Arrival!!

Well - into Beijing at least!! I think (and this is a guess...) it's been about 40hrs since I got up at 4am to catch my flight to Sydney - after that it was a blur of airports and security checks... Changi in Singapore is a lovely place to waste time, if you HAVE to be in an airport - man, you could probably spend millions there - there was a Tiffany's!!
Arrived into Beijing this morning - and straight into it!! We dropped our bags off at the hotel and headed to the "Drum Tower" - built in the late 1200s as a way of time keeping - different drum beats represented different times of day. Giant, steep stone steps lead up to the top of the tower where we had a wicked view of..... Smog. Lots of smog.
Then we went for a walk along some "hutongs" - old paved narrow walkways that are part of the "old Beijing" before the influx of apartments. We visited a family who live in a traditional old courtyard style home and had chinese tea :+) Then jumped in rickshaws for a tiki-tour round, before back into the bus to visit something that sounded like the "way-ling" project. It's a non-government-funded project that gives adults with mental disability a chance to become involved in a community (otherwise they tend to get shut away in family homes). The "trainees" - as they're called - were really neat!! First we had lunch - yummy egg & vege frittery looking things, then some fantastic boiled dumplings - have no idea what was in them, and don't want to know!!!
Then the trainees put on 5 skits for us - including one "bull & matador" one, a "shearing sheep" one - and best of all "Beijing rap!" - was classic and really cool :+) After that they taught us calligraphy - one of the girls in our group wasn't too good at it, so the fella kept taking her paper off her and giving her a new one :+) (I got asked if I'd done chinese calligraphy before!!! I think he was just being nice..)

Then we got stuck in a MASSIVE lightning storm - was really funny actually - tearing along the hutongs, not actually sure where we were headed, getting soaked to the skin! Nice & warm rain and some good bright lightning strikes!! So back to the hotel after that, a LOVELY shower (hadn't had one in nearly two days!) and a wander down to an internet cafe before we all meet up for a dinner of Peking duck - yum!! Then an after-dinner visit to Tianamen Square! Tomorrow is a big hike of the Great Wall!!

Have taken a few photos but unfortunately they won't be turning up online until I get home...

Oh and these blog postings may not be too regular - especially when we hit Mongolia!! So don't worry - most likely caught up seeing lots of sights - rather than having fallen off my bike yet again and incapacitated myself...
(There - if I say it, then it can't come true.... ;+))

Hope everyone is well :+)