Only a year out from the games and it's clear that everything is geared up and running to prepare for one month when everyone is going to be looking and judging. I've always held distorted poverty ridden, organised chaos thoughts about China but it's an amazing place. We arrived Monday morning to the banging as some of Beijing's 2 million extra employed workers constructing what will be the worlds biggest airport. Our hostel was in the cities hutong district, which formerly the home of the masses with narrow streets servicing compacted areas of humanity has now been renovated into stores lining the passageways. Still through open doors behind the bean bagged coffe shops you can see the cramped poor housing conditions of the owners. Nevertheless the food not only along here but everywhere is amazing. Lamb kebabs BBQed on the street in front of restaurants for $0.20NZD to enhace a feed of the best beef, pork, chicken and lamb ever, even veges here taste good. Must be the MSG.

 

Apparently judged as one of the better walls, I certainly havent seen better (Berlin might complain), the Great Wall of China is amazing. We took a 3 hour bus to a remote part hiking along 10km of partially restored, crumbling wall resting in each of the 30 towers along the way for breathtaking vistas of the bricks across the countryside. We ended at an area called Simitai and paid for the joy of using a zip line to go down from the mountain.

 

We visited the Forbidden City and Tiannimen Sqaures as well. The sunset behind chairman Mao's portrait in the Sq. with well over 5000 people was amazing. to back it up a trip to Beijing wouldnt suffice without a bike around the city. I'm sure we were followed by police both uniformed and plainclothed as we biked by the forbidden city, however they would have to have penetrated the throng of vendors, touts, and scam artists who seemed to be hidden at every turn. You'd think if I wanted to buy an overpriced piece of art, Olympics hat or Beijing tourist book I would have bought it already so F%$#k off!!! It is a pity that some of the cultural relics in the city where cloaked under scaffolding restoring the for 2008, even chairman Mao's body was off limits, but a stroll without throngs of tourists was worth it.

 

Im writing this from Xi'an, hoime of the terracotta warriors before we head off on our travels towards the South of China on friday ensuring stops in major cities to catch the World Cup in the weekends.