Approaching Beijing ...

Yesterday was a long day travelling. We took the plane from Bishkek to Ürümqi at 9:30 in the morning which only took two hours. But we had to wait at Ürümqi Airport for our connecting flight for four hours and the plane to Beijing couldn't take off right in time, so after boarding at 5 pm we arrived in Beijing only at 9:30. It was a beautiful sunset during the flight, though, and appraoching Beijing I could enjoy the 19,3 million capital illuminated from above. I only had my little Lumix at hand, so the picture is neither blur- nor noisefree, but still quite a nice capture.

After a half hour taxi ride we arrived at our very centrally located hostel around eleven at night. Today we were just casually exploring the neighborhood and had a long walk along the Northern tip of the Forbidden City and, stopped for a lunch and coffee in one of Beijing's upcoming Cafés. Then we walked through ancient Hutong, which was pretty touristy, up till Drum and Bell Towers and enjoyed a Belgian Hoegaarden beer for sunset on one of the rooftop terraces nearby. On the way back home we walked along a pretty cheesy but quite pretty illuminated canal district and had Chinese dinner in one of the restaurants around the corner, very tasty.

Tomorrow I will get up early, I want to document normal street life in Beijing and try to keep it in the older parts of town. We will also book our ongoing train rides tomorrow and will visit the Forbidden City and maybe the Temple of Heaven Park. Exciting!

Check back soon

KIKI