Wednesday: Bejing Departure

While the others in our tour group had to wake up in the wee hours to catch their flight to Xian, Misterpiggy had the luxury of sleeping in and having a relaxed breakfast before packing and checking out from the hotel.

Tour Guide Adam was napping in the hotel lobby, and he woke in time to summon a taxi cab to the airport. It was nice that he accompanied Misterpiggy to the airport and dutifully saw him through the departure gate. Bye bye Adam Weaver and Beijing!

Tuesday: Hutong Alleys

Upon arrival at the Hutong Alleys, the tour bus was met by a local tour guide.  The tour of the alleys was by rickshaw so everybody picked a bicycle rickshaw from all the ones parked by the bus.  It was exciting to see all the bicycles all taking off, except that Misterpiggy's was not moving because the chain had fallen off the bike.  It took about ten minutes for the rickshaw driver to fix the bike, but the rest of the tour group bikes had already left.  One would think that the tours had a fixed route, but the rickshaw driver got lost riding around the alleys and there was no sign of the tour group.  The rickshaw driver had to return to the starting point to ask for help.  By the time the tour group was located, the tour was almost over!  Needless to say, Misterpiggy didn't get too many pictures of the Hutong Alleys.

Monday: Peking Opera

Today, after dinner, we were taken to the Peking Opera house to watch some performers, although we had no idea what they were saying. Lots of screeching from the actors and dook-dook-chang from the orchestra. The costumes were very colourful though.

Monday: Sacred Way Statues at Ming Tombs

Monday: Great Wall at Badaling

Today, was the day Misterpiggy had been looking forward to! No disappointment here. There was a long lineup at the Badaling entrance to the Great Wall and it was touch and go whether the bus had to turn around, because Tour Guide Adam indicated that the parking lot might already be full. After about a 30 min way, the tour bus successfully made it into the lot. Surprisingly, it was not crowded on the Great Wall this time of year. There was plenty of time to climb the wall and Misterpiggy got as far as 4 watchtowers before turning back.

Sunday: Part Two - Forbidden City

Following the visit to the Summer Palace, was an afternoon trip to the Forbidden City in the heart of Beijing.

Sunday: Part One - Summer Palace

All meals were included in our Beijing tour package. Breakfast each day was in the hotel basement. Typical tour group fare. The japanese and korean members from other tour groups appeared to really enjoy the breakfast, however Misterpiggy found breakfast to be less than appetizing.

Misterpiggy's tour guide for Beijing introduced himself as Adam Weaver (considering he was native chinese, the members of the tour group all found that to be rather weird) and always referred to himself in the third person (hey, that sounds like Misterpiggy!). Adam's only mission on the tour was to ensure that everyone was accounted for. He did not appear to be people oriented, and even remarked on the bus that he did not like people. He dutifully regurgitated facts and figures about china and it's history, but avoided answering any questions, which would have thrown him off his speeches, which he obviously memorized. At one point he even made the comment that Japanese people were not welcome in China (due to world war II). It seemed to be a personal comment, and fortunately there were no japanese people in our tour group. It was just an odd thing to hear from a tour guide.

First stop on the Beijing tour was a visit to the Summer Palace.  

Kunming Lake.

Marble Boat.

Busy crowds.

Summer Palace.

Saturday: Jing Guang New World Hotel Review

The Jing Guang Hotel.  The hotel is part of an office tower complex.

Room pics.

It was a 30 minute ride from the airport to the Jing Guang hotel, his home for the next 4 days. Check-in for the tour group was extremely slow, felt like an hour before we finally got checked-in.

The reviews on the Internet about the Jing Guang hotel were dead-on. While the hotel listed itself as a five-star, our hotel room was three star at best. Room 1908 was a corner suite with windows facing east and north, and was the largest of all the rooms we had in asia. Sadly, the carpets and furniture were not in the greatest shape. Oh well, the bed was comfortable enough.  Oddly, every night there would be a business card inserted under the door for "massage" services.  Here are some pics of the hotel room and some of the views of the city.

For anyone interested in the address of the Jing Guang hotel, it is:
Hujialou, Chaoyang District, Beijing
Tel: (86-10) 6597 8888 Fax: (86-10) 6597-3333
website: www.jingguangcentre.com

Saturday: Beijing Arrival

The 3 hour flight from Hong Kong to Beijing was via DragonAir, a subsidiary of Cathay Pacific Airline. Upon arrival to the Beijing airport, there was a mad rush to get to immigration and customs. Misterpiggy waited in the immigration line for about 45 mins, only to be told by the immigration officer that he did not have the proper entry form. The flight attendant had only provided 2 forms, but a third form was required.

After passing thru customs,the designated tour guide was waiting in the arrivals hall with the name of the tour group Misterpiggy was joining in Beijing. As it turned out he learned that the tour bus had waited over an hour and was going to leave the airport without Misterpiggy, had he been any longer getting out of the airport.

Everywhere one looked, there were construction cranes and new buildings as far as the eye could see.  Beijing certainly looked like a sparkling new city.

Friday: Victoria Peak

Today, Misterpiggy  took the Victoria Peak tram to the observation tower. After several escalators, we finally reached the rooftop. From here you can get great views of  the Hong Kong skyline. Today was slightly hazy and gray, with short periods of sunshine. To get back down, Misterpiggy took the A15 bus back down to Central Hong Kong.



In the evening Misterpiggy went back to Kowloon to watch the evening light show.  This was the last day of  the excursion to Hong Kong and he very much enjoyed his stay in this vibrant city.  Tomorrow, Misterpiggy will leave Hong Kong and fly to his next destination Beijing, China!