The Land where Spitting Rules

So here we are in China. Definitely off the beaten track in a city no-one has ever heard of but which would be the second biggest city in the UK (6 million) - more than twice as large as the entire population of Mongolia. We are in Shenyang, a mere stone's throw (4 hours on the train) from Beijing. We haven't seen any other foreigners nor met anyone who speaks english here. But everyone spits madly. I can't work out why - perhaps it is to do with the pollution? Anyway we both cringe each time we hear the distinctive hawking noise in case it comes our way...

Compared to Shenyang, going to Beijing was like a trip to Brighton. Almost everyone spoke english, even the metro speaks to you in English, and it is friendly, easy to get around, many things to visit too. Being in Shenyang is a bit like trying to have a weekend away in Runcorn. You wonder why you're here and so does everyone else! (apologies to anyone from Runcorn, I've never been there, and for all I know it's a lovely place!) To be fair to Shenyang, its public parks are great. The Chinese must lack for private space because parks become playgrounds for everyone. We sat for a while and watched people playing badminton, line dancing, practising Tai Chi, flying kites, salsa dancing, roller blading - it was fabulous.

Anyway Beijing was fun. We arrived and Steve had forgotten to print out details of our hostel. So we got in a taxi and spent a good 10 mins trying to explain the way to the first hostel we found in the lonely planet. We got there and of course it was the wrong one so after checking on the internet finally found the right one.

It turned out to be in a great location, right in the centre of Beijing's coolest district with bars for foreigners and clothes shops even out of our price leagues. Nearby was a lake swarming with well off Beijingers out at night. They were participating in a mass line dance in the street.

The prices in Beijing are pretty crazy actually. Prices for beers seem to routinely range between 3Y and 15Y - between about 20p and 1 pound. We found some soft scoop ice cream for about 3.50 STLG a scoop (no joke) but then the zoo only cost 1.50 to get in.

On our first day we hired bikes and cycled to see the Olympic Stadium (the "Bird's Nest") . We could hardly see it due to the incredibly bad smog that day. We were amongst tons of Chinese tourists also snapping away merrily so felt very much at home. Next we went to the zoo. Again swarming with tourists. It was an ordeal getting there as the roads are all enormous and cars seem able to drive across pedestrian crossings even when the green man is on, no turns appear to be banned so you are never too sure where any vehicle is coming from. You soon get into the swing of it though and unbelievably everyone avoids each other. The zoo was fun and remarkably up to date. There was an entire display about the earthquake less than a month

before. It was great to see the pandas. We had decided not to go to Chengdu (where most pandas are in the wild) since we were advised that all the tourist infrastructure there had closed down due to the earthquake so instead went to see the pandas in the zoo.

Cycling around the hutongs (Beijing's back alleys) is fun. Hans Monderman would love them (transport planners will know what I mean!) They are all completely uncontrolled - pedestrians mix with cyclists, rickshaws and cars. They all move pretty slowly but cars and scooters seem to rule - they beep their horns and everyone else scoots out of the way which seems the wrong way around to me.

We also made the obligatory trip to the Great wall between Simatai and Jinshaling. This is a slightly less visited section of wall, and apart from some chinese tourists we were indeed the only people there. It was a really hot day - about 35 degrees and I was struggling. Steve took the cable car up and a short cut and even that was pretty tough I think... There was one section that was so steep it required you to use your hands. At the top my heart was pounding and I had to sit in the shade for 10 minutes to recover.

An interesting thing we noticed was that lots of Chinese couples seemed to be wearing the same t-shirts. We thought this was very odd but then found a shopping mall selling loads of the t shirts which were basically matched sets! They are cloyingly sweet and say things like "Our love will" (on one) "Go on forever" on the other. Or Steve's favourite - "Love Team". We thought they were so funny we bought some that say in Chinese "Sweetheart" and "Husband" - on mine and "Wife" - on Steve's - they are stamped "love department". The girls who translated for us said they were sweet - they cost about 1.75 stlg for the pair! See the photo of the shop showing all the matched t shirts....

We also visited the Forbidden City. Very impressive in scale - we couldn't hope to cover all of it. My favourite part was the imperial garden with "grotesque" (their word) rock formations, goldfish ponds and pine trees.

Unfortunately we missed Chairman Mao. We are not having much luck rendez-vousing with dead men. You'd think it would be easy to catch up with them but both Lenin and Mao have eluded us. Perhaps we'll have more luck with Ho-Chi-Minh.

Now we are moving on to Dalian, a big city by the sea where we hope for some R&R time. It will be good to get away from the smog....