That went well!

If anyone is still out there - our apologies. We're home now and did not manage a single post from China. No problem with the netbook (a bit slow compared to our home computer but it worked) or the hotel wi-fi connections, variable but usually there. No it seems Google Blogger is blocked by the Chinese authorities. We were never able to log on, and Facebook is also blocked. We expected that but had not anticipated a problem with Blogger. We tried to let as many people as possible know via email, which worked OK, as did most of the rest of the internet, but we may not have reached everyone.

So now we can say it - China was amazing and we can hardly believe how much we were able to see in three weeks. It's such a modern progressive society, and so open in many ways, it just seems incongruous that they maintain petty restrictions on communication, which don't really achieve much anyway. It certainly didn't stop our guides giving us their own views on pretty much anything, including political issues.

The "Bird's Nest" in Beijing's Olympic Park

On to the trip then. We flew out from Edinburgh on 3rd September, KLM to Amsterdam, then non-stop to Beijing. We won't bore you with the logistics of the trip. Let's just say Wendy Wu Tours clearly know what they are doing. Everything in the arrangements worked, the guides were excellent, and generally we were able to enjoy the tour with the minimum of hassle. Our travel group was mostly English with another Scots couple and two American ladies. No problem there. We all got along well and were pretty good friends by the end.

Norma in Tiananmen Square

We arrived early so had most of a day to ourselves before meeting up with the rest of the group in the evening. We had made contact through our daughter Rona with an old university friend of hers who was living in Beijing, and he introduced us to a couple of places not included in the tour, a quiet park and an upmarket shopping mall, not forgetting a trip on the Beijing subway. Most of the time with our tour group we travelled by coach so that was interesting in itself, and cheap. Just over 20p for any length journey with one change of line allowed.

The Temple of Heaven

Climbing the steps of the Great Wall

The main tour started off on a fine sunny day with Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Over our three days in Beijing we also visited the Temple of Heaven, which is the centrepiece of a large and beautiful park much patronised by the people of the city, the Summer Palace, which is again the centrepiece of a park which also features a large lake, the Olympic Park (they like their parks in Beijing but this one is a bit more modern), and a rickshaw ride through the Hutongs, a preserved section of the old city, where we were treated to lunch in the courtyard of a small group of traditional houses. But for most of us the highlight was the Great Wall which comes surprisingly close to the northern outskirts of the city. We soon discovered this was no gentle stroll. The Wall here climbs steeply up either side of a narrow valley and was an exhausting climb on a hot day but well worth it.

Over the next few posts we'll try to bring you a flavour of all the other places we visited.