kez & hay travels 06

Arrived in Beijing and said a sad farewell to our Mongolian companions of the past 36 hours. 
Our hostel, situated in a Hutong north-east of Tian'anmen Square, was a restored heritage home typical of a chinese courtyard hostel - it was beautiful.
We hired bikes and explored the labyrinthine hutongs and somehow ended up riding onto a main road.  There is definitely an art to riding a bike in Beijing.  Firstly, there are no rules, so bikes go both ways down the cycle lane, buses and taxis enter the cycle lane and people walk on the cycle lane.  Secondly, when the traffic lights go green at crossroads, the best thing is to make sure you are in the middle of a crowd of bikers crossing the same way as you, and then let them guide you along.  Lastly be prepared to be laughed at, as fellow bikers appear highly amused to see foreigners riding bikes.
Visited the Forbidden City, Tian'anmen Square and the Temple of Heaven.  All were extremely beautiful especially the Temple of Heaven.  Unfortunately there is a lot of renovation work going on in preperation for the Olympics so this meant that we were unable to see all the buildings.

We took a day trip to the Great Wall at Mutianyu which is a restored part of the wall but less touristy.  The day was quite hazy which was a shame because the mountains seemed to roll on forever.  We walked up to the wall which was hard work in itself and then set off for a couple of hours trek along the wall.  It was incredible to think how this wall was made as it is soooo steep at times, so much so that we had to crawl up the steps.  It was incredible - the photos speak for themselves really.  After so many hours walking we thought we deserved the tourist trap of a toboggan ride all the way down to the foot of the mountain - great fun.

After 4 days in Beijing we took the night train to the small walled town of Pingyao.