Mon 30/06/08 09:29
Well, it’s my fourth day here in Beijing and today I needed some rest. I like to walk most of the time, but my guess I’ve probably walked somewhere in the area of about 30 to 40 miles the last three days and my legs were starting to feel it. So instead of going out in the morning, I checked into the hotel that the tour booked for me and then did some laundry. I admit it’s not very exciting, but since I figured out that there is about a 4 square inch (no kidding) area in my hotel room that I can actually connect to a wireless network, it makes every thing a little better. So once the laundry was done I headed out. The new hotel is very close to Tianamen Square so I headed in that direction. I was just kind of walking around and a older Chinese man came up to me trying to say something, but I couldn’t understand… then after about 30 seconds of mime, I figured out that he wanted to take a picture of me with the women he was with. :) In return I asked him to take another just so I had one. I guess it’s lots of fun to show family and friends that you actually saw an American… or European.
Below is one of the gates to the old city. You can see another one in the background. These things are really huge, and what you can’t see is that there are swarms (100s) of birds fly around it.
After my walk to the square, I had some time before the tour was supposed to meet up so I went upstairs for a drink in the bar. This is one of the photos of the area that I’m currently in. I don’t think that there’s really anyway that a photo actually show someone what it’s like on the street. At least this way you get an idea. 
Well, the tour members finally met. Everyone seems pretty friendly. I’m going to reserve judgement on our guide though. He seems nice enough, but maybe he’s trying too hard…
There are 14 of us, and as usual I’m the odd one out. There are about 8 that are in their 60s and 5 that are in their thirties, or younger… I’m the only American too. Everyone else is from Australia or New Zealand.
Tomorrow we go to the Great Wall, the silk and pearl markets and then go see the National Chinese Acrobats. Should be fun.
