Becalmed in Beijing

By Tim Makins on July 5, 2008 9:01 AM | | Comments (0)

The truck, or at least its passengers, or at least some of them, have arrived in Beijing.

Robyn (the mysterious) left some days ago to fly to Hong Kong. I saw her a few days later, back from Bangkok, where she had to go for her visa extension. The remaining passengers from Dover: Chris, myself, and Mr & Mrs Upgrade, plus Izzy, Graham and Renee who joined in Istanbul, plus an extra 7 who joined in Xian: Wayne and Dinah, Warren and Jan, Sharon and Colleen who all came on the re-routed Tibet truck (via Pakistan - don't ask!), and not forgetting Peter from Boston who came just for the Xian-Beijing section... all arrived in Beijing by coach, the truck having been safely parked many miles away, in a hotel car park in the city of Jixian. This was due to the current pre-Olympic regulations which ban all Dragoman trucks (and other large vehicles) from coming within Beijing's outer city limits. These regulations are in an effort to reduce the thick pall of pollution that normally hangs over the city, and so stop the athletes wheezing so much. Will it be enough to clear Beijing's skyline? Is there sufficient time for this cunning plan to work? I doubt it. The athletes in the know will have been training for some time in Mexico city. No, not for the altitude.

Most of the above passengers have now flown off, or caught trains to other parts of China. Warren, Jan, and myself have a free 11 days whilst we wait for the other passengers, and a new driver, to arrive for the start of the final 11 week super-tough section to St Petersburg. I am staying at the Huguosi Hotel - not so super-tough, and just 2kms north-west of the Forbidden City. Quite handy for all the sights, plus not too far from the metro and various bus stops either. Beijing is very spread out, so access to public transport is a must. The good news is that public transport is cheap: just 1.5Y for a bus ride, 2Y for the Metro, and 10Y for 3km in a taxi, of which there are quite a few. Amusing little detail: most taxi drivers don't speak English, but their taxi meters do - yes really. When they turn the meter on, it greets you in English, then at the end of the journey thanks you for the ride, reminds you to only pay what the meter says, and then suggestd that you take the receipt, which it helpfully prints out.

As promised some time back, I have finally got around to uploading some of my Overlanding photos for you all to check out. More will be added as and when. In the meantime, here's a list of all the new photo pages:

What with having so much time here in Beijiing (11 days) and also having free internet access in my hotel room, it gave me the impetus to find the local computer quarter in Beijing, and buy a second-hand A/C power supply that I should have brought with me from England. Anyway, I have thus been able to get a lot done online, sorting out my photos and choosing the best ones to share with everyone. I hope you enjoy them. Comments are welcome. If you haven't already, do check out some of the Blog pages as well - you can see a full list in the Archives.

A couple of days ago, I went to the China Post office on Jianguomen Beidajie to see if there was any mail waiting for me. The service is very good there - I was met at the door by a lady who spoke English. She took me straight to the Poste Restante counter, where there were about 40 letters waiting to be collected. Two of them were for me - hooray - from Rosemary Holland, and Wayne and Dinah Rogers. Thanks, everyone - they are very welcome. If someone else has sent a letter to Beijing then sorry - it didn't get here, or it is still on its way. In either case, it should eventually be returned to the sender's address. My next, actually my final mail pickup on this Overland journey, is in Almaty, Kazakhstan. If YOU would like to send me a card or letter, you can post it to:

MAKINS, T
Poste Restante
Central Post Office
Bogenbay Batyr 134
Almaty
KAZAKHSTAN

You should post letters to Almaty by the 1st of August, or a few days before. I will be arriving there on the 18th.

I have been to see the Forbidden City - made more special by seeing so much of it in the film 'The Last Emperor' - which is a brilliant movie, most colourful and well photographed - if you haven't seen it I would recommend that you borrow it from the library. The site is quite extensive, with supposedly 9,999 rooms, though I didn't bother to count!! There were HORDES of people there, despite going as early as I could. It is the major tourist attraction in Beijing, so hordes are to be expected. Also quite busy was the Olympic site, with its strange 'Bird's Nest' stadium, which I had wanted to take a look at. Construction is still being finalised, though, and finishing details checked, so the whole area is fenced off, despite the opening being in less than one month. I guess they don't want to get the new facilities dirty beforehand, or have people taking souvenirs either. I got a photo or two of the buildings through the fence. Lots of other people had the same idea.

Another site of major interest to me was the Old Summer Palace, which is infamous for having a Marble Boat built by the Dowager Empress Cixi, who used the money that was originally earmarked for building up a new imperial navy. No wonder their empire didn't last long after that! The Summer Palace is a wonderful site, on a really huge scale. The ferryboats across the lake are shaped like dragons, which is fun.

I have met a few of the travellers from another Dragoman truck, which has just completed the trip FROM St Petersburg. They tell me that there is little or any internet access in Mongolia, so if you don't hear from me for a month or two, that will be the reason.

That's enough Blogging for now.
Best wishes to all !
Travelling Tim


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This page contains a single entry by Tim Makins published on July 5, 2008 9:01 AM.

China Photos - 05 was the previous entry in this blog.

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