Shanghai/Beijing

Hello!

The big highlight of the solar eclipse is in the link below.

Well, after the lovely outing to Cybermart again, we had Thai hot pot, not being able to find a little sheep outlet nearby. Quite good, but not quite what I was after. The lights of Nanjing Rd are something else, and so we did a bit of wandering to check it out. Photos in the link that follows.

We were going to go to a water village called Zhujiajiao the next day, but in the end it was all a bit much, and so we ended up going to Yuyuan gardens and attached market instead. The gardens weren't hugely special, but it provided a bit of escape from the bustle of Shanghai, and we spent a bit of time wandering around. Saw some kittens, probably all from the same litter, tiny little neglected and flea-ridden things. Really quite sad, but there was nothing that we could realistically do about them. Putting food in front of them, they had no idea what to do, and would sniff it, then fall over, then forget it was there.

On Friday we left for Beijing. Check out from our hostel was at midday and so we had a 5 or 6 hour wait before we caught a taxi to Shanghai railway station. The train journey was fine, we had a soft sleeper, and I slept like the dead most of the way. The same can't be said for Jason, but I wasn't awake for that. It was a 10 hour trip, and on the other end, the queue for the taxis was absolutely brutal. After about 30 minutes waiting in the line, we finally got to a taxi, who didn't know where our hostel was, and so it was back in the queue for us, but not really, because by this point the queue has morphed into an all-out tooth and nail every man for himself fight.

We eventually got to where we had to go, and Beijing is pretty awesome. The temperature isn't revolting, but that's mostly because the humidity isn't as awful. We're about a 15 minute walk from Tianneman square and the forbidden city. We went to the forbidden city and Tianneman square on a Sunday, and that was a massive mistake. Crowds were huge, and it was a pretty hot, sunny day. We didn't end up staying for long because it was hard to move around, but we've been back to Tianneman square since. We're going back tomorrow again, because we want to see (pickled) Mao in his memorial hall. The queue is massive and there's no bags allowed, so we're going first thing in the morning with just our wallets.

Because the forbidden city was so crowded, we decided to take a day trip out to the summer palace, and that was fantastic. So much variety and amazing views, difficult to really describe except in photos, which will be coming soon.

After the summer palace, (same day), we went to Beijing's electronics market, which was really different to Shanghai's in that hardly any Westerners were there, and they were even more ready to pounce.

Foodwise, we've had so many treats this trip. In Shanghai we went to South Beauty restaurant, extravagant and delicious, for a fraction of the cost you'd pay back home. Went to a cheapo dumpling place and had xiao long bao, the soup dumplings, but they weren't as good as the dumpling place I used to go to. Thai hot pot, dim sum at Xintiandi, Sichuan, a little bit of street food (I can't trust it as much in Summer).

In Beijing, it's been even more varied. Went to a Sichuan place called Spicy Grandma, where we had the most amazing braised pork belly which remained amazing until the point where the fat on the pork changed from "mmmmm rich and yummy" to "oh my god I feel suddenly ill". Went to Quanjude Roast duck restaurant - arguably the best in Beijing, 5 storeys high, queues of over 40 at each floor, and geez the duck was good. We went to "Ghost Street" - a place full of eateries, and I took Jason to REAL hot pot, which was great, even if we left the place sweating. We went back again last night, but this time had the arabic-inspired Xinjiang cuisine. It was really cool to have dumplings filled with spices you'd expect in a doner kebab. Ghost street is amazing at night, and again photos are forthcoming, but not yet.

Last little bit before I sign off on this massive update. Today we went to the Mutianyu section of the great wall, and it was fantastic. Photos to come soon.

Below is a link to Jason's photos, he's been more selective with the upload than I have, and so most of them are worth looking at.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/derphead/sets/72157621870975258/