Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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China Tour 2013
Silk Road (New Orient Express Train),Yangtze River Cruise
by Sinorama Holidays
Beijing - 3 June 2013
Posted 2013-07-08
| Having arrived in the wee hours of the morning due to a six hour delay in our Air Canada flight from Toronto, we were accommodated in the five star Four Points by Sheraton Beijing. A very comfortable room, although we were a bit surprised that the wall between the bedroom and the bath was clear glass. Wondered if the Chinese are exhibitionists. |
| After a short sleep and a buffet breakfast with both Chinese and Western food, we set out for our first visit, to Tiananmen Square. The visit consisted of a brief introduction by the local guide, followed by time to wander around the square. We took photos of some of the buildings and statuary. |
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Paul and Sew in the square. I was intrigued by the portable barriers in front of this building. We saw many more throughout China. |
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Flowers are found in public places and on streets and highways througout China. We did not get to visit the Forbidden City. When we visited Beijing in 1996 the predominant mode of transport was the bicycle. How times have changed! Most street sweepers have hand brooms, but this fellow has an electric scooter. |
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One of the obligatory tour visits was to a pearl factory. There are many pearls in one shell. |
| In the afternoon we visited the Olympic park. The "Dragon"(?) building was pointed out. |
| In the Olympic park we had our photo taken in front of the Bird's Nest stadium, and snapped some statuary. We did not tour the inside of the stadium. According to the local guide, the inside is "just like any other stadium". The "Cube" swimming building was mentioned by the guide, but it was just a big cubic building. One of our tourmates tried to enter it, but there was some kind of a meet going on. We longed for a milkshake, but the building sporting a MacDonalds umbrella was a small shack (not shown) - just one of many "knockoffs" in China. |
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On our way to the Kung Foo demonstration we passed a line
of rickshaws, apparently for the tourist trade - everyone else in Beijing seems to travel by car. Well, not everyone! |
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Not everyone lives in high rise buildings, either, it seems. But there is an air conditioner on the wall. |
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We really did not do much touring in Beijing, but the heat was tiring. Even so, we had supper
in a restaurant before returning to the hotel for another short sleep, as we had to be up early Tuesday morning for our flight to Xi'an. |