Sep 10, 2002 - Beijing

Ni hao! We arrived in Beijing on Thursday, September 6 after a pretty gruelling 24 hours of travel via San Francisco and Tokyo (thanks Sue and Randy!) and found a small, comfortable hotel in a very un-touristy part of Central Beijing. ... We've really enjoyed Beijing: the weather has been warm but not uncomfortably so, the people friendly despite the language barrier, and the sights very interesting. ... The streets are very wide, sometimes 8 lanes across, and I can guarantee that if you have never been to China, you have never seen this many bicycles -- 10 million in Beijing alone. ... We're staying in a small hotel located on a small road off a major street in Central Beijing. ... We'll be in Beijing for a few more days and then will head south. ...

Sep 18, 2001 - Hiking Peking and its Wall

Copyright 2002 Dave Rich dgrendelll@yahoo.com> Hiking Peking and its Wall Sure the capitol of China is Beijing but the locals insist on calling it Peking, the ancient name, as if they suspect you can't pronounce Beijing. ... The Wall starts at the sea and winds across China 30 miles north of Beijing, an easy day trip that is worthless if you take the usual tour bus to the Badaling portion of the Wall, the touristy part restored, revamped and deflavored. ... Instead go to any of the other 3,000 miles of the Wall, the wild Wall which Lonely Planet does a superb job of describing in eight full pages of its China guidebook.Copyright 2002 Dave Rich dgrendelll@yahoo.com> Hiking Peking and its Wall Sure the capitol of China is Beijing but the locals insist on calling it Peking, the ancient name, as if they suspect you can't pronounce Beijing. ... The Wall starts at the sea and winds across China 30 miles north of Beijing, an easy day trip that is worthless if you take the usual tour bus to the Badaling portion of the Wall, the touristy part restored, revamped and deflavored. ... Instead go to any of the other 3,000 miles of the Wall, the wild Wall which Lonely Planet does a superb job of describing in eight full pages of its China guidebook....

Sep 11, 2001 - Beijing

Ni hao! We arrived in Beijing on Thursday, September 6 after a pretty grueling 24 hours of travel via San Francisco and Tokyo (thanks Sue and Randy!) and found a small, comfortable hotel in a very un-touristy part of Central Beijing. ... We've really enjoyed Beijing: the weather has been warm but not uncomfortably so, the people friendly despite the language barrier, and the sights very interesting. ... The streets are very wide, sometimes 8 lanes across, and I can guarantee that if you have never been to China, you have never seen this many bicycles -- 10 million in Beijing alone. ... We're staying in a small hotel located on a small road off a major street in Central Beijing. ... We'll be in Beijing for a few more days and then will head south to Shandong province to climb Tai Shan, a holy Buddhist mountain and visit Qufu, home of Confucious. ...