we met a couple who had a similar experience turn into extortion! This couple,who we'll call the Norways, befriended a small group of English students. The suggestion was made to go and try some different teas out from a nice tea shop. After a few sips of tea, the the students left and bill was presented.

US$800

Owch! The bouncer there enforced the fact that there were no options but to pay the debt; there was little the Norways could do but pay.

As awful as it was to them (sorry guys!) it made us both feel a little better about our brush with scams.

It so happened that we meet the Norways that evening, when we went to see a Chinese circus booked through our accommodation front desk.

The bus drove us to the theater, and we sat next to the Norways and ended up chatting. The show was excellent - all sorts of agility, flexibility and strength displays.

When we assembled at the bus afterwards, the driver realised that he had locked the keys inside the bus! After some unsucessful breakin attempts, he put us in a taxi and pre-paid the driver. Nice thanks.

We found a local snack that is yummy; its a very thin pancake, with a spicy sauce, egg and chives all cooked on top. Its then folded or rolled up. Mmmm!

In our travels around the city we saw bits of the upcoming Olympic buildings;

This is one of the main stadiums, dubbed by the media as the Bird's Nest.

This is the swimming complex, dubbed by the media as the Water Cube. Toolman saw a documentary on the bubble building - the bubbles are for insulation, as well as styling. Didn't get to see them properly, but I'm sure the Olympic coverage will give us plenty of looks at them.