Tuesday 26 March Beijing

Up early this morning, these couple of days pre-cruise are a bit like being on a Trafalgar tour!  Breakfast in the hotel was chaotic - doubt the staff had expected 200+ westerners land on them at one time since the Olympics!  Americans looking for coffee (the urn was empty) Aussies looking for tea (no cups), me standing in line for 20 mins to get poached eggs for us both - everything all too much! For a Shangri-La hotel seems a bit odd.  Anyway, still good.  4 buses took us on a wonderful tour, left the hotel at 8 am, already having met some very nice people along the way, and there are quite a few from Australia, the US, Canada and England.  First stop was the Forbidden City - someone who knows someone who has a connection (!!) in the police force here was able to get our buses right up to the entrance point.  This is when George asked the guide about getting a wheelchair but sadly! he should have pre-ordered it  and so had to remain on the bus.  The rest of us joined the throngs of people anxious to enter through security and walking almost single file in order to keep up with the guide. It was all pretty amazing!  The former Chinese Imperial Palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing dynasty (1420-1912) now houses the Palace Museum. This city served as the home of emperors and their households as well as being the political centre of Chinese Government for over 500 years.  80,000 visitors go through the turnstiles every day!  OMG! Some of the people were incredible - pushy, rude, like they’d just come down from the hills and had no idea how to behave.  Our guide was great, with the aid of a ‘whisper’ we were able to hear his whole spiel.  The buildings were amazing, decorated very ornately, with every feature telling a story.  There is no way G would have managed on crutches, and I doubt it would have worked with a wheelchair as there were hundreds of steps and rough surfaces and as I said earlier 79,799 other people around!!!!

Back on the bus for the drive to Tiananmen Square.  This time George did leave the bus as the square is flat and seemed like a good idea however in order to get there we had a lot of steps down and then up again to go under the road!  He managed but not without a bit of effort.  The square is massive, quite spectacular, and security is high before you can enter.  

From there we drove over an hour towards the Great Wall, stopped for lunch at a restaurant which seems able to accommodate several hundred people at one time.  The food was nice, if not a bit bland, but that’s probably a regional thing.  On then a short distance to The Great Wall section at 

Juyonguan.  It was really pleasant there, nice and cool and without the hordes of people we were used to.  Guess there are many different entry points as lots of people could be seen climbing in the distance.  I stayed in the lower level, nothing heroic about me, I know my limitations!!!  Interesting to hear how many people have had hip, knee & shoulder replacements and who couldn’t climb more than a few steps.  On the drive back to the hotel we passed by the Olympic Games area, saw the Water Cube and the Birdsnest  as well as all the other stadiums (stadia?) and then there are new ones being built for the Winter Olympics which will be be held in Beijing and another city in 2022.  

Tired and footsore we decided in dinner at a Chinese restaurant in the complex underground from the hotel.  Had a whole Peking duck with all the trimmings - can’t go to Peking and not have it!  Needless to say it was delicious.  

Tomorrow is another early start, with some sightseeing before we fly to Shanghai.