Nesting in Skyscrapers: Beijing

The city of Beijing surprised us in many ways. It had blue skies, rather than the clouds of pollution we were expecting. There were lots of trees, although most were bare of leaves due to the still chilly winter weather. It had far fewer skyscrapers than Hong Kong, and far fewer people. Admittedly, there was less English in evidence, but the Beijing people were actually very friendly and tried to help us. We were proud of how Jemilla impressed many locals with her Mandarin vocabulary. I felt at times like I was in Vulgaria (which movie?) as there were so few children here in proportion to the number of adults. Craig was concerned with the apparent disregard drivers have for traffic laws, and we felt like we genuinely risked our lives to cross the busy streets.

This was our motel/serviced apartment. I don't have much to say about it except that it was clean and warm and cheap. And the location was excellent! It was very close to shops and the train. But it was certainly not the Shangli-La.

Can you understand the Chinglish on the bottle of body wash in our shower?

We travelled around Beijing via a few different forms of transport.

1. TRAIN

Despite our protests, locals always gave up their seats for our children.

2. TAXI

If the pink Bangkok taxis were for Jemilla, then surely these green and gold Beijing taxis are for Keegan!

3. and MOTORBIKE/TAXI/TRIKE

On our last afternoon we all squished in the two seats in the back of the stainless steel box and enjoyed a bumpy adventure back to our hotel.

Photos from the neighbourhood near our hotel

Thank you, Burger King, for your 24-hour free wi-fi!

Leonie, they actually have Tupperware stores here!

You can look out for a Chinese Tupperware present in your letterbox.

The children were so excited to discover that Beijing has Sizzler restaurants. Of course we had to eat there one night. To their dismay, however, there was no dessert bar like we have in Australia. I was happy with my cheese bread.