Roger and Stephen in Singapore: Beijing

Landing at terminal 3 at Beijing's International Airport was certainly a wow moment. The airport is the second largest in the world and terminal 3 was built to coincide with the 2008 Olympic games. The arrival hall is a massive dome and after going through immigration we had to board a train to take us to the luggage carousels. The train ride would have been at least 2 kilometres in distance.

We were staying in the central business district of Beijing and this area is also popular with Russians as a wholesale clothing market was close by and also countless fur shops that appeared to be quite busy. It was interesting to see the signs on the shops both in Chinese and Russian. Also the Chinese would address you in Russian when you entered their shops.

Security is tight in Beijing and we had to put our bags through a scanner when we were entering the underground metro and also entering Tiananmen Square. People with drink bottles were asked to take a sip of the contents of the bottles.
The crowds in the Square and the Forbidden City were overwhelming but we visited the Forbidden City mid afternoon which was much better.
We found it hard to get the bearings of the city compared to Shanghai as there was no river cutting through the city or distinctive high rise buildings to look for.
Getting around on the subway was very easy and a single ride cost 2 yuan which is about 30 cents Australian. The subways were certainly crowded at times and often we had to catch the next train as the train was too crowded to board.

The Olympic stadium and the Olympic swimming pool were very impressive at night lit up and the area is busy with kite sellers and other hawkers trying to sell you Olympic memorabilia! There were a group of young children speed rollerblading around a makeshift track and the speed and skill was amazing for the ages of the children.

Ghost St is a street comprising of many restaurants and the street is decorated with lanterns which are lit up at night. Many of the restaurants serve Peking Duck and with so many restaurants to choose from we decided to pick the one with the most locals as opposed to the ones catering for the many bus tours. It proved to be a good choice although we ordered to much food.

Another interesting district was Wangfujing Street and the side-streets that had many hawker stalls selling snacks such as deep fried scorpions, starfish, spiders and sparrows. Although the street was extremely crowded, we did not see many people partaking in the local delights on offer.

We took a trishaw ride through a Hutong district which is was very interesting and hard work for the trishaw driver. Hutongs are narrow alleys connecting the courtyard houses in the district. Many of these courtyard houses are disappearing for new developments in Beijing. The alleyways are certainly like a rabbit warren and with high walls of the courtyard houses I'm glad we had a guide to take us through as we certainly would be listed as missing in Beijing!

The weather was quite mild and the pollution was not too bad which was a surprise but that would all change for our trip to Xian.