Life in China

We went to this place off the beaten track....on the subway as per usual and managed to get lost and accidentally found the Silk Market - like Yashow but way more pushy...

Then we went to Little Russia - strange to talk to people in fluent Russian and then Chinese.....couldn't understand either...

We spent a day in the local art district. It was an old factory district and they have changed it to an excellent art district. I some how pictured that it would be a park or something with sculptures in it and just kept heading for the green area marked on the map.

We got a week off in October and wanted to travel somewhere. Our criteria was very simple, it wasn't to be a long flight as we only had a week and didn't want to spend 2 days on a plane. We thought of many different places but finally decided on Korea - only 2 hour flight, not very expensive and this it turned out that James and Erica wanted to join us, so that made it perfect!

Not to be content with hanging around the great city of Beijing...we decide to catch the train to the coast. I had visions of a beautiful beach - or at least some fresh sea air, but alas you forget that this is China and fresh air is a rare commodity!!

I checked out the weather for a few days before and it was fine and clear - there was going to be rain on the Wednesday, which means the "fog" should not be too bad on the Saturday. So with delight we booked a tour to the Great Wall - via the Ming Tombs and of course the compulsory trip to the Jade market so you can buy some much needed souvenirs.