China - Xi'an (part 2), Hangzhou, Shanghai, Qingdao and Beijing

As we've moved further north, we've really started to warm to both China and the Chinese people. We had a great last day in Xi'an and made some friends whilst visiting the Terracotta Warriors. We made our way to the Muslim Quarter together in the evening and ate our fill of random meat sticks (goat, dog, and rat probably) from the street vendors. I think its fair to say that I (Gareth) may have had one two many beers in the bar that night, as I threw all of my toys out of the pram when Tara tried to drag me to the airport the next morning. I'm still not quite sure how she managed to drag my moaning hungover carcass to the airport that morning and onto the flight to Hangzhou.



Hangzhou is a beautiful city just south of Shanghai. Our hostel (4eyes backpackers hostel) was just south of the city on the edge of the large West Lake that borders one side of the city. Hangzhou is considered one of the tourist hotspots for Chinese people, and our strolls along the lake would have been slightly more romantic if we didn't have to share the place with a trillion Chinese people in matching red tour baseball hats. Much to Tara's distaste, we discovered that Hangzhou is an ideal city to cycle around. So we took to two-wheels and cycled around the West Lake and also to the LingYin temple (where we procured a chubby Buddha), and yet-another giant Chinese pagoda. Our friend Jeremy joined us for the weekend in Hangzhou, and accompanied us up to Shanghai on the high-speed train link.



We only spent a couple of nights in Shanghai and hit the typical tourist sites. We went for a stroll along the Bund (the old side of the city) and then hopped on the obscure and tacky sight-seeing tunnel that crosses the river onto the new side of the city (Pudong). Jeremy and I convinced Tara that Hooters was the best option for lunch, before heading down the main shopping street in search of Chopsticks (surprisingly difficult in China) and Lemsip (unsurprisingly difficult in China). We spent our second morning in Shanghai in the stunning Yuyuan Gardens and Old Town (which is rapidly being destroyed), before heading over to the well presented yet exceptionally dull Shanghai Museum.




We flew to Qingdao on April 15th, and back to our beloved Jeremy. This started off quite badly as Jez insisted on giving us a 2-hour guided tour of the train that he is engineering, but things quickly improved when we arrived at his palatial apartment. Qingdao is a beautiful German City on the east coast of China, and is considered to be the premier seaside resort in China (imagine Blackpool with 15 million people). We indulged in Jeremy's lifestyle whilst in Qingdao and treated ourselves to foot massages, full-body massages, authentic Indian food, traditional Qingdao hotpot, and several gallons of Tsingtao beer (brewed in Qingdao) and a couple of large Whiskeys. Jeremy proved to be the ultimate host. He gave up his bed for us, and drank with us until the wee small hours despite having to drag himself to work at 7:30am each morning. Qingdao was also interesting as we experimented with the Chinese Postal service (where we encountered the finest parcel-packer in the east), and confused the hell out of a travel agent by trying to buy some rail tickets (a ludicrous idea in China).

Our final stop in China has been Beijing. A city of 42 million people, half of whom try to get onto a metro carriage at the same time whilst the other half are trying to get off. I've never seen carnage quite like it. We spent our first morning in the Forbidden City, then marvelled at the vast numbers of soldiers marching backwards and forth across Tianamen Square (which is closed far more often than it is open), before heading over to the Temple of Heaven in the afternoon. On our second day we made our way over to the Summer Palace (the place where the emperor and his ladies hung out in the balmy summer days), and then met up with Meghan and Steve (the friends we made on the Yangtze River Cruise) for Peking duck and some beers in their hostel. Much of today has been spent getting wet. It has rained continuously since last night, but that didn't stop us. The Irish and English are more adept at dealing with water than your average duck. We caught the subway over to the Lamastery (a monastery for Lamas) first thing this morning and then made our way over to the Olympic site. We also had the honour of watching a glorious british sporting victory (much to Tara's delight), as Allison & Randall romped to victory in the second heat of the Olympic qualification tournament for Synchronised Swimming. I feel that an Olympic gold may be beckoning. The Olympic site is amazing and the Birds Nest and Aquatic Centre are both jaw-dropping, but there still seems to be a considerable amount of work to be done away from the venues if they are to be prepared for the games (a metro line to the site might be a good starting point!). All that's left to do in Beijing is the Great Wall of China, and come rain or shine that is where we will be tomorrow.