Goodbye Japan, Hello China

I'm sure you are now aware that we are in China and unfortunately, with the iron ring firmly in place, we are unable to update our blog while we are here. At least, not in the traditional way - this post is being written via e-mail so I have no idea how it will be formatted but hey, I'll fix it when we reach Singapore in 5 weeks time.

Goodbye Japan
On our final full day in Japan we joined a trip and went to see a sumo wrestling tournament day. We were very lucky to be in Japan in September as wrestling matches only occur 3-4 times a year for 15 days at a time. We saw day 5. We are planning to upload some photos to picasa (if we can) so look out for our next post which will provide the link to see the pictures. The sumo was a great experience, the must surprising thing was that so many of the sumo wrestlers now do not come from Japan. The current reigning grand champion is a Bulgarian man! I have to admit though that in the getup, he looked very Japanese from our seats :)

After the match we hung out with a couple of people we met on the tour and had a great dinner, a lovely time for our last night in Japan.

Next day, off to China!!

China
We were very excited and a little nervous about entering China, it's weird, although we have done nothing wrong, don't have swine flu and have the correct visa, you still feel like they may throw you out at the last minute! Of course nothing of the sort happened and the official at the boarder was very lovely and even allowed us to rejoin the queue at the front after we filled out a form that we'd missed.

Finding our hotel was a bit of an adventure as the instructions from the hotel stopped at the metro station and as we didn't have the name of the place in chinese, the taxi driver didn't really have a clue. Finally, a kind Chinese girl who knew some English stopped by and spoke with the taxi driver for us and called the hotel who gave the driver instructions. Thank you, whoever you are!!

My first thoughts of Beijing are as expected. It is a large, developing city with a curious, but not unpleasant, mix of the old Beijing and the new Beijing. Our hotel is situated in an old-style courtyard in a hutong which was converted so it still preserves some old world charm but with modern western style toilets! The smog is something to be seen however, and that did come as a surprise. I do hope that they do something about it soon or else there will be a generation of Chinese people with breathing problems very soon.

Temple of Heaven
Today we spent most of the day at the Temple of Heaven. This was where the Emperor used to make annual sacrifices and prayers to the gods for good harvests around the winter solstice (end of January). Several ancient structures stood in large and beautiful gardens which we were free to wander around.

Top tip: enter from the south gate rather than the north. You don't have to, however that is the normal tourist route so things in the automatic guide will make a little more sense.

Of course Johan managed to bump into a group of four Swedes who were doing a six month exchange at Beijing university who were out doing the tourist thing there. Those Swedes get everywhere!!

Tiananmen Square
We also found ourselves in this famous square at sunset and were wondering what so many people there were doing taking pictures and waving their mini-Chinese flags. Turns out there is a flag lowering ceremony every day at sunset which is a must-see occasion.

The square itself is... well, a big square. Probably as impressive as Stonehenge, not a lot to see there but you really shouldn't miss it. In two weeks time they celebrate Beijing day so the square was closed this morning due to the practice sessions they were having there. There were also big screens up and lots of beautiful flowers everywhere to mark the occasion. It's a shame we won't be there for the day (Oct 1) as I'm sure it will be a great celebration.

Ding Ding Xiang (or Hot Pot Paradise)
Dinner tonight was at the Ding Ding Xiang (thanks for the tip Kevin) which serverd a speciality hot pot. For those of you (like us) who think that hot pot is made in Lanchashire by a chief called Nigel should think again. This was an individual bowl of soup placed in front of you with a variety of meats and vegetables which you cook yourself in the soup. Kinda like steamboat, if you know what I mean, but each person has their own steaming bowl. Very, very good food.

Well, off to bed now. Will try to find a church tomorrow (hmm... we are in China) then check out the Forbidden Place. Or maybe we'll find ourselves somewhere completely different...