Yesterday we visited the Lama Temple. It is a Tibetan temple and it is fully operational as a monastery. We could hear the chanting as we arrived but the monks had left the main temple before we arrived at it. It has an enormous carved sandalwood Buddha with its own Guinness Book of Records sign authenticating the fact.
We headed out to the National Stadium but were unable to find it with the instructions given to us and the wind and dust from the construction area drove us away. There are no signs in English showing directions to the stadium.
We managed to find it today and it was great. No one can enter yet unless they have permits so we had to take photos through the wire fence.
An interesting building near the stadium that looks like a phoenix bird.
We hired cycles from the hostel and headed off on the cycle tour of the Hutongs (traditional suburbs) as set out in our guide book. It was supposed to take 1 1/2 hours but we discovered so many interesting sites that we took 5 hours. It was very easy to get about and drivers were very considerate.
Surprisingly there are not as many cycles and motorbikes in Beijing as there are in other Chinese cities we have visited. We have read that China is the second largest vehicle market in the world and currently only 4% of Chinese have cars, so it will be horrific if there are double that number on the roads.
Three days of national mourning has been declared for the Chengdu region earthquake victims. The streets were full of people watching the outdoor TV screens and news on the quake area. There was to be 2 minutes quiet at 2.28pm and that happened to be as we were passing under an overpass bridge and every car tooted its horn for 2 minutes and it was deafening.
We take the Trans Mongolian train at 6.30 ish in the morning and start our Trans Siberian section of our trip. We have been to the supermarket to buy food and have done all our laundry and are ready to go.
We should see some of the Great Wall from the train as we leave Beijing so we hope the visibility is good to enjoy that.
At 10pm the wheels on the train will be changed and we will cross into Mongolia. At 5.30 so we get off at Sainshand in Mongolia and are taken to a ger camp to stay with a family for a few days. We are looking forward to a change in culture and this section of the trip very much.
We may not have many postings over the next 3 weeks while we are on the train and when we stop we are not sure of what facilities there will be to do our blog.
We have had a fantastic visit to China. The people are very helpful: we asked a shop keeper for help and she closed the shop and took us to where we wanted, people phone places we want on their cellphones, they get taxis for us and take us and pay for the taxi. We have had so many experiences like this even though we don't speak the language.
Chinese can read the news on the street noticeboards.
Getting around from A-Z has been so easy and the food has been interesting. We highly recommend a visit to China and don't be scared of it!
I'm sure China will be ready for the games as they are so capable, and proud people.
