Beijing, China
I woke up a few hours later on Tuesday (12 September) morning feeling more refreshed after some "full length" sleeping. I had a much needed shower, breakfast in the hostel cafe, and checked email on the hostel's free computers. Then I ran into Sui from my Gobi trip and she helped me find a cash machine and I got some much needed Chinese Yuan. I must have tried 6 to 8 cash machines before I found one that worked. Then I caught the incredibly-easy-to-navigate Beijing metro to the place where I thought I could extend my visa. The place was packed! After talking to someone there I found out I could only extend my visa when I was near the end of my current visa. And the one place in China where I can't extend my visa is Tibet and of course that is where I was planning to be at the end of my current visa. So now I have to decide whether to go down to Hong Kong to get a new, longer visa or to cut my time in Tibet to shorter than I planned. The problem is if I go down to Hong Kong that takes time and will also make me loose time in Tibet. So I need to figure out what to do about this situation!
After leaving the visa place I took the metro to the Forbidden City and wandered around Zhongshan Park which is just outside the Forbidden City as it was too late in the day to see the Forbidden City. The park was huge and only cost me $.20 to get in. I haven't mentioned it yet, but China is even cheaper than Mongolia! I had a good, filling meal in a clean restaurant with service at the border town for $1.25!! A .5-L cold, Chinese beer in the hostel is only $.25!!!! After visiting Zhongshan park I walked through the massive Tian'anmen Square and went back to the hostel.
Tomorrow I think I will visit the Great Wall. The hostel arranges transport there and back so I won't have to figure out how to get there on public transport. I'm planning to do a 10-12 km hike along the wall and I'm really looking forward to it. The day after I think I will see the Forbidden City. As for today (Wednesday, 13 September), I need to do a few more errands like getting a haircut (which is going to be interesting seeing as how they don't speak english) and finding a Chinese guidebook. I was surprised to see so many signs in english (on the metro for example) and so many people that speak english (alas not the barbers). Its definitely much easier to travel here than in Russia.
After leaving the visa place I took the metro to the Forbidden City and wandered around Zhongshan Park which is just outside the Forbidden City as it was too late in the day to see the Forbidden City. The park was huge and only cost me $.20 to get in. I haven't mentioned it yet, but China is even cheaper than Mongolia! I had a good, filling meal in a clean restaurant with service at the border town for $1.25!! A .5-L cold, Chinese beer in the hostel is only $.25!!!! After visiting Zhongshan park I walked through the massive Tian'anmen Square and went back to the hostel.
Tomorrow I think I will visit the Great Wall. The hostel arranges transport there and back so I won't have to figure out how to get there on public transport. I'm planning to do a 10-12 km hike along the wall and I'm really looking forward to it. The day after I think I will see the Forbidden City. As for today (Wednesday, 13 September), I need to do a few more errands like getting a haircut (which is going to be interesting seeing as how they don't speak english) and finding a Chinese guidebook. I was surprised to see so many signs in english (on the metro for example) and so many people that speak english (alas not the barbers). Its definitely much easier to travel here than in Russia.
posted by Dustin at 7:24 PM
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