beijing- 14 million people + me

My first impressions of the city... cold, rainy, absolutely huge place, massive police prescence, but even bigger McDonald's prescence! Didn't have too much difficulty in finding the youth hostel I had booked, although I wish I didn't find it- not the nicest place! Bathroom was disgusting, but had my own room so it was OK. Martin, my friend from Xiamen, turned up in Beijing so we did a little sightseeing together again. We explored Wangfujing Street, which is a lrge pedestrian-only street right near my hostel. A lot of fancy shopping complexes there. We battled the crowds at Tiananmen Square, and went in the entrance to the Forbidden City, but I didn't have the stamina to go into the Museum Palace. For dinner we went to a famous dumpling restaurant- pork dumplings were delicious! My new favourite food. The next morning, we persevered through the rain and headed to the Summer Palace. It was a good call, as the weather cleared up but there still weren't too many tourists about. The palace was a very beautiful place- a huge complex set around a lake, with lots of buildings, gardens and temples. The architecture was stunning, particularly in the Tower of Buddhist Incense and Garden of Virtue & Harmony. It was a very peaceful place when walking through the gardens & windy paths. After a tiring few hours of walking around, we headed back into the city via bus- certainly an experience! It is extremely cheap to catch the bus, so a LOT of people do it. I had to stand the whole way, crammed in the aisle, yet at each stop more people would get on! They were almost hanging out the door. We got off halfway and switched to the subway, which was much more comfortable! On the Sunday, I caught the bus to the Temple of Heaven. There was another man who got off at the same stop so we explored the place together. Was very beautiful there, very peaceful, and not too many tourists again. And it was perfect weather too! Enjoyed the morning just wandering through the trees & temples, and admiring the temples & structures. Had a hot-pot style lunch, where you cook your own food in boiling water, but I think we chose dud ingredients- not very tasty. After filling in the afternoon at my hostel, I had dinner at Wangfujing Street.