JUST BACK FROM BEIJING...A PICTURE PAINTS A THOUSAND WORDS
 

We have recently returned from a 7 day business Junket to Beijing and had an absolute fantastic time.
I have tried to free up some time to do a comprehensive trip report, but as 2 weeks have now past and my grand plan of a detailed blow by blow description of our trip is starting to look unlikely, I thought I would share with you all some of my photo's, and then answer any specific questions that you may have.

The major highlights of the trip were, in order....

1. The 4 hour trek along the Great Wall from Jinshanling to Simatai.
2. The visit to a local Orphanege that we collectively sponsored with the help of Macquarie Media (our hosts for this Junket)
3. The Gala Dinner on the Great Wall at Juyong Pass
4. The magnificent Beijing street food.
5. Visiting the site of the 2008 OLYMPICS.
6. The Forbidden City.
7. Joining an early Sunday morning Tai Chi session at the Temple of the Sun Park.
8. The Amazing Beijing acrobatic's show.
9.Shopping for paintings and craft at the "Dirt" Market
10.Catching a Peak hour Beijing Subway train.
11. Getting a massage from a "blind" Chinese massuer.
12. The Panda's at Bejing Zoo and the fabulous Aquarium.

I should also mention the fantastic people, magnificent food, amazing culture etc etc etc.

If you have the chance....just do it.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/3880219...7622373299506/

Sounds good Shanek - your having a good year for trips to nice places!! Can't get a good enough connection at the moment to look at your photos but will as soon as I can - I'm looking forward to them.

Some nice pics - so just what is that in pic 4062 - a fish?

fantastic pics, thanks....what's with the outstretched arms??

Your trip looked fabulous. How did you get to be with the tigers?

Yes Mary, we have been fortunate this year. We have had some amazing times in some fantastic places.

That is a fish in pic 4062, done in a magnificent sweet and sour sauce.
When we were going through the menu at that restaraunt, the waiter was doing animal impressions to indicate what type of protein was in each dish. We ordered about 9 different meals between the 6 of us but baulked at one when he made a noise that sounded like "Meow..Meow". He may have been taking the pi5s out of us, but we took the safe option. We did try some fried scorpians on a stick at one of the street markets though. They actually tasted quite OK.

Bob, the outstetched arms just became a bit of a theme after "Charlie" our 85 year old guide insisted we pose for a photo at the Forbidden city this way. It became our "signature" move after that.
Actually, there is a bit of a story about Charlie. The girls insisted that we ignore many attempts from various, very attractive girls to become our guide for the day, preferring to wander around on our own. Much to our surprise, when we returned after queing for tickets, they had fallen for Charlie's charms and procurred his services for the day. After an hour of his detailed ,structured tour, they were looking for a way to escape without hurting his feelings. This proved to be a very difficult thing to do.

SD, the Tigers that you are asking about are probably the ones on my other photo page and were taken in Thailand. If you search for my "TALES OF THAILAND" trip report, you will find a detailed account of our trip to the Tiger Temple. The tiger photographed in my Beijing pics was at the Beijing Zoo.

Shanek: Thanks very much for sharing the lovely pictures of your wonderful trip!

It's a pleasure to share Shanghainese. I've done a slideshow, complete with corny music that I am just trying to work out how to put on Ytube.
It was just a little taste of China but I am hooked. I'm trying to talk Kerry into letting me plan a trip to the Asian games next year.

Thanks Shane - funny looking fish but glad it tasted good! Scorpions- Nice to try something different eh? Perhaps you could cook some for your next barbie guests or just reduce the cat population at little and try a few new recipes.