July 21 and 26-28, 2010 - Beijing, China

From Datong I took a fancy (and correspondingly expensive) bus to Beijing to find myself dropped somewhere on the outskirts, and not even at a damned bus terminal at near 11pm....bloody wonderful.  Accommodation in Beijing is far more expensive than the rest of China but everything else seems to cost about the same.  The heat, humidity and pollution seemed to be turned up to max the whole time I was there - 36 or 37 degrees everyday and haze like a brownish greyish fog hanging over the city.  No "blue sky days" for me - and this is the new and improved post-Olympics Beijing...must've been bad before!!  I did most of the major sights - Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Beihai and Houhai lakes/parks, Temple of Heaven, Olympic Park and hutongs.  I really liked the Forbidden City and a couple of hutongs I visited - they both have a lot of (very different) ambiance.  Some of the pics are below.  In between the days spent in Beijing city I spent 3 days out in the Huairou district exploring an un-restored section of the Great Wall.  The wall and the location were amazing and I will write a separate post about it.

The standard shot of me and Mr Mao

This place is BIG

One of the interior rooms - the fuzzy effect is kind of cool I thought

Almost evaporating as fast as she can paint...

Houhai

I'm trying to smile, I swear

Towels drying in a typical hutong street

Hutong birds

Typical delivery, Beijing style

The Mao mausoleum is not one of the more attractive buildings in the world

Watercube from the side

Watercube and Birdsnest all lit up

Was I the only one who didn't know it could do that - the colour changes sweep across the sides, it pulses and changes almost like it's alive

Close up to the Birdsnest

You could say that Beijing has a slight light pollution issue - not much chance for start spotting tonight