1st course: Beijing; 2nd course: Suzhou; 3rd course: Shanghai.

Ah, the joy of being in a big city! With some relief and excitement we greeted the polluted air, chaotic traffic and street hawkers of Beijing. Our hostel had running water and toilets!
Stepping out into the night we went on the hunt for some delicious Chinese food, and boy did we find it. A street-side feast of spicy barnacles/sea snails, peanuts, salad and a great veggie, pork and tofu stew-like dish. What a nice break from mutton.

Over the next few days in Beijing we were able to continue our culinary adventure, and also do a few other things. We hired bikes, explored hutongs and parks, took a cooking course, and we bargained hard with the traders in silk road selling 'Louis Vuitton bags', 'Omega watches' and even ipads (a 'very genuine copy'). Tom checked out the big sites - Great Wall, Forbidden City etc - but as I had seen them before I did my own thing, which mainly involved worshipping at temples of a different kind - shops.


In the end we were glad to leave Beijing. We had got into an argument on our final day with a rickshaw driver about an unpaid fare - they had tried all sort of tricks on us and not taken us where we wanted to go. Fearing rickshaw retaliation, we fled to Suzhou, to scope out the canals and world heritage gardens. Unfortunately we arrived in pouring rain.

All was not lost though, as the Suzhou museum offered many dry delights. Plus, our second day in Suzhou dawned bright and sunny so we made our way with the rest of China to the Humble Administrator's Garden. The binoculars I had bought for $32 at silk road were great for trying to spot quiet and crowdless areas, as well as birds, and of course the garden was very beautiful too.
















Next stop: Shanghai, currently a hub of activity as host of World Expo 2010! Our stop in Shanghai was also very well timed with a visit to Shanghai by my parents. The Expo wasn't too bad, but it had nothing on Expo88. We couldn't get into my favourite '88 pavillion - Japan - but we did manage to go through the NZ pavillion which was nice and friendly just like NZ, and the Aussie pavillion, which reminded me of home - big, red, and quite fantastic looking, but a whole lot of empty hot air on the inside. The highlight for me was being able to purchase an anzac biscuit. And the display of Cathy Freeman and the Apology.









After having some difficulties leaving Shanghai ('what? no train seats available for three days? there were this morning when we asked you to buy the train tickets and gave you the money!') we arrived safely by plane into Xi'an. No time to discuss Xi'an now, as we're off to try pig's trotters and other delights in the Muslim Quarter.